Educate, Listen, Amplify

Educate.

First and foremost, it is your responsibility to educate yourself, not the responsibility of the Black community. 

• Here is a comprehensive list from Forbes of books, podcasts, documentaries, blogs, television shows and more. Click here to read it.
  
  
• Understand and recognize white privilege. Click here to see a series of graphics from @theconsciouskid that breaks it down.
  
  
• Talking About Race: The National Museum of African American History & Culture has a comprehensive website that provides tools and resources. Click here to view it.
  
  
• What is systemic racism? Race Forward has an 8-part video series that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: wealth gap, employment, housing discrimination, government surveillance, incarceration, drug arrests, immigration arrests and infant mortality. Click here to view it.
  
  
• Project Implicit is a long-term research project based at Harvard University that aims to measure people's preferences for certain social groups over others. You can take the test here.
  
  
• Understand what is appropriation vs. appreciation. Here is a helpful article from Greenheart.org. Here is another article that gives an example and explanation about “blackfishing” on Twitter and Instagram. The bottom line is that you do not get to take or use things from a culture that is not your own and then use it for your own benefit, i.e. financial gain, followers on social media, etc. 
  
  

• Learn more about advocacy opportunities and things you can do in your local community to help.

• Contact your elected officials and ask them what they are doing to advocate for the Black community and the most marginalized. What policies are they supporting? 

• Is it a microagression? Read the article here.

Learn more about how you can be an ally.

• Being an ally isn’t about grandstanding and making a show of your support to make yourself look good. You have to do the work.
  
  
• Use your sphere of influence, your friends, family, social media platform, etc., to call out racism.
  
  
• Being an ally may make you uncomfortable. It’s ok to sit in it and feel that discomfort. That means you’re learning and developing. It’s ok to make mistakes, but don’t use that as a crutch to not take action and give up. If you make a mistake, own it, apologize and work to do better.
  
  
• Here are some articles to learn how you can be a better ally:
• https://sojo.net/articles/our-white-friends-desiring-be-allies
• http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliawuench/2020/06/02/first-listen-then-learn-anti-racism-resources-for-white-people/#5eb533fe16ee
• https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/white-antiracism-living-the-legacy
• https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/kivel3.pdf
  
  

• If you’re a parent, we have posted some resources here to help you talk to your children about race and racism.

Donate.

• Before you donate to any cause, make sure you do your research. Charitynavigator.org is one resource you can use to check how funds are utilized.
  
  
• It is important to encourage and inspire others to donate, but refrain from seeking credit for your participation. It is not important that you receive credit or publicity for the donation. It’s about giving to causes or organizations you support.
  
  
• While it may seem like a good idea to organize a chapter fundraiser or encourage people to give through a competition, game, etc., there is no reason to pool money together before it is donated in this instance. Take the time and energy that would have been put into organizing a fundraiser and use it to take immediate action instead.

• Any donations made directly by a college chapter or alumnae association must follow all policies and procedures set forth in Alpha Xi Delta’s National Bylaws and Fundraising Policies.
  
  
• We encourage giving directly to an organization rather than participating in partial proceeds fundraisers or “give back” events so that more funds are given to the cause.
  
  
• Research if credit card fees are subtracted from the donation or if you have the opportunity to cover the cost of the fees.
  
  
• A note about using Venmo to collect money: This may be a risk and is strongly discouraged. Individuals/accounts collecting money may become responsible for income taxes associated with any funds received. You will be personally responsible to the IRS.