UPDATE: Since I wrote this post I’ve become aware that many people are posting black squares on their social media with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag – however this is having the opposite of the intended effect with vaulable information literally being blacked out.

If you are on Instagram you should edit the post to use the #BlackOutTuesday hashtag, or delete a twitter post.

Here is a post that explains:

Other social media users urged anyone posting a black screen as part of the protest to simply remove the #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter hashtags from their posts.

“Stop posting black squares under the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Instagram,” wrote Twitter user Anthony James Williams. “It is intentionally and unintentionally hiding critical information we are using on the ground and online … Tell me how this helps Black folk. It doesn’t, and it in fact makes things a lot worse. Tell your friends and fam to stop.”

The best informtaion on how to help is in this resource page.

§ The Beat is participating in #BlackOutTuesday as a way to show solidarity and to give us time to reflect on how we can work together to make changes for the better. The idea started in the music industry as a day to “disconnect from work and reconnect with our community” via “an urgent step of action to provoke accountability and change.”

Instead of new content, we’ll be reposting relevant content from our archives. But first some links and news and resources, as compiled by Josh Hilgenberg.

• Petitions/Calls

• Texts

• Donations

Fair Fight

The Bail Project

Black Lives Matter

Minnesota Freedom Fund

Official George Floyd Memorial Fund  

Reclaim the Block

NAACP

Innocence Project  

 

§ Z2 Comics made a $5000 donation to Fair Fight, an organization that fights for voting rights.

§ Writer Jordan Clark has made his comic “The Black Experience” free for a donation to  several organizations listed above.

SNE1.jpg

§ He also posted “Still Not Equal,” a comic about James Baldwin, available for free.

It’s a good comic.

§ HiDeHo’s Kristen Parraz posted this update on FB:

 

§ A thread by cartoonist Shawn Pryor on Twitter.

§ The Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table of ALA released a statement of solidarity with the Black Caucus of the ALA.

unlearning racism banner_0.png

§ A list of books to help understand and unlearn racism, presented by Skylight Books.

§ The oft quoted post about racism in comics by Christopher Priest:

As an intern for Marvel in the late 70’s, racist jokes were routinely, as in every day, thrown my way. By white intellectuals, By people who did not regard themselves as racist and did not regard their remarks as racist simply by virtue of the fact they were the ones making them. Marv  Wolfman routinely had me making multiple xeroxes of Gene Colan’s gorgeous pencils for TOMB OF DRACULA, and, after a few passes, the pencil graphite would be all over my hands. Several staffers, some who are still in the Marvel offices today, would pick my hand up and show the graphite-covered hand to the bullpen while exclaiming, “Hey— your hands are black!” (Marv never did this, by the way. In fact, Marv rarely came out of his office. I started to think he WAS, in fact, Dracula).

I turned in a story for RAMPAGING HULK that the editor loved, but he “couldn’t believe I wrote it,” (a direct quote), and turned it over to his assistant to, seriously, research old Hulk stories to make sure I didn’t’ lift the plot from somewhere. I was never paid for the story and the story never saw print.

§ More publisher tweets:

View at Medium.com

§ Finally, comics fan and former President of the United States Barack Obama wrote about How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change:

Second, I’ve heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices — and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.

Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.

Some links for action on the local level. Assuming our government survives the next few months, it’s a good time to get involved … and to make sure that it does and can provide fairness and justice for ALL.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR