Take Action!

Are you feeling overwhelmed with all the ways white supremacy and violence against folks of color is showing up in our world? Want to do something about it right now?

Whether you have 5 minutes or 50 minutes. Whether you take action by yourself or in a group. Whether you make calls or donate money (or both). Every action you take matters!

We invite you to take action by supporting:

• The Justice for Tyre Nichols movement in Memphis

• The Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta

Learn more about Stop Cop City and donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund and/or Community Movement Builders. Take action to support Stop Cop City by using their Action Toolkit.

Learn more in the Justice for Tyre Nichols action kit and donate to the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis bail fund.

You can also read more about the connections between these two organizing efforts.

Only have 5 minutes?

• Support Stop Cop City by calling ATL Mayor Andre Dickens at (404) 330-6100 and telling him to Stop Cop City and cancel the lease of the forest land to the Atlanta Police Foundation.

• Support Justice for Tyre Nichols by calling Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland at (901) 636-6000 and telling him that want to see Justice for Tyre Nichols and his family and that the community demands are:

  • Pass the Data Transparency ordinance

  • End the use of pretextual traffic stops

  • End the use of unmarked cars and plainclothes officers

  • Remove police from traffic enforcement entirely

Should white people celebrate Thanksgiving?

Dear Calling In, 

It's that time of the year again, and I still don't know how to approach Thanksgiving! It feels hard to ignore the holiday completely because it's so engrained in our culture and because I (sometimes) do want to see family. But it also feels deeply unpleasant and difficult to just go along with things. I don't want to pretend this is an innocuous holiday. 

In gratitude,
Don't want to pretend


Dear Don't want to pretend:

We gather to perform our family gratitudes. The tradition is codified in cranberry sauce; either our wondrous recipes passed down through generations on faded yellow paper, or that perfect magenta glob landing in a bowl, remarkably preserving the ridge lines from that aluminum container. Either way, we all have our Thanksgiving traditions.

For as long as I can remember, I have been ruining Thanksgiving. From that very first time, in 1977, sitting at a table of 16 people, I asked my entire extended family “why are we celebrating the death of so many people whose bodies our homes are built on top of?” As a ten-year-old, I didn’t understand how my elders were making sense of Thanksgiving. It seemed more like Holocaust Remembrance Day to me.

You can imagine, the speed with which my question was dealt with - "it’s about family and aren’t you grateful for your life, and look at your aunt’s delicious Turkey and your mother’s string beans with almonds: let’s eat." 

We shared these toolkits with you last year, and we suspect you are again asking yourself what can be different this year. 

3 Ways to Decolonize Thanksgiving 
Rethinking 'Thanksgiving' Toolkit

This year, we can perform a different kind of family ritual. Organize some people ahead of time. Try not to work alone. 

Keep the pie, enjoy whichever cranberry sauce you like and inspire some substantive conversation. Here are some topics:

• Discuss/research the land you’re sitting on. What tribal lands are you sitting on currently? What local indigenous organizations exist? What do you collectively know about these indigenous communities? Everyone could use their phone for 10 minutes and do some data gathering.

• What repair is possible between your family and the communities who were removed from the land? What reparation could be made to the people or communities that were exploited so that we could live? Our ancestors could buy, farm, invest. What is possible? What commitment could your family make to invest in Thanksgiving reparations annually? 

• How has your life been made possible because of the labor or sacrifice of others? People of color? Ancestors? To which communities can you express gratitude? Who are the invisible workers that you may not even recognize as the people who allow for your living conditions?

We don’t need to make uncomfortable jokes about Thanksgiving, or pretend that we don’t know what else to do. 

We can show up and call in a different conversation. As the ceremony of going around the table begins, you can do the internal work of being ready. When it comes to you, you can express gratitude for the white people working to better understand racism, for the indigenous people asking for repair, for your trust that your community or family will have the courage to reimagine Thanksgiving together. 

Big appreciation and <3 
Calling In 

How to call in white men?

Dear Calling In, 

Recently I was confronted with discomfort I could not discern in my body. I was speaking to a movement elder with decades of experience organizing over an array of organizations and locations. They were sharing their story and relying on me for comfort and navigating a space not aligned with their physical mobility. Yet, something was not sitting right with me! I found myself unable to process what was standing in my way - their identity as an older, white, straight male, or an authentic discomfort.

This has me torn up -- white supremacy culture once again getting in the way of me diving fully into right relationship. If the work is of calling in, to create belong, how do we heal these (often very justified for our survival) wounds and walls around white men? How am I truly able to welcome someone into movement if I cannot convince myself internal reality that they belong?

In gratitude,
Curious and Confused


Dear Curious and Confused:

As I read your words, I reflected on all the ways our communities encourage us to judge each other’s journey or identities. I also thought about how all of us who are not cis white men have been taught to keep them comfortable and cared for at the expense of ourselves, our limits and our own liberation.

White cis men are being called to show up in ways they have not been taught to show up. They’ve heard mixed messages to “step back” “do something!” “retire!” “show up” and often do not yet have the skills to sit in discomfort and grapple with the complexity in those messages. That is their work to do, not yours. 

But just like the rest of us, white men need to learn in community how to shed their own grief and hurt so they can be more effective comrades. I think it’s our work to support and challenge one another to show up in all the ways that move racial justice forward. 

So this is yet another complexity for us to hold. My question to you is: How might you welcome cis white men into community and belonging while maintaining your own boundaries, and letting go of any need you feel to protect them or do their work for them? 

Big appreciation and <3 
Calling In 

Am I Too Old to Fight for Racial Justice?

Dear Calling In, 

After a lifetime of not really taking it seriously, I feel embarrassed that I'm only now starting to think about racial justice. I'm in my 70s and feel bad that I haven't engaged in this work before now. I feel really behind and slow to learn, compared to all the young people involved in the fight for racial justice. 

signed,
Am I Too Old? 


Dear Am I Too Old:

Thank you for asking such a vulnerable question. It sounds like you're feeling some guilt about not having shown up earlier on your journey. It's normal to feel bad when we start really seeing the impact of racism. 

And, it’s really important to remember that racism is a system. Institutionally, culturally and interpersonally, white supremacy culture has been working hard for centuries to keep white people ignorant and defensive.

As white people, we're socialized to not notice race. For many decades, families and schools, television and other media have downplayed race and racism and kept us from really learning about the lives of people of color.

The best time to start doing racial justice work is now. And the best way to show up now is to find other white people you can talk to about racism, process any shame you're feeling, and start taking action. As Kari Points likes to say, “racial justice work is grief work.”

You could circle up with some other white folks of your generation and talk about how different things are today. And you could also step into intergenerational circles, where many of us are finding support and accountability to do this work. 

Big appreciation and <3 
Calling In 

Speak Up or Step Back

Dear Calling In, 

When I'm in multi-racial spaces I often don't know when to speak up and when to step back and let POC have more space. How should I negotiate this? 

Ugh,
Speak Up or Step Back


Dear Speak Up or Step Back:

This is a great awareness. I've found that context is key and can vary widely from space to space. For us as white women and genderqueer people, we often work hard to find our power to speak up in white, male-dominated spaces. But the power dynamics are different in multiracial spaces. That means we need to be aware and adjust how we're showing up.

I would ask you to consider your comfort zone - are you used to taking the lead, being verbal, making smart offerings? Or do you more often stay behind the scenes, quietly watching and waiting? Once you assess how you often show up, you can practice stepping outside of your comfort zone. 

Another big one for me is assessing motivation. Why are you staying quiet or why are you speaking up? How are other white people showing up in the multi-racial space? What would your voice add to the conversation?

 Here are some of the common pitfalls that we white women and gender queer people can fall into:



- rescuing
- deflecting
- defending
- lawyering



I have had to slow down and ask my heart and my gut - why do I want to make an offering? If I’m holding back a piece of wisdom that supports the collective, why? How can I be more vulnerable?



Remember that if you sit back and are silent that can be perceived as being aloof and not invested. Or even judgmental. At the same time, taking up a lot of space with your ideas and questions can be overwhelming for others.

Practice staying aware of all of this in each moment, in each unique context. Work on the balance between speaking out and making space for others to speak out. And you can cultivate compassion for yourself around the difficulty of negotiating these contradictions.

<3 
Calling In 

White Feminism is Trash

Dear Calling In, 

I am frustrated that my white sister talks so adamantly about sexism and how she is the victim of her colleague's and boss's misogyny but she refuses to engage in conversation about racism or white supremacy culture. How can I help her connect the dots?

Thanks,
White Feminism is Trash


Dear White Feminism is Trash,

You sound pretty fed up with your sister. Sometimes when we are really frustrated, we can come across like we are judging. So the first thing I'd advise is to find your compassion for your sister. She is obviously hurting from the crap she's enduring, and it's possible that she needs you to see that and feel that with her before you connect the dots.

Secondly, we have found that intersectional analysis is really helpful with our own journey stories. What helped you connect the dots? How did you come to see all oppressions connected. How could you share some of your journey story with her?

I know that for me, I needed to empty my cup around feeling poked and overlooked as a woman before I could honestly look at my privilege. Keep building relationship, and see where there are opportunities to join with your sister around those hurts. Then, the work of connecting sexism to patriarchy to racism is possible. After all, the conditions that create political and social hierarchies are the same - bias, fear, and a need to control. 

Thanks for your question! 

<3 
Calling In