news & announcements

Recommended articles

• "How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change" Medium, by Barack Obama.
• "The Systems That Protect the Police" from The New York Times.
• "Communicating Your Support For #Blacklivesmatter: Dos, Don’ts, And Resources" from 500WomenScientists.org.
• A short history of nonviolent protest for Black Americans, via Nikole Hannah-Jones’ twitter.
• "America Wasn’t a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One" from The New York Times Magazine.
• "A Letter from a Yale student to the Chinese American Community" from Chinese American.
• "Letters for Black Lives: Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother, Family" from the Letters for Black Lives project.
• "The Case For Reparations" from The Atlantic.
• “What too many white people still don’t understand about racism” from The Boston Globe.
• Justice in June: Compilation of readings, audio, and concrete actions someone could take daily for a month to help educate themselves and actively be anti-racist. Curated by Autumn Gupta with oversight from Bryanna Wallace.
• Scaffolded anti-racist resources: Compilation of anti-racist resources that are scaffolded for learning.
• Check out #shutdownSTEM, which provides resources that are organized by learning tracks, and Particles for Justice, which explains the purpose and goals of #shutdownSTEM and #strikeforblacklives and provides additional resources.
• Read resources curated by The Work: Learning with Purpose, which includes “Beginner,” “Educational,” and “Perspective” reads.

Recommended books

• Shades Community Book Reading group’s current book, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, which will be discussed on Thursday, June 18.
• How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.
• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo.
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo.
• The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh.
• We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
• How to be Black by Baratunde Thurston.

Recommended movies and videos

• Watch quick takes from Trevor Noah, Hasan Minhaj (explicit), and John Oliver (explicit).
• Watch 13th on Netflix, which explores the relationship between race, politics, and mass incarceration in the US. 
• Watch “Talking to Children Authentically About Race and Racism” on the PBS KIDS for Parents’ youtube channel and use that to discuss with your children.

Other recommendations

• Take the Implicit Association Test in the "Social Attitudes" section. You can register or take it as a guest. It takes ~10 minutes and many will find the results enlightening. 
• Podcast: 1619, which examines how slavery transformed America. From The New York Times.

Organizations supporting communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19:

Local Organizations:

• Neponset Neighbors Together Fund (Milton, Mattapan, Dorchester, and Hyde Park).
• The One Chelsea Fund.

National Organizations:

• Center for Policing Equity - This organization uses data science to bring about police reform.
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund - The premier legal organization fighting for racial justice.
• The Loveland Foundation - an organization that focuses on bringing opportunity and healing to communities of color and especially to Black women and girls.

Local businesses selling face masks:

• Steele Canvas - Chelsea-based manufacturing business.
• Rephairations - Black-owned business in Arlington.

Please also see this crowdsourced list of Black-owned local restaurants.