show up for Black people, redistribute your wealth, check your privilege, check in on your friends, abolish the police
Hello:
In the past few weeks, I've appreciated the proliferation of links about places to donate money, articles that expand my narrow perspective, and practical advice for dealing with the realities of demonstrating during this specific moment. I'm grateful to the Black folks who have put their time and energy and effort into organizing, writing, and speaking so that people like me can access all of these resources so easily. I am horrified and saddened that the people who are already forced to bear the unspeakable grief, fury and sorrow of the past few weeks (and months, and years, and decades, and centuries) are also consistently forced to explain how the world works for white people who refuse to see it for what it is.
On social media, I find that things can sometimes pass by and slip away before I've had the time to fully consider them, or even to click, so I started to consolidate and organize some of the links that I wanted to be able to come back to. At first I was compiling this list for myself, and then I thought this newsletter might be a useful tool to distribute those links a little more widely.
This is by no means AT ALL AT ALL AT ALL a comprehensive list of anything; you will see that pretty clearly as you read. It’s just a combination of links I’ve seen recommended often, plus some smaller orgs and initiatives that I wasn't seeing as much and wanted to be able to come back to later. It includes organizations in Toronto, in Canada and across the US. This list also exists in Google Doc form here; I will do my best to add to and update it regularly. (Also, I'm sorry the spacing in this email is so intense - I pasted it in directly from the doc and didn't want to risk messing too much with the formatting. If it drives you crazy, just click on that link.)
If there’s a link you’d like me to add to this list, please send it to me at apartmentpoem@gmail.com. I’d especially love to add links to Canadian organizations and funds outside Toronto and the GTA; I’m not connected to those communities, so any help broadcasting links to places and people that could use some attention would be very much appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
Justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet
Justice for George Floyd
Justice for Tony McDade
BLACK LIVES MATTER
CLOSE THE PRISONS
ABOLISH THE POLICE
Be well and stay safe.
Bail Funds + Mutual Aid + Wealth Redistribution:
(TO) Toronto protester bail fund
(TO) Eritrean-Ethiopian COVID solidarity fund - “Help Eritrean and Ethiopian members of our community afford their rent, groceries, and medication during a difficult pandemic.”
(TO) Black Food Toronto - “Building A Team And Raising Money To Provide Emergency Food Support To Individuals And Families Within The African, Caribbean, Black Community In Toronto Who Have Been Affected By COVID-19 And In Need Of Support Accessing Food.”
(TO) “#NotAnotherBlackLife is partnering with FoodShare to deliver FREE large GoodFood Boxes to Black families in Toronto who are self-isolating after the JUSTICE FOR REGIS march on May 30, 2020.” Donate here, and write “Not another Black life” in the message box to specify it’s for this fund.
(USA) I found this list of organizations seeking donations usefully uncluttered - it’s organized by state, and features a few bail funds and mutual aid networks for each one.
(USA) The National Bail Fund Network has an incredibly useful list of bail funds state-by-state; both pretrial and immigration bail funds are listed.
(USA) They also have an emergency COVID-19 response fund where your donation will be split across the full network of bail funds in the network.
(USA) ActBlue also has a resource that also lets you split a donation between a network of 40 bail funds.
(USA) The Bail Project - revolving national bail fund.
(USA) LGBTQ Freedom Fund - posting bail for LGBTQ people in the US
(USA) Redistribute Directly - helping to redistribute funds directly to Black and Indigenous LGBTQ2S+ individuals in need
(USA) A twitter thread of frontline youth you can donate to and help directly
(USA) A long list of links to a wide range of organizations and individuals compiled by @tintavrde on twitter
(NYC) Bed-Stuy Strong mutual aid network - “We are a mutual aid network of over 3,000 people from across Bed-Stuy who are supporting our community during the COVID-19 crisis. We crowdsource donations and use them to provide no-contact grocery deliveries for vulnerable members of our Bed-Stuy communities.”
(NYC) NYC Black Mutual Aid network
(ATL) Homeless Black trans women fund
ORGANIZATIONS:
(North America) Black Lives Matter - find your local chapter
(North America) Showing Up for Racial Justice - list of chapters and affiliates
(Canada) Black Health Alliance - “a community-led registered charity working to improve the health and well-being of Black communities in Canada.”
(ON) Black Legal Action Centre - “A non-profit community legal clinic that provides free legal services for low or no income Black residents of Ontario.”
(ON) Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue - “dedicated to supporting, documenting and showcasing the artistic and cultural contributions of Black artists and cultural workers in Canada and internationally.”
(TO) Black Lives Matter Toronto
(TO) RITES program for African-Canadian youth - “a culturally specific, identity development initiative that supports the empowerment of Black and African-Canadian youth between the ages of 13 and 18. RITES employs an integrated, full spectrum model of support and care so participants have access to range of coordinated mental health clinical and program supports and resources.”
(USA) The Marsha P. Johnson Institute - “protects and defends the human rights of blacktransgender people. We do this by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power.”
(USA) Unicorn Riot - “a decentralized, educational 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization of artists and journalists. Our work is dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world.”
(USA) Campaign Zero - “Funds donated to Campaign Zero support the analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.”
(USA) UndocuBlack network - “a multigenerational network of currently and formerly undocumented Black people that fosters community, facilitates access to resources, and contributes to transforming the realities of our people, so we are thriving and living our fullest lives.”
(MN) Reclaim the Block - “Organizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety.”
(MN) Black Visions Collective - “Envisions a world in which ALL Black Lives Matter. We use the guidance and brilliance of our ancestors as well as the teachings of our own experiences to pursue our commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and violence.”
(NYC) Equality for Flatbush - “Does anti-police repression, affordable housing, & anti-gentrification organizing in East Flatbush, Flatbush & Brooklyn-wide”
RESOURCES:
ON COPS AND LOOTING:
MPD 150 has a really useful list of resources about abolishing the police on their website. This zine, which you might have already seen on Instagram, is a great starting point if you (or someone you know) have ever wondered what, exactly, defunding the police might mean, how it might be possible, and what you can do to help.
This New York Times op-ed is also useful, concise and contemporary; great for sending to friends and relatives who are on the right track but don't yet understand what defunding the police would mean.
There are many excellent pieces on looting from the past week, like this one by Ashley Reese, but this one from 2014 is the first thing I ever read that explained it to me clearly. I return in particular to this quote a lot:
“The mystifying ideological claim that looting is violent and non-political is one that has been carefully produced by the ruling class because it is precisely the violent maintenance of property which is both the basis and end of their power. Looting is extremely dangerous to the rich (and most white people) because it reveals, with an immediacy that has to be moralized away, that the idea of private property is just that: an idea, a tenuous and contingent structure of consent, backed up by the lethal force of the state. When rioters take territory and loot, they are revealing precisely how, in a space without cops, property relations can be destroyed and things can be had for free.”
MENTAL + PHYSICAL HEALTH:
The BEAM collective supports black emotional and mental health; their website has phone numbers, resources for finding a therapist, and toolkits for wellness.
Ethel’s Club has posted a list of mental health resources for Black people in the US
I’ve also listed a few Toronto-specific resources down the page.
PROTESTING SAFELY:
Indigenous Resilience has made a digestible guide to protesting and pandemic prevention - perfect for posting on instagram and full of simple advice for keeping yourself and those around you safe.
Riot Medicine - a comprehensive and free downloadable resource for protest medics
A useful thread about intervening as a bystander on police interactions.
TORONTO-SPECIFIC:
(TO) List of Black-owned businesses and restaurants in the GTA open during COVID
(TO) List of free and low-cost mental health support and distress lines in the GTA
(TO) TAIBU community health centre “is a multidisciplinary, non-for-profit, community led organization established to serve the Black Community across the Greater Toronto Area as its priority population.”
(TO) Template for calling on Toronto’s elected officials to defund the police