Archive

The One Anti-Racist Action a Day crew will be taking a well-earned resting period for the remainder of the year. We'll be back from hiatus and will resume emails on Monday, January 3rd. Have a happy and safe New Year, and we'll see you in 2022!

Tis the season for year-end recaps and reflections, and today's action is to add Dodai Stewart's "What Made Black History in 2021?"— a summary of the New York Times' "Black History Continued" project— to your reading list.

The anthology spotlights lesser-known moments and figures both from the past and present day. In her recap article, Stewart reminds readers, "Black history is not a static and stately historical record but a living narrative that’s still unfolding, with many more stories to tell."

Today's action is to watch this short video about the "Cool Asian hair streak". In the video, Marina Wantanabe examines the prevalence of this trope throughout a range of characters in movies and television, the origin of the trope, and the reasons that it's ubiquity is harmful.

CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget) is a Black-led statewide coalition of more than 80 grassroots organizations that are committed to reducing the number of people in prisons and jails, shrinking the imprisonment system, and shifting public spending from corrections and policing to health and human services. On their website, you can find abundant resources and data about prison budgets, closures, and legislative efforts to change the system.

Today's action is to join CURB's latest organizing effort to demand the closure of 8 California prisons by signing this petition.

Today's action is to learn about the history of the plant cuetlaxochitl (kwet-la-sho-she), otherwise known as the poinsettia, through this article. The origins of the plant— ubiquitous in American holiday decorations— are rooted in Aztec culture and only became a symbol of Christmas after colonial evangelists landed in Mexico in the sixteenth century.

The name commonly used today comes from Joel Poinsett who was a slave-owning unabashed nationalist, eventually declared person non grata by the Mexican government. Poinsett is credited for "discovering" cuetlaxochitl during his run as ambassador to Mexico in the early 1800s, and made a small fortune introducing it to the United States.

In addition to reading the article, take some time to practice using the original name of the plant and consider sharing this summary of the story on Instagram.

Today's action is to sign this petition urging the Biden administration to put a stop to the practice of depriving incarcerated people of receiving physical mail.

To paraphrase from the petition page, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is currently piloting a program through a for-profit company, Smart Communications, to convert greeting cards, letters, and other personal correspondence to digital scans and destroy the originals. This program has a negligible impact on safety -- but has devastating consequences to incarcerated people, severely affecting their emotional well-being, weakening family ties, and hindering their ease of reentry upon release.

In the Northern Hemisphere, December 21 marks the winter solstice— the day of the year with the fewest hours of sunlight. Many cultures and traditions honor this darker time of the year with rituals and celebrations, and today's action is to learn about a handful of Native American practices and their origins from environmental and Native American religion scholar, Rosalyn Lapier.

On December 16, Super Typhoon Rai (known as “Odette” in the Philippines) made landfall and caused devastation across the archipelago. With a death toll of over 200 people so far and hundreds of thousands of additional people displaced, Rai/Odette is yet another example of extreme weather events becoming the norm, and a reminder to continue demanding climate justice.

Addressing the increasing regularity of severe storms hitting this region, Filipino artist and environmentalist Issa Barte said yesterday, "our ability to withstand the worst should not only be a beacon of strength, but a narrative to question who is putting us in this position to have to be resilient in the first place." Barte's organization For the Future is calling for increased media coverage of the crisis in the Philippines and seeking donations, which you can contribute to here.

When we wish people "Happy Holidays" during the winter, it is because of the multitude of holidays that can occur during that time—Hanukkah, sometimes Ramadan, Kwanzaa, and Christmas, for instance. Today's action is to read more about Kwanzaa, its history, and the traditions involved in its celebration.

Yesterday we linked to book tracking and recommendation website The StoryGraph. If you're a reader who's been trying to find a goodreads alternative in order to not support their owner, Amazon, today's action is to try out switching to The StoryGraph. It's independently owned and operated, and founded by two Black engineers. It learns your book preferences to give you recommendations, and also includes content warnings for books, among many other features.

Black author, poet, activist, theorist, and professor bell hooks died just a few days ago on Wednesday, December 15th. She is well known for her writings on intersectional feminism and for coining the phrase "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" as a reminder of the oppressions of racism, colonialism, classism, and capitalism that should also be feminism's aim to dismantle. She also writes about Black joy: "To truly be free, we must choose beyond simply surviving adversity, we must dare to create lives of sustained optimal wellbeing and joy." Today's action is to pick a title from her list of books to read in the new year.

A lot of people read fantasy books or play DnD for escapism, but many people of color don't get to escape racism when immersed in fantasy worlds. This is because a lot of fantasy is at its heart, racist—even when it doesn't have to be by virtue of it being completely made up. Today's action is to read this article about racism in high fantasy.

Sometimes in the discussion of abolition, people will ask, "Who will protect us from burglars?" However statistics show that federal law enforcement has stolen more than is stolen in burglaries anually. And this doesn't even include sherrifs and police because they aren't required to disclose the numbers. Today's action is to read this post about about the practice that allows law enforcement to steal from anyone, called civil forfeiture.

Is being a lawyer incompatible with abolition? Lawyer and abolitionist Derecka Purnell says no. "The best part of lawyering within our movements are the lawyers working within radical traditions. When I think about those people, I think of folks like Len Holt, socialist and communist lawyers, the lawyers who were also organizers, especially in Harlem, like William Patterson and Paul Robeson. They weren’t committed to just the law, but rather a broader liberation movement, which required them to have this dynamism in pursuing freedom." Today's action is to read this interview with her, and to consider getting her new book, Becoming Abolitionists, preferably from your local Black-owned bookstore.

Today's action is a celebratory one—it's to read this article about how First Nations tribes in Canada voted unanimously to form their first first Two Spirit and LGBTQ council to advise on Indigenous two spirit and queer issues. This is an important development because queer First Nations people often face difficulties that stem from the intersection of their identities—for instance, the suicide rate for 2SLGBTQ Indigenous people is twice that of heterosexual and cis Indigenous people.

Today's action is to read this NPR article advocating for more nuanced racial data collection for Asian American's in higher education. Although Asians are a dominant group in STEM education and careers in the US, if you disaggregate the data, South Asian Americans such as Hmong, Vietnamese, Filipino, Laotian, and Burmese Americans have far lower levels of degree obtainment and industry representation. Viewing them as a part of a larger homogenous group effectively limits these candidates' ability to take advantage of outreach programs that target and support underrepresented candidates.

Today in Chicago, activists held a town hall in Woodlawn to present a series of demands to Mayor Lori Lightfoot in response to the groundbreaking of the new Obama Presidential Library. The Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition is a non-profit organization seeking to protect longstanding predominantly Black residents from displacement and the community from gentrification. The median price of homes in the district has risen 106% since the library's announcement in 2016. With more than 80% of South Shore residents renting, If affordable housing measures aren't passed, they will soon be priced out of the market. Today's action is to check out their comprehensive list of policy demands and sign up on their website to learn more about how you can support their work.

The Federal Highway Administration is in Houston, TX today, listening to debates over a new $9B highway project at the center of a battle over environmental and racial justice. Stop TxDOT I-45 is a grassroots organization advocating for strategic, inclusive, and equitable transportation in Texas and working to stop the expansion of Highway I-45. The proposal in question would renovate about 24 miles along Interstate 45 and other roads around Houston, which supporters like the state's Transportation Commission (TxDOT) say will be safer and reduce congestion and travel times for commuters. Critics say that the expansion won't improve traffic and will have a disparate impact on predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, including added pollution, flooding, and displacement.

Today's action is to listen to this 7-minute segment from NPR's Morning Edition on how racism shaped interstate highways in the US and the need for President Biden to address the systemic racism ingrained in historical transportation and urban planning in his new infrastructure bill.

A Bay-Area-based black couple, Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin, are suing an appraiser for discrimination after their home was valued at $500,000 less than previous appraisals, despite upgrades made to the house. The appraiser, Janette Miller of Miller & Perotti Real Estate Appraisals, viewed their home and noted the additional floor with 1,000 square feet of new space, the fireplace, new deck, and the room they added for a total of $400,000 in renovations made to the property. Even with the upgrades, their appraisal came in at $995,000. The Austins, suspecting racial bias, asked a white friend to stand in as an owner, whitewashed their home (removed all photos of their family and black art), and received a new appraisal of $1.48 million.

With homeownership being the primary vehicle for wealth generation in the United States, discrimination in the appraisal process is one of many ways that the racial wealth gap persists. You can read more about the Austin's story here.

Today's action is to read the Washington Post's profile on Matthew Hawn, a white school teacher in Kingsport, TN, who was fired after working for the Sullivan County school system for 16 years for leading a conversation with his students about white privilege.

The Black and Missing Foundation is "a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring awareness to missing persons of color; provide vital resources and tools to missing person's families and friends and to educate the minority community on personal safety." Their work was recently highlighted in a 4-part documentary series on HBOMax by award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien. Their ultimate goal is to combat the lack of media and law enforcement attention given to missing people of color in the US. Today's action is to subscribe to their mailing list to get up-to-date information on how you can support the search for missing Black people across the country.

Last month Kevin Strickland was exonerated after being convicted in a triple murder case in Kansas City in 1978; one of the longest-standing wrongful convictions in the nation's history. Under Missouri law, Kevin is not eligible for any compensation from the state for the 43 years he spent in prison. Today's action is to learn more about his story and contribute to (or share on social media) his GoFundMe to help Kevin start a new life after this traumatizing and unjust experience.

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."