“Everything hurts!” “They’re going to kill me, they’re going to kill me man!” “I can’t breathe!” screamed George Floyd as officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck, ignoring his pleas for help. When the EMTs arrived, he was already gone. George had just become another victim of police brutality. When the video surfaced on the internet, it caused a stir. Thousands took on the streets to protest. Enough is enough. If you want to help this cause and don’t know where to start, I’ve listed some things that you can do to help support this movement below.
Understand the BLM movement
First and foremost, you need to educate yourself and understand why this is happening. One great resource to look at is the Anti-Racism Project. Their mission is to educate people about how institutionalized and internalized racism as well as white privilege feeds oppression. It’s a great place to start. Another great resource is Why is this happening? which is an introduction to police brutality. It discuses lynching, implicit bias, white silence, and more. Next, watch this. This video explains privilege in the simplest way possible and it’s something a lot of people don’t understand. Having privilege doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been hard or that you haven’t struggled to be where you are at now. It just means that the color of your skin will never bring you an extra amount of problems. Here’s a google doc with more resources where you can learn more about this cause.
Protest
People have taken to the streets to protest. If you plan on participating, please be safe. Here’s a protest info card with protest support with phone numbers to call if you get arrested, tips on how to help, tips on how to prepare for a protest, information about your rights as a citizen, social media safety, and educational resources. More tips:
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Don’t wear contacts!! If exposed to tear gas, it will burn your contacts and make you permanently blind.
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Wear a mask and gloves! Let’s not forget we are still in the middle of a pandemic.
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Write your emergency contacts with a sharpie on your forearms.
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Wear shapeless clothes with no logos. The police profile people with shapes, not faces. They’re looking for “a thin black man in an Adidas shirt,” not your face. There’s safety in a crowd who all look like you
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Put your hair up or wear a hat/hoodie.
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Bring a water bottle and a first aid kit.
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Check this twitter thread for more tips
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Check this video for information on what to do if tear-gassed and what to bring to fight tear gas
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Check this twitter thread for safety tips
For those protesting, please be careful and safe. Also please be aware of undercover cops.
If you’re like me and your parents won’t let you go to the protests because they’re scared something might happen to you, there are other ways to help. There are many funds you can help support:
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George Floyd Memorial Fund: This fund was established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist George’s family in the days to come as they continue to seek justice for George. A portion of these funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.
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Minnesota Freedom Fund: this is a community-based nonprofit that pays criminal bail and immigration bonds for individuals who have been arrested while protesting police brutality
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The Bail Project, Inc.: Their mission is to combat mass incarceration and reshape the pretrial system in the United States
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Reclaim the Block: this is a coalition that advocates and invests in moving money from the police department into other areas of Minneapolis city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) NAACP: this organization focuses on ensuring the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and eliminating racial hatred and racial discrimination
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Black Visions Collective: a Black, trans, & queer-led organization that aims to center their work in healing and transformative justice principles, intentionally develop their organization’s core “DNA” to ensure sustainability, and develop Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership to lead powerful campaigns
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National Bail Out: a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and activists building a community-based movement to support black people and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration
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Black Youth Project: This campaign is dedicated to improving the lived experiences of Black people
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If you’d like to donate to multiple places, make sure to check out Act Blue. In this website, you can split your money between multiple organizations in one transaction.
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There are many, many more funds going around, check this spreadsheet for more
Signs the petitions and share
If you are short on money and can’t donate, there are still things you can do. There are many petitions out there you can sign and share:
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Justice for Floyd: a petition to demand ALL of the officers involved in the George Floyd incident are charged with murder
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#JusticeforAhmaud: Ahmaud Arbery was another black man who was jogging near his neighborhood before being shot and killed in cold blood by two white police officers back in February.
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Justice for Breonna Taylor: Breonna was shot and killed in her own house when a bunch of white officers did an illegal drug search. Not only were they in the wrong house, but they also haven’t gotten any chargers.
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Justice For Tamir Rice: Tamir was a 12-year old who was playing in a park with a toy gun before he was killed instantly by the police, the second they got there. The officers received special treatment and did not get charged
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Hands Up Act: this petition proposes a bill that protects people who have every right to feel threatened by law enforcement
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Raise the Degree: a petition to put Derek M Chauvin in jail
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#DefundThePolice : this petition calls for radical, sustainable solutions that affirm the prosperity of Black lives throughout America
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Demand the Arrest of the Other Three Officers: Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged for the murder of George Floyd yet the other three officers involved were not. This petition demands the arrests of those other 3 officers
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Mandatory Life Sentence for Police Brutality: This petition asks for stricter consequences towards those who abuse their power as police officers and kill innocent black people
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Check this twitter thread. It’s full of videos whose revenue from the ads in the videos will be donated to a bunch of organizations. Please watch the videos and ads in full. You can literally run them in the background. If you can spend 3+ hours on Tik Tok, you can watch a 20-minute video.
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There are thousands of petitions to sign. It literally takes less than a minute to sign one and share it. For more, see this google doc.
Call, Text, and Email
If you personally don’t like to share your political opinion online, you can still help.
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Text “FLOYD” to 55156 to demand the officers that killed George Floyd are charged with murder
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Text “JUSTICE” to 668366 and they’ll send you a link to demand that all cops involved in the murder of George Floyd are arrested
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Text “ENOUGH” to 55156 to demand justice for Breonna Taylor
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Text “TONY MCDADE” to 484848 to demand justice for Tony Mcdade, a black trans man who was shot and killed by white officers in Florida
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Call (612) 324-4499 to reach DA Michael Freeman, who has the power to arrest and charge all of the officers
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Email police@minneapolismn.gov and demand that the 4 men involved in the murder of George Floyd are held accountable
You can email, text, and call all these people and no one would ever know. It literally doesn’t take more than 2 minutes, which I’m sure you can spare.
Lastly, make sure to vote. As an immigrant in this country that can’t register to vote, I beg you. Please, please vote. It DOES count. Former President Barack Obama wrote some thoughts and shared them through Medium. He said “And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognizes the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and wants to do something about it. The elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels. It’s mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions.” To read more, click here. So next elections, whether they’re for the mayor in your city or state, make sure to vote. Change starts with electing those who acknowledge that we have a problem.
Everything that’s going on truly breaks my heart and infuriates me, but I’m not surprised. If you’re surprised, you have not been paying attention. Educate yourself, donate, sign, share, speak up, support, and protest. As a white person, I understand that I will never understand what you go through, but I stand with you. I’m here to listen to you and stand by your side. For my fellow white people, fight your biases and acknowledge your privilege. Use it to help this movement. Stand with them but listen and let them speak. This cycle of police brutality needs to end and we have the power of doing that. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.