Fighting White Supremacy: Following through

This article has been on my mind for several weeks:

https://greenerpasturesnw.medium.com/eight-minutes-46-seconds-and-365-days-c49a3956b797

It was posted on June 2nd, but acknowledging a year since the death of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020.

Medium contributor, speaker, and local businessman Stephen Green writes about the immediate surge of support, with protests and Facebook profile edits. He then notes that in the year since (longer now), police have killed an additional 229 Black people, and support for Black Lives Matter has decreased while support for law enforcement has increased.

That is discouraging, though not as surprising as one might hope.

In the article, Green also refers to a pledge with over 400 signatories:

https://www.iwilldomore.org/

You have to scroll down for it, but there are also concrete suggestions on things that one can do, and three phases for each suggestion.

For example, first you might start by following new Black people on social media. Do.

Then, since you are following new voices, you can choose to amplify one of them each week. Do more.

Then you could move on from retweeting and posting to suggesting others follow them. Do better.

That is an extreme simplification of one suggestion. Obviously, I want you to read the links, and see what he says in his own words.

I do want to point out some things.

First, notice what a natural progression it is. You have a suggested course of action there, but it is also one that might flow naturally.

Second, it increases your exposure to voices that you might not normally hear. It is very easy for white voices to drown out everything else, and even the nicest white people will miss things about the current state of racism. Increasing the points of view that you take in is important, and easy to neglect. However, I do believe that conscious action here can change you.

(Notice that this specific post is pointing you to someone else.) 

Finally, I want to point out that I didn't use "finally" in listing those steps. Just as these steps can lead to each other (possibly requiring some nudging), as you know more, understand more, and empathize more, there shouldn't be an end. Not until we are all free and equal.