5 Days of Action - 2021
Still Resisting Evil, Injustice, and Oppression?
One year ago, Glenn’s Racial Justice Caucus invited people to join in 5 Days of Action in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery and in support of protests then happening against racism. For each day, we suggested multiple actions you could take to learn, speak, and advocate.
Much has changed in the last year. Between 15 million and 26 million people participated in protests last year, seeking an end to violence and inequity. George Floyd’s killer, Derrick Chauvin, was convicted of Floyd’s murder. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest Law was repealed.
At the same time, much remains the same. Since the killing of George Floyd, another 967 people have been killed by police and, in most cases, no one has been charged for the killing. No one has been charged in Breonna Taylor’s killing. Several states have passed laws that restrict voting, make protesting a crime, and make it permissible to run over protestors. Legislation is being proposed in many states to ban the teaching of the true history of America.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people without stable housing; people who held low-paying, frontline jobs; people who lacked access to healthcare; people who depended on public transportation; children who didn’t have access to the internet. Many of those are people of color.
So, a year later, we invite you once again to engage in 5 days of action, starting this Friday, June 4. And we also encourage you to take a look at the 5 days of action from last year. Did you find any of those actions particularly meaningful or challenging? If there are items you didn’t do last year, consider doing them now. In particular, we encourage you to reflect on what it means that so many of those actions are still called for.
Carol Allums and Karen Leary, Racial Justice Caucus
Friday, June 4
If you have:
3 minutes - Listen to this report on Black and white Americans’ differing views on race and policing
3+ minutes - read this piece on Asian-American racism
4 minutes - Watch this video of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On
5 minutes - Learn about the demographics of racial inequality
7 minutes - Read this article on the mythology of racial progress
A weekend - read White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
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Keep acting:
*Follow Austin Channing Brown, Bernice King, Ijeoma Oluo, Sherrilyn Ifill, Carlos Rodriguez, Eddie S. Glaude, Nick Estes, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Ibram X. Kendi, Clint Smith, Jose Olivarez, Sam Hyun, George Takei, and others on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
*Follow Glenn’s Racial Justice Caucus on Facebook
*Talk to Your Kids - Check out these tools on how to talk about racial justice with your kids
Saturday, June 5
If you have:
5 minutes - Listen to Clotilda’s On Fire by Shemekia Copeland, which tells the story of the burning of the last slave ship
10 minutes - Spend time with this visual guide to the removal of racist monuments over the last year
12 minutes - Read this story by Clint Smith on the Myth of the Lost Cause
13 minutes - Watch this episode of Crash Course Black American History focusing on The TransAtlantic Slave Trade
15 minutes - Watch this interview with Nikole Hannah-Jones on the 1619 Project
A weekend - read Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
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Keep acting:
*Visit the plaque memorializing the lynching of Porter Turner in the park at the corner of Oakdale Road and Ponce de Leon
*Rewatch films such as The Help and Driving Miss Daisy. Do you see them differently than you did before? Think about the relationships between the Black and white characters, and imagine what the Black characters might be feeling (and not showing) as they interact with the white characters. What is at the core of the Black/white relationships in these movies?
*Send a message to your US Representative asking them to approve reparations for descendants of enslaved persons
*Consider supporting the International African American Museum currently being built in Charleston, SC
*Think about your family history. If you are white and you had ancestors who lived in the United States prior to the Civil War, whether they lived in the North or South, consider how they may have participated in or benefitted from an economy built on chattel slavery. Were they farmers who traded with people who were slaveholders? Were they merchants who sold products created from the labor of the enslaved or supplied products to plantations? Did they wear clothes made from cotton picked by the enslaved? Our ancestors did not have to have been slaveholders to have benefitted from the institution of slavery
*Now that you are thinking about your family history, check out this website to learn what Indigenous land you live on
*Talk to Your Kids - For YA readers, read Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi; for younger kids, read Stamped (For Kids) by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi; for the littlest ones, read Anitracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
Sunday, June 6
If you have:
4 minutes - Meditate on the words to this hymn
4 minutes - Listen to Glory by John Legend and Common
5 minutes - Read Jesus is in the Streets by Dr. Jennifer Harvey in which she challenges us to “join the other America.”
8+ minutes - Watch this interview with Rev. Dr. William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
30 minutes - Read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail. This was on the original 5 Days of Action. If you read it last year, does it hit you differently now?
48 minutes - Listen to this podcast on the roots of racism in the United Methodist Church
A weekend - Read Shaking the Gates of Hell: A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution by John Archilbald as he reflects on his Methodist pastor father’s silence during the Civil Rights Movement and what that means for the Methodist Church today
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Keep acting:
*Check out the RJC’s resource list on Glenn’s website - pick one book, one movie, and one podcast to learn from this summer. Feel free to ask a member of RJC to talk about them with you
*Encourage a small group you are a part of to take an action that the group decides on together. Reach out to the RJC for ideas and support
*Join the Be Love movement and sign the Be Love pledge
*Check out the library of resources compiled by UMC’s General Commission on Religion and Race (“GCORR”) and consider making a donation to GCORR
*Talk to Your Kids - Look at the children’s Bibles and Bible storybooks in your house. What color are Jesus and the other people in those books and why?
Monday, June 7
If you have:
20 seconds - read A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay
25 seconds - Listen to this from James Baldwin
1 minute - Listen to Clint Smith read his poem What the Cicada Said to the Black Boy
5 minutes - Watch this video of Bruce Springsteen singing American Skin. Do you know why this song is also referred to as 41 Shots?
4 minutes - Read this piece that argues that George Floyd died “because America is a racist country”
1 hour - Listen to this interview with Khalil Gibran Muhammad on the History of Policing
2+ hours - watch the movie Just Mercy
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Keep acting:
*Read this summary of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 and contact your Senators and ask them to pass the Act
*Find out if police in your area are allowed to use tactics such as no-knock warrants and chokeholds. Advocate for an end to practices such as those
*Learn about the Drop the Charges coalition and consider signing a petition for the dropping of charges against people participating in last summer’s protests
*Write your Congresspeople asking them to end qualified immunity
*Talk to Your Kids - Watch this video on how to talk with your kids about policing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqF5lF2gvyA
Tuesday, June 8
If you have:
40 seconds - Listen to this from James Baldwin
3 minutes - Read this Op-Ed on the necessity of social movements to creating change
3 minutes - Listen to this song
4 minutes - Watch this Trevor Noah interview with Danai Gurira on difficult conversations with white friends
6 minutes - Read this essay on tools and tactics that lead to change
7 minutes - Read this piece on what it means to build community
A weekend - read How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
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Keep acting:
*Get to know your state legislators and where they stand on issues that are important to you.
*Identify an area of Georgia law you want to change (such as the death penalty, the Stand Your Ground law, laws restricting voting, etc.) and start advocating with your legislators and get your friends and family outside metro Atlanta to do the same
*Look at the leadership of companies and nonprofits you support. Are diverse voices being heard in leadership positions? Does the leadership of the nonprofits reflect the community being served?
*Check out the work of stonemountainaction.org towards a more inclusive Stone Mountain Park
*Contact your US Senators and ask them to support the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act
*Talk to Your Kids - Visit Sesame Street in Communities for resources on how to talk about racial justice and other tough topics with your children