Educate Yourself

It’s important for everyone to have their voices heard, to have their opinions feel that they are valid. No matter how old you are, how tall or small you are. YOU ARE VALID! So, why should skin colour be any different? We are all human beings and we are on this earth to survive and share our creativity with other humans. We should not be judging other people who are EXACTLY like us, just a different skin colour that is all. 
BLM does matter and people who are affected by the racism that is going on right now in the world, you do MATTER! 

The Black Lives Matter movement fights against police brutality and the freedom, liberation and justice of Black people who are victims of racism. It was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayson Martin’s murderer. There has been a rise in Black Lives Matter campaigns and protests against the murder of an unarmed black man named George Floyd and it is so important that not only do we become anti-racist by actively campaigning, but also by educating ourselves.

Unfortunately, for a lot of people, Black history and social injustice is something they have been ignorant of their whole life. I believe one of the reasons for this is the ignorance of the education system. Of course, schools make an effort to educate students during Black History Month, but this is not enough. We must, therefore, educate ourselves rather than relying on a corrupt system to add Black history, racism and Black authors. It is so frustrating that in schools in the UK, we learn from books written mostly by white male authors. While we can sign petitions and mention this to the heads of education, we shouldn’t wait for these changes to be made. Instead of relying on the hope that one day the education system will change, we must learn about Black history and the experiences of Black people ourselves.

So, here we have provided some websites and suggestions to help educate yourself in learning more about BLM. These choices are picked by ourselves as we found them helpful but also very educational! 

•  https://www.theblackcurriculum.com/ourcurriculum - A website with FREE learning resources that you can use instantly, with so many crucial topics-some you won’t have even heard about! You could even send this curriculum to your school for it to be taught there - but seeing as though a lot of schools are closed right now, it truly is up to you to educate yourself.
• Netflix has created a collection of movies named Black Lives Matter which you can use to learn more about racial injustice and black experiences in America - next time you visit Netflix think: would I gain more from selecting a movie from my watchlist or from a collection of movies that actually matter? I’m not saying it’s not okay to still enjoy your favourite shows and movies but you probably have a lot of time on your hands right now--so why not balance your time between both?
• Read books by black authors! Whether that’s fiction or nonfiction, educate yourselves by some of our past authors that changed the world with their books! Racism still exists in the writing industry today, so by supporting and purchasing these books is helping the cause in ways you haven’t considered before!

Here’s a list of books you may want to read:

Young adult novels by black authors:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/127797.Masterlist_of_Black_YA_Writers

A thread on twitter- books by black feminists
https://twitter.com/auroustaeil/status/1268061945120337922

Non-fiction:
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
Binding Chaos: Mass Collaboration on a Global Scale

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/must-read-books-to-learn-more-about-black-history-racism-and-social-justice/



Join the movement here: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

Please remember that educating yourself is only a part of becoming anti-racist and by doing so, you will be able to use your freedom of speech more powerfully. Sign petitions, donate money, join protests and speak up against racist family members and friends! 

We hope you have found this article useful and don’t forget that if you’re happy to share your own experiences about this topic, we welcome guest writers to do so! It’s so important that your voice is heard and writing an article could be that first step. Thank you for reading this! 

-Mel and Nicole

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