The issue of racism and some helpful resources

I’m taking a break from recipes today. These last couple of weeks and this whole year so far really have felt like a movie with too many plot twists. The kind of movie you do not want to be in. I personally have been feeling drained, unmotivated and honestly kind of hopeless. Seeing so many cases of mistreatment and murders of black people in the hands of police officers has been beyond disheartening. And I have been especially frustrated at the people who do not understand the racism nor the injustice behind these acts nor the other injustices towards BIPOC in America today.

I was going to write a post about how the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws are still affecting us today. I was going to write about how so many years of white people having the liberty to mistreat black people did not all of a sudden disappear from America after the civil rights movement. About how people who yell “all lives matter” and who are unable to admit that there are privileges to being white in America admit that they are racist on different levels. But I feel like these topics have been illustrated so many times and in so many ways that instead of trying to re-explain what a lot of people choose to not understand or instead of continuing to remind people why we should be angry, I will instead point you to some resources.

I would like to direct you to a blog by my sister, Dr. Ajabeyang Amin, on mental health called African Mind Healer. She recently added a page to her blog called Racism Healing Tool Kit that is comprised of different resources that can help “promote mind-change, education, and more dialogue while healing from the trauma caused by racism and caring for each other.” I strongly encourage you to take some time to checkout these resources and find what you need as well as share it with someone else that you believe needs any of these resources. Also if you have some other helpful resources that are not listed on her blog, please share them in the comments section below.

Despite everything crazy that has been happening along with a global pandemic, it has been encouraging to see the multitudes of people from all different races coming together to protest peacefully throughout the nation and in other parts of the world. I do hope you are all staying safe, learning and growing, and finding healing during this time.