Black Lives Matter
A message from the Fur Affinity directors:
Fur Affinity is a diverse melting pot of creativity; a beautiful tapestry made up of all peoples standing together with the Black Community against racism, systemic injustice, police brutality, and white supremacy. We are committed to being a safe place where you can express yourself, grow, and heal. We sympathize with the trepidations and adversity that you experience every day and we are here for you. Every one of us has a responsibility to listen, learn, and educate others so that we can continue this movement to eradicate racism and champion equality and justice for all.
Black lives matter.
The Issue With Saying "All Lives Matter"
"We are clear that all lives matter, but we live in a world where that's not actually happening in practice. So if we want to get to the place where all lives matter, then we have to make sure that black lives matter, too."
– Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza
Our goal is to ensure that our entire community understands the difference between Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter, and why saying “All Lives Matter” is entirely inappropriate. In providing these resources for education, we intend to redirect the conversation and focus on social justice for our black community, whilst creating an atmosphere of civil discussion on race.
We want to be clear: we believe that saying Black Lives Matter is not to say that we don’t respect the value of every life.
But we do believe that, as a country, we are not fulfilling the founding promise of ‘dignity and justice for all’. All lives do matter. But all lives will not matter until Black lives matter.
Report Hate Speech on Fur Affinity
Not everyone knows that Black Lives Matter means “Black Lives Matter too” rather than “Black Lives Matter more.” But some actively believe that black lives matter less. Racist slurs and harassment on Fur Affinity are against our Code of Conduct and may constitute hate speech; you should report them by opening a Trouble Ticket.
Donate
The organized efforts of people committed to change in the Black Lives Matter and racial equality efforts require the community’s donations to sustain over time. As a company, we will be donating to the NAACP Legal and Educational Fund and will provide an opportunity for you to join us in that donation in the coming days. Below are additional organizations that we have identified that are asking for your monetary donation if these are closer to where you’d like to donate your hard-earned money.
More places to donate specific to the audience and effort.
Other Actions
- Leverage the power of numbers to affect change. Sign one or more petitions.
- Check out Campaign Zero’s tracking of life-saving proposals state-by-state
- Buy an antiracist book from a black-owned bookstore
- Sign up to get text messages or FB Messenger messages about Black History and Current Events from PushBlack
- Or take one or several of these 75 actions for racial justice.
Educate Yourself
The following are resources that we have carefully curated to give our community an opportunity to take the time to educate yourselves as you continue to refine and justify your stance. If you are interested in starting anti-racism work, the below resources are intended to help with the first stages of this effort. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it may be exhausting to look at. Start with one link, movie or podcast and talk with a friend about it.
- Does Racism Exist? Spoiler, yes. Watch this short video that shows some of the ways the deck is stacked against African Americans.
- What is race, anyway? Do you have 5 minutes to find out?
- Thinking “But I’m not a racist?” but feeling a little (or a lot) uncomfortable talking about race? Read this essential article from Dr. Robin DiAngelo.
- Want a personal account of how even subtle racial attitudes persist? Joy DeGruy of BetheHealing has a video about an experience at the grocery store.
- How did racism come about in America, and what hope is there for us who want to change things? Find out and imagine a better future. Or if you have more time, listen to the excellent Seeing White season of Scene on Radio podcast.
- Did you know racism is a public health issue? Even outside of COVID-19, Racism’s impact on health outcomes is measurable. Recently, the American Medical Association and other medical groups have weighed in, and communities in Massachusetts and Ohio have declared that it is a public health issue.
- Want to understand your privilege? Unpack your Invisible Knapsack with Peggy McIntosh
- Still not sure on privilege? Here’s an example of how it was explained to a white friend.
- Prefer to get your information via beat poetry? This poem covers the systemic nature of racism.
- Are you a woman, or gay, or otherwise overlooked and underrepresented by society? You might find The Common Elements of Oppression feels true for you and consider how it is for African Americans. One can have, for instance, racial privilege and gender oppression (as this cute video demonstrates). And people who possess two or more of these identities are faced with the hurdles of all of them. Get to know what people mean by Intersectionality.
- “But I participated in BlackoutTuesday; what does performative activism/optical allyship/virtue signaling mean?” We feel you! Did you ever see Thank You, Scott on SNL? Maybe check out the debate on whether performative activism is bad.
- Have or teach children? Did you know kids can internalize racial bias as early as 2? Teaching Tolerance has a grade-based curriculum, and this article has good tips.
- Why is Juneteenth (June 19) considered America’s Other Independance Day? We wrote a blog about it here. Here’s an official page for the holiday and another for its celebrations. And Blackish had a really good episode that’s both informative and funny. There are several great children’s books on it as well.
- Have you read Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail? Need a TLDR? Check out these quotes from it<
- Do you think the Civil Rights victories came without many protests? They’ve never been popular.
- Want to get a sense of the scope of racism in America? Check out photo essays and articles from the 1619 Project (all articles).
- Wondering what the black community is going through with this on top of COVID-19? Here’s one answer.
If you’re ready for a deeper dive, take a deep breath and get into The Antiracism Starter Kit from WhereChangeStarted or read many more articles on this google doc.
Documentaries and historical movies that offer insight on race in America:
- 12 Years a Slave
- 13th
- Fruitvale Station
- Hidden Figures
- I am Not Your Negro
- Selma
- The Talk: Race in America
Podcasts to check out:
- 1619 from the New York Times
- Code Switch from NPR
- Fare of the Free Child
- Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
- On Being with Krista Tippett, Race and Healing interviews
- Pod For The Cause from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Pod Save the People
- Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell, Season 2 Episode 3, "Miss Buchanon’s Period of Adjustment"
- Seeing White season of Scene on Radio from the Center for Documentary Studies