4 CommentsEven with the many Google Docs of information out there right now, there are still some resources that fall through the cracks when it comes to supporting BLM. We’ve collected an updated list of fundraisers, readings, businesses to support, classes to take, and more – to help guide you as a Columbia student in your support.
Note: If your club currently matches donations, please reach out to us over social, email us at tips@bwog.com, or write in the comments below so we can keep this list updated.
Where to donate:
- Many organizations (such as Minnesota freedom fund) have been overwhelmed with donations. Here are some smaller-scale efforts you can send money to.
- Here’s a list of every bail fund to donate to, updated when funds are no longer accepting donations.
- Vetted list of individuals on the frontline to donate to.
- In general –
- Do not donate to fundraisers associated with Shaun King or The Action PAC – they have a history of misplacing funds dedicated to BLM.
- If applicable, keep your transactions on private and avoid writing BLM to prevent surveillance.
- Matching: Many Columbia organizations, as well as non-Columbia companies, match charitable donations, which doubles the impact of your gift.
- Ask family and friends if their companies match.
- You can also check companies that match with this site here.
- This spreadsheet lists public organizations and individuals that are also matching donations!
- SGA, CUSS, DKA, Beta Theta Pi, and CU Players have hit max donation capacity and are no longer matching donations.
- Columbia’s Caribbean Students Association is matching donations to these organizations (link to Google Doc), up to $750. DM receipts of donations to these orgs to @CSAColumbia on Instagram.
- Columbia Roosevelt is matching all new donations up to $500 to anti-racist organizations. DM your receipts to @roosatcolumbia on Instagram to match!
- Columbia ADI is matching all donations up to $1000. Send receipts of your donation to finance@adicu.com.
- Columbia Armenian Society is matching donations up to $200 to SemiColon, Chicago’s only bookstore owned by a Black woman. Send screenshots of your donation to @columbiaarmenians on Instagram or to cu.armenian.society@gmail.com. (Facebook post linked here)
- The Blue and White is matching donations up to $610 when you donate to the Justice for Breonna Taylor GoFundMe, Homeless Black Trans Women Fund, the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund, or any bail fund of your choice. Just email your receipt to bweditors@columbia.edu.
- Ask family and friends if their companies match.
- If you can’t donate, stream this video to support (with AdBlock off) – all the adsense money from the video goes directly to BLM. You must watch the whole video while logged in, with 50% volume at higher and at least 480p, for it to work.
Where to call/email, petitions to sign:
- Demand to defund police departments.
- BLM has a nationwide petition to defund the police here.
- Minneapolis
- Sign this petition from Reclaim the Block
- Call the Minneapolis’ City Council, using this script.
- LA
- LA’s City Council must vote by today on Mayor Garcetti’s proposed budget. This budget, in its proposed form, will cut social services but raise LAPD salaries.
- Call the LA’s City Council, using this script.
- A Google Doc with more tools on making your demands known.
- NYC
- You can find contact information for your councilmember here.
- Email the NYC’s City Council, using this script.
- Demand your city to institute greater training in current police departments.
- Here’s a script.
- Email Mayor Bill de Blasio here.
- Petition to institute mandatory life sentence for police brutality
- Petition to raise the degree of the murder charge on George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin
- Petition to charge Breonna Taylor’s killers, specifically John Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove and to call on Congress to discuss “no knock” warrants
- Petition to demand justice for Julius Jones, a man who awaits the death penalty, after being convicted of murder at 19 by a juror with racial prejudice
- Petition to pass the Georgia Hate Crime Bill – Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
- Petition to demand justice for Tony McDade. #BlackTransLivesMatter
- Petition to ban the use of rubber bullets
- Petition for Columbia University and Barnard College to Adopt a Title IX Policy that Upholds Civil Rights
- Petition for Columbia University to Diverge From NYPD
- NAACP #WeareDoneDying Petition
- BLM’s Google Doc with many more petitions to sign and support!
How to educate yourself:
For non-black allies, here are resources to actively learn and educate yourself against anti-Blackness:
- A reading list about rioting and activism
- A Google Drive full of Black revolutionary texts
- A Medium blog post specifically about prisons, policing, and punishment and its relation to anti-Blackness
- A Google Doc of anti-racism resources
- Links on helping you understand racial battle fatigue
- Videos to help with awareness
- Dr. Robin DiAngelo
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations”
- Dr. Joy DeGruy, “Post traumatic slave syndrome (Why Blacks Act the Way they Do)”
- Tim Wise
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Resources for BLM protesters:
- For non-citizen protesters, this Twitter thread gives some good tips.
Black-owned businesses and restaurants to support:
During the regular school year, we Columbia students live near and benefit from the Black communities in Harlem. Supporting BLM extends beyond just a single moment. Here are some Black-owned restaurants near Columbia to support/order takeout from regularly.
- Restaurants
- Lolo’s Seafood Shack
- Perennial favorite, now also offers alcoholic drinks.
- 303 W 116th St, New York, NY 10026
- Pick-up, delivery
- Field Trip Harlem
- James Beard Award-winning cuisine, ordering delivery also helps distribute food to communities in need.
- 109 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10026
- Pick-up, delivery, catering
- Melba’s Restaurant
- 300 W 114th St, New York, NY 10026
- Pick-up, delivery
- Vinateria
- 2211 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10026
- Pick-up, Delivery
- Chez Alain
- 2046 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, New York, NY 10027
- Pick-up, delivery
- More Black-owned restaurants throughout NYC listed in this Google Spreadsheet.
- Lolo’s Seafood Shack
- Businesses
- Google Doc of Black-owned businesses throughout the U.S.
- Black-owned Brooklyn is focused on spotlighting Black-owned businesses in NYC
Classes at Columbia to take to better understand structural racism and its effects:
- Politics of Crime & Policing, Matthew Vaz
- Economics of Race, Brendan O’Flaherty
- Any course with Premilla Nadasen, who specializes in race, gender, social policy, and labor and intersectional history.
- Any course in the race and ethnicity department can also be informative, in particular:
- Disease and Difference (a new CSER course offering, professor TBD)
- Critical Approaches to Ethnicity and Race, Jennifer Lee
- Speculative Fiction and Racial Justice, Sayantani DasGupta
- Whiteness: Sentiment and Political Belonging, Catherine Fennell
- Race and Racisms (offered in spring 2021)
- General note: If you’re non-black and taking these classes, be careful to listen to Black voices, but do not rely on Black students to educate you (that’s what the professor and teaching assistants are there for). Be aware of the space you’re taking up in class; make sure you’re not denying vocalized Black experiences.
Mental health resources for Black students:
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4 Comments
@@Done Defund the Police? What are you stupid? Funny how those Hollywood stars calling for this can afford their own private security.
@Disgruntled Spec Alum Thank you for this. I’m glad to see at least one campus publication standing up for what’s right and speaking out.
@Anonymous But I thought protesting wasn’t an essential activity? At least that’s what all the politicians said last month.
@anon It’s not.