Newsletter – June 17, 2020
Want to receive tips like this emailed to you each month? Sign up here.
So you’ve declared that Black Lives Matter. Now what?
Hi friends,
It’s been a Pride month full of celebration and struggle. Since you last heard from us, activists celebrated the Minneapolis City Council’s decision to dismantle their police department, then mourned the murder of Rayshard Brooks by a police officer in Atlanta. On Monday, LGBTQ people and allies celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling to protect LGBTQ workers while many sat with grief and outrage over the murders of Riah Milton and Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, two Black trans women. This Friday, millions will honor the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth by taking action to defend Black lives, less than one week after the murder of BLM activist Oluwatoyin Salau.
For social justice leaders, celebration and struggle go hand-in-hand. Not only because every win is hard-fought, but because they remind us how much more work is left. The work of anti-racism is similar. We recognize milestones and progress, and then we press on. In the last few weeks, many leaders and managers have made statements about addressing anti-Black racism—a notable first for some of us—and we can’t stop there.
This newsletter, we’re bringing you a follow-up to our last article, How to Manage When Things Are Not Okay (And Haven’t Been For Centuries). In this piece, we share five things for leaders to consider doing to live by their Black Lives Matter solidarity statements:
Read: “So you’ve declared that Black Lives Matter. Now what?”
In celebration and struggle,
Monna
Other Resources
On anti-Black racism:
- To learn more about Juneteenth, including its history and ways to take action, check out Hella Juneteenth. Get involved this Juneteenth weekend with the Movement for Black Lives.
- For insights and perspectives from Black staff and leaders:
- Black Pain. Black Power. (Jarrett Lucas, Executive Director of the Stonewall Community Foundation)
- In Defense of Black Staff in the Political Sector (Inclusv)
- Working While Black: Stories from black corporate America (Fortune)
- For resources on identity-based caucuses:
- Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People (The Arrow)
- Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups (Craig Elliott)
- Building an Effective White Caucus (Roots of Justice)
On COVID-19:
- Thinking about whether (or when) to reopen your office? We’ve created a survey to help you assess staff needs and gather input for making decisions.