A White Suburban Housewife Takes Action
The world is infected and anxious and grieving and angry and burning. So much is wrong right now, it's hard to know where to begin to try to help move any of the myriad needles that are so far askew.
I am a 39-year-old, white, stay-at-home mom who lives in a middle-upper class suburb of New York City. I am largely ignorant of systemic racism and I want to change that. I am tired of feeling shame around my ignorance and guilt around my inaction. I have chosen to look the other way, to scroll past too many headlines too many times. I want to do better, I want to be better, I want to be braver.
I want to be part of the change, not just reap the benefits of a more just and peaceful country and world. I want to work for what so obviously and urgently must happen.
I am not going to do this perfectly. But I am going to do my best to educate myself and my children, to engage in difficult conversations when they arise, to add my voice to movements and my name to petitions, to donate money to organizations on the front lines of this fight against racial injustice.
I want to be an effective ally. Here is where I'm going to start.
What I'm reading:
- Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News
- Bryan Stevenson on the Frustration Behind the George Floyd Protests
- Ben & Jerry's: Silence is Not an Option
- Ben & Jerry's: 7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism is Real
Organizations I'm Supporting:
Actions I'm Taking:
- Urging my House Representative to support H.R. 40
- Signing these petitions: #JusticeforFloyd, #JusticeforBre, #JusticeforAhmaud
- Contacting the NYC Mayor (the city closest to where I live) for #8CantWait
In My Podcast Queue:
- Unlocking Us: Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist
- Pod Save the People
- Parenting Forward: Five Pandemic Parenting Lessons with Cindy Wang Brandt
- Ten Percent Happier: Parenting in a Pandemic and An Uncomfortable (But Meaningful) Conversation About Race
- 1619 (NY Times podcast)
In My Netflix Queue:
- 13th
- 13th: A Conversation With Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay
- Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea.