By Catherine Berman, Matt Trower & Aline Holzwarth

On June 10, 2020, our lab joined the campaign to #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM, #Strike4BlackLives, and reinvigorate our collective commitment to anti-racism. 

In this moment of global uprising, we stopped our usual work to invest our time and attention to ending anti-Black racism. We used this time to reexamine our research and cultural practices to build an equitable workplace, field, and world over the long term. We thank the creators of shutdownstem.com for this vital call to action. 

In the service of our continued learning and work, we want to share an introductory (and incomplete) list of resources that have guided our initial discussions. We offer these resources to help decrease friction (make it easier) and add fuel so that many more voices and minds work together for racial justice. Not all of these resources will apply to everyone; we hope you’ll find what’s useful to you.

Take Action

1. Donate Money to Black-Led Movement Organizations and Bailouts

• Black Visions Collective
• National Bail Out and Bail Funds Nationwide
• Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) 
• Movement for Black Lives
• Southern Coalition for Social Justice
• Find and fund social justice groups in your area

2. Work Together

• Work collectively with your family, community, and workplace:
  • At your workplace, build an equity group or change team committed to dismantling racism at three levels: personal/interpersonal, institutional, and cultural (thanks to Dismantling Racism Works for this framework).
  • For families and educators: talk to children about racism.
  • If you’re an academic or researcher, use the resources from #ShutDownStem to brainstorm ways to take action in your lab, university, and field. 
• Amplify and participate in long-term campaigns and calls to action 
  • Find calls to action from social justice groups led by directly-impacted community members in your local area. Some examples include local chapters of All of Us or None, Black Youth Project 100, and Black Lives Matter. 
  • Participate in or provide resources to demonstrations in your city. Make sure to read up on safety and etiquette at protests and commit to following Black leadership before attending.
  • Take the time to learn your rights as a protestor. The ACLU has a Know Your Rights page that is a good starting place. 
  • Read and follow the recommendations in this Guide to Allyship.

3. Speak Up

• for justice against police violence. 
• On social media, share calls to action from social justice organizations led by directly impacted communities.
  • Follow and retweet twitter accounts; find a list of organizations here.
  • Follow and share these hashtags: #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd, #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor, #Blacklivesmatter, #EndRacism,  #BlackintheIvory, and #SayTheirNames.

4. Support Black-Owned Businesses and Artists

• Search for and support Black-owned businesses in your local city. We found this list in our city of Durham, NC.
• Support Black artists (visual artists, musicians, writers, and more) both locally and across the nation by buying their work or sending them donations. Here is one of many resources we found in our city.

Educate Yourself

1. Read Books

• Join an anti-racist book club
• Antiracist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi 
• Antiracist Reading List on Goodreads
• The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (Ebook is currently free to download)
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

2. Listen to Podcasts

• White Lies by NPR
• Code Switch by NPR
• The 1619 Project  by the New York Times
• Pod Save the People by Crooked Media
• Uncivil by Gimlet Media 
• The Witness Podcast Network by Pass the Mic

3. Watch TV and Movies

• 13th (Netflix)
• When They See Us (Netflix)
• Whose Streets? (Hulu)
• Dear White People (Netflix)
• Let It Fall (Netflix)

4. Explore Further

• Dive into these resources (videos, articles, lesson plans, a guide for white people) compiled by Black Lives Matter leaders.
• Here is another anti-racism resource for beginners (FAQs, more ways to learn and take action) by Tiffany Bowden.
• Here is a collection of articles and anti-racism curriculum put together by Jon Greenberg.
• Read the psychological research on racism.
• Take a course on coursera about race, inequality, and social justice. 

Do you have another resource or way you’re taking action in your community or workplace? We’d love to continue to learn with you: you can reach CAH on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Gmail. 

“Racist policies are not indestructible. Racial inequities are not inevitable. Racist ideas are not natural to the human mind.” – Ibram X. Kendi, in How to Be an Antiracist. 

Many thanks to all the researchers at the Center for Advanced Hindsight who contributed resources to this article, including but not limited to Mariel Beasley, Jonathan Corbin, Jenna Clark, Judson Bonick, Becky Rayburn-Reeves, and Lyndsay Gavin.