Throughout the last week, alongside condemnation of police brutality and racism, we’ve seen donation links, calls to action, guides for protesters, and anti-racist resources proliferate and spread over the internet and social media. We’re gathering them here for easy access to our readers and the design community.
You’ll find that most of this list is not designer-specific. We believe that right now is the time to be human beings first and designers second—to donate, to show solidarity, and to educate ourselves on building an anti-racist future. We have, however, included a list of platforms where you can find Black designers, illustrators, and Black-owned design studios for you to hire and support. We want this list to reflect the rapidly evolving nature of this moment, so please add your own links and resources in this open-source Google doc.
Bail funds and memorial funds
- George Floyd Memorial Fund
- George Floyd’s Sister’s Fund
- Ahmaud Arbery Fund
- Tony McDade Fund
- National Bail Fund Network
- Bail Funds by State
- Or go here on ActBlue to split your donation among bail funds across the country
Organizations seeking donations
In addition to bail funds, there are groups and organizations fighting for Black racial justice and anti-racism that could use your support right now. Please also consider setting up a recurring donation to any of these organizations if you’re able—this provides organizations with a reliable revenue stream for regular operating costs and longer term planning.
- Reclaim the Block
A coalition to demand that Minneapolis divest from policing and invest in long-term alternatives. - Black Visions Collective
Transformative justice organization for developing Black leadership in Minnesota. Both Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block are Black-run and have been doing important on-the-ground work for the protests in Minneapolis. - Minnesota Freedom Fund An organization that pays criminal bails and immigration bond for those who can’t afford to as we seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing. It has encouraged people to donate to local Black and BIPOC-led organizations like the two above and to George Floyd’s family.
- Black Lives Matter Global Network or your local chapter
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund The NAACP’s legal organization fighting social justice.
Actions you can take now
- The Movement For Black Lives, alongside organizers and activists across the country, have initiated A Week of Action in Defense of Black Lives from June 1-5. Each day holds a new demand and recommends actionable steps you can take in your own community, sorted into low, medium, and high risk.
- We defer to the Black Lives Matter page listing the petitions to sign and how to do so (even if you are outside of the U.S.)
- A guide to calling local and state representatives in New York to support police reform and NYC budget justice, as well as a form letter to send your city council member. Another on asking your reps to repeal Section 50a, which allows police to withhold information on personnel misconduct.
- The People’s Budget Toolkit and steps for calling local reps in L.A. for budget justice.
Resources
“Wear a mask and eye protection, carry lots of water for hydration and first aid, and have a health plan for before, during, and after your participation.” A resource by Raina Wellman and Lauren Sarkissian that addresses how to navigate protesting in the time of COVID-19.
- Guide to Virtual Protesting
A guide by Manassaline Coleman for who to target with social media and digital protesting tactics and how to make your messages most effective. Support Coleman’s work on this guide by sending her money through Cashapp: $saliine.
From 2014, a guide for engaging in the movement for ending police and state violence against black people if you are unable to attend rallies and protests.
An open source guide to becoming a more effective ally by Amélie Lamont.
Optical allyship is “allyship that only serves at the surface level to platform the ‘ally,’ it makes a statement but doesn’t go beneath the surface and is not aimed at breaking away the systems of power that oppress.” A straightforward guide for not doing that by Mireille Cassandra Harper.
From Spaceus, a growing list of artists who are working to raise funds for the movement by selling their work.
A guide by Annika Izora centering Black queer, trans and nonbinary folks and Black women so you can create your own ongoing reparations plan.
Hart, a Black queer activist, writer, and sexuality educator offers webinar courses on anti-racism, resistance, and analyzing structures that perpetuate “mass marginalization under global capitalism.” After learning 101, go ahead and take Hart’s Social Justice 102.
- Natl Resource List #GeorgeFloyd+ One of the most comprehensive Google docs we’ve seen, containing many of the community bail funds, memorial funds, political education resources, orgs, and general advice/tips for people attending protests or using social media as an organizing tool.
This guide is a non-exhaustive compilation of ways cultural institutions, public or privately funded, where people in places of curatorial responsibility are overwhelmingly white and/or light-skinned, as well as spaces that utilize the white cube(/black box) as the display frame, can and should and will have to redistribute their material and immaterial resources when welcoming Black folks, people of color and our audiences. Pullout Guide by Eunice Belidor.
The Antiracist Classroom is a student-led organization at the Art Centre College of Design focused on counteracting racism and white supremacy in design education and practice.
- Design as Protest by De Nichols and Bryan Lee
A new initiative focused on leveraging designers’ “professional connections and privileges in the name of advancing justice” offers an easy and effective way of reaching professional organizations, leading architecture firms, political entities, and academic institutions via email.
- Deliberate & Unafraid Book Club is a book club by designer, De Nichols, that features books and experiences by authors, activists, and artists who fearlessly challenge social injustices and fight for the collective well-being of others. DUA Club is inspired by queer, black woman poet and author, Audre Lorde, and her poem, “New Year Day.”
- A resource for organizing all of your new resources by Vanessa Newman.
Where to find Black designers, illustrators, and Black-owned design studios to hire
- Blacks Who Design
- Revision Path
- 28 Days of Black Designers
- People of craft, a POC list of designers by Timothy Goodman and Amélie Lamont
- Black Type Designers and Type Foundry Owners
- Black Women of Print, a society of Black women printmakers
- India Lawrence’s UK Black Creatives Database
- African American Graphic Designers | AAGD.co
Have other suggestions? Add to this collaborative spreadsheet
Designers offering free services
- Wkshps is offering free consulting time to Black and Black-led non-profits, cultural organizations, businesses, artists, and designers.
- Design to Divest (via Vanessa Newman/ @fiveboi) A task force of designers who have been holding weekly virtual meet ups during quarantine is offering its services to Black organizers free of charge.
- Lucky Risograph in New York is offering free printing services for activists and organizers fighting for racial equality.
- Companion—Platform in Berkeley is offering to print materials for protests for free along with contactless pickup.
- Body Language Shop is offering to make graphics for social justice organizations, educators, and community organizers.
- Direct Angle Press is offering free Risograph printing for Black Lives Matter activists and organizations in New Hampshire.
- Collective Power, a collective of designers, writers, artists, and strategists, is offering free design services for BIPOC owned businesses.
- Rachel Zeroth is a Twin Cities designer offering free design services with priority given to the BIPOC community, organizers, and businesses. (Contact Rachel)
- Daly is offering pro-bono consulting to any pro-BLM & justice organizations and cause groups that need help fundraising.
- Opulo is offering free graphic design for activists, organisers & educators. “We’re open to collaborating in any way we can to help the cause, including website builds.”
Talks from/about Black designers
This list is just a start— we invite you to add to it.
Anne H. Berry & Penina Acayo Laker
Anne H. Berry & Penina Acayo Laker
Activists to follow on social
This list is ever-evolving—we invite you to add to it.
- @laylafsaad
- @mireillecharper
- @mspackyetti
- @mvmnt4blklives
- @nowhitesaviors
- @rachel.cargle
- @seedingsovereignty
- @thecollectress
- @theconsciouskid
- @Wocsistercollective_
- @policingblack
- @decolonizethisplace
- @rickgriffith
- @de_nichols
- @BCLeeJr
- @theslowfactory
- @blackbirdrevolt
Events to have on your radar
- Afrotectopia
- Black in Design Conference
- Black Futurism
- Where are the Black Designers?
- Hue Design Summit
- Design Futures Forum
Anti-racism reading
Ed note: We ask that whenever you can, please don’t buy these books from Amazon. In most cases, we’ve linked directly to the author’s website. You can buy from local bookstores at Indiebound.org and Bookshop.org, and buy ebooks and audio books on Kobo. We’ve also tried to include any links to directly compensate these authors in addition to buying their books, which we encourage that you do if you are using and accessing their work.
- So You Want to Talk About Race? By Ijeoma Oluo
Oluo has been writing about race since the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, when she turned her food blog into a space for talking about issues of racism and injustice. She’s since become an influential speaker and writer on these topics, and her book So You Want to Talk About Race? is New York Times bestseller. We find that it’s a good primer on racism and guide for continuing the conversation.
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (we’ve heard the hardcover is selling out—here’s a link to the ebook).
“Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey of how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.” Saad also runs the Good Ancestor Podcast, is an incredible fource on Instagram, and first published her book as a free PDF in 2018 (which she now asks that you don’t use as it’s since been updated). To make sure she gets paid for the work she does that we all benefit from, support Saad’s work on Patreon.
- The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
For an in-depth history of how race was invented, and how the idea of whiteness has carried forth throughout time, from the ancient Greeks (who had no concept of race) up to today. It’s slightly academic, deeply informed, and a truly engaging read.
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Sociologist and educator Robin DiAngelo’s coined the term “white fragility” in 2011 to describe the defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged. In her 2018 book, she illustrates how this behavior reinforces white supremacy and prevents meaningful dialogue. Read it to understand how racism is not a practice that is only restricted to “bad” people. See also DiAngelo’s anti-racism resources for white people and her interview on Layla Saad’s excellent Podcast Good Ancestors.
- How to Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
“Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism re-energizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America–but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.”
- Why I’m No longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Eddo-Lodge, a London-based journalist, decided to write this book out of her frustration that the conversations in Britain around race weren’t being led by the people who are affected by it. The result is a book that explores issues such as the whitewashing of history and feminism and the political purpose of white dominance. The book turns three years old this week, and Eddo-Lodge is asking that anyone who buys her book donate the same amount to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
- Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard
Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada.
- Taking Sides, edited by Cindy Milstein
The lines of oppression are already drawn. The only question is, Which side are you on in the struggle against the violence that is white supremacy and policing? Taking Sides supplies an ethical compass and militant map of the terrain, arguing not for reform of structurally brutal institutions but rather for their abolition.
- New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander is a civil rights litigator and legal scholar. “The book discusses race-related issues specific to African-American males and mass incarceration in the United States, but Alexander noted that the discrimination faced by African-American males is prevalent among other minorities and socio-economically disadvantaged populations.”
- Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an activist, philosopher, and educator. This PDF is a collection of her interviews from February 2013 to June 2015. She discusses the Ferguson trials, Palestinian conflict, and the foundations of Movement. She unpacks oppression and the state of violence in America. This is an inspirational read for those interested in activism, Black feminism, and intersectionality.
- The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
“Abolish the police? What would that even look like?” Alex Vitale’s The End of Policing provides a pretty comprehensive answer to that question. A sociology professor at Brooklyn College, Vitale systematically lays out how the police consistently exacerbate the problems they’re supposedly meant to ameliorate (drug use, homelessness, school security, and so on), in addition to providing concrete alternatives to the endless expansion of the American police state. If your friends or family are still convinced that the police are the answer to our social ills, tell them to read this book.
