Out of a deep desire to do literally anything at all that might be remotely useful, I’ve done A Thing. I created this document. I call it “Basics for White People” and it is basically a crash course on the things I see white people seem to constantly struggle with understanding: our own privilege, the impossibility of reverse racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and why it’s important that we educate ourselves (and each other) on these things rather than asking (or, for the love of god, expecting) people of color to do that work for us.
The document is only one page long, because it really is just the basics and I was afraid that making it too overwhelming might turn people off from actually using it. I tried to make it accessible. Essentially, it’s a compilation of other sources — articles I’ve found and read through, mostly written by people of color — and for each of the ideas listed above, I also included a “the concept in a sentence” line because sometimes it seems to help really drive home a point if you just state it in the simplest possible way. And these truly are basic concepts. Sometimes, it just takes us a while to punch through all that systemic and societal, for lack of a better word, bullshit.
Please feel free to use this link however it best serves you. Use it to educate yourself, use it to educate those around you. If you’re tired of explaining, if you don’t understand it yourself. Or use this compilation to mine the links and find further information.
Anyone with the link can view the document, and anyone is welcome to take the link and share it wherever you think it might do some good — to your news feed, in comments, through private messages, wherever and however. You can share this post, you can create your own new post with the link. Just use it if you think it will be helpful.
Chelsea D.G. Bartlett 