Local Action

Monterey protester | Photo by Claudia Meléndez Salinas

| OPINION

By Mara J. Reynolds

While many of these resources are specific to the Monterey Bay and adjacent regions, much of this list can be shared with friends anywhere. The vast majority of these resources are things you can participate in and/or learn about for free, from home, regardless of whether or not you have money to contribute. But remember: these are just tools; we still have to actually do the work.

I welcome additions or corrections and invite discussion about these difficult issues. Please contact our editors if you have resources to add.

Please also note: I’ve not read every word of every resource shared here; they don’t all reflect my personal opinions, nor that of the global movement in its many iterations. My intent is simply to share information that might help inform our collective conversation.

Official George Floyd Memorial Fund

Official Peace and Healing for Darnella Fund

Recursos antirracistas en español

Minneapolis specific:

MPD150 | How You Can Help (Minneapolis, June 2020)

May/June MN Bail Fund and Support List (Updated Daily)

Reclaim the Block | List of local BIPOC-centered orgs in Minneapolis | Fund our Broader Movement

Black Visions Collective

Unicorn Riot | George Floyd Uprising in Minneapolis–Saint Paul — The First Two Weeks

Find your lane:

Deepa Ayer | My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem

Building Movement | Reflection Guide for Mapping Roles in a Social Change Ecosystem (pdf)

A Nervous Wreck’s Disabled Guide to Stepping Up: Navigating dis/ability and anxiety in the call to action

Get Organized:

We each have our unique capacity levels, but if you have the capacity to do more and you’re just posting on social media and marching in the streets, do more.

Join and support organizations with Black, Brown and/or Indigenous leadership — ones that existed before this movement started a few weeks ago. There are so many. Giving money is great if you have the means, but taking direct action doesn’t require financial resources.

Whether you’re interested in participating or not, now’s as good a time as ever to learn about community organizing and mutual aid networks.

Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective | Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet

Monterey Bay Area Organizations:

The Santa Cruz Volunteer Center has a great new page on organizing for racial equity, where I found this list of Racial Equity Organizations in Santa Cruz County:

UCSC Student Groups – African American Resource & Cultural Center

NAACP Santa Cruz | Facebook Page

Resource Center for Nonviolence | Facebook

Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism

Showing Up for Racial Justice Santa Cruz Chapter | Facebook Page

Barrios Unidos

Protest Monterey County

Santa Cruz County Immigration Project

Undocufund Monterey Bay

Charter for Compassion

Food Not Bombs, Santa Cruz

Chicanx Latinx Resource Center

ACLU: Santa Cruz chapter | Monterey County chapter

Read:

Historical & Cultural Context:

MN Injustice | Consider what would have happened to George Floyd if he had survived

Scientific American | George Floyd’s Autopsy and the Structural Gaslighting of America

Michael Harriot, The Root | A timeline of events leading up to the 2020 “Fed Up”-rising

Derrick Johnson, The Guardian | In America, Black deaths are not a flaw in the system. They are the system

Thread: COINTELPRO and the Federal government’s role in perpetuating racism

Pema Levy, Mother Jones | Trump and Sessions Released Cops From Federal Oversight. Now We See the Results

Anti-Racism:

Meera Mohan-Graham | Anti-racism is about humility: a message to the ‘newly awakened.’

Do the work: an anti-racist reading list

Nic Stone | Don’t Just Read About Racism — Read Stories About Black People Living

Estelita’s Library | Black/Brown owned Community Bookstore

Abolition and “Defunding” Police and Prisons:

Mariame Kaba | Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police (NYT paywalled)

Alex Vitale, YES! Magazine | Why Police Reform Is Not Enough

8 to Abolition

MPD150 | Abolition FAQ | What are we talking about when we talk about a “police-free future”?

Edward Ongweso Jr. | “Defund the Police” Actually Means Defunding the Police

The Intercept | Ruth Wilson Gilmore makes the case for Abolition

Democracy Now! | Uprising & Abolition: Angela Davis on Movement Building, “Defund the Police” & Where We Go from Here

Black Lives Matter Has Been Doing The Work To ‘Defund The Police’ For Years

Miriam Perez-Putnam | Surviving Rape as a Prison Abolitionist

Bustle | John Oliver Broke Down Why The Police Need An Entirely New System — Video

Police Misconduct:

USA Today | We found 85,000 cops who’ve been investigated for misconduct. Now you can read their records

CNN | American police shoot, kill and imprison more people than other developed countries. Here’s the data

The Oregonian | Law enforcement is using aircraft to collect cell-phone, other data on protesters, ‘chilling 1st Amendment rights’: Dem lawmakers

Spreadsheet: George Floyd Protest: police brutality videos on Twitter

Listen:

Podcast: How to Survive End of the World | A Syllabus on Surviving the End of the World (pdf)

Audiobook: The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, read by Jesse L. Martin

Speeches on Spotify by: (local legend) Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Watch:

10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You

“Just Mercy”

James Baldwin on the the American riots of 1968

Engage students, youth and family:

Ways to Engage Students about Protests, Race, and Racial Violence (Multilingual)

Marissa Yang Bertucci | Talking to kids about #BlackLivesMatter

KidLit Rally 4 Black Lives: Anti-Racist Resources for Children, Families, and Educators

Aubrey Pagenstecher | Social Justice & Anti-Racism: A Resource Guide for Educators and Families

Video: Talking BLM with Preschoolers

Black Lives Matter Instructional Library (links to bilingual read-aloud kid’s books)

Take political action:

Learn about who polices your community; how they are trained, funded, represented, when their contracts are up for negotiation, who’s at the table, and what’s being decided. Learn who’s responsible for police oversight in your community and what standards law enforcement officers are held to. It varies widely.

How to contact your representatives

Read the recently introduced Pressley resolution

Read about lawmakers rejecting funding from police

Read about who’s still accepting money from police in CA

Take daily action

Offer legal support to protesters

Demand the end of ICE detention, Speak out against horrific conditions

#BlackLivesMatter Petition guide

Read up on (some) California Police Departments at PoliceScorecard.org

Monterey:

Monterey Sheriff: D-

Monterey PD Training Manual

Salinas:

Salinas PD: D+

Salinas PD Use of Force Policy

Salinas Police Community Advisory Committee

Santa Cruz:

Santa Cruz Sheriff: D+

Santa Cruz PD: D

Santa Cruz PD Use of Force Policy

Santa Cruz Police Officers’ Association

Seaside:

Seaside city councilmember calling to defund and demilitarize Seaside police

Support Black LGBTQIA+ people and organizations:

The Okra Project | The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black trans people by bringing home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black trans People wherever we can reach them.

Trans Justice Funding Project

Freedom Fund

BEAM | BEAM is a training, movement building and grant making organization dedicated to the healing, wellness and liberation of Black and marginalized communities.

Vice | Donate to these Orgs to Support Black Trans People