WE MUST EDUCATE OURSELVES

June 2020

Right now, a reckoning is long overdue towards systemic racism. However, as I do not know what it is like to face these injustices, I am not the one you should go to. Equally, it is not the responsibility of the few black students in our community to teach us about the prevailing inequalities. This is a time where we must use our voice, but we also must know when to listen and try to educate ourselves. 

We are privileged to learn and read about racism from books and movies instead of learning from experience. Now that summer is here, we must take the time to educate ourselves. 

Now more than ever we all must come together to fight against the prejudice of the black community. A first step to unraveling racial stereotypes and biases, is to listen to the multitude of voices who are talking. If you don’t know where to start, here are some I have been listening to and reading.

Movies:

1. “Self Made” (Netflix)

2. “The Hate U Give” (Netflix)

3. “The Help” (Netflix)

4. “All Day and a Night” (Netflix)

5. “Hidden Figures” (Amazon Prime)

Documentaries:

1. “Becoming – Michelle Obama” (Netflix)

2. “13th”  (Netflix)

3. “Teach Us All” (Netflix)

4. “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” (Amazon Prime)

5. “Freedom Riders” (Amazon Prime)

TV shows:

1. “Dear White People” (Netflix)

2. “When They See Us” (Netflix)

3. “Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now” (Netflix)

4. “All American” (Netflix)

5. “#BlackAF” (Netflix)

Books:

1. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee)

2. “The Hate U Give” (Angie Thomas)

3. “Noughts and Crosses” (Malorie Blackman)

4. “My Vanishing Country” (Bakari Sellers)

5. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Maya Angelou)

Articles:

1. How we can start systematically reforming the police – Bakari Sellers

2. America’s long overdue awakening to systemic racism – Justin Worland

3. Mothers of black Americans killed by police speak out: ‘Nothing’s changed’ – Khushbu Shah

4. This is what it feels like to be black in white spaces – Elijah Anderson

5. How students experience and cope with racist stereotypes – Eli Kintisch

Podcasts:

1. “1619” (The New York Times)

2. “Witness Black History” (BBC)

3. “Code Switch” NPR)

4. “Historically Black” (Washington Post)

5. “The United States of Anxiety” (WNYC)