Archive

After US Supreme Court hearings this week, it is clear that the future of Roe v. Wade is on tenuous ground and could be overturned next year.

The anti-abortion movement is largely believed to have started with a coalition of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist dissenters who were outraged about the Roe decision. In actuality, when the 1973 ruling was made, most religious institutions were supportive due to the articulation of division between church and state. So when did the Religious Right coalition decide abortion was their unifying issue? After it became clear they could no longer rally their base and mobilize large numbers of voters around support of school segregation.

Today’s action is to read this 2014 article detailing the origins of the Religious Right, and how the roots of the anti-abortion movement are founded in efforts to preserve segregation and uphold white supremacy.

In past newsletters we have shared how vaccine hoarding and patent enforcement inequitably impacts countries in the Global South.

Today's action is to watch Dr. Ayoade Alakija shed light on how this behavior led to the current injustices African countries are facing with the Omicron COVID variant. In addition to potentially dangerous variants having the opportunity to develop due to lack of access to vaccines, now sweeping travel bans are singling out Africa even though cases have been discovered in Europe and North America.

Abolition Apostles is a national jail and prison ministry based in New Orleans. In the organization's own words, "Our mission is to offer moral and spiritual support to members of the community who are incarcerated, and contribute to the destruction of the prison-industrial complex through solidarity, prophetic witness, and community organizing inside and outside of prison."

The first of five strategies that Abolition Apostles uses to achieve their mission is a pen pal letter-writing program that connects community members with incarcerated individuals. Today's action is to take the first step to become a pen pal by submitting a volunteer interest form and signing up for the mandatory training, offered weekly on Sundays.

Earlier this year, California announced Assembly Bill 3121, which established a task force to study and develop reparations proposals over the next two years. In recent months the group has held online public hearings to hear from community members and grapple with questions about who should qualify to receive reparations and what form they should take.

Today's action is to listen to The Stoop's most recent podcast where hosts Hana Baba and Leila Day feature some of the voices and ideas shared in these hearings, interview experts, and explore the complexity of who should be eligible for reparations based on their individual identities and perspectives.

As the commercial aspects of the winter holiday season reach their peak, it is a good time to remember the broad range of religious and secular holidays that people around the world celebrate this time of year, and the reasons they exist. For today's action, we are sharing a collection of children's books that feature customs and traditions from a range of cultures to request at your local library.

Today is the final day of Native American Heritage Month, which coincides with "Giving Tuesday", an initiative to counteract the spending and consumerism surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) is an Indigenous-led legal nonprofit that provides support & advocacy for Indigenous peoples, the Earth, and Climate Justice movements. For decades Indigenous Peoples have led front line efforts to protect lands and water sources from the destruction caused by pipelines and drilling. WPLC uses donations to provide legal support, advocacy, and knowledge sharing for indigenous centered climate justice movements.

Today's action is to donate to the WPLC if you can, or add this organization to your holiday wish list for loved ones to give to on your behalf.

In November 1969, an intertribal group of Indigenous peoples occupied the island of Alcatraz outside of San Francisco as a collective action in pursuit of self-determination. The land was owned by the federal government but hadn't been used since the prison closed in 1963. At its peak, there were 400 protestors occupying the island and the movement lasted for over 19 months. It is now recognized as an important action and springboard for the contemporary Native American civil rights movement.

Today's action is to learn more about the movement and read "The Alcatraz Proclamation to the Great White Father and His People".

Recent complaints of the terrible conditions in a Washington D.C. jail, including mistreatment from guards, sewage issues, and lack of food and water, have led to a Justice Department investigation of the conditions of the jail. Improving jail conditions to be humane is a positive thing. The problem in this case is that advocates have been fighting for improved conditions for this majority Black occupant facility for years, and these concerns have only been taken seriously once the complaints have come from white Capital insurrectionists held at the jail. Today's action is to read more about the difference in treatment of complaints here.

Today's action is to read about Chrystul Kizer, who shot and killed her abuser, but who has been charged with homocide, and would be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. She was 17 when it happened, but she is being tried as an adult. Contrast her case with Kyle Rittenhouse who was declared innocent due to self defense, as yet another example of how the justice system treats white men and Black girls differently.

Today's action is to donate, if you can, to the Wampanoag tribe, mentioned in Monday's email, who are still struggling to have their full rights as a tribal nation recognized by the US.

The last Thursday of November in 1970, the Governor of Massachusetts was hosting a state celebration at which he asked Wamsutta Frank James of the Wampanoag tribe to give a short speech. The state public relations team requested to see his speech beforehand, and changed their mind about him speaking once they read it over. Today's action is to read the speech that Frank James was not allowed to give.

Conversations that include intersections of multiple kinds of privilege become complicated, but it's still important to think about them. In honor of November being Indigenous Heritage month, today's action is to read this post by an Asian American-Indigenous Hawaiian writer about the ways that colonialism intersects with Asian identity. This includes instances that Asia has been colonized, like parts of Southeast Asia being colonized by France, and parts of South Asia being colonized by the UK, the effects of which can still be felt today. This also includes instances in the history and present where Asian countries have colonized Indigenous land, like the Han Chinese settling of Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty, that continues through the present. This also includes Asian Americans participating in occupying Native American land when they move to the US. The write up also includes actions to take to support and amplify Indigenous people.

Judge Bruce Schroeder, who presided over Kyle Rittenhouse's case, demonstrated many instances of bias, including forbidding calling the people whom Rittenhouse shot "victims", but allowing them to be called "rioters". Todays action is to email the Wisconsin Judiciary Commission, asking them to investigate Judge Schroeder.

Today's action is to read this article about the Wampanoag tribe, who helped the Pilgrims survive at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Wampanoag don't often get their side of the story told, and are in the present still fighting for their land and sovereignty.

Today's action is to sign up for the ACLU's new "Racism In Policing" guided email course. Over the course of four weekly emails, their experts will provide the historical context, resources, and insights needed to take meaningful actions around police divestment. See below for an outline of the lessons:

Week 1: What is police divestment?

Week 2: Why is police militarization prominent in the U.S.?

Week 3: Who disciplines police in the U.S.?

Yesterday, Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people and injured another during a Black Lives Matter protest last summer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was found not guilty on all counts. In the wake of this disappointing verdict, today's action is to revisit Paige Williams' reporting on the case in the New Yorker from June.

Today's action is to check out the 15 Percent Pledge's Gift Black Holiday Shopping Guide and commit to redirecting 15% of your spending power to Black-owned brands this holiday season. There are plenty of options to make conscious gift-giving easier, from curated gifts on the site to black-owned brands at major retailers. From their site:

"20% of annual shopping happens between November and December. That’s 790 billion dollars! Currently, only 0.4% of that number goes to Black-owned businesses. Imagine what allocating even 1% of that holiday spend to Black-owned brands could do. That would be 8 billion dollars redirected to Black entrepreneurs and business owners."

Check out their recent Instagram post if you'd like to share information about their shopping guide on social media. 

A recent poll showed that 4 in 10 Republicans don't want schools to teach the history of racism in the United States. Today's action is to read this Washington Post article about how to teach anti-racism at home if your local school has banned conversations about racism, equity, and inclusion.

"The Desolate Wilderness" is an annual piece published in The Wall Street Journal's opinion section on Thanksgiving Day. It gives a first-hand account from a settler of what the colonizers observed upon arrival in the Plymouth Colony in 1620. The passage refers to native people as "wilde men" and the colonists as cut off from "all the civil parts of the world." Today's action is to sign this petition requesting that the WSJ end this racist tradition and stop publishing this piece in their newspaper.

In September, we reported via the Innocence project that Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 to commute Julius Jones' death sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Jones has spent 19 years on death row for a murder that compelling evidence suggests he didn't commit. You can read more about his story in our previous post. Julius Jones is scheduled to be executed in two days even though parole boards have recommended that his sentence be commuted two times based on the many doubts in his case.⁠

The decision is now solely in the hands of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. Today's action is to send a message to the governor, urging him to stay Jones' execution.

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, wrapped last Friday after two weeks of intense discussions with heads of state and industry from over 200 countries. The resulting adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact has left many climate advocates underwhelmed and frustrated with the lack of meaningful progress on the crisis. You can read more about the COP26 negotiations and the takeaways from the convening on the UN's website. In an effort to amplify the voices of those disproportionately affected by climate change, today's action is to read this Teen Vogue article, "What Indigenous Land Defenders at COP26 Want."

If you are on TikTok, you may have come across artistic and/or educational posts from Indigenous creators that are opening up a new conversation and visibility into contemporary Native Culture. Today's action is to follow the creators listed in this article if you don't already.

Today's action is an offering of support for those who are planning to spend time with family during the upcoming holiday season. Author and activist Ijeoma Oluo shares advice on how to have better conversations with your parents or family members about racism, which you can read or listen to here.

Today's action is to find time to watch the film “Gather” on Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon. According to their website, "’Gather’ is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide."

In past newsletters we have shared the work of Racial Trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem. In addition to the best selling book, My Grandmother's Hands, Menakem leads workshops and offers online learning experiences centered around Somatic Abolitionism, described as "an embodied anti-racist practice and process of culture building."

Menakem is partnering with Education for Racial Equity to offer an online workshop series to for students to practice the somatic exercises and feel into how racial trauma lives in all of our bodies. Today's action is to consider signing up for one of the 2022 offerings of this workshop, available for a sliding scale or scholarship. If you feel unsure, ask a friend to join you on this learning journey.

As we continue to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, today's action is to enjoy this playlist featuring Native musicians compiled by IllumiNative, an organization designed to increase the visibility of Natives in American society. You can also follow their instagram account to get regular updates on their programs and partnerships.

In recent weeks, two highly visible cases have gone to trial. Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Bryan face charges of murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment in the death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Kyle Rittenhouse is facing homicide after he shot and killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum at a demonstration in Wisconsin. In both trials, nearly all white juries were selected.

Today's action is to read about America's White Jury Problem and how it has led to an "over-representation of white suburbanites on juries increas[ing] the median sentence handed down to Black defendants."

Today's action is to read this interview with Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, a citizen and former head councilwoman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.

Lopez-Whiteskunk digs into the inconsistent and transactional nature of the way that the US Government performs "consultation" with Indigenous parties, as well as the fragility of land protections. In reference to the recent reinstatement of protections of Bears Ears: "If we’re going to truly come to equitable, inclusive issues that we can solve together or feel good about, then let’s make substantial changes to where this doesn’t become a change today, and then a new administration comes on, and they change it by throwing the Utah delegation a bone, because they’re one of the sponsors of the infrastructure legislation."

There are currently two TV shows airing that are about and written by Native Americans.Today's action is to read this article about these two TV shows, Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls, and to watch an episode from one of them, if you are able.

As many people charged with looting during last summer's protests are still in prison and awaiting trial, it's important to examine the racial politics of what kinds of property destruction are considered looting and what kinds are not. Today's action is to read an article in Time Magazine about this topic. From the article: "The history-shaping actions of white people are rarely remembered as looting, even when they have involved seizing goods by force, whereas the word is freely applied when those doing the seizing lack power."

Noname is a rapper and activist who has started a book club with members inside and outside carceral facilities. We previously shared her book club for anyone who didn't already have an anti-racist book club to attend. Each month, the book club sends copies of that month's books to prisons around the US. Funds from the book club will also go to starting a library of free radical books in Chicago. If you are able, today's action is to donate to the book club's Patreon.

Today's action is to read about activist Brittany Micek and her organization Meditating for Black Lives. Her organization is a reminder that processing trauma and taking care of your mental health is an important part of any activism.

In May, we shared an action to write to your representatives to oppose proposed laws calling for harsher penalties for protestors. Today's action is to read this article about the disturbing trend of laws protecting drivers that hit protestors. If you're from a state that has passed one of these laws (Iowa, Florida, Oklahoma) or a state where one of these laws is pending (Washington, New Jersey, Tennessee), consider contacting your representatives voicing your opposition against these laws.

November is Native American Heritage Month. As the Native Governance Center states, "Indigenous people are still here, and they’re thriving." In honor of that, here are some Native American creators you can follow.

It is likely that Gabby Petito's death was related to domestic violence. Race and class play a part in domestic violence statistics, with Black and Indigenous women being the most vulnerable to domestic violence. Today's action is to read this article about the intersection of race and domestic violence.

Philadelphia will soon become the first major city in the US to ban traffic stops for trivial code violations that do not pose a risk to public safety. Stopping drivers for tinted windows, missing tail lights, license plate issues, and other low-level offenses will no longer be permitted once the mayor signs the new city-council-passed Driving Equity Bill into law next week. According to the Philadelphia Defenders Association, "43% of Philadelphia residents are Black, but Black people make up 72% of the drivers pulled over for alleged motor vehicle code [violations]. After [being] stopped, Black drivers are twice as likely to be searched, but 35% less likely to be found with contraband." A new investigation by The New York Times found that "over the past five years, police officers have killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or under pursuit for a violent crime — a rate of more than once a week." This is a huge step forward to addressing racial disparity in policing. You can read more about the bill on CNN.

Prison Renaissance is an organization using "art and community to create a culture of transformation to end cycles of incarceration."They publish zines, poems, essays, fiction and non-fiction pieces, video, and other visual art that centers the voices of incarcerated people in our conversations about criminal justice reform. Today's action is to check out the Get Involved section of their website or make a donation to support their work.

In response to violence and over-policing at Southwood High School in Shreveport, La., a group of five fathers created "Dads on Duty" to act as community liaisons, patrol the campus and provide care and oversight for the kids at school. Their children's local high school went from 23 student arrests in the span of three days for fighting to no violent incidents on campus since they started the program over a month ago. This is what police abolition can look like. Today's action is to read their story and share it with your network.

As we work to move toward prison abolition in the future, today's action is to check an episode of Ear Hustle, a podcast about "the daily realities of life inside prison shared by those living it, and stories from the outside, post-incarceration." From their website:

"Launched in 2017, Ear Hustle was the first podcast created and produced in prison, featuring stories of the daily realities of life inside California's San Quentin State Prison, shared by those living it. Co-founded by Bay Area artist Nigel Poor alongside Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams — who were incarcerated at the time — the podcast now tells stories from both inside prison and from the outside, post-incarceration."

Founded in 2019, The Last Prisoner Project is committed to freeing all of the estimated 40,000 individuals currently incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes in the United States. Its work brings together cannabis industry leaders, lawyers, criminal and social justice advocates, and policy and education experts to bring about cannabis criminal justice reform. Given the vast racial disparities in marijuana arrests and convictions, this is anti-racist work. Today's action is to check out the Take Action page on their website to learn more about how you can support their mission via letter-writing campaigns, petitions, donations, and social media graphics to share with your community.

Today's action comes from "Stories From Palestine" on Instagram. Netflix just introduced an influx of Palestinian-focused films and documentaries on their streaming service last week. Check out the list on their recent post and choose one film or documentary to watch this week.

Last week we shared resources to learn more about the colonial history of U.S territory, Puerto Rico. Today, despite the destabilizing presence of multiple natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes in the last few years and looming massive debt, Puerto Rico has managed to become the most vaccinated place in America. Today's action is to read this CNN article explaining how they did it and what the United States can learn from their success.

Today's action is to learn more about how the city of Evanston, Illinois is making good on an intiative to provide reparations to Black residents who experienced housing discrimination.

From the article, "In March, after two years of research, proposals and community meetings, Evanston’s city council voted 8-1 to launch a 'Restorative Housing Program.' The application period began on Sept. 21. In November, 16 applicants will receive $25,000 each in housing reparations....The first payments, totaling $400,000, are part of $10 million Evanston has pledged over a decade to begin repairing the damage caused by official city policies."

Evanston and other cities investing in reparations serve as an important example for other communities, and also make the case for more broad federal legislation.

As focus on abolition gains momentum, so do many common misconceptions surrounding the ideology. Today's action is to read and share this thread from Patrisse Cullors, who debunks myths like "abolition means lawlessness and chaos" with helpful clarifications.

As we approach peak Spooky Season, today's action is to watch and share this video where six women share costumes that co-opt their cultures, how they define cultural appropriation, and how it impacts them on a personal level.

As a follow up to Tuesday's email where we shared Abolitionist Futures reading list, today's action is to look at your daily life and relationships and consider in what ways you can practice "everyday abolition".

This link includes a sample chapter of the book Abolishing the Police (an Illustrated Introduction) to help you identify how you might be upholding carceral culture in your daily life, alternatives to punishment when responding to harm, and practical skills to contribute to community safety. Keep in mind this note from the author: "This work takes ongoing practice. It is not something we can attend one training session on or read one article about and then know how to respond or address every situation."

As the US Supreme Court is in the process of deciding which cases to take up in this term, Native communities are watching closely to see if they will accept Brackeen vs. Haaland. This case is a challenge to The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) on the surface, but stands to threaten tribal sovereignty and the power of Native people to protect their cultures. Cherokee writer Rebecca Nagle provides a detailed history of this case and it's far-reaching implications in season 2 of her podcast, This Land. Today's action is to begin listening to episode 1 of the eight episode series, and if you've already listened, share it with others.

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court announced two rulings without any noted dissents which uphold qualified immunity, the court-created doctrine that essentially shields government officials from being held personally liable for constitutional violations—like the right to be free from excessive police force—for money damages. The rulings came out a few weeks after Congressional negotiations to tighten police practices collapsed at the end of September.

These events serve as a reminder that the police and prison systems are are continually upheld by our institutions, and that the fundamental transformative nature of abolition has far greater potential to solve the problems of poverty, crime, and violence. Today's action is to review this reading list assembled by Abolitionist Futures and continue efforts to broaden your understanding and involvement in the movement. Consider setting up an abolition reading group using the set up guide and resources to facilitate an ongoing a dialog in your community.

Today's action is to listen to writer, organizer, and Netflix's VP of Inclusion Strategy Darnell Moore and filmmaker/writer dream hampton share an intimate conversation as part of On Being's 'Future of Hope' series. Moore and hampton reflect on belief/hope, community, leadership, the origins of today's abolitionist movement, and the role of their work/creativity at this stage of their lives in this cultural moment. A transcript is also available at the link.

Even though Puerto Rico is legally part of the US as an incorporated territory, US history classes don't cover much about Puerto Rico. Today's action is to read this essay by Puerto Rican activist Alexandra-Marie Figueroa Miranda about Puerto Rico's colonial history and how that history continues to affect it today.

You might have heard opponents of bail reform arguing that it adversely affects public safety to release people that are awaiting trial. Here's a study that shows that releasing people pre-trial doesn't increase crime. It uses data from four states, as well as nine cities and counties, before and after the adoption of pretrial reforms, to conclude that in most cases there was a neutral to positive affect on public safety.

Today's action is to listen to this npr podcast episode (or read the transcript) about how fat phobia is linked to anti-Blackness, both in its origins and in its manifestations today.

Today's action is to read this article about how reporting on crime affects public opinion and policy on policing and incarceration. As a result, nuanced coverage of crime (instead of sensationalist) is a racial social justice issue.

This month is Filipino American History Month. In honor of that, today's action is to read this article about the first Asian American settlement in the US, a Filipino fishing village established in what is now Louisiana, in 1763.

As another example of why prisons and the police should be abolished, today's action is to read this article about how 10 Black children in Tennessee were arrested for being bystanders at a fight, which is not actually a crime that it is legal to arrest people for. In fact, the judge in the article had illegally jailed children about 1500 times during her career, and continues to serve as judge today.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, today's email is about Land Back. We've covered land back in a few previous emails as well. Today's action is to read this and this article about , if you're wondering what kinds of practical actions you can take towards giving Indigenous land back. Even though these articles are from a Canadian magazine, the principles outlined apply to any country built on Indigenous occupied territory.

Today's action is to listen to NPR podcast, CodeSwtich's recent episode, "What Does It Mean To Be Latino? The 'Light-Skinned Privilege' Edition." From the show notes:

"Maria Garcia and Maria Hinojosa are both Mexican American, both mestiza, and both relatively light-skinned. But Maria Hinojosa strongly identifies as a woman of color, whereas Maria Garcia has stopped doing so. So in this episode, we're asking: How did they arrive at such different places? To find out, listen to our latest installment in this series about what it means to be Latino."

Today's action is to watch this Democracy Now! interview with human rights lawyer Derecka Purnell, discussing her new book, "Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom." You can find info on where to purchase the book and see Derecka on tour on her website.

Today's action is to read this Washington Post expose on Tommy Marcus, an Instagram influencer who raised over $7 million in August to help fund evacuation flights for Afghan civilians fleeing Taliban rule. Dubbed "Operation Flyaway" by Marcus and the non-profit leaders he partnered with, they committed to spending every dollar raised on the intended cause, but as of today, no Afghans have been evacuated on flights chartered by their initiative. The Post found that Operation Flyaway spent $3.3 million on flights that were canceled, for which it has not received refunds.

In 1951, doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore took cell samples from Henrietta Lack's, a black woman suffering from aggressive cervical cancer, while diagnosing and treating her disease. They gave some of that tissue to researchers without her consent, who later discovered that the cell were "immortal," able to reproduce and survive under almost any condition. Later named HeLa cells, this discovery helped scientists produce remedies for several diseases, including the first polio vaccine and the recent COVID vaccines.

Yesterday it was announced that the descendants of Henrietta Lacks are suing the pharmaceutical company Thermo Fisher Scientific, which has made billions of dollars in profit off the HeLa cell line and demanding reparations and the intellectual property of those cells. Today's action is to learn more about Henrietta Lacks' story in this s.

It's October, and spooky season has officially begun! Today's action is to check out this list of 30+ Halloween children's books featuring diverse characters curated by Charnaie Gordon of Here Wee Read. If you're interested in purchasing any of the titles listed in the article, please do so via Here Wee Read's storefront on Bookshop.

In 1912, Charles and Willa Bruce purchased beachfront property in Southern California and turned it into a resort open to Black customers. In 1924 the property was seized by the city through eminent domain and absorbed into Manhattan Beach. Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill passed by the state legislature allowing for the return of the property, now valued at $75 million, to the descendants of the Bruce family. As of today, no formal apology has been issued to the Bruce family from LA County. You can learn more about their story in Architectural Digest.

Last week Canada held its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a national holiday honoring victims and survivors of its residential school system. The holiday was celebrated just one day after a Canadian court dismissed a legal challenge from the federal government and upheld a 2016 ruling calling for billions of dollars in compensation to First Nations children removed from their families and placed into state welfare. Today's action is to read this BBC article to learn more about Indigenous foster care in Canada and why reform is needed.

Today's action is to read about two recent examples of land being returned/transferred to indigenous control. The first, 172 acres known as Blues Beach in Mendocino, California, ownership was transferred to a non-profit consisting of three local tribal governments, the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo. The second (much larger) example, Australia's Daintree Rainforest — a World Heritage Site and one of the oldest rainforests in the world — was returned to the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people in a formal ceremony last week after negotiations lasting four years. The combined area of more than 395,000 acres will be managed jointly with the Queensland government before before being passed entirely to indigenous control.

Content Warning: Suicide and Self Harm

As Latinx heritage month continues, today's action is to take time to learn about the Latina teen suicide epidemic that has grown over the past decade. Actress and author Dani Fernandez shares several articles and her personal experience in this thread and offers resources for teens in crisis.

Yesterday marked Orange Shirt Day, an annual event started in Williams Lake, BC, Canada to commemorate, witness, and honor the healing of survivors of Residential Schools in the Cariboo Region, and since then it has aimed to open the doors to a global conversation on all aspects of Residential Schools.

In honor of Orange Shirt Day, Indigenous-led grassroots organization Rising Hearts is hosting a virtual Remembrance Run, which you can still support and participate through this weekend (the event runs through October 3rd). If you are physically able, you can register to run, walk, or bike in solidarity, and then post photos and view results on the event page. If you'd like to participate or support in other ways, you can sponsor a runner donation, purchase a shirt or sticker, or share this event with your community. Additional educational context and resources are provided on the event website.

The Color of Change PAC is a Political Action Committee focused on building independent Black political power, amplifying Black voices, electing candidates who share the Color of Change values, and holding them accountable to communities.

Today's action is to get involved with their efforts to mobilize voters in preparation for November elections, particularly in critical locations like Minneapolis, where voters will decide whether or not to amend Minneapolis’ city charter and adopt a public health approach to public safety. You can sign up to participate in text banking to raise awareness on this ballot measure, and on a local level ask your politicians to sign this to reject political donations from the Fraternal Order of Police.

Content Warning: Sexual Assault

Earlier this week, R. Kelly was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking, a decision that should have come decades ago. Today's action is to read this article featuring the voices of Black women who share their perspectives and questions about whether this conviction represents a shift toward better treatment of Black women victims of sexual violence.

From the article:

In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, today's action is to listen to this podcast (or read this article) to learn about a US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Mendez v. Westminster, that predated Brown vs. Board of Education in the fight for integration in US public schools. The Mendez family, along with other Latino families, brought a class action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts that had separate schools for white and Mexican students.

Sylvia Mendez, who was at the center of the 1947 case as a young student, speaks about her memory of this experience and shares her thoughts on the current times and reflected, "we are more segregated now than we ever were" -- calling for younger generations to advocate against the "de-facto" school segregation taking place today.

Today's action is to get to know artist, abolitionist, author, and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors-Brignac and support her work. Here are some ways to do this:

• Read her 2018 book,

Today’s action is to read this article about how the gender binary and colonialism are linked, through interviews with Black and indigenous non binary and two-spirit people.

Ten days ago, we shared a letter signed by 300 activists urging the US to stop deportation of Haitian asylum seekers. Since then, horrifying photos have been released of asylum-seekers being chased on horseback by US border patrol. Today's action is to read this article by Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat about the long history of the US's mistreatment of Haitian asylum seekers. The article also explains the history of US government intervention in Haitian politics that has created a situation that Haitians are forced to flee from. From the article, "Immigrants are fleeing the violence that the United States is bringing to them.”

Today's post is a demonstration of how more diverse representation isn't the same as equity. The Instagram account bachelordata analyzed the most recent season of the Bachelor, which had the franchise's first Black male lead and the highest percentage of contestants of color. Despite the season having the highest percentage of contestants of color, these charts show that the most screen time is still devoted to the white contestants.

Two days ago, we shared an article and post about the disparity of effort devoted to location missing persons of color compared to white missing persons. Today's action is to read about and spread the word about Jelani Day and Daniel Robinson, two Black young men who have been missing for a couple months and who haven't yet been found. As Day's mom states in the article, after her son didn't get the same attention after being missing for longer, we're "not arguing that Petito deserves less but that [Jelani] deserves more."

Today's action is to read about disaster capitalism—the pattern of developers seizing land that has been evacuated after a national disaster and using it for commercial interests. Examples include New Orleans becoming the city with the most privatized school district, post-Katrina. The article also mentions that on a global scale, the countries most vulnerable to the effects of disaster capitalism are ones that have a history of colonization.

Today's action is to read about the disparity in effort and attention devoted to finding missing people of color. Destini Smothers, a 26 yar old Black woman, was found 4 months after being reported missing, after law enforcement conducted no searches to find her. A report by the Wyoming's Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Task Force showed that 21% of Indigenous people reported as missing take longer than 1 month to find. Only 11% of white people take longer than 1 month to find.

Today's action is to read this post about how Muir Woods National Monument in California changed its signage to contain a land acknowledgement and also to call out the role of Indigenous land management in preservation of the woods. Even though the goal is to give indigenous land back, land acknowledgement in state and national park signs is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, more state and national parks follow.

In celebration of Latinx Heritage Month, today's action is to check out this NY Times list featuring 11 Latinx authors and their works on Latinx life. Consider buying one of the books and reading it this month.

It's Latinx Heritage Month! (September 15th - October 15) Today's action is to check out this post from artist and entrepreneur Angie Quintanilla Coates explaining the difference between the terms Latin*, Latinx, and Hispanic.

Today's action is to read the Washington Post's story on Cunhaporanga Tatuyo, the 22-year-old woman taking Indigenous culture viral by documenting her life on TikTok. Cunhaporanga started making short-form videos to pass the time during the pandemic, and in less than a year and a half, has gained over 6 million followers on the platform. You can follow her at @cunhaporanga_oficial on Instagram and @cunhaporangaoficial on TikTok.

Despite the turmoil on the ground in Haiti after a devastating earthquake, a hurricane, the assassination of their head of state, and a lack of vaccine supply to stop the spread of the Delta variant, the Biden Administration has resumed ICE deportations of Haitians from the US this week. Today's action is to read this letter signed by over 300 activists and human rights groups asking the US to end repatriation back to Haiti, bring back anyone who was recently expelled by ICE, and instead send more resources and aid to the country.

Last week, 12-year-old Leden Boykins was killed after a Georgia state trooper used the PIT maneuver to stop the speeding car he was riding in. The child was riding home with his neighbor, Charles Moore, and Moore's 14-year-old son when troopers pulled Moore over for speeding. Moore refused to comply, drove off, speeding again, and called 911, fearing for his safety and the safety of the children in his vehicle. Knowing that there were children in the car, the troopers chased the vehicle for almost 3 miles before using the dangerous PIT maneuver to flip the car off the road. Leden Boykins died on impact. Charles Moore is now being charged with murder during the commission of a felony, first-degree homicide by vehicle, and aggravated assault against a peace officer. It is the police's responsibility to evaluate all variables and assess whether the potential harm their actions could cause outweigh the impact of inaction. We cannot trust law enforcement to make this assessment when arresting someone for a traffic violation is more important than a child's life. Today's action is to share this story on social media and continue advocating for police abolition.

Last year we asked One Anti-Racist Action A Day subscribers to write a letter to Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board advocating for Julius Jones. Jones has spent 19 years on death row for a murder that compelling evidence suggests he didn’t commit⁠. We are happy to report via the Innocence Project that yesterday, Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 to commute Julius Jones’ death sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. This is just the first step to the ultimate goal of full exoneration. Today's action is to read the Innocence Project's breakdown of Julius Jones' case and complete one of the 4 actions listed at the end of the article.

Black women in the United States are three times more likely to die in childbirth or from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. The Black Birth-Workers Documentary is under development by a team of Black queer women seeking to investigate the factors that drive these disparities and archive the contributions of Black midwives, doulas, gynecologists, and other Black birth-workers. On September 1st, they started their cross-country journey to collect stories for the project and are fundraising to cover travel costs and production for the film. They're currently close to 50% of the $50,000 goal with 18 days remaining on their crowdfunding campaign. Today's action is to contribute (if you can) to their IFundWomen campaign or share their project on social media to drive more awareness around their work.

"The Activist" is a competition reality show recently promoted by CBS, set to premiere in October, that has sparked conversation online about what activism truly is. With celebrity hosts, head-to-head challenges among participants, and success measurements that include online engagement, this show "positions organizing as some sort of performance competition, when the very essence of activism is about community, solidarity. Not ego, metrics of success, and ‘winning’”, according to campaigner and writer Gina Martin.

Today's action is to read the thoughts of Aja Barber, , and on the subject, and reflect on your own mental picture of what it means to be an "activist".

The Afiya Center is an organization based in Northern Texas focused on Reproductive Justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, and HIV programming for Black womxn and girls.

Their vision centers around "transforming the lives, health, and overall wellbeing of Black womxn and girls by providing refuge, education, and resources; we act to ignite the communal voices of Black womxn resulting in our full achievement of reproductive freedom."

Today's action is to spread the word about their work on social media, sign up to if you live in the North Texas area, and to their organization if you have the ability to do so.

With the recent US Supreme Court ruling to uphold a near-complete ban on abortions in Texas, the groundwork has been laid to potentially overrule Roe v. Wade altogether in the coming years.

As collective resistance efforts and protests gain momentum, it is a good time to remember the major missteps of the 20th century “Pro-Choice" movement, which was led by wealthy white women who failed to regard the complex realities of BIPOC women in the process.

Today's action is to listen to this podcast detailing the history of the movement for Reproductive Justice, an intersectional framework established by twelve Black women in 1994 to center the experiences of people who throughout history have had to fight for the right to have and raise children in addition to the right to choose if and when to have them.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on the history of mutual aid, today's action is to identify and get involved in a network close to where you live, or create your own neighborhood mutual aid pod. This Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit provides a step-by-step guide, sample invite language, and additional resources to help you in the process.

Mutual aid projects, defined by trans activist Dean Spade as "a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions,” have expanded significantly in quantity and reach since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Mutual aid organizations also serve as one of the best avenues to contribute directly to communities in need of disaster relief, which we are seeing across the US due to wildfires, hurricanes, and other catastrophic climate events.

This practice of community care has been a norm in marginalized spaces throughout history— today's action is to read this visual history of mutual aid and engage with the "further reading" section on the page to learn more.

As a follow up to yesterday's action featuring thoughts from Black labor leaders, today's action is to learn more about the PRO Act— legislation that will penalize employers for intervening with organizing efforts, enhance support for worker strikes, and close loopholes in federal employment and labor laws. The US House of Representatives passed the PRO Act bill in March 2021, and since then it has been stalled under filibuster in the Senate. Another reminder to continue to advocate for the end of the filibuster, which we have provided actions for in the past (check them out here, here, and ).

On this Labor Day holiday, today's action is to read this article featuring thoughts from Black labor organizers and policy advocates about how to make the pandemic recovery more equitable and ensure that Black workers “never again bear the brunt of a national crisis as they have under Covid-19.”

Yesterday we mentioned trying to avoid white saviorism while talking about Afghanistan. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it was coined by Nigerian American writer Teju Cole in 2012. Today's action is to read his article in The Atlantic about the white savior industrial complex. From the article: "...I disagree with the approach taken by [...] the White Savior Industrial Complex in general, because there is much more to doing good work than “making a difference.” There is the principle of “First do no harm.” There is the idea that those who are being helped ought to be consulted over the matters that concern them."

A few weeks ago, we shared some actions related to Afghanistan. Today's action is to read this article by journalist and activist Shireen Ahmed about how to approach what is happening in Afghanistan with nuance and while trying your best to avoid white saviorism.

Filipino nurses make up 4% of registered nurses in the US, but counted for 24% of COVID-related nurse deaths. Today's action is to read this article about the historical exploitation of Filipino health care workers in the US, as well as the complicated relationship between nursing in the Philippines and US Imperialism. From the article: “These physicians and nurses work in communities with workers that are the essential workers who don’t have these white-collar protections. And they’re working in hospitals that don’t have all the equipment,” says Eram Alam an assistant professor in the history of medicine at Harvard University. “All of these things are working together, and I think all of these things are suggestive of who is considered to be disposable in the United States.”

Note: while the end of the article cites an additional possible reason of Filipino nurses going above and beyond to care for patients as part of their culture, they deserve the same protections as all other healthcare workers.

Last month, a Black woman was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzling $40,000 in the exact same same courtroom where, days before, a white woman was sentenced to 2 years of probation for embezzling $250,000. Today’s action is to read this article about not only this instance of unfairness in sentencing, but this pattern of unfairness in the criminal justice system. From the article, “Nationwide, Black people convicted of crimes received 20 percent longer sentences than similarly situated whites who commit the same offenses, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.” The article also talks about the Ohio Sentencing Project, which collects data from state criminal courts to be able to show the distribution of sentences for similar crimes.

Today’s action is to read this article about how Native Americans have the highest COVID vaccination rate in the US, including strategies that tribal leaders took to promote the vaccine.

Yesterday we shared that the John Lewis Voting Act passed in the US House of Representatives. It goes to the Senate next. Today’s action is to use resistbot to message your senators, urging them to vote for the John Lewis Voting Act.

The 19th Amendment was ratified this month in 1920, giving white women the right to vote in the US. This Instagram post reminds us that Native American women didn’t get the right to vote until 1924, Asian American women until 1952, and Black American women 1965. Voting rights in the the US are still being contested—the House debated and finally passed the John Lewis Voting Rights act just a few days ago. Today’s action is to read this article about how this past weeks’ debates in the House were frustratingly an exact repeat of the objections to voting rights debates in the 1960’s.

Jesmyn Ward is a novelist, professor, and two-time National Book Award Winner. This Tuesday, August 31st at 5 PM PT, you can catch Jesmyn live in conversation with LeVar Burton, former beloved host of Reading Rainbow, to discuss her collection of essays, The Fire This Time, an homage to James Baldwin featuring several prominent writers of color. Today’s action is to mark your calendars and register for the event here.

After George Floyd’s death last year, US corporations pledged more than $50B for racial justice. Today’s action is to read this Washington Post exclusive, analyzing these commitments and the disbursement of funds to date.

CW: Suicide

On July 12th Tirhas Berhane Tesfatsion was pulled over and arrested by Lynnwood, WA police. She died the next day in police custody. Video surveillance shows that Tirhas was exhibiting signs of distress and asked for help repeatedly. The officers on duty ignored those requests, and Tirhas was later found unresponsive on the bathroom floor. Her death was ruled a suicide. Today’s action is to sign a petition requesting an independent investigation into her death and accountability for the officers who ignored her pleas for help.

Today’s action is to read food journalist and cook book author, Priya Krishna’s NY Times article “Why Do American Grocery Stores Still Have an Ethnic Aisle?”

TW: Sexual Violence

In January, we shared Ashley Diamond’s story, a black trans activist who was re-incarcerated last year for a technical parole violation and sued the Georgia Department of Corrections for failure to protect her from sexual assault (after being placed in a men’s prison) and denial of care. Ashley is up for parole review for a potential release this fall. Please read more about her story on them. and sign the advocating for her release.

This morning, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the group would not allow an extension beyond the August 31st deadline set by President Biden for ending evacuations out of Kabul. As the pace of evacuations accelerates, many of us on the ground are still looking for tangible ways to support humanitarian efforts in the region. Today’s action is to join the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a non-profit that assists in the resettlement process of global refugees in the United States, for a live stream to discuss the situation on the ground in Kabul, their advocacy efforts, and ways to support Afghan refugees.

After a slur was used in one of the posts of the popular Instagram account “So You Want To Talk About,” the author of the page came forward, revealed her identity, and shared more about the origins of the page and her collaborators. Many of the page’s 3 million-plus (at the time) followers were surprised to learn that the page was run by Jessica Natale, a white woman and former Bernie campaign volunteer, and not Ijeoma Oluo, the black woman author of the best-selling book “So You Want to Talk About Race,” that the page seemingly took its inspiration from. Jessica was then accused of capitalizing on a black woman’s work to build a brand and a following that ultimately led to a book deal. You can read more about the story in the Guardian. Jessica has since apologized to Ijeoma Oluo and changed the name of the page to So Informed. Today’s action is to follow on Instagram and of the series events in her highlighted stories (labeled “About SYWWTA”) on her page.

Today’s action is to check your accounts to see if you have credit card points and frequent flyer miles you to donate to Miles 4 Migrants and encourage others to do the same.

Miles 4 Migrants is a program that uses donated frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and cash to help people impacted by war, persecution, or disaster reunite with loved ones and start new beginnings in safe homes.

The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Their practices of rematriation, cultural revitalization, and land restoration exemplify a path to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy.

Today’s action is to explore and download the various resources that the Land Trust generously offers on their website, including reflection questions about the idea of home, recommended readings, and tips for difficult conversations. If you are able, consider donating to their Rematriation Fund.

Today’s action is to listen to or read the recent conversation between activists adrienne maree brown and Brittany Packnett Cunningham on the “Undistracted” podcast.

Among other things, they discuss the concept of Pleasure Activism and ways to tap into joy, creativity, and pleasure for yourself amidst the collective heaviness of world events.

Media coverage of recent events in Afghanistan will inevitably be overshadowed by the next big story in the coming days and weeks.

Today’s action is to follow a handful of people and organizations on the ground in Afghanistan on the social platform of your choice (@theafghan, @usafghanwc, are on Instagram), and make similar efforts to expand your feed with perspectives from Haiti, Lebanon, Palestine, Cuba, and elsewhere as future events unfold to stay informed on the ongoing struggles people are facing long after media attention subsides.

As a follow up to yesterday’s learning recommendation focused on Afghanistan, today’s action is to use this guide to contact US lawmakers serving on military and international affairs related committees.

The document provides contact information and a script for you to follow which demands urgent government support and involvement in the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans, broadened visa eligibility and expedited processing for special immigrant visas, and the designation of Afghans for Temporary Protected Status.

Today’s action is to learn more about the current devastating situation in Afghanistan and the events that led up to this moment by reading these slides.

The post offers suggestions on how individuals can make a difference, the first steps being raising awareness and educating yourself. We will be doing the same, and will share additional actions to support the people of Afghanistan in the coming days.

Stop Line 3 is an Indigenous-led movement resisting Enbridge corporation’s ongoing construction of a new tar sands pipeline through Alberta, Minnesota, and Wisconsin– violating treaty-protected tribal lands, fresh water sources, and natural ecosystems. You can visit stopline3.org to learn more about these and other major issues the Water Protectors are fighting against. Today’s action is to get involved in the resistance in as many ways as you can through the suggested actions listed at this link.

Haiti was recently hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Today’s action is to donate, if you can, to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, which supports grassroots groups in Haiti. It’s also worthwhile reading this article about how money donated to the Red Cross during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti never reached people who needed it, and why donating directly to local organizations is the best route.

Years ending in 2 are years that US district lines are redrawn based on the results of the most recent census. Yesterday was the last of a series of town halls to discuss redistricting in Kansas. This redistricting will be significant because the president of the Kansas Senate openly said she plans to use gerrymandering during the redistricting to oust Democratic Congersswoman Sharice Davids, a member of Ho-Chunk Nation, Kansas’ only Democratic Congressperson, and one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Today’s action is to refresh yourself on how gerrymandering works, and to read about the current redistricting situation in Kansas.

A few days ago, US Senate Republicans added an amendment to an infrastructure bill that would eliminate federal funding for local governments that defund the police. All Senate Democrats voted for the bill anyway, amendment included, with Senator Cory Booker pointing out that this was an opportunity to show that Democrats don’t actually want to defund the police. This infrastructure bill will go to the House of Representatives next. Today’s action is to read this post from the Black Lives Matter Instagram account about this amendment, and to use resistbot to let your Congressperson know that you do care about defunding the police.

The Abolitionist Library Association is an activist group who works to stop policing in libraries and to divest that budget back into the community. Today’s action is to read this article about the AbLA and if you’re interested in furthering their mission in your own community, to join their listserv.

The US House of Representatives recently passed HR 1374, which gives states money to secure energy infrastructure against “all physical and cybersecurity threats.” Indigenous activists are worried that the vague wording of HR 1374 would let states use those funds to police against pipeline protesters. Today’s action is to read this article about HR 1374 and to use this website to send a message to your Senator to oppose this bill.

Vietnamese refugee Phi Pham served as an incarcerated firefighter at Folsom State Prison. On June 16th of this year, he was released from prison on early parole, but upon release was immediately handed over to ICE, despite his green card. He’s set to be deported to Vietnam, a country in which he’s never set foot. A similar thing happened last year to Kao Saelee. Today’s action is to read Phi Pham’s story, and also to send an email to the governor of California, demanding Pham’s release from ICE and also an end to the practice of sending refugees and immigrants to ICE at the end of their prison sentences.

Today is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. While a lot of our actions are US-centric, today’s action is to sign this petition in support of Torres Straights Islander peoples. Eight Torres Straights Islanders are currently filing a complaint against Australia to the United Nations for the governments inaction on climate change, which has had negative impacts on their home such as erosion and coral bleaching.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has again declined to pardon Kevin Strickland, a Kansas City man who has spent 43 years behind bars for a crime prosecutors, the admitted killers, and key witnesses say he did not commit. Strickland was convicted and imprisoned for murder in 1978 and has maintained his innocence since he was 18. You can learn more about his story here. This comes on the heels of Gov. Parson’s decision to pardon Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple convicted of misdemeanor firearms charges for pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protestors last summer. Today’s action is to share Kevin Strickland’s story on social media and the set up by the Midwest Innocence Project to advocate for his release and support Kevin once he’s finally freed.

Last week U.S. shot-putter Raven Saunders held her arms above her head in the shape of an X after accepting her silver medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Saunders later shared that the “X” represented the “intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.” On Monday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it would be investigating Saunder’s act as a violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which prohibits “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda.” They have since paused that investigation after the announcement of the death of Saunder’s mother this week. Regardless of whether the IOC chooses to pursue their inquiry into Saunder’s podium protest, it is clear that Rule 50 is oppressive and serves to silence athletes. Today’s action is to sign this Color of Change petition requesting an end to Rule 50.

Last month NYC launched a pilot program that sends behavioral health specialists to respond to mental health calls instead of the police. The B-HEARD program (Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division) sent teams of three unarmed behavioral health specialists to respond to more than one hundred 911 calls. The early data shows that more people received the help they needed, it reduced the likelihood of violent police intervention, and fewer were hospitalized. The city has expressed its plans to expand the program in the coming months. You can learn more about the program on NPR.

Last week in an interview on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen,” Dolly Parton shared that she invested the cover royalties for one of her most successful songwriting credits, “I Will Always Love You,” into a historically Black neighborhood in Nashville. Forbes reports that the song, covered by Whitney Houston in 1992 for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” earned Parton at least $10 million in the 90’s alone. You can read more about Dolly Parton’s allyship in this article in the Washington Post.

Yesterday was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day or the day Black women must work into 2021 to catch up to what white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2020. Black women work 579 days to earn what white men do in 365. Today’s action is to read the Forbes article, “Why Black women’s wage gap is a problem for everyone,” that discusses the benefits for both our economy and society at large of fixing the gender and racial wage gap.

Today’s action is to read “The Essential Role Of Indie Black Bookstores In The Fight For Liberation” in Refinery29. Among others, the article features Harriett’s Bookshop, a black-owned independent book store celebrating women authors, artists, and activists that was forced to close its doors 6 weeks after its launch in Feb 2020 because of the pandemic. They’re back and thriving with the community’s support and are crowdfunding to help them transition into a larger space. If you’d like to contribute (or share via social), you can find the fundraiser on GoFundMe.

Last week it was announced that Jay-Z and Will Smith were among the investors in a $165 million Series A funding round for the startup Landis Technologies. The real estate company, founded by Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit (both white men), utilizes a rent-to-own model targeting low-income black people (see website imagery) as their customer base. The deal was celebrated in multiple black publications as a net positive for the community. Though the company claims to offer credit and savings counseling as a vehicle to shepherding their clients into homeownership and a key differentiator from similar companies, the rent-to-own model has been reported on extensively as predatory and harmful, specifically for the black community. Today’s action is to read two articles, one from the Atlantic, the other from , on the recent and distant history of this form of predatory lending.

Last month, protests erupted throughout Cuba driven by a combination of pandemic, economic, and social issues. Media coverage of events in Cuba can be difficult to navigate– independent journalist collective Belly of the Beast explains: “State-run outlets churn out propaganda while US-based journalism reinforces narratives propagated in Miami and DC. Some foreign media organizations try to find an ‘unbiased’ happy medium, but the result is often false balance that obscures the context necessary to understand a country where every aspect of life is shaped by six decades of economic war waged by the world’s most powerful government.”

Today’s action is to set aside time to watch Belly of the Beast’s documentary “The War on Cuba” which tells stories of Cuban people and explains the impact of the 60-year U.S. blockade. The three-part series, filmed during the pandemic, includes interviews with Cubans and a broader history of U.S. propaganda, oil sanctions, and the campaign against the Cuban medical system, doctors and medical brigades.

Today’s action is to read or listen to this story where journalist Ayesha Rasco reports on the joy of Black hair. In her own words, “like nearly every other part of the Black experience, Black hair has been weighed down by white supremacy....But, Black hair means so much more than that. It’s personal and beautiful and, yes, it’s joyful!”

Track and field events have begun in the Tokyo, and soon US sprinter Allyson Felix will race in an unprecedented fifth Olympic games. While Felix is the most decorated Olympic track athlete of all time, off the track she played a pivotal role in transforming punishing maternity policies from sponsors and has worked to raise awareness of racial disparities in maternal mortality.

Today’s action is to read about Felix’s story and the complex web of reasons why Black mothers are at much greater risk in pregnancy and childbirth in this 2019 profile.

The common expression, “the numbers don’t lie” and the false assumption that all data is 100% objective is actively doing harm to vulnerable groups of people (we’ve shared about the dangers of algorithmic bias in the past).

Today’s action is to share the upcoming slate of Data Equity workshops presented by We All Count and/or their with people you know doing data science or otherwise fund, collect, analyze, or communicate data in their work.

With the Tokyo Olympics swimming events in full swing, today’s action is to learn about the history of racism at American pools. For some historical context, read this 2018 article that covers the resistance Black Americans have faced in trying to access pools since the early 1900s.

A recent episode on NPR’s Code Switch podcast explores the question, “What Does it Mean to be Latino?” through the lens of Maria Garcia and Maria Hinojosa, two mestiza Mexican-American women who have light-skinned privilege and identify differently– Hinojosa as a woman of color and Garcia who has stopped doing so.

Today’s action is to listen to the episode, which sheds light on many of the complexities of ethnic and racial identity in the Diaspora.

Fire season has begun in the US, and as dozens of wildfires burn across the western states, the California State Legislature is in the process of deciding how to allocate $1B in climate resilience funding. Two proposed bonds—AB-1500 and SB-45 failed to meet basic equity measures, and according to a study published by the Gender Equity Policy Institute, would distribute the funds “in a radically unbalanced, unfair, and unequal way” that would overwhelmingly benefit white men.

Today’s action is to sign up to support the Community Resilience campaign led by grassroots organization APEN (Asian-Pacific Environmental Network), which could serve as a model for an important form of investment in communities facing climate disasters in California and beyond.

The Tokyo Olympics are the first Olympic games to feature surfing, over 100 years after Native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku lobbied the International Olympics Committee in 1921 to include surfing as a sport. Today’s action is to read these articles about the Hawaiian roots of surfing and the harms that have come from its whitewashing.

Friday was the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics. Today’s action is to read this article about how the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles led to increased policing, which affected Black and Brown residents disproportionately. The article also talks about how, unless we learn from the past, a repeat of this is likely for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Today’s action is to read this article about archeology’s ties to racism and colonialism, and what steps can be taken to make sure that archeological research is conducted with respect to indigenous peoples.

Bobby Bostic was a 16 year old when he was sentenced to 241 years in prison for a robbery in which no one was seriously injured. He has been incarcerated for 25 years. The judge that sentenced him and his victims have spoken out in support of his release. Today is to read his story and his writing and to to Missouri Governor Mike Parson asking for clemency for Bobby Bostic.

Today’s action is to read these articles, one from this month and one from April, about the negative impact tourism is having on Hawaii and on Native Hawaiians. If you aren’t Hawaiian and have summer plans to travel there, please consider the repercussions your vacation will have.

Today’s action is to read this article about NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first curator of Native American art, Patricia Marroquin Norby, and the changes she has been making to the Met.

In June, we shared a post about being intentional with the language we use describe slavery. Today, we’re sharing an article by The Marshall Project about the impact of language we use to talk about incarceration.

Yesterday was pioneering investigative journalist, abolitionist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells’ birthday. Today’s action is to watch WTTW Chicago’s interview with Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the 1619 project, discussing Wells’ legacy in journalism.

It’s been 8 years since the verdict was announced, and George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Today’s action is to read Sybrina Fulton’s (Martin’s mother) opinion piece in USA Today reflecting on her son’s murder and the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement 8 years later.

Tameka Drummer is currently serving a life sentence after being charged with possession of less than 2oz of marijuana. Drummer, a 46-year-old Black woman, was pulled over for a missing license plate in 2008 in Alcorn County, Mississippi, when her car was searched by police and the drugs were found. Dummer had two prior felony convictions: a drug charge and a violent crime, so the felony marijuana possession conviction triggered an automatic life sentence through Mississippi’s “habitual criminal” laws. You can learn more about her case here. Today’s action is to sign this Change.org petition requesting that Missippi’s Gov. Reeves grant her clemency or commute her sentence.

July is Minority Mental Health Month, and to celebrate, Therapy for Black Girls, “an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls,” launched the Skin I’m In Campaign. They’ve curated the resources and conversations they’re having throughout the month on topics like colorism, navigating life with ADHD, body image, and healing intergenerational trauma on their site. Toady’s action is to check out their event schedule, attend a panel discussion, listen to a podcast, or promote their content on social media.

Yesterday the Texas House Democrats fled the state to prevent quorum on a vote that would severely limit voting rights. They traveled as a group to Washington DC amongst threats from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to arrest them when they come home. Though some may call it a stunt, their trip to the nation’s capital is a targeted campaign for Senate Democrats to use their majority to abolish the filibuster and pass a slate of liberal legislation, including voting rights. Today’s action is to call or email Arizona Senators Krysten Sinema and Mark Kelly and West Virginia Senator to ask them to support abolishing the filibuster. All three Democratic Senators have either outright stated their opposition to ending the filibuster, or in the case of Kelly, refused to take a position on the issue, which itself is a blocker to progress.

#CanceltheContract is a coalition of community groups who are calling on the Antelope Valley Union High School District in Los Angeles, CA, to cancel its $1.7 million a year partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and reinvest those dollars in trained counselors and other school services. You can learn more about the initiative in this Newsweek article. Today’s action is to fill out their survey focused on reimagining schools without policing.

The Brooklyn Defenders is a non-profit organization that provides high-quality legal representation and related services to people who cannot afford to retain an attorney. This summer, they’ve launched a fundraiser through their general fund to send necessary supplies to inmates awaiting trial at Rikers who are suffering through record heat waves with no AC. You can view a breakdown of the usage of funds in this post on Instagram. Today’s action is to donate to the Brooklyn Defenders or share their fundraiser on social media.

We’ve shared a number of sports-related actions in recent weeks and will continue to do so as the 2021 Olympic games are set to begin in Tokyo on July 23.

Today’s action is to read “On the Business of Being a Black Athlete” where author Amelia Ali explains how athletics have never been “the great equalizer” that many believe it to be.

Susanna Barkataki is an Indian woman living in the US who teaches and promotes inclusivity and yoga culture. Her website, book, and social media account are great resources for anyone who practices yoga or participates in the broader “enlightenment industry”.

Today’s action is to read “How to Decolonize Your Yoga Practice” and share it with anyone you think would appreciate the context and recommondations that Barkataki provides in her article. If you teach yoga or have a regular practice, consider buying a copy of her book “Embrace Yoga’s Roots”.

Many of the values, beliefs, and traditional standards of professionalism in our organizations and institutions (perfectionism, urgency, quantity over quality, and binary thinking, to name a few) can be passive forms of racism that perpetuate white supremacy culture.

Today’s action is to read Aysa Gray’s overview of the bias of “professionalism” standards and then honestly answer for yourself the three questions she poses at the end of the article that she believes can help decenter whiteness in workplace and organizational “professional” norms.

In recent weeks, you may have seen articles about Black TikTok’ers refusing to create dances to Megan Thee Stallion’s new single “Thot Shit” in response to white creators profiting off of their original choreography in the form of followers, endorsements, and talent representation, among other things. The strike seems to have had a significant impact when comparing the number of videos created for other songs by Megan Thee Stallion.

Madhavi Sunder wrote an op-ed for the LA times where she offers possible solutions and acknowedges the long history of such appropriation. “The Black TikTok strike raises a question about an ugly truth: Why do cultural practices become valuable only after they are mediated through white performers? As the cultural critic Ijeoma Oluo put it, ‘Cultural appropriation is the product of a society that prefers its culture cloaked in whiteness.’“

Last week we shared a petition to advocate against the International Olympic Committee’s ban on protests and demonstrations. In the email we mentioned the iconic moment and subsequent punishment of Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

In that same Olympic games, another athlete, American sprinter Wyomia Tyus, devised her own quiet protest as “my contribution to the protest for human rights” and in response to the expulsion of Smith and Carlos. Today’s action is to read this article to learn more about Wyomia’s story, and how women athletes of color who have long advocated social justice are often overlooked.

Terrence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne are two Black men in Virginia who have been wrongfully incarcerated for more than 20 years. There are many injust details of their story, but the most egregious in justice is that they are both serving a life sentence despite being found not guilty of the murder charge they jointly faced. In recent weeks, the NAACP has gotten involved in the case and is calling for Virginia Attorney General to step in and exonerate these men in light of new evidence.

Today’s action is to learn more about the case through notguiltyservinglife.org and sign this petition demanding clemency and exoneration for Terrence and Ferrone. If you are able, consider also donating to their legal defense.

On May 5 we wrote about a grassroots resistance effort to block the development of an oil pipeline that would have run through lower income, predominately Black neighborhoods of South Memphis. We are happy to share that Plains All American Pipeline, the company seeking to build the pipeline, has abandoned their plans thanks to the ongoing opposition and organizing efforts led by the group Memphis Community Against the Pipeline.

Today’s action is to celebrate with MCAP by responding to their tweet with a note of congratulations and solidarity.

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless” — Frederick Douglas

Today’s action is to read or listen to Frederick Douglas’ speach “What, to the slave, is your 4th of July?” And then to also read about Frederick Douglas’ first wife, Anna Murray Douglas, without whose support his abolition work would not have been possible, and who is often left out in the narrative of his life.

Today’s action is to read this article about top Black female athletes being banned from the 2021 Olympics. In just the past few days, Black runner Sha’Carri Richardson was disqualified from the Olympics for using marijuana in a state where it’s legal, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi of Namibia were disqualified from the Olympics for their naturally occurring testosterone levels, and Black swimmer Alice Dearing was banned from using a swim cap that would fit her natural hair. (The testosterone issue is also a reminder that all bodies, trans, intersex, or cis, have natural variation and that it is nonsensical to ban trans or intersex athletes from sports events.)

The state of Arizona has paused death penalty executions since 2014, after a botched execution that took 2 hours. But has recently, the state has revived their gas chambers, which have not been used since 1949. Arizona’s Attorney General has asked the Arizona Supreme Court to issue execution warrants for two death-row inmates, and plans to offer them a choice of lethal injection or the same lethal gas used at Auschwitz. Today’s action is to read more about Arizona bringing back the death penalty, and to sign this petition asking the Governer of Arizona not to resume executions. From the petition: “Furthermore, it is important to note that Black people account for just 5.2 percent of the state’s population, but 16 percent of the state’s 116-person death row. Arizona has sentenced nearly a quarter of all Native Americans facing the death penalty in the United States.”

Nothing is apolitical, including athletics. But the International Olympic Committee forbids “any kind of protests and demonstrations, or any acts perceived as such,” under IOC’s Rule 50. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee expelled two Black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for raising their fists in the Black power salute while on the medal podium. But the rule has been applied selectively, as the International Olympic Committee did not expel athletes that gave the Nazi salute in 1936. This topic is relevant again as the Tokyo Olympics are approaching, and U.S. gold medalist hammer thrower Gwen Berry has been photographed with her back to the flag during the national anthem at the 2021 US Olympic trials. Today’s action is to read this Op-Ed about banning political statements in sports, and to sign this petition asking Olympic sponsors to demand that Rule 50 be rescinded.

Monday’s article about U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland was written by Diné activist Allie Young. Young’s work is also worth mentioning—she led trail rides through Navajo Nation to to help voters cast their ballots in 2020 as well as led voter registration efforts through her organization “Protect the Sacred”. Native American voters are credited with swinging Arizona left in the 2020 election. Today’s action is to read more about her work here.

Racial trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem is certified in Psychological First Aid and recommends any social justice activist to get certified in it as well. This type of first aid involves responding to the emotional needs of people who have been affected by a truamatic incident, perhaps witnessing police brutality or another racially motivated violent act. Consider taking this free course on Psychological First Aid, offered by John Hopkins University.

Today’s action is to read this article about U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, written by Diné activist Allie Young. From the article: “Haaland is looking toward the future with complete clarity and purpose. As a Native woman, she knows the importance of interconnectedness and interdependence, especially as we push toward healing our nation and Mother Earth.”

As Pride month comes to a close with celebrations happening worldwide this weekend, today’s action is to read “What More Can We Do to Support Queer People of Color?” from HypeBeast with testimonials from 11 QPOC artists. Be sure to check out their work and amplify them on social media.

As critical race theory becomes a primary talking point for the Republicans and the far right, we think it’s important to share a quick primer on its origins and a window into who’s leading the fight against it on a local level. Today’s action is to read this CNN article, “What critical race theory is – and isn’t,” and listen to this episode of NPR’s podcast Fresh Air, “Uncovering Who Is Driving The Fight Against Critical Race Theory In Schools.”

A recent poll found that just under half of U.S. adults (48%) currently hold favorable views of the Black Lives Matter movement, down from 61% this time last year. Today’s action is to listen to Code Switch’s recent podcast episode “The Racial Reckoning That Wasn’t” to better understand why the momentum towards racial justice is waning.

Today’s action is to sign this petition, demanding that Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff Ed Troyer resign for racial profiling, lying, and unnecessary use of excessive force. Sedrick Altheimer was driving his regular newspaper delivery route when Sheriff Troyer spotted him, a Black man driving around a white neighborhood. Troyer, deciding that Altheimer looked suspicious, started trailing him in his personal SUV. This escalated to a 2 AM standoff with 40+ police units from across town responding to the scene after Troyer (the county’s top law enforcement official) called 911 and said his life was in danger. He then contradicted that story at the scene, reporting to other officers that he was never threatened.

Despite having a gun drawn on him that night, Sedrick Altheimer is alive today and is now suing the county for racial profiling and emotional distress. No disciplinary actions have been taken against Sheriff Ed Troyer to date. Sign to demand his resignation.

For The Gworls is a Black, trans-led collective that raises money to help Black transgender people pay for their rent, gender-affirming surgeries, general medical care, and other necessities. Today’s action is to check out their recent post on Instagram with 6 ways you can support their Pride fundraising campaign. If you’re able to, you can make a donation to their organization here.

A Black Arkansas woman is suing state police for excessive use of force because a trooper negligently crashed and flipped her vehicle using a maneuver aimed at ending car chases. Last summer, Arkansas State Trooper Rodney Dunn attempted to pull over Janice Nicole Harper because she was driving at 84 miles per hour in a 70 mile per hour zone. Harper, who was pregnant at the time, slowed down to 60 miles per hour, turned on her hazards, and moved over to the right lane looking for the nearest exit and a safer place to stop. Less than 2 minutes later, Dunn used the “PIT” maneuver (precision immobilization technique) to stop Harper’s car, causing her SUV to crash into the concrete median and flip.

A spokesperson for the Arkansas state police defended the actions of Rodney Dunn, and he remains on the force today. Today’s action is to contact the Arkansas state police department director, Colonel Bill Bryant, and demand that Rodney Dunn be fired.

In March, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, the massive stimulus bill aimed to help the country navigate through and recover from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Included in that relief package was a more than $5 billion program to forgive loans for Black and other minority farmers who have faced a legacy of discrimination from lenders and the USDA. Three months later, advocates are still pushing to have those funds released. The USDA has committed to start paying off loans this month, but a series of legal challenges from conservative groups on behalf of white farmers and a temporary restraining order on the program by a federal judge in Wisconsin threatens to delay assistance even further.

Though we’ll have to wait to see the courts’ response to discrimination claims against what is essentially a reparations program for Black farmers, there has been additional legislation introduced to combat the discriminatory practices that have resulted in the loss of land and generational wealth for this population. Today’s action is to contact (call or email) your local senator and ask them to support the . You can read the full bill (sponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand) .

As Pride month continues, let’s celebrate and support the creative endeavors of Black trans women.

One organization doing work in this space is Black Trans Femmes in the Arts. In their own words, “BTFA Collective is a community-based arts organization that builds community and mobilizes resources to support Black trans femme artists (artists who were assigned male-at-birth and now identify somewhere underneath the femme umbrella).”

Today’s action is to look into ways to donate your money, skills, time, or equipment/tech to their efforts by visiting the page of their website. As noted in a recent instagram post, if you have equipment or tech to donate to their new studio and office space, email BTFAcollective@gmail.com to coordinate.

Today is Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday this week after President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. If you want to learn more about this new holiday, listen to UCLA Professor Brenda Stevenson discuss it’s origins and the significance of having it Nationally recognized.

We encourage you to celebrate and at the same time recognize that there is still much work to be done. You may have seen some of these conflicted feelings shared on social media… while this week’s new legislation is a form of progress, it happened amidst sweeping efforts at the state level to ban schools from talking about race and the history of slavery.

Today’s action is to read this Instagram Post which provides language recommendations for writing, speaking, and teaching about slavery from P. Gabrielle Foreman and other Black scholars.

Related to the topic of language specificity, yesterday we used the wording “history of the land you reside on” in reference to Indigenous land acknowledgement, which incorrectly implies that indigenous people are of the past and no longer of that land. A better way to say this would have been “indigenous inhabitants of the land you reside on.”

In recent years, Indigenous land acknowledgement has become an increasingly common practice that helps bring visibility and appreciation to the original stewards of the land on which you currently reside. This practice helps to combat the erasure of Native and Indigenous peoples, but it can also be performative if you do not pair it with action and thoughtful intent.

This guide from Nativegov.org offers a series of steps, considerations, and actions to help you formulate your own Indigenous land acknowledgement statement. Today’s action is to complete the steps offered in this guide, making sure to take the time you need with the self-reflection section.

If you need help identifying the history of the land you reside on, you can refer back from last year.

Juneteenth is coming up this Saturday (June 19th), commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black Americans were freed, officially ending slavery in the United States.

While it is not yet a national holiday, many companies in the US are observing Juneteenth by closing their offices on Friday. Today’s action is to make a plan for how to commemorate and honor this important day. You can find a range of in-person and virtual events in this article or use google to search for events in your area.

In a time where much of the information we consume is found online and a significant proportion of our conversations and networking occurs on digital platforms, it can be easy to find yourself in an echochamber.

As a subscriber to this newsletter, you might see anti-racist content and support for Black Lives Matter in your news and social media feeds— but did you know that according to polling data from Civiqs, support for Black Lives Matter throughout the US electorate has declined to levels LOWER than before the murder of George Floyd?

Today’s action is to listen to Political Science professors Jennifer Chudy and Hakeem Jefferson discuss their of this polling data, the reasons that might explain this decline in support, and what can be done to make more specific, tangible advances towards racial justice.

Earlier this month we shared resources highlighting the origins of Pride month, which was rooted in responding to police brutality and harassment of trans and gender non-conforming people of color.

This year, NYC Pride banned uniformed police officers which sparked numerous debates across news outlets. However, similar initiatives to protect the safety of marchers and activisits from police have been in the works for years. Today’s action is to learn about a small handful of historic and recent examples of police violence towards LGBTQ bodies and why police aren’t welcome at Pride.

Last Wednesday, the Keystone XL pipeline (mentioned in this previous email) was cancelled, thanks to the hard work of Indigenous activists and allies. Let’s build on this momentum and keep pushing for the Line 3 pipeline (mentioned in these previous emails) to be cancelled. Today’s action is to sign from the Lakota People’s Law Project explaining to President Biden why the Line 3 pipeline project should be stopped.

“The Late Late Show” contains a segment called “Spill Your Guts” that has interviewers choose between answering difficult questions, or eating “disgusting” foods. But many of the “disgusting” foods portrayed are normal and delicious Asian foods like thousand year eggs or chicken feet. The portrayal of Asian foods as disgusting is tiresome, not funny, and racist. Today’s action is to read this Instagram post and follow the steps listed to petition the show to change what foods are used, and to ask the host, James Corden, to apologize for the portrayal of Asian foods as disgusting.

For seventeen years, the US government has known that tribal jails and detention centers have been under-resourced. This has lead to inhumane conditions for Native Americans in the jails, and even deaths of Native Americans in the jails, but nothing has been done yet to change these conditions. Today’s action is to read this investigative look inside tribal detention centers, as further reason prisons should be obsolete.

Today’s action is to become aware of the ways in which Native American racism is normalized, from the usage of words like “spirit animal” and “Indian giver” to sports mascots based on racist caricatures of Native Americans. To become more aware of the many forms of anti-Native racism and how they harm Native Americans, read this op-ed.

Xinachtli is a Chicano organizer and activist who has been in prison since 1996 for disarming a police officer who was attempting to shoot him. He is eligible for parole this July. Today’s action is to read more about him here, and write a letter that can be used by his lawyers to supporting his application for parole. Details for where to send the letter and what to include in the letter are provided in the link.

Chances are that, if you’re very online, you have a collection of gifs ready to react to anything on the Internet. If you notice that your reaction gifs are often of Black people, while you are not Black, however, you might be participating in something called digital blackface. Read this article to learn more about digital blackface, and how to avoid participating in it. As Lauren Michele Jackson writes in the article, “Digital blackface does not describe intent, but an act — the act of inhabiting a black persona. Employing digital technology to co-opt a perceived cache or black cool, too, involves playacting blackness in a minstrel-like tradition.”

This pride month, let’s celebrate queer love stories featuring people of color. A 2019 report showed that only 19.8% of lead characters were played by actors of color, and a different 2019 study showed that more than half of LGBTQ characters received less than three minutes of total screen time. Today’s action is to add the lesbian Asian American romantic comedy Saving Face to your to-watch list.

Simone Gordon, also known as The Black Fairy Godmother, is a Black single mother from New Jersey who, since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, has used her social media platform to send hundreds of thousands of dollars in relief to families in need. You can read more about her background and her work in this article from NBC News. Simone receives hundreds of DMs from mostly Black and Latinx mothers requesting aid for necessities like housing and groceries every week and passes those along to the community to make mutual aid donations. For today’s action, follow The Black Fairy Godmother on social media, and amplify (or contribute to) requests when they’re posted daily.

On Tuesday, the Biden Administration formally ended Trump’s “Remain In Mexico” policy, which forced tens of thousands of asylum-seekers from Central America to stay south of the U.S. border until their claims were heard by a U.S court. The policy, also known as Migrant Protection Protocol, was inhumane, often forcing people to go without adequate shelter, making them targets of violence in Mexico as they waited months or sometimes more than a year before they were allowed to make their case for asylum.

Though this is a good first step, there is still work to be done to assure protection for asylum seekers looking for refuge in the US. Today’s action is to sign the #WelcomeWithDignity pledge, a campaign that “seeks to reimagine our immigration system and defend the rights of those seeking protection, to welcome families, children, and adults languishing on our doorstep, advocate for the restoration of asylum rights in the United States, and create a more just, humane, and dignified approach to protecting migrants fleeing danger.”

Making Gay History is a podcast that “bring[s] LGBTQ history to life through the voices of the people who lived it.” As a follow-up to yesterday’s email, today’s action is to listen to Making Gay History’s episode on Stonewall and hear the stories and first-hand accounts of the 3-day riot from QPOC and transgender rights activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.

As Pride month kicks off in the US, let’s take a moment to reflect on the radical foundation of the early LGBTQ rights movement, which at its core was a response to police brutality and harassment of trans and gender non-conforming people of color. Today’s action is to read this Bustle article discussing the origins of Pride and to do a deeper dive into the life of Black trans activist Marsha P. Johnson.

Allen Russell was sentenced to life in prison by a Mississippi circuit court in 2019 after a jury convicted him of possessing 43 grams (roughly 1.5 ounces) of marijuana, and prosecutors introduced evidence of his prior convictions during his sentencing hearing.

Under Mississippi law, a person convicted of two felonies—at least one of which is violent—and who serves at least one year in prison for each of those felony convictions is required to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as a “habitual offender.”

You can read more about his story in The Grio. Today’s action is to sign requesting Gov. Tate Reeves commute Russell’s sentence and release him from prison immediately.

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. On May 31st, 1921, white supremacist mobs, with the support and coordination from law enforcement, shot and murdered hundreds of Black people, conducted aerial bombings from planes, and burned their homes and businesses down. They targeted the affluent neighborhood of Greenwood, known at the time as Black Wall Street, and some historians say as many as 300 Black people were killed and another 10,000 were left homeless. Today’s action is to read this interactive special report on CNN that documents 60 years of racist terrorist attacks on Black communities aimed at curtailing Black economic prosperity post-Civil War.

Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. On May 31st, 1921, white supremacist mobs, with the support and coordination from law enforcement, shot and murdered hundreds of Black people, conducted aerial bombings from planes, and burned their homes and businesses down. They targeted the affluent neighborhood of Greenwood, known at the time as Black Wall Street, and some historians say as many as 300 Black people were killed and another 10,000 were left homeless. Today’s action is to read this interactive special report on CNN that documents 60 years of racist terrorist attacks on Black communities aimed at curtailing Black economic prosperity post-Civil War.

In celebration of the last day of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month, check out this list of audiobooks by AAPI authors. If you have the means consider buying one or more to listen to on the beach this summer. Happy Memorial Day!

Content Warning: Abuse, Child Death

Earlier this week, the bodies of 215 children were found buried on the grounds of a residential school on the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops, British Columbia. Residential schools, ususally government sponsored religious boarding schools, were created throughout Canada and the United States to “assimilate” the children of Native American and First Nation families by stripping them of their cultural identities and spirituality. Living conditions in these schools were terrible, and abuse of all forms was extremely common. In Canada, the last residential school was not closed until 1996.

On May 8th we shared an action to add your voice to calls for clemency for Texas death row inmate, Quintin Jones, whose appeal was led by the family of the victim. Tragically, wide scale efforts to stop the execution failed when Governor Greg Abbott chose to proceed with killing the 571st person by the State of Texas on May 19th, without any reporters present.

Today’s action is to read this thread from journalist Suleika Jaouad, which details last week’s tragic events and includes a heartbreaking video of Quin sharing his final words. Additional resources, statistics, and actions are available from National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Today’s action is to read this article about the culinary appropriation of Asian food, both in person and online. Commit to following the guidance offered by Joanne Molinaro and Tiffany Chen to combat cultural appropriation in the food space any time you go looking for a recipe or a restaurant.

Yesterday we mentioned the work of Joy Buolamwini and her work to expose the harms of algorithmic bias.

Today’s action is to watch the film Coded Bias, which details Buolamwini’s research and advocacy. If you have already seen the flim, follow up by downloading the Activist Toolkit on the film’s website and explore how you can continue your learning and advocate for change.

Last week, “60 Minutes” featured a segment on algorithmic bias in law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. Pioneer researcher Joy Buolamwini worked with producers for many hours to provide important context and background, but her interview was canceled at the last minute.

The segment, hosted by Anderson Cooper, ultimately featured Patrick Grother, a white male scientist— and excluded the work of Joy and her colleagues Dr. Itimnit Gebru and Inioluwa Deborah Raji, as well as Tawana Petty, who has been fighting against police use of AI for surveillance in Detroit.

Today’s action is to read and sign this petition from the Algorithmic Justice League to demand that CBS take accountability for this erasure with three key actions: appropriately crediting the researchers who helped them produce their segment, preventing future wrongdoing with new internal policies, and creating a segment to focus on the Black women leading the research and work to expose algorithmic harms.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, whose death catalyzed a moment of racial reckoning throughout the world. While we have seen small markers of progress including the conviction of Derek Chauvin, there is still a lot of work to be done. According to Mapping Police Violence, police in the United States have killed over 1,060 additional people since Floyd’s death.

Today’s action is to listen to this interview with Oakland activist John Jones III, who shares his thoughts on how much more work there is to be done in order to transform a moment into a sustained that goes beyond protests and police reform. Jones also discusses the need for deep relationship building (as opposed to transactional engagement) to create lasting change.

Today’s action is to read this article about Google’s new dermatology app, which doesn’t work on darker skin tones. From the article, “The company trained the system to recognize different skin conditions. But like Google itself, the app’s data has a diversity problem.”

In addition to being AAPI heritage month, this month is also Mental Health Awareness Month. Today’s action is to watch/listen to this conversation* between activist Raquel WIllis and Psychologist Jenny Wang about how systemic racism, as well as queer and transphobia, impacts mental health. The communities that experience these issues often have less access to mental health support. The link also shares therapy resources for queer and trans folks of color.

During AAPI heritage month, let’s recognize that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders contain many sub groups with distinct histories, challenges, and experiences. Today’s action is to read this post summarizing the Southeast Asian American experience, which often includes generational trauma from colonialism and political conflict. The post also contains links with additional resources if you’d like to donate to Southeast Asian American orgs or learn more about Southeast Asian American topics.

It’s important to be aware of the past and present death toll of US imperialism. The US government has been actively involved in the killing of civilians in many countries. Today’s action is to read about the US government’s involvement in the killing of about a million Indonesian civilians in the 1960’s. Hard evidence declassified in the 2010s has proved the US government knew those civilians were innocent the entire time.

While celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, let’s not contribute to the erasure of the Pacific Islander part of the acronym. Today’s action is to read this post about issues the Pacific Islander community faces, Pacific Islander orgs you can donate to, and articles you can read to learn more.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with the idea of police abolition and prison abolition, this article from The New Yorker shares thoughts from long-time abolitionist and activist Miriam Kaba. From the article, “Contrary to the beliefs of their critics, abolitionists are not impervious to the realities of crime and violence. But they have a fundamental understanding that crime is a manifestation of social deprivation and the reverberating effects of racial discrimination, which locks poor and working-class communities of color out of schooling, meaningful jobs, and other means to keep up with the ever-escalating costs of life in the United States.”

Today’s action is to read this article about how the model minority myth is often misunderstood. From the article, “[W]hat’s often overlooked is the central evil of the myth, which concludes that the people most susceptible to racist policies and violence are to blame for their own hardships”

Yesterday an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building housing the Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices in Gaza. The Israeli military warned they would hit the building that houses media organizations, corporate offices, and apartments. Journalists who worked there had been reporting on the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Israel gave the media organizations one hour to evacuate but reportedly refused to allow journalists to take their equipment. Israel said Hamas military intelligence used the building but provided no evidence to back the claim.

The United States provides $3.8B in taxpayer money to Israel for military funding each year. Today’s action is to sign this petition from to demand that the US government end funding to Israel and for the Biden Administration to impose sanctions until they comply with international law and end the forced removal of Palestinians from their native lands.

This weekend protests will be held globally in support of Palestine. If you’d like to join and march in solidarity, check out this global calendar of events to find a rally in your city. If you’re unable to join in person, consider posting your support online and amplifying the protests on social media.

With the violence on the Gaza strip continuing to escalate, if you’re wondering how to support Palestinians in their fight for the right to stay in their homes and autonomy over their native lands, this post is full of resources to help you get involved. From organizations to make donations, messages to send to your local representatives to end military aid to Israel, and petitions to sign, choose one action to take today in solidarity.

In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islanders History month, check out this list of AAPI and Asian-Owned Canadian bookstores to support. If you have the means, consider buying a book from one of these businesses this month, or re-share this post on social media to help amplify their work.

Over the last few months, voter suppression bills have been introduced in 43 states that, if passed, would make it harder for millions of Americans to cast their ballots. Our biggest defense against this push for disenfranchisement is the For The People Act, which recently passed the House but faces an uphill battle for passage in the Senate. If enacted, it would be the most significant voting rights and democratic reform in more than half a century.

The Act incorporates key measures urgently needed, including automatic voter registration, same-day and online registration, restored voting rights to people with prior convictions, curbed partisan gerrymandering, support for mail voting systems, nationwide early voting, and more. Sign to demand the Senate pass this important piece of legislation.

On Monday, 20 Palestinians (including children) were killed in Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip. This comes after more than 300 Palestinians were injured by armed Israeli forces during a protest at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque over the weekend on one of the holiest nights of Ramadan. Tensions in Jerusalem have been stoked by the planned forced evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. If you’d like to be an ally to the Palestinians as they seek sovereignty and autonomy in their own native lands, consider supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice, and equality. Check out their list of in solidarity, and sign up for their for real-time advocacy opportunities.

Though countless studies exist debunking the myth that MSG causes headaches and other ailments, an illness termed “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” in the late ’60s, more than 40% of U.S. consumers still say they actively avoid the ingredient. Today’s action is to read this Instagram thread explaining the link between the stigma surrounding MSG and anti-Asian xenophobia in the United States.

Note: The rumor shared in this post that Dr. Ho Man Kwok did not exist has also been debunked. If you’d like to hear an entertaining story about the origins of that hoax, listen to podcast, Act 1: Humor Is Not The Best Medicine.

In response to the wave of protests that swept the country last summer and fall after the murder of George Floyd, Republican state legislatures throughought the United States have begun introducing bills and passing laws to inflict harsher punishments on protestors.

Today’s action is to use this US Protest Law Tracker to investigate the enacted and pending bills in your state and neighboring areas, and to contact your to express your opposition to those that are still pending.

Back in December we shared this article detailing the racist origins of capital punishment and how today we see a disproportionate number of death sentences against defendants of color.

Quintin Jones is one example of an individual who is facing disparate treatment to his white counterpart, who were both charged with the same crime, and only one was sentenced to death. Today’s action has three parts:

Today’s action is to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by subscribing to the podcast “Asian American History 101” hosted by father-daughter team, Ted and Gen Lai.

Start working your way through the catalog of episodes that cover a range of influential people, events, traditions, and movements which have shaped the Asian American experience of today.

We are almost one week in to Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the US. Designating certain months to commemorate groups of people has become a way to acknowledge that the history and contributions of minority groups are often overlooked in textbooks, media, and society.

We will be sharing future actions this month in celebration of APAHM, but today’s action is to read this Washington Post article about how legislators around the country are introducing bills to ban Critical Race Theory from the classroom, which will continue to suppress marginalized perspectives and reinforce racial disparities in schools.

Residents of the Greater Memphis area are banding together to fight against the proposed Byhalia Pipeline. The plans, currently underway and led by Plains All American Pipeline and Valero oil company, place the pipeline over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million residents of Memphis, and would run through lower income, predominately Black neighborhoods of South Memphis.

These neighborhoods, and many others across the country, have faced decades of environmental racism, described by the World Economic Forum as “whereby communities of colour are disproportionately burdened with health hazards through policies and practices that force them to live in proximity to sources of toxic waste such as sewage works, mines, landfills, power stations, major roads and emitters of airborne particulate matter.”

Today’s action is to support Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP), a black-led grassroots movement, by signing their petition “No Oil in Our Soil” and follow to stay informed on future calls to action.

Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo, a Mexican-American holiday established in 1862 and revived in the 1960s by the Chicano movement as a call for solidarity in the fight for Civil Rights. Today’s action is to read this article which explains the origins of the holiday and addresses the commercialization and appropriation that has become increasingly prevalent in the United States on this day.

Over the past few weeks, India has experienced a devastating surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths. Hospitals have exceeded capacity, and crucial medical supplies are limited. A major earthquake struck the Northeast region of the country last week, exacerbating an already tenuous state of affaris. Today’s action is to explore this list of India Aid Organizations compiled by Susanna Barkataki and donate to one of groups listed if you are able. If you are not in a position to donate, consider passing along this information to someone else who might be.

Activism on social media often comes down to quippy slogans—for instance, you might have seen tweets like “If you love K-pop, you should be standing up against Asian hate crimes”. Nuance isn’t social media’s strong point, but this op-ed is a reminder to not frame activism in terms of the worth that marginalized groups bring to society, as well as other things to be careful about when posting about activism on social media.

Today’s action is to read about the effects of choosing to enforce patents on COVID vaccines. Enforcing those patents makes vaccines from US companies unaffordable to manufacture in many countries, particularly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It’s unconscionable to prevent vaccination in the Global South to increase pharmaceutical profits. You can see just how bad the problem is already in the distribution of vaccines by country.

When CNN’s Rick Santorum said on live TV, “We came here and created a blank slate, we birthed a nation from nothing”, he was participating in a long-occurring erasure of Indigenous and Black people and their exploitation in the history of the founding of the USA. Today’s action is to read this article about the harms that this kind of erasure perpetuates. From the article, “Although the United States quickly accuses other nations of genocide, it hasn’t acknowledged its own genocide against Indigenous people. To affirm it would mean to take measures to prevent it from happening again. That would mean halting ongoing theft and destruction of Indigenous lands, cultures and nations. A process of justice would have to follow suit.”

While talking about the horrific anti-Asian violence towards Asian elders, we don’t as often talk about the systemic causes for the issues that Asian elders face. Read this Instagram post to learn how systems of oppression affect AAPI seniors and leave them vulnerable to attacks as well as some ways we can help Asian elders in our communities.

It’s difficult to imagine we would have seen a guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial if it weren’t for 17-year-old Darnella Frazier, who took out her cell phone and filmed him kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes. Without that footage, it’s almost certain that the former police officer would not have faced accountability for his actions. After the trauma of witnessing such a horrific crime, enduring almost a year of harassment and abuse online, and still being willing to testify against Chavin, it’s time for the community to come together to support Darnella. Today’s action is to donate to this GoFundMe, created to “support the healing and the restoration of hope for Darnella Frazier —whatever that means to her.” If you’re unable to donate, please consider sharing the fundraiser on your social media channels.

It’s been an emotional few weeks in this country. With the trial of Derek Chauvin coming to a close, and the murders of Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Adam Toledo, and countless others whose names we’ll never know at the hands of the police, it can feel like we’re witnessing a never-ending cycle of state-sanctioned violence against black and brown people. Today’s action is to read Jonathan Capehart’s Washington Post opinion piece, “Being Black In America Is Exhausting,” to better understand the psychological trauma endured by black people navigating the stressors and dangers of living in a racist society.

Last night’s Academy Award’s ceremony was full of historic firsts, including Chloé Zhao’s win for Best Director for Nomadland, making her the first Asian woman (and 2nd women ever in 93 years!) to win the award; Travon Free, the first Black filmmaker to win the Oscar for live-action short film for Two Distant Strangers; Youn Yuh-jung, the first Korean and the second Asian to take home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Minari; and so many more. Today’s action is to support their work by watching one or more of their films.

Decriminalizing marijuana is a racial justice issue. As more and more states seek to legalize the drug, 40,000 people remain incarcerated for marijuana offenses, most of whom are black and brown. Today’s action is to sign this Change.org petition demanding that President Biden follow through on his campaign promise and work to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.

The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass HR 51, a bill that would grant statehood to Washington DC. The bill will now move to the Senate, where it’s unclear whether it will get the votes of all Democratic senators, let alone the 60-vote threshold to bypass the filibuster. As we mentioned in a previous email, passing HR 51 is an important step for equal representation and voting rights in the United States. Today’s action is to call your senator and ask them to support this landmark legislation using this script posted by Michelle Obama on Instagram.

On Tuesday afternoon, 16-year old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot 4 times and killed by Columbus, OH police officer Nicholas Reardon after responding to a dispute between the teen and 2 adult women at her foster home. Her family described her as “loving and affectionate.” Her life mattered. If you’d like to demand accountability from the police for her death, read this Instagram post with contact information for the local interim police chief, the mayor, and the city council in Columbus and request that disciplinary action is taken.

Yesterday, we shared an article best summarized by #8 from 8 to Abolition: “Invest in care not cops”. As we honor the life and memory of George Floyd, we share this list of community resources in many cities across the US that can be used to find alternatives to the police.

While reflecting on the “guilty on all counts” verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, today’s action is to read this article by Atiba Goff, professor of African American studies and professor of psychology at Yale University, titled “To Protect the Next George Floyd, We Must Remove the Threat of Police Violence from Everyday Life”. From the article: “In the end, murder trials cannot deliver justice. The only possible justice comes from what we choose to do next.”

While the dominant understanding of Asian American often fails to include South Asian Americans and brown Asian Americans, they are Asian too, and should be included in our AAPI activism. Today’s action is to read this post about another recent incident of violence towards Asian Americans, a shooting that occurred in a FedEx facility that is 90% Sikh, just days after an important Sikh holiday.

Resmaa Menakem is a therapist, trauma specialist, and New York Times best-selling author who writes about racial trauma. Trauma is stored in the body, passing on through bodies even generationally, and racial trauma is no exception. Racial trauma occurs in both the perpetrator and recipient of racist acts. Menakem writes about how most of our attempts to process and understand racism are thinking-focused, and he urges us to process racial trauma at a deeper, somatic level. Today’s action is to listen to or read the transcript of this podcast, on which Menakem appears as a guest. If you find the podcast valuable, you can read on the topic.

David Treuer (Ojibwe) proposes returning US National Parks to Native tribes, as a first step to #LandBack. Today’s action is to read his proposal in The Altantic, written after visiting tribes and parks in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

Today’s action is to read this thread by a former prosecutor who wanted to fix the broken criminal justice system from the inside, and her journey to supporting abolition.

Yesterday the Chicago police released the body camera footage of the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. While we will not share the video on this platform, if you’d like to learn more about the events that led to his shooting, you can do so here. He was told to stop, and he stopped. He was told to raise his hands in the air, and he did. He was still shot. The pain of seeing a state-sanctioned murder of a child is too much to bear. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. No action today.

Activist and writer Deray McKesson is sourcing volunteers to help find & code a large database (700+) of police union contracts. Training is available to all volunteers. If you’d like to suport this initiative you can text: 410-204-2013 or send a DM to his Twitter or Instagram accounts.

Today’s action is from Holistic Heax on Instagram:

“We are collecting community support for the mother of Daunte [Wright’s] son. She has personally requested this help and we are here to amplify her needs. Please share and spread the word for those who want to help. May Daunte Rest In Love. Let’s come together to help who he’s left behind. 🧡

How to Support Daunte Wright’s Son and Girlfriend

On March 30, the French senate voted in favor of a measure that would make it illegal for girls under the age of 18 to wear religious face and hair coverings, specifically singling out Muslims by banning the hijab, burqa, and niqab. In addition, mothers would be prohibited from accompanying school field trips in hijab, and burkinis would be banned at public swimming pools. Today’s action is to amplify the voices of Muslim women speaking out about the islamapobia inhert in this new legislation. There are several posts in this Al Jazeera article you can share on Twitter and Instagram.

Today’s article is to read this Washington Post article from journalist Clyde McGrady on how the term “canceled” went from a Black inside joke to a “White-grievance watchword,” one of the countless examples of how Black culture and language is co-opted and misappropriated by whiteness.

Want to learn how to leverage your advocacy and collective action to dismantle ICE and end immigrant detention? Join the Sothern Poverty Law Center, United We Dream, the ACLU, and the Immigrant Action Alliance for a conversation next Tues, April 13th, at 6 pm ET to strategize how we can continue advocating for the rights of families & communities impacted by the U.S. immigration system. Register here to receive the zoom link.

The past couple months have been taxing on the Asian diaspora due to all of the anti-Asian racism and violence that has been occuring. If you’re part of the Asian diaspora, check out The Asian Mental Health Collective, which has many Asian and Asian diaspora specific resources for mental health, including an Asian therapist directory, a podcast, and an . These resources take into consideration aspects of the Asian mental health experience, like stigmatization of seeking help for mental health issues in many Asian communites, or how the model minority myth interacts with mental health issues. If you’re not Asian, consider to the Asian Mental Health Collective.

When talking about issues faced by Asian Americans, it’s important to recognize that Asian Americans aren’t a monolith and contain many sub groups with their own unique culture and issues. Southeast Asian Americans, for instance, face many unique issues that are often masked by aggregating statistics about Asian Americans as a whole, as well as the model minority myth. Today’s action is to read this article summarizing issues faced by the the Lao, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Cambodian American communities. (While there are other Southeast Asian groups, the article focuses on communities that first came to the US as refugees 45 years ago). And if you’re interested in a deeper dive, you can read the report it is based on.

On April 4th, about 60 incarcerated people in the St. Louis jail protested jail conditions and the fact that many have been detained for more than a year, awaiting trial. This was their second protest this year, because their requests for better conditions in the jail have still not been met. Today’s action is to read this interview with an organizer of EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing) St. Louis about the protest and the condiitons of the jail. This is a reminder that jail is primarily a punishment for poor people, especially people of color, since wealthy people can afford to pay bail. It is also a reminder of why we should be fighting for abolition.

You might have heard coworkers, friends, or relatives bring up that they believe Trump supporters were motivated by economic anxiety. Today’s action is to read this article about a study showing what people of color have known all along, that Capitol insurrectionists were primarily motivated by racism, and that fear of people of color and immigrants has motivated violent far right extremist movements throughout the history of the United States.

Today’s action is to read this article about immigrant women of color and sex work. From the article, “[T]he recent [Atlanta] massacre, which has sparked protests against anti-Asian racism and in support of sex workers, has forced Americans to recognize that the intersection of racism, sexism and classism often converge. And women, particularly immigrant women of color, must often take low-paying and dangerous jobs as they build a new life for themselves and their families.”

Today’s action is to read this essay by Black author Yaa Gyasi, titled “White people, Black authors are not your medicine.”

Last week, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva challenged a subpoena to answer questions about secretive, gang-like groups of deputies (also known as “deputy gangs”) operating within his department. These deputy gangs have been accused of years of excessive use of force, harassment of the local communities they’re hired to protect, and other criminal activities. The subpoena comes on the heels of a recent civil rights investigation launched by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. To get a deep dive into the history of deputy gangs in LA County, check out journalist Cerise Castle’s ongoing investigative series, “A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”

Last month a 1-year old baby boy, Legend Smalls, was shot in the head by a reckless Houston Police officer during their pursuit of an armed man wanted for robberies in the area. He remains in critical condition in pediatric intensive care. You can read more about the story in the New York Times. If you’d like to support Legend’s recovery and his mother, Daisha Smalls, consider donating to their GoFundMe. You can also send a card or letter expressing your solidarity and well wishes to Legend and Daisha at:

Ben Crump Law, PLLC

The Chicago suburb of Evanston, IL, will be the first city in the nation to make reparations available to its Black residents to address “discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction on the city’s part.” To learn more about the program, check out this article in the Washington Post. If you’d like to dig deeper into the ongoing national conversation about reparations, listen to the CodeSwitch podcast’s recent episode “Who’s Black Enough For Reparations.”

Last year the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 410 to 4. The legislation, named after the 14-year-old black boy who was tortured and killed in 1955 in Mississippi,  would for the first time explicitly make lynching a federal crime. The bill failed in the Senate primarily due to disputes spearheaded by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. It has been recently re-introduced, with high odds of passage given the current makeup of Congress. To learn more about the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching act, read this fact sheet from the NAACP, and sign this petition to encourage Congress to pass this bill into law.

Last Thursday, the NYC City Council passed a series of policy reforms, including ending qualified immunity for New York Police Department (NYPD) officers, making it the first city in the country to do so. Qualified immunity shields law enforcement from liability or being held personally accountable in civil rights lawsuits unless they violated “a clearly established constitutional right.” Eliminating it will create a meaningful opening for police abuse victims to seek justice and accountability from officers in the future. If you’d like a deeper understanding of qualified immunity and why we should advocate for it to be revoked in your city, check out this FAQ from the Institute for Justice, and read more about the limits on police power passed in NYC in the NYTimes.

Vaccine sites in NYC need more Chinese language interpreters. Today’s action is to sign up to volunteer to translate, or to look for similar efforts near you, for the languages you speak.

Georgia’s new voting law allows the state board of elections (majority appointed by Republican-led legislature) to challenge county voting boards and replace them with an administrator. And given that Georgia Republicans have accaused counties with majority Black voters of fraud in the 2020 election, despite official investiagions proving otherwise; the new law means these claims could be used to challenge voting boards in those counties. Similar measures are being pushed in at least 8 states. Today’s action is to read this article summarizing the law and the effect it will have on Black voters.

White, affluent communities have had higher vaccination rates, including in neighborhoods with predominantly poorer residents of color. This is significant because poorer communities of color have had the highest mortality rates from COVID. Access to vaccines is influenced by tech-literacy, car ownership, ability to take time off, and other things that correlate with wealth. Today’s action is to read these news articles about how some rollout strategies (or lack of strategy) has meant poorer communities of color haven’t been vaccinated even when they’re the most vulnerable.

Heart of Dinner is a 503(c)3 organization aimed at combatting “food insecurity and isolation within NYC’s elderly Asian community.” They rely on volunteers to deliver the meals, write notes to elders, decorate the bags the food comes in, and more. Today’s action is to volunteer to help out (while only locals can help deliver the meals, anyone can write notes or decorate bags), or if you prefer, to research and volunteer at a similar organization in your community.

In response to the Atlanta shootings of 6 Asian American women, PBS has made its Asian Americans documentary series free to stream. The series was produced by a team of Asian American filmmakers in collaboration with the Center for Asian American Media. Today’s action is to watch the first episode of the series, to learn more about the history of Asian people in America. According to PBS, “Told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story.”

47% of Washington DC’s 700,000+ residents are Black. Their population is larger than Vermont and Wyoming, and they pay more federal taxes than 23 states but have no representation in Congress. DC’s lack of statehood is disenfranchisement for its majority-minority population. Today’s action is to use this form to contact your local reps in Congress to support H.R 51.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s email, today’s action is to sign this petition demanding that the Senate eliminate the filibuster and stop conservatives from blocking progressive legislation.

Today’s action is to listen to Adam Jentleson, author of “Kill Switch,” on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast discussing the Senate filibuster’s racist history.

Mario Gonzalez, the husband of Delaina Ashley Yuan, one of the 8 victims murdered in last week’s attack on 3 Asian massage parlors in Atlanta, survived the shooting only to be detained and handcuffed by local authorities for hours. Mario begged the police for updates on his wife but was ignored, as the Latinx man was treated as a suspect in the attack for two hours while they investigated the scene. Read more about his story on NewsOne and listen to his account (in Spanish) here.

Today’s action is to read NY Magazine’s blog post, “61 Ways to Donate in Support of Asian Communities.” If you’re able, choose one (or more) organization(s) to make a recurring donation.

In February, we shared an organization that lets you volunteer to accompany Asian elders in Oakland, CA. As attacks on Asian elders keep continuing daily, more organizations to pair up elders with chaperones have popped up in San Francisco, New York, and . Today’s action is to research if there is one in your area and volunteer to accompany Asian elders as they run errands. If you’ve checked in the past, for our previous email about accompanying elders, it might be worth checking again, as a new org near you may have formed.

The House of Representatives has passed HR1, a voting rights reform bill. This bill allows for day-of voting registration, mail in ballots for anyone (some states currently only allow it in special cases), prohibits voter roll purging, and institutes non-partisan redistricting commisions, among other actions to combat voter supression. You can read a summary of the bill and how it hopes to combat voter supression here. This is significant because most of these forms of voter supression impact communites of color the most. It will require 60 votes in the Senate to pass. Today’s action is to send a message to your Senators urging them to pass the bill. This form lets you select your representatives, as well as gives you a template email. Remember to modify the template email to make your message unique in case your representative has a filter for redundant emails.

Misogyny intersects with racism, and Asian women have been disproportionately impacted by the recent attacks on Asian Americans. 68% of the recent reported incidents of anti-Asian harassment and violence have been towards women. Today’s action is to read and sign a petition written by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum condemning hate and violence against Asian American women. Important to note in the petition is an emphasis that the solution is not more policing, as policing leads to more violence towards Black and brown communities.

Yesterday, 6 Asian women were murdered in a white supremecist and misogynistic attack targeting Asian-run massage parlors. When standing up against Asian hate, we should make a specific point to stand with the most marginalized and vulnerable Asian groups, who are the most likely to be suffer violence. In light of that, today’s action is to donate (if you can) to Red Canary Song, a collective of Asian sex workers fighting for decriminalization.

We’ve been sharing horrific instances of violence towards Asian Americans in our newsletter. We also wanted to share another form of Anti-Asian violence—ICE’s deportation of Asian refugees. A flight was scheduled yesterday for the deportation of 33 Vietnamese refugees, some of which have been in the US since 1995. This is a violation of the signed agreement between the US and Vietnam that no Vietnamese immigrants who arrived before July 12, 1995 would be subject to return. Furthermore, many Vietnamese refugees are escaping political persecution and genocide that were the direct results of the US’s actions in Vietnam. Today’s action is to read more about yesterday’s deportation here, as well as to fill out this contact form for the White House, protesting the deportation. You can use the example letter in as a template. Be sure to change enough details to make the letter unique.

Today’s action is to read The Conservation Fund’s recent blog post featuring young black conservationists you should know. Choose one (or all) of the activists to follow on social media and amplify in the future.

Rodney Reese, an 18-year old Black high school senior, was arrested for walking home alone after his shift at Walmart. His 7-minute encounter with the Plano Police Department was caught on camera and ended with him spending a night in jail for the crime of declining a ride home. Sign this petition to demand the immediate termination of the officers involved.

Today’s action comes from @goodgoodgoodco on Instagram highlighting Atlanta’s new “free food forest” to fight food insecurity in the city. From the post:

“Atlanta’s Browns Mill neighborhood is one of the city, state, and country’s many “food deserts” — the closest grocery store is a 30-minute bus ride away. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible for people living there to access the healthy, nutritious food they need.

To address the food insecurity in this neighborhood, the nonprofit organization @theconservationfund, with a grant from the U.S. Forest Service and in partnership with the city of Atlanta and Tree Atlanta created a 7.1-acre forest filled with 2,500 pesticide-free plants. It’s the largest food forest in the nation.”

One of the largest Black-owned farms in Texas, Holley Farms, is at risk of being auctioned as a result of an unrelated billing dispute with the $300 billion healthcare company, United Healthcare. Learn more about the Holley family and sign the petition to save their 50-year old farm on Change.org.

Jackson, Mississippi is in its 4th week of a crisis that has left most of its 160,000 residents (of which approx 80% are black) without safe water to drink or bathe in. The city is still under a boil notice that was issued on Feb 16th and navigating extremely low water pressure after a winter storm over three weeks ago. Residents are relying on purchased and donated bottled water to drink, wash dishes, flush their toilets and cook with. You can learn more about the crisis in this PBS Newshour report. If you’d like to support on the ground efforts in the city, consider making a donation to New Horizon Ministries, a local non-profit that has been leading efforts to distribute bottled water across the community.

The pandemic has been challenging for many small businesses. rebuildblackbusiness.com lets allies sign up to share skills with Black small businesses, skills ranging from tech to LLC filing experience to marketing. Today’s action, if you are able and feel comfortable, is to sign up in their allies directory. If you’re uncomfortable with your name and email address being publicly listed online, you can use your first name or an alias and create a new email address to list that forwards to your personal email address. You can also use the directory to find Black businesses in your area to support.

Today’s action is to read this article about a proposal for harsher penalties for fossil fuel protestors. This would mean that Native Americans and allies protesting pipelines on Native land would receive particularly harsh sentences.

Tomorrow will be the start of the trial for the murder of George Floyd, a murder that began with an unnecessary call to the police. Today’s action is to read about this program that has been in effect in Denver for the past 7 months, where a team of mental health and health workers respond to non-violent emergency calls. They have responded to 748 incidents. None required police or led to arrests or jail time.

In January, we shared an article about how raising the minimum wage is tied to racial justice. This tweet by Bernie Sanders is a reminder of that. Today’s action is to contact your senator if they voted against raising the federal minimum wage, despite support from 67% of Americans.

Every single Republican senator, as well as 8 Democratic senators (from AZ, DE, ME, MT, NH, and WV) voted against the amendment. Today’s action is to read more about the senators that voted against the amendment (including which ones are up for re-election), then look up your senators’ contact info to contact them .

The pandemic has meant that many people have turned to camping as a safer way to vacation and travel while maintaning social distancing. But the realities of the outdoors aren’t the same for all people. Today’s action is to read this article in Outside Magazine about one Black woman’s relationship with camping. She writes, “Many national parks were created an as escape from urban sprawl, at a time when urban was shorthand for blacks and immigrants. They were designed to be clean and white, and if we let the data tell the story, that’s how they’ve stayed.”

In a recent study from the Brookings Institute, researchers found that “black borrowers typically owe 50% more in student debt upon graduation than their white peers. Four years after graduation, this gap increases to 100%.” For today’s action, read this New York Times opinion piece from Naomi Zewde and Darrick Hamilton, “What Canceling Student Debt Would Do for the Racial Wealth Gap.”

On Sunday, Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue made false claims about the presidential election in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. Unanue called the election results “not legitimate”, and claimed mail-in ballots were fraudulent. For today’s action, check out this blog post from The Spruce Eats with alternative brands to purchase Latin pantry staples and #BoycottGoya.

Last week Sen. Alex Padilla joined Representative Joaquin Castro, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ted Lieu in announcing the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act at a FWD.us virtual roundtable with essential workers. The bill would create an expedited pathway to citizenship for the over 5 million essential workers who don’t have permanent legal status in the US but have kept the county safe and fed through their labor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the CEWA on their fact sheet, and use VotoLatino’s online form to send a message to your local member of congress to co-sponosr this important piece of legislation.

For today’s action, check out (and share) Electric Lit’s recent blog post, A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America, and choose one of the books featured on their list to read this month.

Desmond Caldwell, principal of John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton, Mass., has become the target of hate groups for asking students not to display Confederate flags during virtual school. You can read more about the harassment he’s faced in The Root. For today’s action, please email members of the Northampton School District committee and ask them to support their only Black principal by banning this widely recognized symbol of hate across all schools in the district.

Despite campaign promises to undo Trump’s immigration policies, President Biden has re-opened a detention camp for children. Today’s action is to read this article about Biden’s first detention camp for a reminder that we cannot relax our anti-racist efforts just because Trump is no longer president.

On Sept 28th, Diamonds Ford was sleeping when police attempted to enter her home without announcing or knocking. No-knock warrants are not permitted to be issued in her state of Florida. She shot one of the officers in self defense, and is now facing charges for the Attempted Murder of a Law Enforcement Officer and Armed Possession of Marijuana, and if convicted, a possible sentence of Life in Prison. Today’s action is to read her story and to sign a petition demanding that her charges be dropped.

February 21st marked the 56th anniversary of Malcom X’s assassination. That day, his daughters revealed they had a deathbed confession from Ray Wood, an undercover police officer at the time, that confirmed NYPD and FBI involvement and conspiracy in their father’s murder. Ray Wood, a Black man himself, said he participated only because his fellow officers threatened to charge him with crimes if he didn’t participate, and wished for this information to be revealed only upon his death. This confession is further evidence that the police do not exist for the protection of everyone, but rather for the protection of white supremecy. Today’s action is to read this article about the police and FBI involvement in Malcom X’s assassination.

As skates have sold out during the pandemic, it’s important to recognize that roller skating isn’t just a trend; roller skating culture is deeply rooted in Black American history and the civil rights movement.

In Sept of 2020, a 9-year-old black boy faced expulsion from school after a teacher spotted a BB gun in his room while he was taking a virtual test on Zoom. Though he was ultimately permitted to remain in school, a suspension remains on his permanent record. Today’s action is to sign this Change.org petition requesting that the school board delete this incident from the child’s record, which is currently being treated as akin to bringing a real gun to school.

Today’s action is to read this Forbe’s article about the life of “hidden figure” Gladys West, a black woman scientist and computer programmer whose contributions enabled the creation of GPS technology.

Republican State Senators in Georgia are advancing legislation that would lead to more voter suppression in the state in the wake of losing both the general election last November, and the Senate runoff elections in January. To learn more about the harmful bills they’re supporting check out Fair Fight’s recent posts on Instagram. Today’s action is to call Georgia Senate Ethics Committee members and demand they oppose bills to restrict voting:

Max Burns: ​404-656-7586 Dean Burke:​ 404-656-0040 Jason Anavitarte:​ 404-656-0085 Mike Dugan:​ 404-656-7872 Steve Gooch:​ 404-656-9221 Bo Hatchett:​ 404-656-7454 Butch Miller:​ ​404-656-6578 Randy Robertson:​ ​404-463-3931 Brian Strickland: ​404-463-6598

Senator Ted Cruz is facing warranted blowback after boarding a flight to Cancun with his family this week while over half a million of his constituents froze with no power in his home state of Texas. In response, the Women’s March is organizing a national campaign to #DefundCruz. Click here to send a letter to Cruz’s donors who gave his campaign $1,000 or more in any of the last four years requesting they end their support and request a refund for their contributions.

As Texas continues to be affected by dangerously cold weather and accompanying power outages, it’s no surprise that black and brown communities are most at risk. Today’s action is to donate to one of the many on-the-ground mutual aid organizations providing support to marginalized communities in the state.

Today’s action is to read this op-ed by Stacey Abrams and Lauren Groh-Wargo, about a clear actionable plan to flip your red state to a blue state. They write, “Our organizing centers, always, on everyday people dealing with deep wealth and income inequality and structural racism, with xenophobia and bigotry and, in the South, with some of the worst health and educational outcomes in America.”

ICE has deported 20 babies and children back to Haiti, despite the country being in the middle of civil unrest. The Biden has administration issued a 100-day moratorium on deportations, but in this case, Title 42 (which applies to new arrivals in a health crisis) was prioritized over the moratirum. Today’s action is to read this article about the deporations back to Haiti, as well as this letter from Human Rights Watch which argues that as a matter of human rights, asylum seekers and children should not be deported despite Title 42.

We’ve previously shared articles about how gerrymandering means that groups of people (often people of color) don’t get proportionate representation in government. Since 2020 was a census year, 2021 will be a year that district lines are re-evaluated and redrawn (known as redistricting). This article explains in depth what redistricting means and why it matters. When redistricting is left up to state legislatures, it means district lines can be drawn to benefit the party in power in the state legislature. Voters in some states have fought for and won the right for a balanced randomly selected group of voters to instead be the ones overseeing the redistricting process. One example is this independent citizens redistricting commission in Michigan. Today’s action is to research to see whether or not your state has an independent redistricting commission, and if not, research to find your state’s movement of constituents petitioning for independent redistricting, and join their efforts.

Native Americans are dying from COVID at twice the rate of white Americans. Not only that, since catching COVID is more dangerous for elders, many Native elders are dying, leaders who hold lots of knowledge about language and traditions. “We’re losing a historical record, encyclopedias. One day soon, there won’t be anybody to pass this knowledge down,” says Jason Salsman, a spokesman for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Today’s action is to read this article about the devastation of losing tribal elders, and to take a look at this list of organizations providing emergency relief to Native communities.

Did you know that more than half of death row exonerees are Black? Though Black people in the US account for only 13% of the population, they make up half of all people (2,725) exonerated since 1989. For today’s action, read The Innocence Projects’ latest blog post, “8 Facts You Should Know About Racial Injustice in the Criminal Legal System,” and consider donating to support their work.

Today’s action is to demand justice for Patrick Warren Sr., an unarmed 52-year-old Black pastor, shot and killed by a Texas police officer on January 10th during a mental health check. You can read more about his story in The Root. Sign this Change.org petition demanding disciplinary actions for the officer involved and for the body cam footage to be released to the public.

Today’s action is to listen to writer, director, and actor Chad Sanders on Brené Brown’s podcast, Dare to Lead. In the episode, he discusses his new book, Black Magic: What Black Leaders Learned from Trauma and Triumph, an exploration of Black achievement through stories and interviews from fifteen leaders across industries. Learn more about the book’s inspiration in this feature in Fortune magazine, and purchase the book from Simon & Schuster.

On Monday night, the Biden Administration and House Democrats announced a new proposal to provide a $3,000-per-child benefit to dramatically reduce child poverty in the US. The new initiative would provide $250 monthly checks per child ages 6 to 17 and $300 for children under 6 for a year. According to the Washington Post, researchers from Columbia University found Biden’s proposal “would cut the number of children in poverty by as much as 54 percent, the equivalent of 5 million children. More than 1 million Black children would be lifted out of poverty.” Although the increase would be temporary, Democratic lawmakers and the White House have said they would attempt to make it permanent after its initial passage. Today’s action is to look up your local representative and use the contact information on their website to ask them to support this legislation.

On January 29th, a 9-year-old Black girl in Rochester, New York was pepper-sprayed by police during a mental health crisis. Police were called to her house to respond to a family disturbance, and instead of de-escalating the situation, body cam footage showed the police berating the child, tackling her in the snow, handcuffing, and then pepper-spraying her in the back of their squad car. You can read more about this story in The Cut. Sign this petition on Color of Change to demand accountability for all officers involved.

Yesterday, we shared information on the attacks targeting Asian elders due to COVID-related anti-Asian racism. Today’s action is to sign this petition for mainstream media to cover more of these stories since most outlets have not been vocal enough on this topic.

There have been an alarming number of attacks on Asian elders, due to COVID-related anti-Asian racism, including this elder in Oakland Chinatown and this elder in Daly City. These attacks have been fueled by anti-Asian rhetoric from many politicians. However, calls for police measures to prevent this are not the answer. We can fight anti-Asian racism without being anti-Black. This shares an initiative to accompany seniors in Oakland Chinatown as they run errands to help keep them safe. If you’re based in the Bay Area, consider volunteering for it, and if you’re outside of the Bay Area, you can look for a similar initiative to join in your area.

In December, we shared an article about the racism of the death penalty. Today’s action is to sign this petition urging President Joe Biden to commute all death sentences and abolish the death penalty.

In celebration of Black History Month, today’s action is to read this Instagram post by @gabalexa about how the Harlem Renaissance was as queer as it was Black. It’s important to remember and celebrate Black trans and queer people when remembering Black history.

Today’s action is to donate to this mutual aid effort organized by Mission High School by purchasing items on their wishlist.The items will be donated to San Francisco families in need. If you’re not based in San Francisco, feel free to donate to a mutual aid effort in your area instead. As Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez said, “We can buy into the old frameworks of, when a disaster hits, it’s every person for themselves. Or we can affirmatively choose a different path. And we can build a different world, even if it’s just on our building floor, even if it’s just in our neighborhood, even if it’s just on our block.”

For Black History Month, Erin Evans, Senior Enterprise Editor at the HuffPost, wrote about the work it will take to really show up for and support black women. “Protecting and respecting Black women means keeping their leadership at the forefront, and getting in the trenches with them when the work is hard, exhausting and often underappreciated.” Check out this must-read call to action here.

Today’s action is to read this Instagram post from the Dream Defenders about Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’ Censorship and Repression Bill and send an email to the Florida State Representatives demanding they kill the bill. From the post:

“In response to the 26 million people who took the streets over the summer to protest police violence, Governor DeSantis introduced his Censorship and Repression Bill to stifle the will of the people.

Last week the Austin City Council voted to use money cut from the police department budget to provide permanent housing to their homeless population. The city plans to purchase two hotels to provide housing and a centralized site for mental health services, health care, and employment resources. The money comes from the more than $150 million in funds reallocated from the Austin Police Department last summer in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. You can read more about their plans in this article in The Appeal, written before the city council’s vote. Though this is just one step to the ultimate goal of fully defunding the police (Austin’s police department’s budget is now $290 million), it is a huge win for activists on the ground.

Javier Castillo Maradiaga is a 27-year-old former DACA recipient from the Bronx whose planned deportation to Honduras has been temporarily halted by President Biden’s 100-day deportation moratorium. Though a federal judge in Texas issued a temporary restraining order last Tuesday to stop Biden from enforcing the ban for 14 days, Maradiaga remains in ICE custody in Alexandria, Louisiana. You can read more about his story on NPR. Javier’s deportation has only been halted temporarily as ICE continues to execute President Trump’s deportation policies rather than following the Biden administration’s directives. Today’s action is to use the script and contact information provided by Activism Impacts on Instagram to call the relevant ICE field offices and your local elected officials to demand that Javier be sent home to his family.

In Friday’s email, we shared information about the Line 3 pipeline extension that goes through Indigenous treaty lands without consent. Today’s action is to sign a petition asking the Governor of Minnesota to stop Line 3.

It’s Girl Scout cookie season! Today’s action is to read about Troop 6000, a Girl Scout troop founded by Black woman Giselle Burgess for houseless girls in NYC, and to buy cookies from their troop, if you are able. (There’s also an option to donate cookies to community food banks.)

In addition to the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline, Indigenous activists are calling on Line 3 to be canceled. Line 3 is a proposed pipeline expansion to bring nearly a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin. Today’s action is to read this Instagram post about it, as well as check this list of banks that are funding it. If you see your bank on this list, consider switching to a different bank or a local credit union.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Chinatowns around the US have seen a steep decline in business due to COVID related anti-Asian bigotry. Many Chinatown businesses have lost 70% of their usual sales and are facing eviction. Save Our Chinatowns is a San Francisco Bay Area grassroots initiative working to help Chinatown businesses stay afloat. Right now they are selling a zine called “Have you eaten yet” as part of their Lunar New Year fundraiser. Today’s action is to buy their digital zine in support of their fundraiser or to to help these communities and important cultural enclaves through this difficult time.

Last month we shared a petition asking then-President-Elect Joe Biden to stop the Keystone XL pipeline when he entered office. On Inauguration Day, President Biden followed through on his campaign promise and signed an executive order rescinding the permits needed to finish the pipeline. Indigenous leaders from across the country are now calling on the Biden administration to do the same for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Learn more about the climate activism driven by Native activists to end pipeline drilling through indigenous lands in this article on Truthout.

Today’s action is to read this NPR article detailing how decades of redlining and other discriminatory practices reshaped urban landscapes throughout the US, leaving Black and Brown neighborhoods significantly hotter than others. This is yet another example of how environmental racism significantly impacts the lives of Black and Brown communities.

After the attack on the Capitol, national security experts are advocating for tougher laws for domestic extremism. Today’s action is to read this article from The Marshall Project investigating why these laws will inevitably have a disparate impact on, and result in greater punishment for Black people.

Content warning: Suicide

In October, we shared an article about the harms caused by solitary confinement. Today’s email is about how solitary confinement destroyed the life of a Black teen from the Bronx.

Kalief Browder was a Black teen from the Bronx who spent three years on Rikers Island for stealing a backpack despite never being convicted of the crime. Two of those years were spent in solitary confinement, an experience that led to multiple suicide attempts from Kalief while he was incarcerated. Two years after his release, he hung himself at his parent’s home.

In October, we shared news that the Attorney General for Breonna Taylor’s case, Daniel Cameron, never presented the Grand Jury the option of charging Breonna Taylor’s murderers with anything more than wanton endangerment. Today’s action is to read this article about how members of the Grand Jury have petitioned for Daniel Cameron to be impeached, over this and more (including being on the executive committee of a group that encouraged the insurrection on the Capitol).

President Biden said that he would rever the Muslim travel ban on his first day in office. Unfortunately, for many families, the damage has already been done. Today’s action is to read this article about the damage the travel ban has inflicted on many Muslim families.

As Manar Waheed, senior legislative and advocacy counsel at the ACLU, says, “If we’re truly to end banning Muslims, it is much bigger than one order. It goes to all of the people that have been denied opportunities and access in the last nearly four years. It goes to rescinding every policy, practice and regulation that has been attached to and come out of the Muslim ban. And it also goes to ending the banning of Muslims through other immigration policies, whether we’re thinking about surveillance, the monitoring of communities or addressing the hate crimes that people are facing on a daily basis that have dramatically escalated in the last four years.”

Siyanda Mngaza is a 21 year old Black woman who has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for defending herself against a racially-motivated attack by 3 people. Today’s action is to read her story and sign the petition to appeal her case.

Apologies: Our previous email should have stated that Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman, Black, and South Asian Vice President of the United States.

Its Inaguration Day! This morning, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman, Black, and South East Asian Vice President of the United States. Today’s action is to celebrate this first and take a day of rest.

Last week, President-elect Joe Biden announced that he will seek to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of his Covid relief bill. For today’s action, read this article from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth on why minimum wages are a critical tool for achieving racial justice in the U.S. labor market.

With DC on lockdown after the riots at the Capitol, and in anticipation of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, it is becoming increasingly difficult for DC’s homeless population to access critical services. Unhoused residents have been displaced and some of DC’s largest organizations that provide meals and other essential services for survival to DC residents experiencing housing and food insecurity have been canceled until after the Inauguration. Fuel The People, a Black founded, and Black woman-led collective is providing free meals for people affected by the DC lockdown. Last week they supplied 1,100 hot meals and 1,000 supply bags to the community from black-owned restaurants, and this week they plan to match or exceed that. To support, check out their website, and donate today.

TW: Sexual Assult

Ashley Diamond is a black trans activist who was released from prison in 2016 after filing a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s denial of gender-affirming care to trans inmates. The Department of Justice intervened on her behalf, and she was awarded a $250,000 settlement. The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) also agreed to change its policy and extended hormone therapy to transgender people in lockup facilities. Diamond was re-incarcerated last year for a technical parole violation and is once again suing the GDC for failure to protect her from sexual assault (after being placed in a men’s prison) and denial of care. You can read more about her story in the New York Times. If you’d like to show your solidarity with Ashley, send her a note of support on the Center for Constitutional Rights’ website.

Today’s action is to read this article about the way that Black women are expected to be extroverted at work, even ones that are naturally introverted, or suffer tangible consequences in their career. Reflect to yourself: have you observed this at your workplace? Consider speaking up if coworkers say they don’t think a female Black coworker is friendly enough.

You may have seen this chart categorizing different kinds of whiteness, from white supremacist, to recipient of white privilege who doesn’t want to challenge what benefits them, to white abolitionist. (Also note that non-Black people of color can also fit into these categories.) Today’s action is to read this article about a woman who went from white supremacist to dedicating her life to abolition. While reading it, think about how you could apply her insights about deradicalization to conversations you have with family, coworkers, or members of your community.

Many people have called the white supremacists who stormed the Capitol on January 6th “domestic terrorists”. While calling white supremacists “terrorists” might be well intentioned, this blog post explains the issues with using that term at all.

Today’s action is to read this article about the racism inherent in Western media reports on “surprisingly low” COVID infections in Africa.

On December 9th, 2020, the Murdock City Council voted 3-1 during a virtual meeting to grant the Asatru Folk Assembly, an organization widely acknowledged as a white supremacist hate group, a conditional use permit for its whites-only church. Today’s action is to learn more about the potential threat this poses to people of color in Murdock City in this New York Times story and sign this petition to have the permit revoked.

The Republican members of the House and Senate who voted to overturn the election results and incited a coup need to be held accountable for their actions. Add your name as a co-signer of Rep. Cori Bush’s bill to investigate and expel these members from Congress.

On Friday, House Democrats introduced new articles of impeachment for Donald Trump for his role in inciting the white supremacist mob that breached the Capitol. You can read the full document here. Legal experts believe that the President could be impeached and tried in the Senate even after leaving office at noon on Jan. 20. This is not a futile endeavor. Impeaching Donald Trump would result in a withdrawal of future governmental support. For today’s action, please call your members of congress at (202) 224-3121 and demand that they support impeachment.

After Wednesday’s white supremacist driven insurrection at the U.S Capitol, it is imperative that Trump be held accountable for his actions. For today’s action, sign this petition urging Vice President Pence and Cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

After the results of the Georgia runoff elections, Congresswoman Cori Bush tweeted, “Black women did this—but this isn’t just “Black Girl Magic.” This is the result of pure organizing, labor, and love that Black women have poured into GA.”

Today’s action is to read this New York Times article about the incredible door-to-door activism of Black women that lead to the Georgia runoff election results, and everything they were up against, including the runoff practice itself being a product of racism from the 1960s.

Yesterday, a mob of white supremacist terrorists stormed the Capitol building in Washington D.C., encouraged by Donald Trump, with little resistance from the police. It was a stark contrast to how Black people and Black Lives Matter protesters have been treated by the police. Today’s action is to listen to this npr podcast episode about the racist origins of policing in America, including slave patrols in the South.

We’ve shared a few actions related to the Georgia runoff elections. That work, donations, and actions have paid off in a concrete positive result in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Let’s keep that momentum, there’s a lot more for us to do!

Today’s action is to read this essay about imagining possibilities beyond the carceral system, written by Angela Davis for Colin Kaepernick’s new publishing company and new project, “Abolition for the People”.

We’ve previously shared articles on medical racism and how it affects the health and lives of Black people. Today’s action is to read an article about one of the strongest examples of medical racism—more than triple mortality rates for Black people who give birth compared to white people who give birth, due to Black people’s pain not being taken as seriously. (Content warning: use of gender binary language.)

Last September, we shared a petition advocating for a ban on the use of facial recognition technology in policing. For today’s action, read this New York Times article about Nijeer Parks, the third known Black man to be falsely identified and wrongfully-arrested for false facial recognition.

Dustin John Higgs is the last man scheduled to be executed by the Trump administration, five days before the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden on January 15th. Higgs was convicted and sentenced to death as an accomplice to the 1996 murders of Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black, and Mishann Chinn. Willis Haynes, the man who pulled the trigger, was sentenced to life in prison plus 45 years after a separate jury spared him the death penalty for the crime. Learn more about Dustin Higgs’ case at www.savedustinjhiggs.com and sign the Change.org petition to advocate for clemency.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of global and national organizations and activists campaigning for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines across the globe. According to a study released by the organization last month, unless immediate action is taken by governments and the pharmaceutical industry “nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against COVID-19 next year.” This is in stark contrast to developed (primarily western) nations that have already purchased enough vaccines (both approved and still in clinical trials) to vaccinate their populations multiple times over. Read more about this issue in Al Jazeera.

On Dec 30th, Minneapolis police shot and killed a 23-year-old Black man, Dolal Idd, at a traffic stop. This new year, keep in mind that many of the things that made 2020 terrible, including racial injustice, won’t magically go away just because it’s 2021. Let’s keep learning and fighting in 2021.

Today’s action is to read this essay about the meme-ification of Black death, in particular, the murder of Breonna Taylor.

Thank you for reading and supporting this newsletter in 2020. As 2020 comes to an end, we hope you will resolve to keep learning and keep fighting for racial justice in 2021.

Today’s action is to listen to this interview with Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo on medical racism and its link to the death of Dr. Susan Moore.

With the distribution of the first two Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna underway, a new debate has been triggered among Muslims over its Halal status. This further illuminates how complex public health responses to pandemics can be and the importance of factoring in the needs of every population being served into recommended interventions. Read more about this issue on PBS.

Yesterday Trump signed off on the second pandemic recovery bill, which included up to $600 in direct payments for eligible adults. This comes 6-days after the bill’s passage in the legislature and with a relief check that’s less than 1/3 of the size that progressive politicians were advocating for. With eviction protections set to expire at the end of the year and unemployment still high, mutual aid funds remain an important tool to support marginalized communities in the pandemic. The Conscious Kid launched a Rent Relief Fund in April and has been disbursing funds to households in need all year. Every transaction is transparently documented and posted to their Instagram Stories and Highlights with recipient names redacted to protect privacy. To date, they’ve raised over $1.1M and provided critical relief to more than 2,300 families. If you’d like to donate to the fund, you can do so on their GoFundMe. If you require rent relief or know someone who does, send a DM to their Instagram account.

Today’s action is to sign this petition asking President-elect Biden to keep his campaign promise to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, and to also end the Dakota Access pipeline. Both pipelines both endanger important water systems for Lakota Country, and both pipelines go against the 150+ year old Lakota Treaty Of Fort Laramie.

While we hope that the practice of cash bail will be eliminated, while it still exists, let’s ask district attorneys to lower the cash bail for people who have been arrested. Cory King is an Oakland, CA community member who was arrested with cash bail set at $470,000. You can read more details about it here, via Peoples Breakfast Oakland, a Black grassroots organization serving the houseless community. Today’s action is to write an email to to Oakland’s District Attorney O’Malley asking for King’s cash bail to be lowered. A script is provided here, though remember to change enough of the text to make it a unique email.

We often share examples of anti-Black racism in the US, but today’s action is to read this article about the experiences of half-Black Japanese people and the racism they face in Japan.

The Nap Ministry examines rest as an act of resistance and a tool for racial justice through collective napping experiences, performance art, and online community. Learn more about their work in Atlanta Magazine, and follow them on social media for tools to integrate into your routine.

Last week Termaine Hicks was released from prison after 19-years for an assault he didn’t commit. Hicks was exonerated after the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office conceded that three police officers lied under oath at his 2002 trial. You can learn more about his story from the Innocence Project. An Amazon wishlist has been created to support Termaine as he transitions out of incarceration. If you’re interested in contributing to it, you can do so here.

In November, we shared a petition asking President-elect Joe Biden to nominate Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. Three days ago, Biden’s transition team announced that he would be nominating her for that position. Thank you for signing and sharing that petition. Once confirmed by the Senate, Rep Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, will be the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary. She’ll also be head of the agency responsible for managing the nation’s public lands and honoring its treaties with the Indigenous people. Learn more about the significance of this appointment on NBC News.

On the night of Feb. 21, 2019, 50-year old social worker, Anjanette Young, was in her home alone, getting ready for bed, when armed Chicago police busted her door down with a battering ram, and raided her apartment based on a botched tip from an informant. They kept her in handcuffs, complete naked and crying for 20 minutes as she repetadely screamed that they were in the wrong house. Thankfully Anjanette survived the encounter, filed a lawsuit agains the Chicago Police Department, and battled the City of Chigao for a full-year to release the photage. You can read more about the story here.

If you’d like to support Anjanette Young please donate to, or share her GoFundMe.

Early voting has begun in Georgia for the senate runoff elections, but there’s still time to support and help keep Georgia blue. Today’s action is to sign up to volunteer at vote.org, to text bank, be an election protection volunteer, or be a poll worker.

Today’s action is to read this article on why decriminalizing sex work is a racial justice issue, and to sign this petition to stop Instagram from censoring nudity, which effectively de-platforms sex workers.

Today’s action is to read these Instagram posts as a reminder that our activism shouldn’t start and end with supporting Black-owned businesses, but rather, we should also be working towards supplanting the current economic system that allows some Black people to be rich and some to be poor.

Today’s action is to read this article about the Uighurs, an Muslim ethnic minority in China that is being placed in forced labor camps, sterilized against their will, and other atrocities.

Yesterday ICE detainees in a New Jersey detention center ended a 32-day hunger strike protesting unsanitary and unsafe living conditions. You can read more about their story in the Huffington Post. Today’s action is to email or call local NJ and Bergen County officials advocating for the release of all immigrants and asylum seekers from the Bergen County jail using the contact info and script provided by @riverdellblm on Instagram.

In October, we shared the story of Pervis Payne, a Black man who has spent 32-years on death row for the murder of his neighbors, a crime that he has maintained his innocence of since his arrest. The Innocence Project is working on Payne’s case to appeal the conviction and have all DNA evidence from the crime scene tested.

Payne’s execution was rescheduled from Dec 3rd to April 9, 2021, due to COVID19, so there is still time to intervene on his behalf. To support Pervis Payne’s fight for justice, please sign the official Innoncence Project petition, and register for updates on his case as they are released.

Today’s action is to attend the #SayHerName Night of Remembrance virtual event, to honor the families of Black women, girls, and femmes killed at the hands of police violence. The evening is hosted by The African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a “social justice think tank that strives to promote social justice reform by bridging the gap between scholarly research and community activism.” The event will feature an introduction from activist, legal scholar, and AAPF Executive Director Kimberlé Crenshaw, and will celebrate the work of the #SayHerName Campaign on its 6th anniversary. To register and attend sign up on Eventbrite.

After yesterday’s email detailing the racism of capital punishment, today’s action is to sign this petition to abolish the federal death penalty.

Today’s action is to read this article about race and the death penalty, and how the death penalty continues the racist history of lynchings.

Unfortunately, Brandon Bernard, the person mentioned in our 12/8 email, was executed on 12/10 without a chance to revisit his case. Also, unfortunately, his case is not the only one. Trump reinstated the federal death penalty this July after 17 years, and has carried out more federal executions in that time than have happened in the last 5 decades combined. This has happened even amid COVID, and the executions have been deemed superspreader events. There are 4 more executions planned before the end of the year, as Trump is hoping to execute as many people as possible before the end of his presidency. The people his administration has targeted for death are disproportionately Black. Today’s action is to sign these demanding these executions be halted.

Several popular democratic politicians, including former President Obama, have voiced their concerns around the popular activist slogan “Defund The Police.” We fundamentally disagree with the reasoning behind their critique. For today’s action, take a look at the Movement For Black Lives’ messaging guide on “defunding the police” to re-ground ourselves in the mission of abolition over reform.

Casey Goodson Jr., a 23-year-old Black man, was murdered by US Marshal’s task force officer, Jason Meade, on Dec. 4th in Columbus, OH. Meade shot Goodson 3-times in the back as he entered his home last Friday. Authorities say Goodson was carrying a gun. According to his family, he returned from a dentist appointment with a Subway sandwich, his face mask, and his keys in his hand. Read more about Goodson’s story on Vox and sign this petition to demand justice for Casey.

Brandon Bernard, a 40-year old black man who has spent the last 21 years in federal prison, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, Dec 10th. The prosecutor on his case as well as 5 of the 9 jurors who sentenced him to death are all asking Trump to intervene and halt the execution. You can read more about Brandon’s story on The Intercept. Capital punishment is racist. According to the NAACP’s 2017 Death Penalty Fact Sheet, Black people make up 13 percent of the population but account for 42 percent of the inmates on death row and 35 percent of those executed. If you’d like to add your voice to the movement to save Brandon’s life, go to helpsavebrandon.com to fill out a pre-written letter to send to Trump or tweet him at @realdonaldtrump.

Today’s action is to listen to this NPR podcast episode about caste discrimination, which many people in the US are unaware of.

Caste discrimination is linked to colorism and racial injustice not just in other countries but in the US as well.

Yesterday’s email was about how AI researcher Timnit Gebru was unfairly fired from Google. Today’s action is to watch this interview she did with the New York Times about bias and racism in facial recognition AI.

Recently, Google fired artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru for raising concerns related to the ethics of AI in a paper she co-authored, as well as for speaking up about the pushback she has received for advocating for more diversity at Google. As AI technology increasingly plays a bigger role in everyday life, biases and racism in AI will have an increasingly larger negative effect on the lives of people of color. It is important to listen to the voices of Black AI researchers speaking out about the ethics of AI. Today’s action is to read Gebru’s story here, and to sign this list of demands to Google for transparency and responsibility.

In July, we shared the story of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black massage therapist from Aurora, Colorado who died after being placed in a chokehold and injected with ketamine by police and paramedics. Two months after McClain’s death, Aurora Police Department Officers Erica Marrero, Kyle Dittrich, and Jaron Jones took selfies at his memorial site, reenacting his death. Those officers were later fired when the photos surfaced. On Monday, December 7, 2020, they will go in front of the civil service commission to appeal this decision and ask to be reinstated. Please sign this Change.org petition requesting that appeal be denied.

Today’s action is to check out and share this useful Instagram post from Everyday Racism on navigating racist conversations during the holidays. From the post:

“With another holiday season coming up you may find yourself having to spend time with people who hold racists views. For those of you this year who have been learning to be allies, this is a time to step up and let people around you know that you are being actively anti-racist. This post is designed to help equip you with some simple responses when racist comments, jokes or statements are made.”

In recent studies less than one-third of Black respondents said they plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, the lowest percentage of any racial group surveyed. Another report from the COVID Collaborative and the NAACP underscores vaccine resistance from the Black and Latinx communities, and the widespread belief that the vaccine will be neither safe nor effective. These stats may come as a surprise given the disproportionate effect Covid-19 has had on the Black community, but those familiar with the fraught history of systemic racism in the US health care system can understand what’s breeding this skepticism and distrust. Today’s action is to learn the history of the Tuskegee Experiments when researchers withheld treatment from hundreds of Black men in order to study the progression of Syphillis on live subjects without informed consent.

Today’s action is to pick at least one thing to watch from this list of indigenous-created media (movies, documentaries, tv shows), curated by the International Indigenous Youth Council, Los Angeles chapter. There’s also a text version of the list available.

Today’s action is to sign this petition asking Joe Biden to appoint Rep. Deb Halland as the Secretary of the Interior. Rep Halland is a Native American congress person who has chaired the House Natural Resources subcommittee overseeing the Interior Department. The Secretary of the Interior oversees the federal govenrment’s relationship with tribal nations, and Rep Halland is uniqule qualified to handle these responsibilities. Read more reasons why Rep Halland would make a great Secretary of the Interior, and sign the petition, here.

Today’s action is to read this article, written by president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Sherrilyn Ifill, about the many forms of voter suppression that were active in the 2020 election, and how much work we still have to making sure all voices are fairly heard. It’s an important reminder that we cannot rest just becasue Biden won.

Today’s action is to read Ashish Prashar’s op-ed in Business Insider advocating for President-elect Joe Biden to support the BREATHE Act. The bill, written by The Movement For Black Lives back in July, calls for a massive divestment in federal policing and incarceration, from closing all federal prisons, youth, and border detention centers, to eliminating agencies like ICE. This money would then be redirected to social and harm reduction programs like equitable public housing, universal basic income, and childcare. The ultimate goal is to translate activist and protest calls for “defunding the police” to tangible policy goals. You can read a summary of the BREATHE Act and sign up to be a community sponsor of the bill here.

Today is Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year in the US. If you’re planning to spend money consider avoiding big-box retailers and check out these lists of Black, Latinx, and Native-owned brands to support.

For Thanksgiving, here’s a list of Native American activist organizations that could use your support.

In preparation of Thanksgiving, today’s action is to read this list of facts about the origins of Thanksgiving, by Dakota/Lakota and Sioux author and formal tribal judge, Ruth Hopkins.

The Conscious Kid is an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. They recently launched the Anti-Racist Children’s Book Education Fund to help them send children’s books from their list of “41 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance” into thousands of elementary classrooms in all 50 states. Click here to set up a monthly donation or make a one-time contribution.

Disclaimer: Graphic photos shared in petition link.

The disappearance of 15-year-old Black teen Quawan Charles on Oct. 30 was initially dismissed by Louisiana law enforcement. The police refused to initiate a search for Charles in the hours after he was reported missing, and no amber alert was issued. Several days later his body was discovered in a sugar-cane field. The city’s initial autopsy listed the cause of death as drowning, but given that he was found in less than 2-feet of water, his family disputes this finding and believe his death was racially motivated. The family is comparing Quawan Charles’ death to Emmett Till and has released graphic photos of his body to reinforce the need for an independent autopsy. Sign to help the Charles family seek justice for Quawan.

Today’s action is to watch this video about the detrimental psychological effects of solitary confinement, and why we should abolish it (with the long term goal of abolishing all prisons, of course).

Another way that you can help with the runoff elections in Georgia is to volunteer with votefwd.org, to write letters to encourage historically underrepresented voters to request their absentee ballots for the upcoming runoff election.

Today’s action is to read this article about the racist history of the US school district system and how it continues to negatively impact communities of color. From the article: “Racial segregation increased after the new districts were formed. That was true both for where students go to school and for where people with and without school-age children reside. The causality is important. School segregation is often dismissed as an unavoidable consequence of where people choose to live. The research suggests school district boundaries are the reason people choose where to live.” The article builds on these reasons to explain why we should abolish school districts entirely.