Charlottesville – What Can I Do?!

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White folks – this is not about you or your feelings. Before you can do anything on this list you absolutely must purge any thoughts about “This is not America”, “I can’t believe this” or “Why can’t we all just get along?” – put a pin in those thoughts for now, we’ll have time to clean them up later. For now we need action.

As with all things – Black women have been telling us what to do. So please listen to them.

From Leslie Mac:

From DiDi Delgado:

Black Lives Matter Charlottesville is on the ground, you can donate directly to them:

Pay Black Lives Matter Charlottesville using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/blmcville and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it’s easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries. Getting one is fast and free.

 

What can you do if you can’t donate?

You can signal boost.

Follow #Charlottesville on Twitter. Be informed. This is more important than soccer practice or birthday parties.

Get uncomfortable. Ask your friends to support the counter-protesters. Make your stance on this clear. Use the words “white-supremacy” when you’re talking about what’s happening right now. If you know anyone in Charlottesville counter-protesting, be on alert. Know who you need to get a hold of to help them. Have your contacts in place. Follow along. This is not a drill, do not brush this off as a one-time thing. This may be coming to a city near you soon. Support who you can, amplify the voices you can, take care of one another, and please, please, do not make this about your feelings. People are in serious danger right now, they don’t need your pity. They need you to change what you’ve been doing.

Also – if you know anyone in Charlottesville who is on the white supremacist side of the protest – start making their life miserable. This has gone beyond coming together as one. You’re going to have to pick a side, and if that means you don’t get to hang out with racist cousin Darcy anymore, well that’s the price that needs to be paid. Darcy isn’t cool anyway, he walks around carrying a tiki torch and pretending he’s in a musical.

 

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