Here’s how you can support the fight against systemic racism, inequality and police brutality

Educate, communicate and take action

Editor’s note: we will be updating this as a live directory, so welcome recommendations for additions. Please send to [email protected]

Yesterday, DJ Mag supported Blackout Tuesday, where we paused our editorial output to stand in the fight for justice, and with the black community, to beat systemic racism, inequality and police brutality.

But, stopping our operations for one day is not enough. Real change requires consistent and prolonged action. We must be more than non-racist, we must be anti-racist.

Our platform would not exist without the black culture that has driven the electronic music scene from its beginning, and the black artists that continue to push it forward today. 

We recognise our responsibility to educate ourselves further and participate in anti-racism initiatives. And that there is still work to be done to ensure we provide the best possible platform for voices from marginalised communities that face injustice. We will outline in the coming days futher steps we will be taking.

Please, join us in standing with black communities against racism and prejudice. Below we have collated a list of organisations and initiatives working with the black community in the fight against racism, prejudice, inequality and police brutality. Please use these to educate yourself, get involved, and donate if you can.

Black Visions Collective (BLVC)

The Black Visions Collective (BLVC) is an organisation committed to a long term vision in which black lives not only matter, but are able to thrive. The BLVC, as a collective dedicated to black liberation and to collective liberation, focus on building collective power in order to create change. By building movements from the ground up, they work to create conditions that can carry us towards dignity and equity for all, and a deeper place of freedom for all of us.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international human rights organisation founded in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot 17-year-old, unarmed African-American Trayvon Martin. Established within the US, Canada, and the UK, BLM’s primary mission is to eradicate white supremacy, building local powers to intervene when black communities are affected by violence and prejudice from the state and vigilantes. BLM regularly hold protests highlighting police brutality, racial inequality, and the injustice suffered by the black community in the US criminal justice system.

NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a US civil rights organisation that has campaigned for political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights and the elimination of race-based discrimination for over 100 years.

The Movement for Black Lives

Founded in 2014, The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a space for black organisations in America to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organisational leadership in order to debate, and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. The M4BL believes in achieving more together, with the movement driven by six focus points: policy, organising/basebuilding, electoral justice, the rising majority, culture, and resource.

The Bail Project™ National Revolving Bail Fund

The Bail Project, Inc. combats mass incarceration through their National Revolving Bail Fund. Their goal is to secure freedom for as many people as possible and fuel momentum for equal justice. Run from a central support office but doing work all over America, The Bail Project™ provides free bail assistance to low-income individuals who are legally presumed innocent, and whom a judge has deemed eligible for release before trial contingent on paying bail.

Reclaim the Block

Reclaim the Block is a volunteer-led community coalition that works to organise Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety. Starting in 2018, the organisation works around policies that strengthen community-led safety initiatives, and reduce reliance on police departments, in order to promote healthier, safer, and more diverse communities.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund

The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a bail fund set up to help people in Minnesota affected by the unjust cash bail system. Due to the overwhelming number of donations received to support those arrested during the ongoing protests, the MFF has currently stopped donations, but recommends this list of worthy causes put together by Reclaim the Block. 

The George Floyd Memorial Fund

The George Floyd Memorial Fund was created in the wake of George Floyd’s death, a 46-year-old black man from Minnesota who was killed by white police officer, Derek Chauvin, on Monday 25th May. Set up by George’s sister Philonise, the fund, which has now surpassed $11,000,000, will go towards funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist the Floyd family as they continue to seek justice. A portion of the funds raised will also go to the Estate of George Floyd, for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.

#JusticeforFloyd

A petition addressed to Mayor Jacob Frey, County Attorney Michael Freeman, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, and founded to campaign for the arrest and charge of the four officers involved in the death of George Floyd. Over 4,000,000 people have signed the petition. If you haven’t already, please sign the petition on the link above.

Belly Mujinga

London Victoria train station worker Belly Mujinga, 47, fell ill with coronavirus days after a man who said he had COVID-19 spat and coughed at her and a colleague at Victoria station. She died on the 5th April, and the case has since been closed with no justice for Belly’s family. The gofundme, which is linked above and has now surpassed £140,000, continues to raise funds for Belly’s family.

There is also a public list of numerous other organisations working to benefit the black community across the US here.

What else you can do

Get out and support!

Protests are currently happening in cities across the US and the rest of the world. Upcoming Black Lives Matter protests in the UK include London’s Hyde Park at 1pm today (Wednesday 3rd June), Grey’s Monument in Newcastle upon Tyne at 1pm, and London’s Parliament Square at 1pm on Saturday 6th June, and the US Embassy in London at 2pm on Sunday 7th June.

Educate yourself

Read books and watch documentaries on historical and modern black oppression to better understand the scale and workings of systematic racism.

When buying books try to support black-owned bookshops, where possible, such as New Beacon Books in the UK or Mahogany Books, Semicolon, and The Lit. Bar in the US. A simple Google search will help you locate your nearest store.

Below is some suggested reading:

Black Skin, White Masks (Frantz Fanon, 1952)
The Wretched of the Earth (Frantz Fanon, 1961)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Michelle Alexander, 2010)
Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race (Reni Eddo-Lodge, 2017)
White Tears/Brown Scars (Ruby Hamad, 2019)
How to be an Antiracist (Ibram X Kendi, 2019)
How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide (Crystal M Fleming, 2018)
Killing Rage: Ending Racism (bell hooks, 1995)
White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo, 2018)
So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo, 2018)
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (Safiya Umoja Noble, 2018)
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (Akala, 2018)
They Came Before Columbus (Ivan Van Sertima, 1976)
Early America Revisited (Ivan Van Sertima, 1998)
An African American and Latinx History of the United States (Paul Ortiz, 2018)
A Black Women’s History of the United States (Daina Ramey Berry and Kali N. Gross, 2020)
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (Stephanie Jones-Rogers, 2019)
Black and British: A Forgotten History (David Olusoga, 2016)

We also recommend watching:

13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)
LA 92 (T. J. Martin, Daniel Lindsay, 2017)
When They See Us (2019)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, 2016)
Ferguson: A Report from Occupied Territory (Orlando de Guzman, 2015)
The Black List: Volume One (Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Elvis Mitchell, 2008)
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Göran Olsson, 2011)
Crime + Punishment (Stephen Maing, 2018)
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
Let the Fire Burn (Jason Osder, 2013)

Support charitable organisations that work to improve the lives of people in areas that disproportionately affect POC, such as:

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in memory of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in Southeast London in 1993. The UK-based trust works with people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 13-30, to help them gain the skills and knowledge to progress in the career of their choice, and create a fairer society.

Young Urban Arts Foundation

The Young Urban Arts Foundation (YUAF) is a UK programme aiming to empower young people and improve their mental wellbeing through creative pursuits. The YUAF provides workshops in hard-to-reach areas where young people have less opportunities and are at higher risk of being victims of crime or exploitation.

Prison Radio Association

The Prison Radio Association is a UK charity that runs National Prison Radio, the world’s first radio station operated by inmates for inmates, which broadcasts programmes in over 100 prisons across the country. It helps provide prisoners with the skills and confidence crucial to reducing the rate of reoffending.

Image: Leonhard Lenz