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Social Justice

BLACK lives matter

Whether you're directly affected by the systemic racism in our country or an ally, we hope the resources below will help clarify some small steps towards change.

Because ALL Black Lives Matter

and

Matter is the MINIMUM

LET'S BEGIN:

TEXT ENOUGH to 55156 : Demand justice for Breonna Taylor.

The below resources were initially collected & curated by other brilliant minds. See SOURCES at the bottom for details.

Something we're missing? Email us and we'll add it to the resources.

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SIGN

NOTE:

Do not donate to change.org.

The donations they ask for do not go to the causes but to change.org themselves! Your money could go to much better places like on the donate page. The petitions still make a difference so continue to sign!

White House Petitions Don’t Do Much.

They were only effective under Obama’s administration and mean nothing in Trump’s term. They sadly aren’t obligated to give us a statement after 100k signatures.

Sign
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ADVOCATE

  • Does your local police department currently outfits all on-duty police officers with a body-worn camera and requires that the body-worn camera be turned on immediately when officers respond to a police call?

    • If they don’t: Write to your city or town government representative and police chief to advocate for it. 

  • Does your city or town currently employs evidence-based police de-escalation trainings?

    • If they don’t: Write to your city or town government representative and police chief and advocate for it.

  • Are Racial Impact Statements required for all justice bills in your area? Find Out HERE

    • If they aren’t: Call or write to state legislators to require racial impact statements be required for all criminal justice bills. Racial impact statements evaluate if a bill may create or exacerbate racial disparities should the bill become law. 

  • What is the position of your local prosecutor? Find Out Here

    • Prosecutors have a lot of power to give fair sentences or Draconian ones, influence a judge’s decision to set bail or not, etc. In the past election, a slew of fair-minded prosecutors were elected. We need more.

  • What is your state legislators and governor’s position on criminal justice reform?

    • Call or write to your state legislators and governor to support state-wide criminal justice reform, including:

      • reducing mandatory minimum sentences

      • reducing sentences for non-violent drug crimes

      • passing “safety valve” law to allow judges to depart below a mandatory minimum sentence under certain conditions

      • passing alternatives to incarceration​

  • Call for Affirmative Action

    • Call or write to your national legislators, state legislators, and governor in favor of affirmative action.

  • Write to the US Sentencing Commission (PubAffairs@ussc.gov) and ask them to:

    • reform the career offender guideline to lessen the length of sentences

    • change the guidelines so that more people get probation

    • change the criminal history guidelines so that a person’s criminal record counts against them less

    • change guidelines to reduce mandatory minimum

    • sentences for non-violent crimes

    • conduct a study to review the impact of parental incarceration on minor children. With more data, the Commission could modify the Sentencing Guidelines and allow judges to take this factor into account when sentencing individuals for non-violent crimes.

    • conduct a study to review whether the Bureau of Prisons is following the Commission’s encouragement to file a motion for compassionate release whenever “extraordinary and compelling reasons” exist. 

    • consider amending the guidelines to reduce sentences for first offenders.

ADVOCATE
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DONATE
Listen
Holding a Book

​Books FOR ADULTS

  • Read Caught by Marie Gottschalk

  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

  • The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein

  • Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hook

  • The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones

  • Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

  • Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper

  • Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

  • How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

  • Redefining Realness by Janet Mock 

  • Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

  • The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 
    by Michelle Alexander

  • The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century 
    by Grace Lee Boggs

  • The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

  • This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga

  • When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson

  • White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD

FOLLOW

 

People

Publications & Companies

READ
FOLLOW
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watch

 

  • Netflix

    • 13th (Ava DuVernay)

    • American Son (Kenny Leon)

    • Dear White People (Justin Simien)

    • See You Yesterday (Stefon Bristol)

    • When They See Us (Ava DuVernay)

    • Pose

    • How to Get Away with Murder (also ABC.com)

  • Available For Rent
    • Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 

    • Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu) 

    • Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler) 

    • I Am Not Your Negro (James Baldwin doc) 

    • ​Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton) 

    • Selma (Ava DuVernay)

    • The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution 

    • Get Out​

  • Hulu

    • The Hate U Give (George Tillman Jr.)

    • If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins) 

    • Queen Sugar

    • The Carmichael Show

    • Blackish (also on ABC.com)

    • Grownish

    • Atlanta

    • 2 Dope Queens

    • Scandal (also on ABC.com)

Watch
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