If the Navajo nation is getting the money, I am fine with how they decide to use it. My concern is that someone else would be getting it. I tend to avoid Gifu dame, but understand the convenience and exposure it gets you.
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I believe thereās also a fund link on the Navajo Nation main website ā that may be a good place to look.
All right, have done what I can on the āeasyā part for now, which mostly amounts to throwing money at the problem. Time to start looking into the upcoming local elections and also what else I can actually do locally.
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Been anonymously online organizing the last several days and then helping blast resources on social media so folks know whatās going on where, when, and who to call and where to go for safety and shelter.
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Iāve been trying to balance my social media posting as much as possible and could use some feedback - content burnout is real.
I definitely post local information and happenings, have a personal post or two (these are mostly 24 hour stories) and a handful of what Iām calling āinternet contentā (things that I find relevant but arenāt local or directly related to my life).
Iāve had three folks (all of whom I know personally) reach out to me in the last week thanking me for my interactions, content, etc. Which feels good, because it means that what Iām saying and posting is making an impact.
Along with reaching back out to them and asking what they think, what are your thoughts on social media posting? Do you have a balance you try to maintain? What have you found most useful and meaningful when you look at other peopleās content?
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I find information about concrete actions ā information about donations, petitions, letter writing campaigns, protest locations, safe space locations, advice on supporting Black friends and on keeping momentum going ā most helpful.
As someone who follows your IG, it seems well-balanced to me.
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Thank you! Will maintain current feed, then.
Today Iām setting up an email address and document for local organizing group for accessibility information for events. We have a good amount of folks in our group who require accessibility information, and this is one small way we can help.
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You guys
Folks
Friends
Yāall
Iām so overwhelmed by my community.
I observed a city council meeting tonight (signed up too late to give a public comment) and over forty people commented on the awful shit thatās been happening in our community and every single one of them was calling on the council to take action to
- Stop the police gassing us when protesting
- Stop the overt racism from the police (one officer proudly posing with armed white supremacists, one officer joking about putting a knee on the neck of a Black woman being arrested)
- Fund social and community programs
- Defund and de-militarize our police force
Tonight they took action to
- Form a Human Rights Commission
- Ban all chemical weapons as crowd control until Phase 5 of our state reopening from covid (vaccine or herd immunity) with talk of banning permanently
- Reassured the public investigations were under way (and what stage investigations were at) for the two racist officers
I took and distributed notes from the meeting to my anonymous organizing group and some close friends in the area. Iām forming letters of thanks and calls to action to send to city council members.
*Edit: defund, no refund for cops
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Aha, excellent! Totally joining in! Iām planning to create a bullet journal spread on actions I can take to fight racism/white supremacy, and Iām definitely getting some ideas from this thread.
Some things my family has already done:
- Attended a smallish local protest
- Donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the Navajo Nation
- Made purchases from very local businesses fairly early on in the pandemic
- Talked to our son about race, as best we can with a 2-year-oldāthis is definitely an ongoing process
- Placed antiracist books on hold at the library
More plans:
- Buy some antiracist books from our local bookstore (I was embarrassed to discover that every single book in my fairly large order for COVID support is by a white personāI can do better)
- Read more books by BIPOC in general
- Boost BIPOC voices on social media
- One of my senators is part of a group with a bill to decrease police violence; I read through the highlights and itās progress, but not nearly as much as we need, and I want to write back to him and tell him that
- Buy food from a local black-owned cafeāwe tried to do that last weekend, but the delivery service screwed up; it looks like we can preorder directly from the restaurant, so I want to try to do that
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I started a discussion with a group of friends (mostly white, some POC, no black or indigenous). It was good and productive, we came up with some ideas to improve one personās volunteer organisation and a few of us are doing a language/culture course together.
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I am now on the overnight volunteer list for our local emergency winter shelter.
I am looking through options for active summer volunteering with them as well; I just need to pick one and do it.
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Question for the hive mind: Iām involved with a volunteer group that has a big event once a year for kids with disabilities (and their families) to help them connect with local resources. The initial group came together a few years ago, weāve hit a good stride and are (er, were) ready to start building up to a little more each year now that weāre established in the community. Some of the group members have wanted to step back this past year but felt like they couldnāt, so at our post-event meeting it was agreed that we need at least two more people in the group.
So far the group is white, female, 30s/40s, and some with disabilities but all invisible disabilities. I brought up that we need more diversity and it was agreed with by all.
So, like ā¦ how? I donāt personally know anyone who is a POC that I think also has the skills and free time to do this. If we were to put the word out (probably spring 2021, weāre not doing anything this year because waves hands) is there a tactful way of saying weāre looking for POC? Hell, even a man would be way more diversity than we have now. 
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My thoughts, not backed up by very much experience:
- try and find orgs that do similar stuff but are run by POC to partner with or get advice from. Maybe thereās not another similar group locally, but there is in your state. Or maybe the boys and girls club has some kids who could use your services and adults who want to help. Orgs that are doing something tangential but are focused on serving communities of color seem like a good place to start making connections.
- a lot of orgs and companies are just coming out and saying it right now: weāre too white, we want to do better, weāre encouraging underrepresented minorities to apply/weāre reaching out to POC to see if they want to work with us. Hopefully that sort of messaging will continue until next year and start making a difference! And lots of industries are starting crowd sourced lists of POC who want to do work! Iāve seen a list of illustrators and people who want to work in outdoor industries in the past two days.
- if itās an unpaid volunteer position then it might be hard to find someone to do it. Thereās big issues with some communities having like 1-5 prominent women or POC who are asked to be every single panel and board, and theyāre busy and exhausted and probably donāt want to do your thing too. Other people might have time or money or transportation or technology barriers due to being low income or housing segregation. If you can anticipate some of these, you can help lower the barriers.
- (depending on where you are) Recruit from places where POC already are: HBCUs, local high schools, community centers. Maybe the YMCA? Thatās more relevant if having young people/students is useful to you, but students are often eager to do volunteer work. ETA: community college nursing programs or early childhood education programs? Depends on what services youāre providing of course, but worth thinking about.
More eta: deaf schools? Schools for the blind? Diversifying what disabilities are represented is also a good goal (Iāve been loving how committed many of the protests have been to having ASL interpreters).
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This just came up for a good friend of mine. We discussed how rather than trying to get diversity on her committee, they can work on making being on the committee and part of the group more attractive to those people. So for them, the ideas were:
- Make the website available in different languages
- Celebrate events that include the other groups in their area, not just the Easter/ Christmas
- Wording on their website to acknowledge the diversity casually, for instance some of the indian muslim people have 40 days at home after a baby is born, so they are going to bring up an option for dropping off toys at peopleās houses for the older kids and specifically mention that 40 day period so people can see theyāre being thought of.
I think @darlingpants idea of other groups to partner with is a good one.
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Yes! And try your damnedest to make sure that once youāve recruited someone that it will be a welcoming environment where they wonāt get saddled with all the Diversity and Inclusion work just because they arenāt white. If you canāt guarantee it will be a good place for a POC to work, donāt recruit them, work on the environment first.
ETA: This was a total revelation to me when it was first pointed out but in hindsight it was so obvious: you solve pipeline problems by being great to your employees and coworkers. So there was only one black woman who graduated from a physics PhD program this year so you donāt how to recruit her? You treat the black people who already work for you well, you support them and offer programs and mentorship and take racism and sexism seriously. Then you donāt lose the people who already work for you, and youāre more likely to be able to recruit people who have heard good things.
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Yep. Think of it like dating: you work on yourself first 
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Thank you! #3 is a big one, it is an unpaid position. Thatās part of why I was hoping to get two POC, so they have an ally within the group right away. I had also started reaching out to sororities and fraternities nearby in anticipation of the (now cancelled) 2021 event and made a point of contacting all the Black sororities/fraternities but only some of the white ones (ones that aligned with our mission, since they all have charities they need to support). Boys and Girls Club and YMCA are both great ideas. I should check out the local churches too (and mosque(s) and synagogues).
One thing that was a last minute idea last year was that a volunteer had āHablas espaƱol?ā buttons and at vendor check in we asked vendors if they spoke Spanish and would they mind wearing a button to assist with translation services. Everyone was very happy with how that went and weāre going to do it more intentionally next year instead of mere hours before the event, lol.
āThe websiteā right now is just Facebook but thatās actually the main energy focus for this year in lieu of the event. Hmm, as the event gets closer we post updates about who is participating so we would need ongoing, timely translation services so that would probably have to be a paid thing similar to the transcription services for the OMD podcast, Iām thinking? That warrants some research. ( @anomalily ? Would you be able to point me in the right direction?)
I think overall our group is a good one, the main stressor has been when life stuff has cropped up for people and they felt like they couldnāt step back (despite other group members being happy to step up to the plate and asking repeatedly if there was anything they could help that person withā¦) so I think spreading the load is the best thing we can do going forward. Plus weāve all agreed that fresh blood would bring fresh ideas and that would be a good thing, so our intentions are in the right place now, we just need to translate it into actions.
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I think youāve got good ideas! I would keep talking about it with the current group and keep focus/time on how you can be inclusive and welcoming to people youāre not currently reaching so you can make changes slowly and build on them, instead of having a good idea at the last minute and scrambling to implement it.
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Iāve updated our monthly donations. SPLC was already on the list but have added a local, multi-racial activism fund and a kids community program (black-run, some good friends are volunteers, and serving primarily black youth). Trying to tilt more household donations towards monthly, both to simplify decision-making and to help non-profits plan better.
Iāve also been writing to councilmembers in support of reducing police funding in favor of community services. Our cityās budget hearing process ends next week so this is pretty timely.
Iām staying away from large protests due to being overly cautious about pregnancy (vigilante violence, teargas as abortifacient, etc.) but hoping to find a cleanup or rebuilding event to participate in.
I think the other area I can contribute is in getting more black people and other POC hired or on nonprofit boards, especially ones that make grants. (I am a non-black POC for what itās worth and serve on 2 [formerly 3] boards). My track record so far (starting from last year) is 2. The catch-22 is that non-profit boards usually come with a volunteer or fundraising requirement which is another burden Iām loathe to ask of many people. If anyone has ideas on how theyāve approached this Iām all ears.
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