Olivia Rubens
Hello all! Thank you for taking the time to look through this document.
I am posting this here as a resource for anyone who wishes to learn and
take action during such an important time as this, the biggest international
civil rights movement we have ever seen, and forever, for the lives of Black
people, as well as Indigenous people here in Canada. We have had enough.
Believing in the rights and lives of BIPOC is not enough. Being silently
present is not enough. We need to do the work with
them because it takes a mountain to create change against systemic racism and
white supremacy, and not just a week-long trend, but a permanent change and a
permanent stand. We are not absolved of racism here in Canada. The press simply
has not been publicizing this side of our country for too long. We need to hold
them accountable. We need to hold the police accountable. We need to hold our
governing organizations accountable. I hear things like “well I can’t make the
change in what I do so I don’t bother”. What would our world be like, our
generation be like, if we used that as an excuse? We must all continue to push
forward. It will be hard, but don’t give up.
A second point I would like to make is, like any industry, how this
affects Black people within the fashion industry, and how this is inextricably
linked to sustainable fashion. If you care about and take action in fashion and
sustainability, you have to do the same for the Black communities. I will be
posting more resources/information on this as well below.
“Racism derails our collective ability to fight climate crisis and
protect nature. Here’s the rub: If we want to successfully address climate
change, we need people of color. Not just because pursuing diversity is a good
thing to do, and not even because diversity lead as to better decision-making
and more effective strategies, but because, black people are significantly more
concerned about climate change than white people (57 percent vs. 49 percent),
and Latinx people are even more concerned (70 percent)... Climate work is hard
and heartbreaking as it is. Many people don’t feel the urgency, or balk at the
initial cost of transitioning our energy infrastructure, without considering
the cost of inaction. Many fail to grasp how dependent humanity is on intact
ecosystems. When you throw racism and bigotry in the mix, it becomes something
near impossible.” Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
The first thing you can do is educate yourself. You can use what you
learn to bolster difficult conversations with your friends and family. You
don’t need to be an “influencer” or have a massive audience to create change or
to have any audience at all. Speak and have those conversations. If anyone says
something that bothers you, don’t stand down and keep quiet. Point it out and
do something about it.
OK, so here is a list of resources that you can access to educate
yourself or others, to support the Black community, people you can follow and
support, actions you can take to hold your local politicians and organizations
accountable and to make change, and ways in which you can donate. Also if you
have any suggestions, or if I have said anything that is incorrect or I could
do better in some way and you’d like to let me know, please send me an email
at: info@oliviarubens.ca .
By posting this as well, I am not absolving myself either. These values
are entrenched in what I do within my work and who I support, but that is
clearly not enough. I need to do more, learn more, and stand and speak more
strongly as an ally. I am working my way through books, emailing city
counselors and representatives, signing and sharing petitions, donating, having
(many) tough conversations (and arguments) daily with those around me,
attending protests, and taking time silently to reflect and make changes as
well, but this is not about me and what I am doing, nor is it about you as a
white person. I am just saying that we all need to do so, SO much more, and not
temporarily. How can we make permanent changes in the conversations we have,
the wealth we distribute, the people we support, the reasons we buy, the
inherent biases we hold, the beliefs we uphold in our flawed system?
Watch List:
Who killed
Malcolm X
Time: The Kalief
Browder Story
13th
Explained: The
Racial Wealth Gap
Dear White
People
When They See Us
Fruitvale
Station
Seven Seconds
Self Made:
Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker
LA 92
BlindSpotting
Anne with an E
She’s Gotta Have
It
12 Years a Slave
The Innocence
Files
Training Day
American Son
Trigger Warning
with Killer Mike
Hollywood
Coach Carter
Black Lightning
All American
Family Reunion
I am Not Your
Negro - James Baldwin Documentary
Selma Ava
Duvernay
The Black
Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
The African
Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
Freedom Riders
Slavery by
Another Name
Eyes on the
Prize
The Black Power
Mixtape 1967-1975
Soundtrack for
aa Revolution
Dark Girls
The Black List:
Volume One
Breaking the
Huddle: The Integration of College Football
More than a
Month
BONUS | Through
a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
If Baele Street
Could Talk
Magazine list:
Jet
Ebony
Frwn Mag
Black Bride
Hip Hop Weekly
Black Enterprise
Cuisine Noir
Sweet July
Essence
XXL
Vibe
Uptown
Upscale
Afro Style
The Source
Real Health
Afroelle
Crisis
Podcast List:
1619
NPR Switch Code
Good Ancestor
Podcast
The Diversity
Gap
Speaking of
Racism
What Matters by
Black Lives Matter
Unapologetically,
us
About Race
Intersectionality
Matters
Pod For The
Cause
People/organizations to follow and support:
Giselle Buchanan
Humble the Poet
Mona Chalabi
Desmond Cole
Dr. Cheryl
Thomson
National Queer
and Trans Therapists of Color
Harriet’s
Apothecary
The Unplug
Collective
BEAM Collective
Black Girl in Om
The Slow Factory
A Different
Booklist
Foodshare TO is
providing food boxes to Black families self-isolating after Justice for
Regis March
Wellness therapy
created a fund to provide free or low cost mental health counseling to
Black clients in Toronto
Toronto Black
Film Festival
Black Women in
Motion
Black Youth
Helpline
Black Legal
Action Centre
Freedom School
Toronto
Federation of
Black Canadians
Harriet Tubman
Community Organization
Black Lives
Matter
The Most
Nurtured
Zero Gun
Violence Movement
Black Business
and Professional Association
No White
Saviours
Layla Saad
Rachel Cargle
Check Your
Privilege
Rachel Ricketts
The Great
Unlearn
Reni Eddo-Lodge
Ibram X. Kendi
Official
Millenial Black
Brandon K. Good
Angela Davis
Patia’s Fantasy
World (MASSIVE LIST OF RESOURCES)
Culture Art
Society
Dr. Ayana
Elizabeth Johnson
timelessgoods
shop
Sunshine Behavioral Health
Financial Literacy in the Black Community
Black Youth Matters: Understanding Mental Health Issues among Black Teens
Sustainable fashion
businesses to support, owned by POC:
soleRebels
LemLem
Omi Woods
Pure Hope
Clothing
Earth Toned
Breukelen
Polished
Mahnal
Proclaim
Behno
Brother Vellies
Two Days Off
Tree Fairfax
Studio 189
Black-led
LGBTQ organizations to support:
Black
AIDS Institute
The Transgender District
LGBTQ
- Freedom Fund
House
of GG
Trans Justice Funding Project
The Okra Project
Youth Breakout
Support for 2SLGTQIA+ POC:
Florin|Roebig
Places to donate:
Reclaim the Block
George Floyd Memorial Fund
Minnesota Freedom Fund
Campaign Zero
Unicorn
Riot
Black Visions Collective
IRR, the
anti-racist thinktank who concentrate on responding to the needs of Black
people and making direct analyses of institutionalised raacism in Britain
and Europe: www.irrr.org.uk .
Raise
money for the trust that was set up after Stephen Lawrence’s murder
in a racist attack in 1993. The trust works with young people from
disadvantaged backgrounds to support them in their future careers: www.stephenlawrence.org.uk .
The
Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness COVID-19 Women’s Relief Fund
Loveland Therapy Fund for Black
Women & Girls
Black Earth Farm Foods Donations
National Black Women’s Justice Institute
Black Lives
Matter (Black Lives Matter Toronto/Ottawa)
Justice for Regis
Toronto Protestor Bail Fund
African
American Policy Forum
Vancouver Black Therapy &
Advocacy Fund
Books to read:
How to be an
Antiracist,
Ibraam X. Kendi
Me and White
Supremacy,
Layla F. Saad
Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde
Hood Feminism, Mikki Kendall
White Fragility, Robin
Diangelo, PhD
Freedom is a
Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
Citizen: An
American Lyric,
Claudia Rankine
Why I’m No
Longer Talking to White People about Race, Reni
Eddo-Lodge
The New Jim
Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle
Alexander
Between The
World and Me,
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black Feminist
Though,
Patricia Hill COllins
Heavy, Kiese Laymon
Well-Read Black
Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, Glory Edim
Redefining
Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, Janet Mock
The Underground
Railroad,
Colson Whitehead
The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
This Will Be My
Undoing,
Morgan Jerkins
Things No One
Else Can Teach Us, Humble the Poet
Beauty in a Box:
Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture, Dr. Cheryl
Thomson
All About Love, Bell Hooks
Women, Race
& Class,
Angela Y. Davis
This Bridge
Called my Back,
Rosario Morales
The Invention of
Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, Oyèrónké
Oyewùmí
When
Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip Hop Feminist Breaks It Down, Joan Morgan
Playing in the
Dark,
Toni Morrison
Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde
The Black Woman,
An Anthology,
Toni Cade Bambara
Raising
Multiracial Children, Farzana Nayani
Taking a Knee,
Taking a Stand,
Bob Schron
Real Life, Brandon Taylor
The Long
Revolution of the Global South, Samir Amin
In Defense of
Julian Assange,
Tariq Ali
The God Child, Nana Oforiatta
Ayim
Here For It, R. Eric Thomas
The Skin We’re
In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, Desmond Cole
Eloquent Rage: A
Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Dr. Brittney Cooper
Heavy: An
American Memoir,
Kiese Laymon
I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
I’m Still Here:
Black Dignity In A World Made for Whiteness, Austin
Channing Brown
Just Mercy, Bryan
Stevenson
Redefining
Realness,
Janet Mock
So You Want to
Talk About Race,
Ijeoma Oluo
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
The Fire Next
Time,
James Baldwin
The Next
American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for Twenty-First Century, Grace Lee
Boggs
The Warmth of
Other Suns,
Isabel Wilkerson
Their Eyes Were
Watching God,
Zora Neale Hurson
This Bridge
Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Cherrie Moraga
Citizen: An
American Lyric,
Claudia Rankine
“They Can’t
Kills Us All”,
Wesley Lowery
The End of
Policing,
Alex S. Vitale
Are Prisons
Obsolete?,
Angela Y. Davis
Abolition
Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons and Torture, Angela Y.
Davis
Actions you can take
anywhere/anytime:
Vote for
legislative change.
Petition budget
cuts for your local PD.
Make the phone
calls to state attorneys to demand the indictments of criminal cops.
Participate in
actions with your local organizers.
Drop off
resources to protesters.
Use your
physical body and voice at protests.
Vocally state
that you are unwilling to support, passively or actively, the killing of
black people.
Use your
privilege.
Support Black
businesses, creators, and movements.
Redistribute
your wealth and empower Black people and communities. Do NOT contribute to
the disintegration of their independence. Contribute to their economic
mobility.
Demand defunding
of the police and budget transparency to city counselors.
Demand the press
release unbiased and true information about the human rights violations of
Black and Indigenous people here in Canada.
Demand different
resources (not police) to conduct wellness checks. This should not be
their job and it is resulting in murder and police brutality.
Specific actions to take in
the UK:
Sign the
petition to suspend UK exports of tear gas, rubber bullets and riot
shields to the USA: https://www.change.org/p/suspend-uk-export-of-tear-gas-rubber-bullets-and-riot-shields-to-usa
Sign the
petition for a demand for a Covid-19 race equality strategy:
https://www.change.org/p/bame-leadership-a-demand-for-a-covid-19-race-equality-strategy
Contacting your MP
Specific actions to take in
Canada:
Sign the petition to make
Winnipeg safe for all BIPOC
Sign the petition to increase
mental health services as many (especially in the Black communities and
BIPOC) do not have access
Sign the petition to create a
public consultation in Calgary on systemic racism
Sign the petition to implement
Black history and anti-racism in the curriculum in education in
Saskatchewan
Sign the petition to defund the
Winnipeg police
Schedule for upcoming Ottawa city
council meetings (live streamed on Youtube)
How to watch/listen to Ottawa
city council meetings
Educational Resources:
Black Demographics
Research current
policing strategy and issues, and promote effective, accountable and fair
policing: Stop-Watch
Canada's Slavery Secret: The
Whitewashing of 200 Years of Enslavement (CBC)
African
American Policy Forum
Institute
of Race Relations
Unicorn
Riot
Stop-Watch
Black Men Matter – Examining Mental Health Issues Among Black Men – A Guide To Freedom
This list is a constant
work in progress, and I am adding to it when possible. Again, I am welcoming
any suggestions!
Olivia Rubens, an ally.
