Black History Month is a time where we're all asked to dig in as humans and learn about black history and the black experience. As a non-black person of color, it's not my place to be an educator on either of those topics. What I have are some resources and ideas that have helped me begin to understand my own racism and begin a journey of anti-racist work. 

There are many black activists who occupy an important space of educating a non-black audience around racism. I follow these people and take their words to heart. 

• Ijeoma Oluo 
• Catrice Jackson
• Amber Ruffin

These women's words motivate me to change my actions, use my platform, and direct my charity. They may not speak to you in the same way but I encourage you to look at their content, books, shows/videos. Absorb. until you're bristled the wrong way. Then reflect. 

That feeling of discomfort is why I like the truth that is spoken about black lives from these women. They both make me uncomfortable and then present areas where people can make meaningful actions. Basically, I'm a fan. 

I've also found it useful to devote some of my more idle media consumption focus on black stories and news. I would be doing a shitty job of that if not for Trevor Noah, tbh. But, I make time to watch his interviews over ones on other late night shows because I know he's very intentional with his guests and brings on many black voices. 

I also follow a few local (Seattle and Minneapolis local) black activist voices on Instagram and Twitter. Where some forms of media consumption give me a great broad view of what's happening at a global and national level, the people who are within hugging distance can tell me about the racism in my own backyard. This helps direct my own immediate political action and knowledge I need to be a beacon of anti-racist rhetoric with people I know. 

My intensity here only reflects the amount of time I spend on Instagram, YouTube, and then Facebook to wield my knowledge in online discussion. I'm not active in local activist groups or someone who has amazing community organizing experience on my resume. I've just taken my usual social media/doing my thing time and focused it on consuming information that helps me be less racist. 

As I started carving out room in my life for anti-racism thought and work, I found I needed an outlet these thoughts and principles. While I've been delayed in writing the job duties for our DEI/anti-racist role, I am incredibly excited to have an outlet for my own energy and ideas based on the information amazing black creators are putting out there for folks to read and grow from. 

I guess my last thought here is -- all the knowledge, growth, and understanding about Black History Month and racism is meaningless without action on an individual level. Anti-racism is something we can pull into all aspects of our lives through changed hearts, words, and actions.