Resources to Support You in Your Journey of Becoming an Anti-racist Ally

My heart has been aching for weeks now.   I emerged from a weeklong virtual silent meditation retreat on May 27th to news of the brutal murder of George Floyd.  The killing of yet another Black man by the police reflects the pandemic of racism that has haunted our nation from our beginning and has split my heart and our nation.  I have been taking time to really open to what has been unfolding, to listen internally and externally – to my own heart and to students, clients, mentees, friends, colleagues, neighbors, the news, the voices of those who are marginalized, as well as those who hold power – to invite a deeper understanding, to take time to listen to the pain, to really hear all that is said and unsaid. 

As my teacher Gil Fronsdal says, our silent meditation practice is a way of washing our hearts and minds.  But silent practice is not enough.  The world needs our skillful engagement. Practice helps us cultivate greater clarity and compassion to guide wise action in a world that is experiencing racial injustice, police brutality, financial inequity, and where people of color are living with more fear, fewer resources, and are disproportionately experiencing the impact of COVID-19 and the environmental crisis.

As a White, heterosexual, cis-gender, educated, able bodied, middle class woman I recognize I possess a great deal of unearned privilege and I benefit from systemic racism and thus I have a greater responsibility to do my own inner work and to channel this into action that redistributes power and wealth, so that everyone has a greater opportunity to thrive. 

My awakening in these areas is truly a work in progress.  I don’t have the answers but am humbly trying to unlearn my own conditioning in this culture that is based on white supremacy – a system devised to provide advantage to those of us who are white through the strategies of oppression. There are ways I have stepped in and ways I cringe to see where I have failed, and there are blind spots of which I am not yet even aware.  If you, like me, want to continue to learn and grow, to wake up to your “blind spots,” and to find ways to act more clearly, compassionately and courageously, I have compiled this webpage with some resources I am finding helpful in this journey.  I hope some of these resources are of benefit in supporting your journey to learn more and move toward becoming anti-racist.  

May all beings step up and take responsibility for waking up and taking action in support of equality. May all beings be safe.  May all beings know justice.  May all beings be free from suffering.

• Black Lives Matter – www.blacklivesmatter.com
• Campaign Zero – www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision
• Color of Change – www.colorofchange.org
• TED: How You Can be an Ally in the Fight for Racial Justice – https://ideas.ted.com/how-you-can-be-an-ally-in-the-fight-for-racial-justice/
• Showing Up for Racial Justice – www.showingupforracialjustice.org
• Support Black-Owned Businesses – https://www.supportblackowned.com/
• Vote! – https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
• Week of Action In Defense of for Black Lives – www.m4bl.org/week-of-action/
• Write directly to your local legislators. To find who your legislators are, visit – https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
• “75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” – www.medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

• Black Lives Matter – www.blacklivesmatter.com
• Color of Change – www.colorofchange.org
• Ella Baker Center for Human Rights – www.ellabakercenter.org
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.- www.naacpldf.org
• ACLU Black Lives Matter – https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/blacklivesmatter
• Sweet Rest asks, “What does a world that accepts and supports Black women broadly and widely look like?” Check out their subscription options for supporting Black women.
• Equal Justice Initiative – https://eji.org/ – EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the U.S., challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

• Anti-Racism Resources – http://bit.ly/ANTIRACISMRESOURCES – Includes resources for white parents to raise anti-racist children, as well as articles, videos, podcasts, books, films & TV series, and organizations to read, watch and follow to support you in deepening your anti-racist work.
• Anti-Racism For Beginners – http://antiracismforbeginners.com/ – Includes common questions and definitions, books to read, online resources, paid programs and memberships, how to take action and leaders to learn from.

Read, Watch, Listen & Learn

• Listen: Podcast w/ Brené Brown and Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist
  
• Watch:  Video  w/Bryan Stevenson talks about the need for truth and reconciliation in the United States.
• Watch:  Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – a series of short videos with Emmanuel Acho:  Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3
• Watch:  True Justice – documentary that follows Bryan Stevenson and EJI’s struggle to create greater fairness in the criminal justice system.
• Watch:  13th – documentary by Ava DuVernay available on Netflix examining the 13th amendment and the rise of the prison industrial complex.
• Listen:  Podcast:  Seeing White – a 14-part series on Scene on Radio that examines the history of the whiteness in the United States.
• Listen:  Podcast:  The 1619 Project – 5-part series from the New York Times on how slavery has transformed America.
• Read: Excerpt about white people teaching their children about racism  – from Ruth King’s book Mindful of Race
• Listen: Podcast w/  Resmaa Menakem — ‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence’ – The On Being Project
• Watch:  Video w/ Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’
• Listen:  Video w/ Van Jones on Racial Justice.
• Watch:  Video with Jay Smooth – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race.
• Watch:  Video from University of Minnesota Extension – How Do People Experience Historical Trauma?
• Read:  Handout – The 4 I’s of Oppression
• Read:  Racism Defined from dismantlingracism.org
• Read:  Article on White Supremacy Culture – from dismantlingracism.org.
• Website: Tim Wise – antiracist essayist, author & educator
• Watch: Video with Tim Wise:  Resilient Love in A Time of Hate – talk on being an white ally to communities of color
• Watch: Video w/ Trevor Noah – White police are looting Black bodies
• Read: Destructive Power of Despair – editorial by Charles Blow
• Listen:  Chika Stacy – spoken word poetry; Woman, Black and Skin
• Watch:  I Am Not Your Negro – documentary film in which Master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.
• Read: The Fire This Time:  A New Generation Speaks About Race – edited by Jesmyn Ward
• Read:  Me and White Supremacy – by Layla Saad
• Read:  Homegoing – by Yaa Gyasi
• Read: Between the World and Me – by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Read:  White Fragility:  Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism – by Robin DiAngelo
• Read:  Ten Habits of Someone Who Doesn’t Know They Are Anti-Black – article by Cicely Blain
• Read:  Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – by Isabel Wilkerson

Diversifying the Dharma & bringing anti-racism work to Dharma Communities:

• Book:  Mindful of Race:  Transforming Racism from the Inside Out – by Ruth King
• Book:  Awakening Together:  The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community – by Larry Yang
• Book:  Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation – by Rev. angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, & Jasmine Syedullah, Ph.D.
• Article:  Your Liberation Is On the Line – Rev angel Kyodo williams
• East Bay Meditation Center
• Diversity resources from the Insight Mediation Society website; videos on diversity in the Dharma at IMS.
• A Courageous Presence with Racism – video talk with Tara Brach
• A sampling of BIPOC teachers to listen to and follow:  Ruth King, Lama Rod Owens, Konda Mason, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Sebene Selassie, Bonnie Duran, Larry Yang, La Saramiento, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Leslie Booker, Spring Washam, Dawn Mauricio, Yong Oh, Devin Berry, Kate Johnson

Training Opportunities: from a few hours to multi-day or multi-month opportunities

• June 24, July 1, and July 8: Sounds True is offering a FREE 3-part webinar series with Dr. Tiffany Jana on “Healing Racism: Embracing Diversity in our Personal Lives, in our Communities, and in our World” beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, June 24th at 6:00 pm MDT 
• The Dharma of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad – a 5 week class series with Spring Washam.
• June 27: Online course from The East Bay Meditation Center:  Cultivating Solidarity and Building Stamina for Transformative Action for White Practitioners
• White Awake:  White Awake combats white supremacy by focusing on educational resources and spiritual practices designed to engage people who’ve been socially categorized as “white” in the creation of a just and sustainable society.  Several training opportunities are available.
• Mindful of Race Training – with Ruth King
• Radical Dharma:  Circles and camps put into action the wisdom from the book, Radical Dharma, which ignites a long-overdue dialogue about how the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy plays out in society at large and Buddhist communities in particular.
• The Good Ancestor Academy – Layla Saad – personal leadership and anti-racism classes for becoming a good ancestor.
• Education for Racial Equity:  White Fragility Workshops (3 day intensives and half-day) based on the work of Robin DiAngelo.
• Training for Change – white people confronting racism online training.
• Take an Implicit Bias Test:  Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition – thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet.
• Be More – courses for breaking bias and creating a more equitable world.

The Environmental Crisis and Racial Justice:

• White supremacy = Mother of climate crisis – article by Kritee Kanko.
• Environmental Justice Means Racial Justice
• Why Bodhisattvas Need to Disrupt the Status Quo:  Dr. Kritee Kanko, Zen priest and climate scientist speaks on how in order to address climate change we have to understand systems — how they work, how we’re complicit in them, and how we can change them to work for the good.
  
• White Privilege:  How Should We Confront It Compassionately?  Dr. Kritee Kanko explores the intersectionality of the ecological crisis and racial and economic oppression and the need to challenge white privilege in order to create a truly inclusive and effective EcoDharma movement.
• A resource list compiled by Kritee Kanko on Climate and white supremacy (books, videos, articles)