Racial Justice: How Can I Help? 

Our Meeting encourages ALL in our community to become active! The following are some resources that might help you take action:

• Check out the new exhibit entitled “Pool: A Social History of Segregation” at the Fairmount Water Works to explore the connection between water, social justice and public health: www.poolphl.com.
   
• For a basic understanding of Critical Race Theory, a hot topic right now, check out the following article: Click Here

• Measure your behavior to see where you are in your goal to being an ally using this checklist created by Dr. John Raible “out of the need to articulate specific behaviors that led me to view certain individuals as “allies” in the struggle against racism…after thinking about what behaviors allowed me to develop a degree of trust with certain individuals, whether they identified as white people or as people of color.” Click Here

• Watch a 20-minute film from The Marshall Project and Frontline on an undocumented family dealing with detention, homelessness, and Covid-19. Warning: I needed tissues. Click Here
   
• Play the Race Game Thandeka, an African American Unitarian Universalist minister invented the Race Game, described in her 1999 book Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America. It was homework given when taking a course from CSWAC (Center for the Study of White American Culture).  The Race Game is based on just one rule. For the coming week you must use a racial/ethnic descriptor whenever you mention someone. For instance, “my Latinx boss,” “my white husband,” “my Black son-in-law,” “my Arab neighbor.”  Observe any feelings that come up as you step outside of the norms for describing people and then talk to someone about your experience.
   
• Click Here to view a powerful Photo Essay entitled Stranger Fruit, which puts visual images to the fear of loss and trauma that is constant for America’s Black mothers.“5 Tips for being an Ally”

• Click Here for 5 ways to Act as an Ally. From 2014, but still relevant today.
   
• “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” Reni Eddo-Lodge Click Here From Britain, this is a quick discussion of her book by the same name, originally started with a post to her blog.
   
• “9 Phrases Allies Can Say When Called Out Instead of Getting Defensive” by Sam Dylan Smith Click Here Originally written for LGBTQIA, this applies to race as well and is a good way to fight against white fragility on a person-to-person basis.

• Click Here for 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Injustice
   
• Click Here for information from White Accomplices, which provides ideas and resources mostly from people of color
   
• Anti-Racism Reading Recommendations from Friends Journal: https://www.friendsjournal.org/quaker-antiracist-reading-list/
   
• “All Our Griefs: What Do We Do Now?” Sharon Browning https://justlistening.net/all-our-griefs-what-do-we-do-now/
   
• Recommended reading: “Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Frontlines” by Jenna Arnold, an AFS Alum
   
• Donate to the Movement for Black Lives Mutual Aid Fund
   
• Take a few minutes to answer this anonymous 10-question survey about how you’ve supported Black Lives Matter over the past month, and how you can be supported in the days ahead. While the survey is from June 2020, looking at it can give you ideas for supporting BLM.
   
• Click Here for information from PYM’s Anti-Racism Collaborative. Use this link to look at ARC’s site as it grows: https://www.pym.org/anti-racism-collaborative/
   
• Check out the three videos used for our Antiracism Workshop at AFM held on 7/20/20:
  Click Here for Verna Myers: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them.
  Click Here for Cracking the Codes: Joy DeGruy “A Trip to the Grocery Store”
  Click Here for The Danger of Silence: Clint Smith
   
• https://youtu.be/3nzoPopQ7V0 Taking you back to 1970, listen to this song written and performed by Gil Scott Heron. Think about where we are now as a country compared to then.
   
• https://youtu.be/TM6ehzu3p4c  Want to understand when and why the term “white” was invented? This 36-minute video by Dr. Jacqueline Battalora is a comprehensive history, given the time frame.
   
• https://twitter.com/i/status/1290428862870913024  Listen to this short video for a glimpse into what it feels like for a Black man to have a white ally.
   
• https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race The National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian, has a useful page of tools and resources to think and talk about race.
   
• These two sources look at wealth by race. In case you find them too long or technical or boring, here’s two highlights. The first is a study done that shows in Boston in 2016 white families had a median wealth of almost $250,000, whereas non-immigrant Black families had a median wealth of $8. Yup that’s right, no zeros. The second is a study from 2020 that shows white households have ten times the wealth of Black households and eight times the wealth of Latinx households.
  https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/color-of-wealth.aspx  https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1200&context=njlsp   
   
• https://youtu.be/M854i7Ck5a4  See an example of an acknowledgement, apology, and atonement from Davidson College’s President Quillen for the role in perpetuating slavery and systemic racism.
   
• Here’s some short videos to start a conversation with yourself or others.
  White People on Race
  https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003773643/a-conversation-with-white-people-on-race.html 
  A Conversation About Growing Up Black
  https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003670178/a-conversation-about-growing-up-black.html
  A Conversation With Police on Race
  https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/opinion/a-conversation-with-police-on-race.html
   
• Please read this important article on Rethinking William Penn, an important antiracism issue: https://www.friendsjournal.org/rethinking-william-penn/

Resources on Indigenous Peoples:

• https://www.coalitionofnativesandallies.org/educational-resources-1
  From the Coalition of Natives and Allies focused on ridding our nation of Native-based mascots, there is a listing of resources available for more general education on Indigenous peoples as well.
   
• The Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools: Facing our History and Ourselves, recording of a one-hour slide presentation, November 2022.
   
• The Quaker Indian Boarding Schools: Facing our History and Ourselves, by Paula Palmer, a chapter in Quakers and Native Americans, eds. Ignacio Gallup-Diaz and Geoffrey Plank (2019, Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands).
   
• Report of New England Yearly Meeting’s Quaker Indigenous Boarding Schools Research Group (note 11.10.24: this is an internal report; the Yearly Meeting is preparing an official report to the Department of the Interior)
   
• New England Yearly Meeting and Indigenous Boarding Schools, a talk by Gordon Bugbee presented to the Friends Historical Association, November 2, 2024.
   
• Two articles from the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia written by professors.
  https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/first-purchasers-of-pennsylvania/ 
  https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/treaty-of-shackamaxon-2/
   
• FACTS on Native American History
   
• How Do We Actually HONOR Native Americans
   
• Two Important Videos: Pendle Hill held a Truth & Reconciliation Healing Conference in 2018. Two powerful videos from that conference are available. The first is the Keynote Speaker, Mark Charles, on the Doctrine of Discovery (2 hrs and 8 m). The second is Dr. Denise Lajimodiere on Indian Boarding Schools & Historical Trauma (1 hr and 19 m.).
  https://youtu.be/8ezw_xNkkdM
  https://youtu.be/MnuoGIiO2QM
   
• Click Here for the truth about boarding schools 
   
• Check out this action taken by British Quakers: Click Here
   
• New York Yearly Meeting (2017): Doctrine of Discovery Factsheet
   
• Boulder Friends Meeting (2016): Toward a Right Relationship with America’s Native Peoples
   
• Western Friend (2015): Interview with Paula Palmer, Quaker leader working to right the relationships between non-Natives and Natives