I’ve tried to write this post several times over the last week, the words are so hard to find. Now is not the time to brush Black Lives Matter off as irrelevant but the time to educate ourselves and have conversations, even if they make us uncomfortable.
We feel that saying that we are anti racism here at Habbydays is simply not enough. Our proudest acheivement as a shop and school is that people feel safe with us, regardless of skin colour, religion, sexuality, nationality.
A few people may think that as a sewing shop we shouldn’t speak up but not only are we humans behind the shop, the history of the cotton textile trade is right at the foundation of opression of BIPOC.
We want to make it clear that we support Black Lives Matter.
To see the world burning is so difficult to see, we understand that but we cannot say that riots and protests are wrong. If you are more upset by a shop being destroyed than a man being murdered by those who are paid to serve and protect, there is something very, very wrong. George Floyd is one of hundreds of people of colour who have lost their life due to their skin colour.
Instead of standing on our soap box, we have been listening, taking the lead of people of colour who have been oppressed for 400 years. We have also listened to those who do not undestand the Black Lives Movement. This issue of systemic racism isn’t “just” a case of “not liking black people” this issue goes back hundreds of years. People of colour and ethnic minorities have been oppressed and marginalised for hundreds of years.
Our priviledges are invisible to us because we have not had the same treatment and refusing to see that is a form of the priviledge. We are not here to say what is right and what is wrong despite us having strong feelings about what is right, instead we have chosen to use our platform to share resources and maybe help educate people on why the Black Lives Matter Movement is so very important.
We see the “All lives matter” proclamations but until all lives are treated equally, we cannot simply state “All lives matter”.
An analogy that we used to explain why Black Lives Matter to my children: We love both of you equally but child 1 is poorly, we help child 1 but that doesn’t mean that child 2 isn’t important. All lives matter when ALL including ALL members of BIPOC matter, when persecution of ethnic minorities stops, when members of the LBTQ+ community face no persecution. Right now though, we are focussing on our fellow humans who are hurting most, it doesn’t mean that we don’t see or care about other people.
Below we are listing resources to help you better understand why Black Lives Matter, the history and economic facts that have lead to BIPOC being persecuted, BIPOC that have shared their culture with us, way you can help here in the UK as this is not just an issue in the USA. Please feel free to email us at info@habbydays.co.uk if you have something to add or if we have gotten something wrong, we are here to listen and amplify melanated voices.
Listen:
Petitions and Direct Action:
Resident Advisor’s List of Resources
WOS Comprehensive list of petitions
Petition to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting
Update GCSE reading lists in the UK
Make Black History compulsory in Schools
Teach British children about the realities of British Imperialism and Colonialism
Donate:
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust
American Civil Liberties Union
Watch:
Angela Davis on intersectional anti-racism (via Roshni Goyate)
The Color of Fear, directed by Lee Mun Wah (1994) https://vimeo.com/127289854
1619 by The New York Times
Code Switch by NPR
What Matters Episodes: Black Lives Matters
Let’s get to the root of racial injustice | Megan Ming Francis | TEDxRainier
Follow:
Lee Merrit (Civil Rights Lawyer)
Context and Articles
BBC: George Floyd: Five pieces of context to understand the protests
How Slavery Became the Economic Engine of the South
Anti-racism resources for white people (via Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein)
75 things white people can do for racial injustice (via Medium)
Ways to help (via Black Lives Matter)
“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (from The Atlantic, 2014)
IG: George Floyd: How can I help from the UK? (via Das Penman)
IG: 10 steps to non-optical allyship (via Mireille Harper)
IG: Transform Allyship into Action: A Toolkit for Non-Black People (via Social Justice in Medicine Coalition at USC)
Twitter Thread: UK-based charities, organisations and platforms whose work aims to eradicate racial injustice (Via Black Ballad)
IG: Brilliant Black-owned businesses to buy from in the UK (via Emily Ames)
Twitter Thread: Advice for companies from Sheree Atcheson, Monzo’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion (Via Sheree Atcheson)
Books:
Why I’m No longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
Natives by Akala
Dark Days by James Baldwin
Diversify by June Sarpong
How To Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
White Supremacy and Me by Layla F. Saad
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
White Girls by Hilton Als
Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch
Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga
The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla
Music:
Black Lives Matter: 30 powerful songs about police brutality, anti-Black racism and revolution
Songs of Black Lives Matter: 22 New Protest Anthems
Clara Amfo praised for emotional anti-racism speech on Radio 1
Inforgraphics:
Thank you, whoever put so much work into this! What feels different & more hopeful now is that people are taking responsibility in unexpected places.
St Neots has a diverse population, including Afro-Caribbean & Asian families, and black British, which I’ve always felt is a wonderful resource to draw on- for example in local festivals and school visits. I once counted 35 different countries of origin among people I knew personally.
However, over the 15 years I’ve lived here, my experience of being involved in the women & children’s support group Making Links, running activities at a children’s centre and trying to start an international group, is strong or subtle hostility from the local white, British population (see the Huntspost article on Making Links). This leads people from overseas or black and brown British to want to keep their heads down- understandably.
So thank you again for recognising the issue exists and that we all benefit from changing it.