For the month of June, I’ll be posting a blog post every day on the living hours. May was a whirlwind, and I’m itching to delve back into my world of words.
I couldn’t, however, begin this month of daily posting without first acknowledging what is happening in the world right now, and the fact that my content is – as a record of my life – inseparable from my privilege. I’m still grappling with how best to continue the sharing of information and showing of support on social media, but I did decide to take the first week of June away from the living hours and dedicate the time I would have spent writing blog posts to educating myself, confronting my own discomfort, sharing resources and Black voices, and figuring out how to support BIPOC – abroad and at home, here in Canada – both in this moment and long-term. This has been and will always be an ongoing process, as it should be.
I wanted to share a couple of the resources that I’ve been using over the last week and will continue using, with a reminder that this work should not end as our feeds slowly return to ‘business-as-usual’ content. Keep looking at the #blacklivesmatter, #amplifymelanatedvoices, and #antiracism tags. Encounter further information and resources on purpose. Diversify your feed: think about how you can and why you should do that (consider, for example, that Black creators are not favoured by social media algorithms; you may have to look harder to find them, so take full advantage of the posts circulating to promote Black creators to find some that speak to you). Continue doing the work, whatever that looks like for you. Bring that work home, to where you live and where you work and what you do. Keep reflecting and thinking and educating yourself.
ANTI-RACISM EDUCATORS:
https://www.rachelcargle.com/ (lecturer; also on Instagram)
https://novareid.com/ (has courses on anti-racism and white supremacy, and on being a courageous ally)
https://www.rachelricketts.com/resources (I’ve linked to Rachel Ricketts’ anti-racism resources page, but she also has anti-racism courses you can purchase)
TO BEGIN DIVERSIFYING YOUR FEEDS & THE BUSINESSES YOU BUY FROM:
Black-owned businesses: Beauty
Black-owned businesses: Fashion (pt. 1); (pt. 2)
Black-owned businesses: Home
Black-owned small businesses
Black influencers (this post includes family, food, finance, business, fitness, lifestyle, interiors, beauty, and fashion accounts; there are more in the comments)
Black-hosted podcasts
RESOURCE DOCUMENTS:
tinyurl.com/essentialantiracism (by @warmhealer on Instagram and Tumblr)
we must be anti-racist (by @ecrituria on Instagram and Tumblr)
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#
the living hours 