Dear community,
Jess and I are aiming to honor where we are at this week. We’ve both been quite tired because *LiFe* and knew we wouldn’t be able to do justice to any given topic of the week. Therefore we’ve decided to make two very important announcements and get back to newsletter business next week, taking this time to recuperate, recharge, and ensure we are ready to go. We’ve still included our favorite resources to hopefully help you (un)learn about something new.
Thank you for your patience with us around getting the chat platform and the dates for the next round established! We are excited to send y’all the poll about the former here. For those who were unable to attend sessions we’ve discussed creating a way for everyone to talk amongst ourselves instead of just with Jess and I. So this short poll will gauge interest and platform preference. We’ll be in touch with those who opt in next week about details.
And…. *drum roll please.* We've established the dates for the How to Be an Antiracist sessions! Sign ups for the first round (which is next week!) are linked below. We’ll send out the sign ups for the second closer to the date.
Book Club Round 3:
Wednesday, August 19th from 7-8:30pm ET (4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT)
Thursday, August 20th from 7-8:30pm PT (8pm MT, 9pm CT, 10pm ET)
Sunday, August 23rd from 10-11:30am PT (11am MT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
This will cover How to Be an Antiracist through the end of Chapter 6 and Me and White Supremacy through day 17.
Book Club Round 4:
Wednesday, September 9th from 7-8:30pm ET (4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT)
Thursday, September 10th from 7-8:30pm PT (8pm MT, 9pm CT, 10pm ET)
Sunday, September 13th from 10-11:30am PT (11am MT, 12pm CT, 1pm ET)
This will cover How to Be an Antiracist through the end of the book and Me and White Supremacy through day 23.
Okay! We are really excited to continue convening and growing with you all. Please feel free to join us even if you haven’t previously, and guests or new members are always welcome. As always, any questions/concerns/conversation starters/jokes/puns welcome at learnunlearnbookclub@gmail.com.
With love and healing,
Lori
This week we are...
Taking action by...
Signing up for the fundraising toolkit from Abundant Beginnings Collective (DM them on Instagram or another social platform!! This is a great way to help contribute economically even if you don’t have it in your own budget right now. Plus they have the cutest videos on the internet.)
Donating to Believer’s Bailout. This is a really cool org of Muslims organizing to use Zakat (the wealth tax in Islam) to pay bail folks out from pretrial incarceration and immigration detention.
Reading…
Book club reading:
How to Be an Antiracist Chapters 4-6
Me and White Supremacy: Reading and Journaling Prompts Days 15-17
Out of Print. This is Noname’s (the rapper) digital magazine and it’s chock full of amazing articles and art.
A friend of Jess’s wrote this phenomenal piece in the NYTimes: Are Racial Attitudes Really Changing? Some Black Activists Are Skeptical.
Listening to…
A recommendation from a good friend: Why We're All Suffering from Racial Trauma (Even White People) -- and How to Handle It.
Watching...
Muslims and the Carceral State from Believer’s Bail Out. Watching this is why I donated to BBO and I learned so much about the Nation of Islam and the history of Islam in the carceral system.
It also led me to watch this video by AJ+: Why Inmates are Converting to Islam. (My brother made me realize how little I know about the intersection of religion with racism/anti-racist resistance, hence the heavy presence of that theme this week. Thanks B!)