‘People are drowning,’ and we should be ready to act

Second of two parts.

I wanted to talk about what I could do to help fight racism, so I called Neal Lester, a professor and founding director of ASU’s Project Humanities. He told me I shouldn’t have to ask. If someone was drowning, would I wait for someone to tell me what to do?

“People are drowning,” Lester said. We should examine what we do in our daily lives to promote equity.

“Declaring one’s humanity means taking a risk,” Lester said.

He’s right.

We shouldn’t ask what to do. We know what to do, and if we don’t, there’s information out there.

White people can acknowledge our privilege and stand with protesters at rallies, using our bodies to protect them from police. We can send letters to elected officials asking for justice.

We can call out racism, on social media and in our families and communities.

White people can get educated by reading, watching movies and documentaries. We can stop relying on our black loved ones to teach us what we can learn ourselves. We can donate to organizations that fight injustice and charities that help people of color. We can support black-owned businesses.

We can vote, like the people in Iowa who, on Tuesday, ousted Rep. Steve King, who had long made incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy. Like the people who elected Ella Jones, the first African-American and first woman mayor of Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a black teenager.

White people can listen to black people and amplify their voices, sharing their social media posts.

And when we check in with the people of color we love, instead of asking, “what can I do?” we can tell them what we’ve done.

Because Lester was right. We know what to do.