- Author:
- Chris Stakich
- Published:
- June 16, 2020
- Favorites:
- Tagged In:
- Educators Gap Year Student Travel Curriculum
The events triggered by George Floyd’s death have started a national conversation about systemic racism in the United States (and around the world). There is a lot happening on our feeds right now, but one thing is clear: Black Lives Matter.
Wanting equality is not enough. We as individuals and the Rustic community must do more to support this movement. There is a lot we need to learn, both as a company and as individuals, and we are committed to educating ourselves and taking action to become better allies.
This guide was created by several members of the Rustic team – program leaders, country directors, and more. Think of this as an invitation – join us! This can be the first step in your own anti-racist education or a tool to help you leverage the power you have with friends, family, in your neighborhood, and at school. Think of it as an intro course, something to get the ball rolling. And when you’re done with our list, keep going! Many of us in the Rustic community have the privilege of getting to educate ourselves about systemic racism, rather than experience it first hand. Take advantage of the privilege and treat it as a responsibility. If you want to create change, follow the steps below. This is easy to do and it will matter.
Take Independent Action:
- Conduct a friend audit. How diverse is your friend group? Where is there lack of perspective?
- Reflect on where you get information. Where does it come from? What perspectives are missing? What could the impact of this gap be?
- Conduct a professional network audit. How diverse is your professional network? Where is there lack of perspective?
- Sign petitions about causes you care about. Change.org is a good source.
- Call your state and local representatives and tell them how you feel about issues and pending laws. Don’t like calling? Send emails!
- Define what anti-racist looks like for yourself and DO IT. It’s not good enough to want equality and cause no harm, you need to be anti-racist.
- Confront the Amy Coopers in your family, at school, at work, and amongst your friends.
- Register to vote. Visit I Am a Voter to register to vote, check your registration status, and get local election reminders.
- Support black-owned businesses. Support Black Owned and Shoppe Black are two directories to find local businesses in your area.
Get Educated:
- Take an implicit bias test, see where you stand.
- Watch these short videos about systemic racism from Raceforward.
- Learn about the Groundwater approach, another resource from the Racial Equity Institute to understand systemic racism. Their resources page is a great road map to learning more.
Watch these shows:
- United Shades of America
- Dear White People on Netflix
- When They See Us on Netflix
- Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise on PBS
Watch these movies and documentaries:
- 13th on Netflix
- Just Mercy
- Selma on Hulu
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
- American Son on Netflix
- If Beale Street Could Talk on Hulu
- Just Mercy on HBO Max
- King In The Wilderness on HBO
- See You Yesterday on Netflix
- Blindspotting, available to rent
- Clemency, available to rent
- Fruitvale Station, available to rent
- I Am Not Your Negro on Netflix
- The Hate U Give, available to rent
- Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975, available to rent
- LA ‘92 on Netflix
- Teach Us All on Kanopy
- Whose Streets? on Hulu
Watch these videos:
- Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers
- How to Deconstruct Racism, One Headline at a Time | Baratunde Thurston at TED2019
- How to Recognize Your White Privilege – and use it to fight inequality | Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools
- Dr. Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’
Listen to these podcasts:
- 1619 (New York Times)
- About Race hosted by Anna Holmes, Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby
- Code Switch (NPR)
- Intersectionality Matters! hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw
- Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
- Nice White Parents (Serial and The New York Times)
- Pod For The Cause (from The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
- Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
- Seeing White hosted by By John Biewen
- The 1619 Project (Apple Podcasts)
- Floodlines (The Atlantic)
- The Anxious Achiever: Discomfort, Anxiety, and Grief: Confronting Racism with Colleague (Harvard Business Review)
- The Diversity Gap (Apple Podcasts)
- Groundings bu hosted by Devyn Springer
- Good Ancestor Podcast hosted by Layla F. Saad
- Ibram X. Kendi: Building an Anti-Racist Society onn Spectrum News
Read these articles:
- “America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” by Adam Serwer | Atlantic
- Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists
- ”My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas | NYT Mag
- The 1619 Project (all the articles) | The New York Times Magazine
- The Combahee River Collective Statement
- “The Intersectionality Wars” by Jane Coaston
- Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups developed by Craig Elliott PhD
- “Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” by Courtney Martin
- ”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh
- “Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Call It What It Is: Anti-Blackness
- I Don’t Need ‘Love’ Texts From My White Friends
- A Guide to Allyship
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
- How to Talk to Your Children about Protests and Racism
Read these books:
- Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
- Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper
- Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
- How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
- Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold
- Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander - The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century
by Grace Lee Boggs - The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga
- When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
- Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble
- More readings on African American Literature Book Club, an online bookstore dedicated to books written by, or about, people of African descent in the United States and around the world
Have a Conversation with Friends and Family:
- Racial inequity looks the same across systems, what are those systems?
- Why is it important to think of these inequities as being interconnected and systemic? How is this related to the recent death of George Floyd?
- Critics of social justice initiatives complain that too many excuses are being made for those who have done wrong. What relevance might this opening line from The Great Gatsby have in the debate over this issue: “whenever you feel like criticizing anyone… just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”?
- What are some steps that we can take to confront these inequalities? Think in terms of groundwater approach → these are groundwater problems so they need groundwater solutions.
- What is making this moment different for you?
- Which statements/actions have you seen that you thought to be especially strong and effective and why? How did you assess them?
- What do we find hard to do at this moment (making a statement or posting, implementing a personal or organizational shift, talking to family about the topic, etc)?
- What’s your definition of success in your organizational leadership? Personal leadership?
Follow these people and organizations on your social media feeds - it’s easy:
- Alicia Garza: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Antiracism Center: Twitter
- Audre Lorde Project: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Black Futures Lab: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Black Lives Matter: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Black Women’s Blueprint: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Campaign Zero: Instagram
- Colin Kaepernick: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Color Of Change: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Colorlines: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- The Conscious Kid: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Emmanuel Acho: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Equal Justice Initiative (EJI): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Families Belong Together: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Justice League NYC: Twitter | Instagram + Gathering For Justice: Twitter | Instagram
- The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- The Movement For Black Lives (M4BL): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- MPowerChange: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Muslim Girl: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- NAACP: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- National Domestic Workers Alliance: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Rachel Cargle: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- RAICES: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- SisterSong: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
- Ta-Nehesi Coates: Instagram
- United We Dream: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
More resources to check out:
- For members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community: 14 Black funds and 23 creative ecosystems to support, from Annika Hansteen-Izora.
- #DoTheWork 30 Day Course by Rachel Cargle
- 7 courses that teach anti-racism
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Professional Development Offering of the eXtension Foundation Impact Collaborative
- Good Ancestor Academy by Layla F Saad: Personal Leadership and Anti-Racism Classes for becoming a Good Ancestor
- Real: Real is offering free therapy services to the public.
- The Loveland Therapy Fund: provides financial assistance to Black women and girls nationally seeking therapy
- Black Mental Health Resources from Girls’ Night In
- Anti-racism document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein
- National Resource and Education Tool
- Anti-Racism Project
- Jenna Arnold’s resources
- Rachel Ricketts’ racial justice resources
- Resources for White People to Learn and Talk About Race and Racism
- Save the Tears: White Woman’s Guide by Tatiana Mac
- Showing Up For Racial Justice’s educational toolkits
- “Why is this happening?” — an introduction to police brutality from 100 Year Hoodie
- Zinn Education Project’s teaching materials
Chris Stakich
Chief Executive Officer
An expert on travel and service-based education, Chris leads Rustic Pathways with an eye for innovation and excellence. Since graduating from Harvard in 2001, Chris has worked in virtually all areas of our organization, from running programs in Costa Rica to managing our global team. He works diligently with our team to develop future leaders who embody a broad perspective and compassion for the world. Chris lives in San Francisco with his wife and three young sons.