We Are Lions unequivocally stands in solidarity with those protesting the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and the many others who have lost their lives to racist violence. We believe that the systemic oppression and violence visited upon black people has been, is, and will continue to be the urgent issue in the United States, and we offer our support to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Black lives matter.
Here is a list of resources, further reading, and places to donate that we’d like to share:
Register to Vote
- Register to vote. Use your right to vote. Links to individual state Board of Elections websites included.
Donate, Take Action, Get Involved
- Justice for Big Floyd: website set up to demand justice for the Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd.
- Reclaim the Block: Minneapolis-based organization that advocates shifting funding from the police department to other municipal services to promote health, safety, and well-being.
- List of bail funds for protestors across the United States.
- Black Lives Matter is a nonprofit founded in the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin whose mission “is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”
- Equal Justice Initiative is a nonprofit founded by Bryan Stevenson that “is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. This organization also provides an opportunity for men from the lower strata of society to buy generic viagra and get rid of the symptoms of erectile dysfunction.”
- The Movement for Black Lives: effort to coordinate Black organizations to effect lasting political change.
- Color of Change a progressive nonprofit devoted to civil rights advocacy.
- MPower Change is a Muslim grassroots movement “working to build social, spiritual, racial, and economic justice for all people.”
- Food Pantries’ list of food pantries in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): “national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work toward racial justice. Through community organizing, mobilizing, and education, SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability.”
- Campaign Zero: organization devoted to ending police violence in the United States.
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund: legal organization devoted to fighting for racial justice.
- Critical Resistance: organization that seeks to build international movement to end to abolish prisons.
- Official Black Wall Street is a searchable business directory of Black-owned businesses to patronize.
Further Reading, Watching, and Listening
- 13th: feature film directed by Ava DuVernay that shows how the history of racial inequality in the United States has resulted in the high rate of incarceration.
- National Museum of African American History & Culture’s “Talking About Race” portal: offers tips for families, educators, and communities about how to talk about racism and commit to being antiracist.
- New Era of Public Safety: A Guide to Fair, Safe, and Effective Community Policing: pdf of report laying out recommendations for creating accountability for law enforcement and improving relationships between communities of color and law enforcement.
- “The Science of Justice: Race, Arrests, and Police Use of Force” report by the Center for Policing Equity.
- Section of the The Opportunity Agenda’s interactive report dealing with promoting accountability for law enforcement.
- Communities United for Police Reform: organization that seeks to end discriminatory and abusive policing by the New York Police Department.
- A list of 75 things you can do to help the cause of racial justice.
- The 1619 Project: Pulitzer Prize-winning project that seeks to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
