This month has certainly been a mental whirlwind. I’m still trying to organize the mass amount of information I’ve been taking in into my thought catalog, but I’m feeling a little like I need a degree in library science or in the least I need to figure out how to be more type A? I wish I could do it all, but none of the dismantling of systemic racism is meant for the shoulders of one person anyway. We all must keep adding bricks to the building (or remove them, whichever metaphor visually works better for you).
I’ve had trouble sorting where to start, yet I’m very enthusiastic to learn about all the information I’ve been blind too. I was able to hit pause on the swirling for a few to take a little bit of action though. If you saw one of my Instagram posts recently I decided to do a monthly accountability post to keep this movement top of mind and encourage myself and others to continue taking action. I decided to do one (if not all) of the following each month and share about it in hopes that it will inspire others to do the same. Normally I’ll probably just share this on Instagram, but thought a little further explanation in a blog post could be helpful.
Actions
- Donate to an organization that helps the Black community
- Make a purchase from a Black owned business
- Listen to a podcast/read a book/watch a documentary on social justice issues
- Share and follow a new account on social media from someone in the Black community
I know this might seem small and could come across as performative action, but each small effort truly is something and they will add up if we all commit. I really connected to this quote by Dorothy Day:
“People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
I’ve been trying to think of a hashtag to collect all the info so we share together and what I’ve come up with so far is #smallactionsquares with the idea that hundreds of thousands of small actions (and IG squares) add up big and bold statements. So this is my “pebble” or “small action” for this month. I decided that since June is Pride Month, and that it’s nearly over, that I’d connect all my efforts to positively impact the Black LGBTQ community especially. A few facts first though (source of stats found here):
Facts
- The Black LGBTQ community is disproportionately affected by poverty, HIV, hate crimes, harassment and criminal injustice.
- While 2012 isn’t ultra-recent, a report from that year found that “32 percent of children being raised by Black same-sex couples live in poverty, compared to 13 percent of children being raised by heterosexual Black parents and just 7 percent being raised by married heterosexual white parents.”
- Around 34% of Black transgender people are estimated to live in extreme poverty as compared to just 9% of non-transgender Black people.
- Black transgender women face the highest levels of fatal violence within the LGBTQ community.
- A conservative estimate shows that transgender women face 4.3 times the risk of becoming homicide victims than the general population of all women.
Watched
The New Black
The brief synapsis: “The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights.The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community’s institutional pillar—the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda.”
Purchased (or on wishlist currently!)
Moon Mother Apothecary – Heart Tea Blend
Moon Mother Apothecary is an LGBTQ Black Woman owned company founded by Suhaly Bautista-Carolina who is an herbalist, artist and community organizer. Her products are gorgeous – I want them all! Unfortunately I haven’t actually purchased this item yet because it’s been out of stock, but as soon as it’s back I’m putting it in the cart! The Heart tea is for things like anxiety and tension in the body and promotes self love, hope and courage in the mind. It’s made with delicious herbs and florals like rose and hibiscus.
Donate
Brave Space Alliance Chicago
I chose this organization to donate to because it helps LGBTQ citizens right here in my home city of Chicago. This is their mission quoted from their website: “Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. We strive to empower, embolden, and educate each other through mutual aid, knowledge-sharing, and the creation of community-sourced resources as we build toward the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”
A few other organizations that support the Black LGBTQ community outside of Chicago:
Social Media Account
I recently found @PlantKween on Instagram and they are just so positive and up-lifting. Plus I love all the botanical vibes and all the jazzy plant information. Such a fun account!
And that’s a wrap for June. These action are really the least I can do, and they certainly are not where I stop, but these are the easiest to share and ripple with. So let me know if you learned or discovered anything new from my post and share below if you’ve taken any of these actions yourself. Stay tuned for more coming next month!
