For those who want to become active anti-racist allies, this list is full of dynamic readings (longer and shorter), podcasts, and various conversations particularly geared toward this goal at this moment. 

This resource was compiled by Autumn Gupta with Bryanna Wallace’s oversight for the purpose of providing a starting place for individuals trying to become better allies.

Choose how much time you have each day to become more informed as step one to becoming an active ally to the black community. On this document are links to the learning resources and a schedule of what to do each day. Click on the following to jump directly to that info:

1. 10 minutes/day
2. 25 minutes/day
3. 45 minutes/day

Additional Resources:

• Most of the links in this doc were pulled from: Anti-Racism Resources and 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice
• Comprehensive Ally Resources

Important Note: This should just be the beginning. Please do not stop learning after you complete this month. Each section (10/25/45 minutes) has somewhat different material and the links under “Additional Resources” also include new content, so go above and beyond to educate yourself.

Want to increase your impact? Find a friend, create a group, and share this content with others.

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**If you have additional resource recommendations or see any errors in the links listed, please send them to autumngupta@gmail.com.

Find this useful? Check out our Go Fund Me page to learn more on how we want to make this more accessible, more permanent and more of a lifestyle.

10 Minutes/Day

Over the course of the month, you will have spent 5 hours intentionally learning how to be an active ally of the black community. (That’s less than the amount of time it takes to watch all of Tiger King ~ 5.5 hours.) Remember, the black community lives the reality of the information you will learn- they have a lifetime of fearing for their well being versus 5 hours of you being uncomfortable. All the action items listed in the calendar have linked information below the weekly schedule (see sections Watch, Read, Listen, and Act).

Hello UConn Community,

We are now in a moment to recognize the limitations of the diversity and inclusion paradigm, which has permitted the continuation of anti-black racism. We need to collectively strive to enhance the safety and wellness of Black students, staff, faculty, and community members. We ask that this college-wide call for colleagues to attend this training may serve as a reminder that Black lives matter here.

This is an opportunity to do more than express concern. This is a chance to act in solidarity for structural change through education.

Attached is an invitation by Academics for Black Survival and Wellness to join a week-long training geared towards college campuses beginning on June 19th, 2020.

Full Week Training Registration: 6/19-6/25

OR

Individual Days

Day 1 Registration: 6/19

Day 2 Registration: 6/20

Day 3 Registration: 6/21

Day 4 Registration: 6/22

Day 5 Registration: 6/23

Day 6 Registration: 6/24

Day 7 Registration: 6/25

https://www.academics4blacklives.com/

We, the faculty and staff of the interdisciplinary Centers, Institutes, and Programs, stand together to express our shock, our heartbreak, and our outrage at the horrific and senseless killing of George Floyd and the ongoing violence against Black people.

George Floyd, David McAtee, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Kathryn Johnston, Ayiana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland. Too many to list and too many to forget.

Each of these names represents a human being, dehumanized, rendered invisible, a Black life cut short by brutality and wanton violence.

We cannot look away. We cannot remain indifferent. We cannot be silent.

We must expose and confront the deep, pervasive, systemic issues that continue to fuel one tragedy after another. We must work together to bring real change. As academic units and programs of the university founded on principles of social justice and human rights we reaffirm our commitment to educating the next generation of healers and freedom fighters. The vision of change, which this crisis on top of a catastrophic pandemic calls for, is a broad, systemic, and intergenerational strategy. We recognize that broad societal change cannot be legislated alone, but must be cultivated community by community, day by day. To that end, we reaffirm our commitment to creating communities of accountability; implementing actions that dismantle the status quo of white supremacy; and amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color.

As a first step, we encourage you to join us in programs that will bring communities into conversation including tonight’s AACC Town Hall Meeting, presented by The H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center:

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Racism in the African-American Community, Thursday, June 4, at 6 PM, https://preview.mailerlite.com/k8h6u0/1435486084640281891/n9g0/ (This event has already passed)

We also encourage you to read the public statement on anti-black violence from the Africana Studies Institute: https://africana.uconn.edu/public-statement-on-anti-black-violence/

We stand together with communities of color across the country as they yet again are subject to pain and suffering at the hands of a racist and unjust system. We support our students, from the African American, Asian American, Puerto Rican and Latin American, Women’s and Rainbow Centers, and Native American Cultural Programs, and all who are struggling to demand recognition of their rights and transformation of the conditions in which they live. We are not silent. We are not indifferent. We are implicated and, therefore, responsible. We will not stand idly by while the blood of our community members cries from the ground.

“Justice is not a natural part of the lifecycle of the United States, nor is it a product of evolution; it is always the outcome of struggle.”

― Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation

You are not alone. We are with you.

In solidarity,

African American Cultural Center

Africana Studies Institute

American Studies Program

Asian American Cultural Center

Asian and Asian American Studies Institute

Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life

El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies)

Human Rights Institute

Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center

Rainbow Center

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

Women’s Center

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program