reading
The damaging psychological impact of constantly having to explain racism
This article provides a great explanation of the toll imposed on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) who bear the burden of engaging in the emotional labor of educating their white counterparts about racism and its impacts on them. It’s a great piece for BIPOC and white folks alike. Read it here.
Accomplices not Allies: an Indigenous Perspective
This provocative piece is designed to challenge notions that allyship and accompliceship can be commodified as teachable topics by what the authors call the “ally industrial complex.” For more read here.
Land Repatriation and Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit
This is a brief guide for Resource Generation members and other folks with access to land to support in education and resource sharing around land reparations. This is a great guide for conservation organizations, agencies, and land trusts interested in learning about land repatriation. For more click here.
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Settler Privilege
In this two-part essay, the author examines why racism and anti-racism efforts are different from colonialism and decolonial efforts through the lens of settler privilege. This piece helps build awareness for people of all races and ethnicities who are not indigenous around how they have benefited from settler colonialism and how they may unwittingly contribute to continued colonialism. Here are links to part 1 and part 2 of the essay.
Relearning The Star Stories Of Indigenous Peoples: How the lost constellations of indigenous North Americans can connect culture, science, and inspire the next generation of scientists.
This Science Friday article and radio show episode talks about about the historical role of science in indigenous communities and considering a broader definition of science. In the piece, journalist Christie Taylor interviews Wilfred Buck, Cree elder and storyteller who teaches about indigenous astronomy. For more read and listen here.
Show Don’t Tell: Decolonize your classroom, syllabus, rules, and practices
This post for educators lays out some fundamentals to decolonizing your syllabus. For more read here.
Why don’t anti-Indian groups count as hate groups? The current understanding of ‘hate groups’ excludes those who undermine tribal rights and sovereignty.
This High Country news article discusses the impacts of colonialism and solo’d anti-racism efforts that have resulted in indigenous groups not being counted as protected classes under hate crimes laws. For more read here.
How The ‘Majority-Minority’ Projection Took On A Life Of Its Own
This radio piece on National Public Radio describes how the messaging surrounding the 2000 census triggered white fragility in people who grew to fear the impending “brown planet” that is to come in 2042. It’s an interesting piece on the Census, race categories, public messaging, and white fragility. For more click here.
Why am I always being researched? A guidebook for community organizations, researchers, and funders to help us get from insufficient understanding to more authentic truth
Chicago Beyond created this guidebook to help shift the power dynamic and the way community organizations, researchers, and funders uncover knowledge together. It is an equity-based approach to research that offers one way in which we can restore communities as authors and owners. It is based on the steps and missteps of Chicago Beyond’s own experience funding community organizations and research, and the courageous and patient efforts of our partners, the youth they serve, and others with whom we have learned. Visit the web page here.
My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem: A Mid-Year Check-In
Deepa Iyer demonstrates the ecosystem of social change, i.e. how we all show up in different yet essential ways to make positive social change and provides guiding questions for us as individuals and organizations to identify our role in this collective work. See her Medium post here.
Charting responses to white supremacy
This chart, created by Tobin Miller Shearer, provides a context for how to respond to questions often asked by white liberal communities regarding system-wide white supremacy: http://tobinmillershearer.blogspot.com/2017/11/charting-responses-to-white-supremacy.html
Addressing anti-blackness in communities of color
Vu Le, of Nonprofit AF, addresses the reality of anti-Blackness in non-Black communities of color and why dismantling it is necessary for true racial justice: https://nonprofitaf.com/2019/03/%EF%BB%BFpeople-of-color-we-need-to-address-our-own-anti-blackness-and-how-we-may-be-perpetuating-injustice/?fbclid=IwAR0UUawsE07SXcIBR3x8CdP9ebde111UE38grLxffYyuMaEKaaLJi1KqAMY