Beyond safety pins and petitions

The last week has been filled with heavy hearts and hopelessness. What can WE do?? What concrete actions can WE take?? It's really easy to feel small amidst the national struggle. I am working on my own action plan and thought I'd share some thoughts on concrete ways white people can support marginalized communities. Many of us have taken to posting on Facebook or wearing safety pins to show our solidarity or signing any and every change.org petition. While all of those things certainly can't hurt the cause, it's important that we step up and do more. But what?


Get Involved: Fighting for social justice is not a new thing. There are many organizations doing this work already. If you are unsure where to start, consider connecting with an established group. SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) organizes white people for racial justice, while collaborating with local and national racial justice organizing efforts. They are a national network with local chapters in several major cities. Consider attending a local chapter meeting, or if they aren't in your area connect via social media or sign up for their newsletters. They regularly send out action steps that I've found very useful.


Give Money: Consider donating money to the things you care about that may be at risk. Worried about women's rights? Give to Planned Parenthood. Support Black Lives Matter? Buy a yard sign (just make sure it's from an official BLM affiliate, don't waste your money on internet sellers). Concerned about the climate? Donate to Sierra Club. A couple of great local organizations that I've offered my financial support to are Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Search for organizations led by marginalized voices and show that you support their mission and organizing efforts. Want to be a super contributor? Organizations like these thrive on sustaining gifts, consider giving an affordable amount every month. These recurring payments make a big impact on their bottom lines.

Protest: There are a lot of opinions out there about how effectual protests and marches are. I personally think protests draw attention to the issues and open dialogues, but at the very least I'll tell you this - When you are feeling a little alone, a little small and a little helpless joining a protest can be a powerful reminder of why this work is important. Let's be honest, fighting for social justice can be depressing work.  Standing in unity with thousands of others for a common cause is loving feeling, a unifying feeling and a motivating feeling. A protest can lift your spirits and reinvigorate your soul to do even more.

Listen: It is so important that we are listening and hearing the voices of the people we aim to support. Be receptive to their feelings and their experiences. We have to take the supportive role here. We don't get to tell, project or assume the reality of a person of color. I'd also challenge white people to find more voices to listen to. What does your social media feed look like? Do you follow any Muslim voices? Are following any LGBTQ voices? How about Native American voices? Actively seek out new and differing perspectives from your own. Here are a few of good follows: Shaun King @ShaunKing, Deray McKesson @deray, Everyday Feminism @EvrydayFeminism, Linda Sarsour @lsarsour, Unicorn Riot @UR_Ninja, Ljeoma Oluo @IjeomaOluo, Sopan Deb @SopanDeb.

Tell Your Legislature: Make your voice heard and write, call, or even tweet your local lawmakers to ask their stance and present your views on the issues that matter most to you. You can find your elected officials HERE. Remember, they are representing you, so let your voice be heard!

Find A White Ally: There is a lot of dialogue right now that can be difficult to unpack alone. Find a white ally to have these tough conversations with. Challenge one another's thinking and push each other to dig even deeper. It is our job to investigate our own white privilege. It is not the job of the POCs in our lives to educate us, this is work we need to do for ourselves.

Talk To Your White Friends And Family: With the upcoming holidays, there will be plenty of opportunity for conversation. Find a way to talk through problematic or divisive language in a loving way. Unsure how to do that? Practice! Maybe role play with that white ally of yours. We need to find ways to educate each other without blame or generalizations. It's important we find the words to point out bias rhetoric without going to the extreme and labeling each other as racists. So maybe avoid having this conversation at the dinner table with the whole family as witness, and instead pull your loved one aside later in a safe place and the two of you have a heart to heart without spectacle. Prejudice actions end when prejudice thinking ends. Some of us are further down the path of acceptance than others, so let's try to educate and connect through love.

the harassment

As much as I believe the importance of balanced news, it's true that my news and social media feeds are largely progressive. It can be easy to forget that not everyone is reading the same articles I am. Yesterday I sought out some news from a different perspective. I read a few conservative newspapers and watched a few interviews with Trump supporters. The one that struck me, that I just can't shake, was an article on the increase of harassment throughout the US. Or specifically, that there isn't one. I can't find the piece as I write this, so you will just have to trust my memory. The white male author described that there has not been an increase in violence at all, instead most of the allegations are made up, not actually symbols of hate, or they were just kids being kids not REAL threats. His proof for the fact that hate crimes are not actually increasing throughout America was completely based on police reporting.

It's that last part that is sticking with me. As a white person, I can see the logic of 'if I'm a victim of a crime I would call the police for help' and therefore there should be tons of new police cases out there documenting these hate crimes. But let's step back a moment and acknowledge that your reality is not the same reality as every other person's in America. Specifically, white male reality is much different from the marginalized voices of society. Can you imagine for a moment that you have family members who have been unfairly persecuted or jailed? Picture your partner getting teargassed for joining the front lines of a peaceful protest. Pretend you have been regularly stopped by police, maybe even frisked, while doing nothing wrong. Imagine you have a friend that was shot down or assaulted by police for petty crime or, hell, no crime at all. Do you see how that might shape the relationship you have with the police? Do you see how your first inclination, as a victim, might not be 'call 911'? That maybe the police don't stand as a symbol of safety for you?

Just because discrimination is not always reported, does not mean it doesn't exist. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia exist all around us, even if they do not touch you personally. And sadly, it exists as the norm for many of the inhabitants of this country. As a female who has been verbally and physically harassed by countless men, was I supposed to report every case to the police? When it's the norm? And I can imagine for a Muslim woman the frequent comments she must receive on her hijab. Should she report all of those? When it's the norm? What could the police possibly do for us, when this reality has been a part of life for many of us for so long? A uniformed officer cannot undo the objectification we faced or calm our hurt feelings. The police cannot change the mind of our perpetrators. Ending hate crimes begins with ending hate. That starts by us examining our inherent privileges, talking with and educating one another, and then inserting some empathy into the world around us.

The harassment taking place over the last few days is not new. No. It's existed long before the election results, but what is new is the frequency in which it is happening and that these acts are being committed in the name of our new president-elect. That is why we are afraid. And that is why we protest.

Why I support the I-94 shut down

Flash back to the civil rights era when, in 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. led the march that famously took over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Taking to the streets or the highways is not a new phenomenon. Protests, even peaceful ones, are not meant to happen quietly in a convenient corner where the message of opposition might be missed all together. Protests exist to be heard, to be seen and to shake up our daily existence. In my mind, a protest isn't doing it's job if it's not a little bit annoying or a little inconvenient.

Just two days ago, on Thursday night, I left work after a nice dinner and noticed police sirens swirling in my periphery. Frequent accidents occur on that corner, so lights coming from that direction are not a surprise to me, nonetheless my head turned round the building's edge. I was met with thousands of peaceful protesters heading right towards me. An anti-Trump march that started on the U of MN west bank was now walking down my Franklin Ave and, what I learned later, preparing to take the on-ramp to Interstate 94.

Rob and I stopped, sharing peace signs and gestures of support with the crowd as they past. It felt good to work for an organization that proudly hangs Black Lives Matter on our storefront as I watched people throw their fists up in solidarity while they passed our windows. We witnessed the togetherness these protesters had. We saw the mourning they were feeling. The group flowed in waves of the spectrum of people hurting from these election results; Hispanics against the wall, and then Muslims against deportation chanting "refugees are welcomed here", and the LGBTQ community scared for their civil rights, and on and on they came. As you can imagine, I-94 came to an abrupt halt that night, leaving many drivers stranded and irate for the inconvenience.

For those that say, this is making me late to work or late to _______. I say, this is minor inconvenience for one night out of your life and annoyance you can and should tolerate. Imagine the number of black men in our country that are frequently pulled over by squads simply for driving while black. Imagine how often they might be late to work.

For those that say, what if an emergency vehicle needs to get through. I say, emergency vehicles are usually only on the highway when the emergency takes place on the highway. Most emergency vehicles stick to the city streets.

For those that say, this is an inconvenience. I say, yes, yes it is. It is an inconvenience to your every day commute. It is supposed to be. It is a reminder that life is full of inconveniences. Imagine the inconvenience that marginalized people experience every day when their daily lives are interrupted by discrimination or harassment.

For those that say, what if those drivers have a home emergency and are now stuck in traffic. I say, this is the risk we take every day we get in our cars. We take the chance of excessive cars on the road or possible collisions in the way every single time we drive. Why does it make a difference if the thing that is stopping traffic is people, rather than an overturned semi?

For those that say, this isn't doing anything for your cause. I say, we are talking about it right now, aren't we? These actions have created a dialogue. These actions have disrupted the status quo. Their voices have been heard and now local and national news are reporting on their efforts. Let's not forget that those very roads were created during urban flight and connect the highest paying jobs to the highest priced suburbs. Not to mention every person sitting in that traffic is privileged enough to own a vehicle. Sounds to me the highway is a perfect place for disruption against the white majority.

I tend to believe that protesting is as much for the protesters as it is for the greater society, just in a different way. Marching pulls together community from the segregated. It joins the silenced voices into a force to be reckoned with. And there you can find comfort in the community around you, love from the people that share your thoughts and a power inside you that often sits quiet.


One last thought as I put this topic to bed. Last summer, Black Lives Matter marched I-94 after the murder Philando Castile. The same thoughts above were heavily discussed in the news and on the web. Even on BLMs facebook page people (mostly white people) questioned this tactic for peaceful protests. As I wrestle with my own white privilege, in the case of BLM, it is not my place to question the tactics of their movement. If I support the cause, I have to trust and support the choices those leaders make. If you have better ideas on how to lead a movement, then find your own cause to lead.

Back on Franklin Avenue, watching the thousands of people pass by, Rob and I stood next to a Somali man who had a tear in his eye and a smile on his face, and I couldn't help but feel a little hope. A little unity. And a little beauty in the world. A welcomed moment over the last few days.