There’s a long-overdue sea change sweeping the US, and spreading internationally. Fuelled by the murder of George Floyd, the widespread, vocal, and broadly supported movement seeks nothing less than to directly address overt and implicit racism, both institutional and individual, and ultimately to disassemble imbalanced power structures. For example by defunding police. As this New York Times piece says,

It’s wondrous, isn’t it, how the people just keep coming out? Day after day, night after night, in dozens of cities, braving a deadly virus and brutal retaliation, they continue to pack the streets in uncountable numbers, demanding equality and justice — and, finally, prompting what feels like real change.

There’s so much going on driven by the desire to not just tackle racism, but to address attitudes of white privilege and mechanisms of white supremacy. Further down, I’ve put a collection of links I’m working through (and on) to help me grapple with this moment.

But before I get to that, I have the following two things to share:

  1. I’m a middle-aged white, able-bodied, cis-gender heterosexual man. So now is really not a time for me to be saying much. Everything, literally everything I have in my life and everything I have been able to experience comes, at least partially, from a system that was designed and run purposefully to serve people like me. I do my best to be responsible and open-hearted, outspoken and an ally of progressive causes, but facts are facts. Thus, now is a time for people like me to listen, be respectful, get educated, and help out where possible. 
  2. It’s time to say goodbye to ‘not being racist’. Because that just isn’t enough. Now is a time to be anti-racist. So I’m working on that with this list of resources. 

Here are some further links that I’ve found helpful. (I’ve ordered some books as well. They’re on their way).

The time is now.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Desmond Tutu