Social Media Break, Graduation & Summer Reading/Listening
From June 1-8 we took a break from posting on social media. During that time, we continued to think about and act on ways to support our community.
This is the time of year that we are sending congratulations to our high school grads, the class of 2020. In lieu of graduation gifts, we’ve made a donation in their honor to Rock The Vote. Rock the Vote aims to register and educate millions of young voters, be a trusted source of information, and ultimately empower young people to use their voices and create the political and social change that they believe in. We support their dynamic programming, including high school civic education, voter protection work, and election efforts. We have also supported Mutual Aid NYC, a community of volunteers supporting mutual aid organizing across the city, including the Brooklyn Bail Fund.
June is also Pride Month, and this year is the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Our friends at the podcast Footnoting History put together a wonderful list of resources. I welcome you to listen to their episodes on Black History, US History, and LGBT History. You might also want to check out:
- Blackpast and their pieces on the history of the Black Lives Matter movement
- The BBC’s Witness Black History podcast
- The Stonewall Riots on HistoryExtra
- The Unsung Heroines of Stonewall: Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at Penn State’s Women in History
- Queer Digital History Project
One of the most powerful ways to speak is to amplify the voices of those with deeper understanding and broader data; accordingly, Adam Grant suggests the following books:
- How to Be an Anti-Racist by historian Ibram Kendi
- Biased by social psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt
- White Fragility by multicultural education scholar Robin DiAngelo
- The Person You Mean to Be by organizational behavior professor Dolly Chugh
When members of our community hurt, we all hurt. Let’s all be part of the change.
*Stay in the know! Subscribe*