Books & Entertainment, Lifestyle
Meaningful Ways to Use Your Cash Back to Support the Black Community
We recently sent out the second Big Fat Check of the year, and during this time, we want to share how you can use your Cash Back to support the Black community. If you’ve already cashed in your earnings, don’t worry – the next Big Fat Check is coming in August. Keep reading to learn how you can help, either with your Big Fat Check or in other ways.
Pledge to use your next Big Fat Check to support Black lives!
✊🏽 Donate
There are innumerable ways to make meaningful donations to support the Black Lives Matter movement. The Strategist put together a list of 115 Ways to Donate in Support of Black Lives and Communities of Color. The students at Fordham University put together a Mutual Aid Document that consolidates your options in one convenient file. You’ll find ways to donate to memorial funds, bailout funds, frontline support, focused organizations, legal defensive funds and much more. Remember, every dollar counts.
At Rakuten, we’ve continued with our commitment to take actions that empower Black People and Black Communities. We’ve donated to four organizations with proven track records of enacting real change and advancing social justice, and we hope you will consider donating to them as well.
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund: America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. The NAACP seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.
Center for Policing Equity: CPE uses COMPstat data to work directly with police in 25 cities nationwide to measure behaviors and revise policies.
Equal Justice Initiative: EJI provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, including poor prisoners without effective representation and others who may have been denied a fair trial.
Southern Poverty Law Center: SPLC is a legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. It is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.
✊🏾 Shop Black-Owned Businesses
Showing support comes in different forms, and one way to easily do so and take care of your needs is by shopping Black-owned businesses. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite brands that are run by Black entrepreneurs. Don’t forget about your local Black-owned restaurants!
✊🏿 Educate Yourself
Jump on board with books, podcasts, articles, online courses, shows and even social media accounts that raise awareness about anti-racism and Black history. Spend time learning about the movement, in history and today, and expose yourself to worlds of knowledge to help you become a better ally.
Books
List of Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners: This award is given to extraordinary Black authors and illustrators of children and young adult books that show an appreciation for African American culture.
An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Killing Rage: Ending Racism by Bell Hooks
They Were Her Property by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Umoja Noble
Rage Inside the Machine by Robert E. Smith
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki
Shows & Movies
CNN and Sesame Street town hall on racism
13th (Netflix)
Fruitvale Station (Amazon Prime)
Selma (Amazon Prime)
I Am Not Your Negro (Amazon Prime)
Malcolm X (Amazon Prime, Netflix)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu)
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (YouTube)
When They See Us (Netflix)
The Hate U Give (Hulu)
Videos
George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
We Cannot Stay Silent About George Floyd | Patriot Act
Articles
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack
White Fragility by The Conscious Kid
Who Gets to Be Afraid in America? by Ibram X. Kendi
A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 ‘Fed Up’-rising by Michael Harriot
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change by Barack Obama
How to Be an Ally if You Are a Person with Privilege by Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D
✊ If you don’t have the means to donate,
Sign petitions. This is a fast, easy way to show you stand with the Black community. Here are some petitions to consider:
Contact your local, county, state and federal representatives to share your despair. The more they hear it, the more they’ll listen.
Support protestors. If you don’t want to or can’t be part of the protests, you can still help by doing things like organizing supplies, making posters and offering to babysit for someone who would like to protest.
Share the movement. Continue learning and sharing the knowledge. Educate yourself, your family and your peers.
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