DAY 21

Today is the final day of the 21-Day Pledge for Inclusive Democracy! We’ve covered so much - from holding elected officials accountable, to ending police violence, to encouraging more accessible media, to lifting up our young leaders. We’ve learned and listened and shared and acted. It’s been a journey and in the process we’ve created a blueprint. A blueprint that we hope you use again and again.

We have one final theme to cover. If you believe that Black lives matter, support the goals being established by the Movement for Black Lives. Respect the Black leaders who have lived this reality their whole lives. Educate yourself and others on the connection between police brutality in America and fine and loan forgiveness, universal basic income, and other forms of reparations as outlined by the Black-led movement for justice.

Read: Hate Crimes: The Gateway Drug

Listen: Excerpt from KQED Forum: The Role of Cross-Racial Solidarity in a Time of Protest featuring Eric K. Ward (to hear the full interview click here)

Watch: James Baldwin's "Black Lives Matter" Speech (1965)

Dance: Prince - Baltimore

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DAY 20

We have learned over the last four months that defeating a pandemic is a painful, slow effort that takes daily discipline. We are also living with the reality that to defeat systemic racism - to reach the mountaintop - we must take slow, steady steps each day. In many ways these are challenging days, weary days, but they are also days full of possibility. Generations alive today have an enormous opportunity to realize an inclusive democracy for future generations - that, in and of itself, is electrifying. We need to use that excitement to push through the tough days, to bring people together and to keep our eye on the prize - defending inclusive democracy by using disciplined non-violent protest and non-violent direct action to demand justice. Today, we bring together people of goodwill who believe the American experiment’s best days are yet to come.

Watch: Outer Voice: Eric Ward Interview

Read: Maintain nonviolent discipline

Listen: I Have Been to the Mountaintop

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DAY 19

It is imperative that we acknowledge the deep injustice occurring in our country and continue to seek justice for those wronged past and present. But we must also call on all to restrain from a cycle of systemic and physical violence that will only escalate the rise of authoritarianism in America. Continued violence — from white nationalists, from law enforcement, and from the left — puts beleaguered communities in further danger and will contribute to the re-election of Donald Trump, which could end forever the dream of inclusive democracy. Today, we remember that many ancestors fought and died for this dream.

Read: By targeting the pillars that uphold police violence, Black Lives Matter is shifting power to the people

Listen: Strange Fruit 

Watch: 13th

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DAY 18

Seismic change won’t come cheap. There are young, dynamic people leading the movement for Black lives. There are dynamic middle-agers and elders fueling this fight. There is also a will for change across a spectrum of racial identities. The Black-led organizations leading and organizing on racial equity - our best hope - are also more likely to see their support decline when times are tough. They need more financial support and they need it for a sustained period of time. Today, we call on philanthropy to immediately double grantmaking, for at least three years, to advance real equity in America. 

Share: Dear Philanthropy: These Are the Fires of Anti-Black Racism

Listen: Calls for Financial Transparency Grow as Money Pours Into Racial Justice Organizations

Watch:  A Racist Attack was Caught on Camera. Nearly 45 Years Later, It Still Stings

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DAY 17

We have been very focused on organizing for change from within the U.S. But what if America can’t properly address police brutality on its own? If this was any other country in the world we would be calling for international accountability. George Floyd’s brother spoke with the U.N. Human Rights Council recently and pleaded for help: "I'm asking you to help him. I'm asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us: black people in America." It’s time for the U.S. to answer not just to Black Americans for these crimes, but to the world. Today, we call on the United Nations to immediately appoint a human rights Special Rapporteur to investigate present-day lynchings of Black Americans and organize towards a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on policing in America.

Do: UNHRC urgent debate on race-based human rights violations

Read this: EJI Lynching in America

Listen: George Walker - Lyric for strings

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DAY 16

Throughout the pandemic, some media outlets have done the right thing for the common good, dropping their paywalls around COVID-19 coverage. Those outlets have upheld journalism's fundamental role as a public service. But they haven’t treated the other crises facing Americans - namely systemic racism and the economic downturn - in the same way. COVID-19 is deadly. So is police brutality. So is poverty. Additionally, we’ve seen a rise in racial violence from white nationalists, but little indication that the media view this political movement as much more than a curiosity - rarely interviewing victims or experts to use as sources for their reporting. Today, we call on media outlets to drop their paywalls on topics that have critical implications for the lives of Americans and encourage them to improve their coverage of white nationalist terror.

Write: Send an email to your local newspaper editor. Ask them to lift the paywall on all media that is essential to the lives of Americans.

Read: Unicorn Riot for independent media

Watch: Free Black Cinema on the Criterion Channel until the end of June.

Watch: Eulogy for George Floyd

Listen: Why There’s a Push to get Police Out of Schools

Share: Independent Investigations and Prosecutions

Utilize: Fighting Police Abuse: A Community Action Manual

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DAY 14

“And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.” With these words, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us of the anger and grief that can propel change. Dr. King consistently advocated that the path forward was through non-violent resistance and vigorous protest. But accelerators - from both the left and right - who encourage violence, are inciting chaos to popularize a perception that our political systems can’t be fixed and that communities can’t organize for change. Today, we condemn accelerators who glorify and center violence over justice, othering over community, divisive ideology over common-ground values.

Read: White Supremacists Embrace Accelerationism

Share: Reforms that have been enacted since George Floyd's death

Listen: People get ready

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DAY 13

As protests over the killing of George Floyd roiled the U.S., almost half of U.S. Governors responded by requesting and activating national guard units and militarized police. At one point, Trump even threatened to override state and local officials and send federal troops to various states to “dominate” protestors. Video after video surfaced of national guard forces and police officers armed with military-grade weaponry sweeping into American communities to enforce curfews and control the movements of residents. Elderly people were shoved to the ground, teenagers were egregiously doused with pepper spray and tear gas (both banned in warfare by the way), and bystanders were gravely injured by rubber bullets. Concurrently, Trump declared that he planned to designate “antifa” a terrorist organization. And just today he announced that he is authorizing the government to arrest (even retroactively) those who attempt to damage a statute and jail them for up to 10 years. What Trump is signaling - and which we should all take seriously - is that those opposing fascism could now be labelled terrorists. Lest we forget - fascism is defined by extreme militaristic and nationalist governments, led by dictators who disdain electoral democracy. Today we wonder, who among us is not opposed to fascism? And what does the militaristic response to protests mean for American democracy?

Read: War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing

Listen: Why Republican Leaders Back Trump's 'Proto-Authoritarian Cult'

Act: Send an email to your senators and demand that they introduce and support legislation to halt the transfer of military weaponry to police departments.

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DAY 12

Today we lift up the peacemakers. Those like Ruhel Islam, who, after learning his restaurant burned in the Minneapolis uprising, said, "I felt like we can rebuild with bricks, but we cannot rebuild people's life, and we have lost a lot of life.” Or Elbert Powell, who helped negotiate an exit strategy for hundreds of protestors trapped by police on Manhattan Bridge. Or Todd Winn, a marine veteran, who silently protested outside Utah’s state capital in full dress uniform with black tape over his mouth that read “I Can’t Breathe.” Or networks like the Movement for Black Lives (#DefendBlackLives #DefundPolice) and local NAACP chapters (#WeAreDoneDying) who are winning tangible changes to systems of policing.

Do: Lift up a peacemaker in your community by giving them recognition on social media, donating to or promoting their work, or simply calling to tell them how grateful you are for their efforts. Share with us on Facebook @westernstatescenter and Twitter @WStatesCenter.

Read: End the War on Black People

Listen: William Grant Still - Symphony No.1 in A flat major "Afro-American", IV - Aspirations

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DAY 11

Throughout the protests of the last several weeks, we’ve seen police and elected officials treat property damage as a capital offense to justify violence against protestors. Dominant media platforms echoed this sentiment by running non-stop footage of smashed windows and looting. City officials decried the looting but did little to hold accountable those police officers who were recorded brutalizing protestors. This valuing of property over life was central to the U.S.’s founding massacres of indigenous lives and an economy built on slavery. And it’s evident today with the Trump administration and many governors flouting social distancing recommendations amid the COVID pandemic, despite the many lives that are being lost as a result - disproportionately Black lives. Today, we dive into this vexing question: what does it take to be treated as a human being in America?

Read: Media Are Slowly Starting to Be Serious About Police Violence

Watch: Trevor Noah addressing the protests and rioting

Share: Billionaires Grew $584 Billion Richer Over Last 3 Months While 45 Million Lost Their Jobs.

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DAY 10

Last month, Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, logged over 250 hours of surveillance, using drones, helicopters and planes, of those protesting the murder of George Floyd. Police officers fired rubber bullets, canisters of tear gas and rammed their vehicles into crowds of protestors. Others just beat protestors with their batons. In 2017, when white nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville chanting, “Jews shall not replace us!” police stood by as far-Right marchers attacked counter-protestors. There is a huge and well-documented disparity between how law enforcement - from local police forces on up to federal agencies - respond to social protest on the left versus the right. Today, we acknowledge law enforcement’s long track record of targeting social movements on the left and demand a stop to spying and violence.

Act: Stop the FBI from Obscuring White Supremacy

Read: The Long, Painful History of Police Brutality in the U.S. and A Short History of U.S. Law Enforcement Infiltrating Protests

Join: Campaign Zero

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DAY 9

It’s Juneteenth - time to raise our voices in protest and celebration! Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when a Union army general arrived in Galveston, Texas - the last place in the U.S. where enslaved persons were to be freed - and read Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation which declared "that all persons held as slaves...are, and henceforward shall be free." One could consider, and many do, June 19, 1865 as the true American Independence Day. But we know the road to freedom did not end in 1865. Slave patrols in the southern states, used to terrorize and control the movements of enslaved persons, gave rise to militia-style groups (such as the Ku Klux Klan) and Jim Crow-era laws. This drove many Black Americans north to cities where a new law enforcement model awaited them - one focused on surveillance and militaristic infrastructure. This modern policing structure exists today and has little to do with safety, but a lot in common with Antebellum-era slave patrols - surveillance, terror, and control over essential workers - establishing the template for the same police violence we’ve seen in recent weeks against protestors. Today we celebrate the freedoms won through the hard-fought struggles of the past, and the birth of a 21st century civil rights movement driven by a global call for an end to police violence.

Listen: American Police

Join: Six Nineteen: Defend Black Lives

Watch & dance: Chicago Children's Choir Juneteenth event or Call and Response: A Concert for Equality or Juneteenth 2020: A Day of Remembrance

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DAY 8

It should go without saying that Black communities ought to be the focal point of the movement for Black lives. The rioting that occurred a few weeks ago was not the work of Black organizers, and if we’re honest with ourselves most of it wasn’t the work of coordinated agitators either (from the left or right). The culprits and causes probably lie closer to white folks who are engaging in a long-held habit of centering their own grievances without regard for the damage it inflicts on social movements. But whatever the reason, one thing is clear: too many white folks have once again sidelined Black leaders’ attempts to save Black lives. Despite that, Black leaders - especially young ones - have persevered in profound ways. How much more can they accomplish without these added barriers? Today, we do some hard thinking: how do we help ensure the path ahead is clear for Black leadership? And how can we redirect white communities to be genuine antiracist allies?

Read:  Black Organizers ‘Enraged’ by White Agitators ‘Here to F*ck Shit Up’

Listen: Why Now, White People?

Do and share: 10 steps to non-optical allyship

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DAY 7

Today is the five year anniversary of the Charleston Church Massacre when nine Black parishioners were killed by white nationalist Dylann Roof during Bible study. Churches have not been spared from racial gun violence and, like most aspects of American life, the protests in recent weeks have also been a target. On top of the police brutality and vehicle assaults, protestors have had to contend with a string of suspicious shootings - most recently when a reported militia member shot a protestor in Albuquerque. For some of these shootings the identities and motives of perpetrators remain unconfirmed, but there is growing confirmation that protesters for Black lives and law enforcement officers are targets of white nationalist violence. Today, we remember the nine lives taken five years ago, learn about the threat of far-Right and anti-government groups, and contemplate the price of gun violence.

Share: For the Weary: A Message from the Mountaintop, 1968

Read: Rightwing vigilantes on armed patrol after fake rumours of antifa threat and this and this

Watch: Lives Torn Apart By Gun Violence

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DAY 6

Vehicle assaults targeting protestors in recent weeks - used by both law enforcement and individuals - are a deadly tactic. Vehicle assaults aren’t new but they’ve accelerated in frequency since 2015 when “run them down” became a popular meme on white nationalist forums. Police officers have reposted provocations such as "All lives splatter" and “When encountering such mobs remember, there are 3 pedals on your floor. Push the right one all the way down.” In non-law-enforcement attacks on protestors across the country from May 27 to June 7, at least two dozen involved vehicles to menace or cause injury – including the killing of an African-American protestor in Bakersfield who was struck by a white man sporting what appear to be white supremacist tattoos. It’s no wonder vehicle assaults have risen sharply - the attack that killed Heather Heyer and injured 28 others who were protesting the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017 inspired praise in white nationalist circles. The attacker, 20-year-old James Fields, had a history of violent outbursts and long-standing obsessions with white supremacy and Nazi Germany - reminding us that before he was a killer, he was a kid lured by violent ideology. Today, we call for policies that protect the safety of public protest spaces and for early intervention by parents and educators to prevent white nationalism from consuming a new generation.

Read: Why So Many Drivers Are Ramming Into Protesters 

Share: Confronting White Nationalism in Schools Toolkit. Share it with a teacher, a librarian, or a school administrator. It could save lives.

Do: Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. We suggest framing around one of these three topics, ideally in reference to your paper’s reporting:

1. Deterring vehicle assaults by making public spaces safer for peaceful assembly

2. Holding accountable police officers who attack protestors with their vehicles

3. Demanding elected officials condemn far-right vigilantism

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DAY 5

Like the tragedies that galvanized them, too many protests in recent weeks have been marked by police violence. From New York to Minneapolis to Dallas to Oakland and practically every town and city in between, police have disproportionately brutalized protestors and bystanders even as police abuse comes under a microscope like never before. Each new act of police violence in response to civil protest validates the call to dismantle institutions that rely on and perpetuate violence. 

Sign: Color of Change’s Petition Invest in Communities, Not Police

Read: Protests about police brutality are met with wave of police brutality

Do: How to Find Out Which Politicians Are Financially Backed by Cops

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DAY 4

When Donald Trump wrote on Twitter, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” political leaders raised alarm over the President inciting violence against protestors. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., tweeted: "Trump's behavior is growing increasingly unhinged, authoritarian, and outright violent and is designed to inflame and divide America further.” Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va. posted a screenshot of the President’s tweet and said, “This is what a racist president looks like.” When the Trump administration ordered military and park police to clear peaceful protestors from Lafayette Square outside the White House with tear gas and rubber bullets, and paraded Trump and the nation’s top general (in full combat uniform) through the scene, condemnation came from all corners. But safeguarding democracy under a president who calls for violence against citizens requires more than condemnation. Today, we call on our politicians to hold Trump and his administration accountable.

Do: Call and email your Congressional Representatives and Senators and demand that they immediately open hearings on the President’s incitement of violence.

Read: Dangerous Disinformation Spreads Fear About Black Lives Matter Protests

Promote: DOJ Alumni call for investigation into Attorney General William Barr

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DAY 3

How do we measure the culpability of elected and law enforcement leaders who stood by silently as anger built over the killing of Black Americans? How do we hold accountable those who have helped murderers of Black Americans to subvert justice? How should we respond to elected officials who chastised those protesting while defending the police violence being inflicted upon them? A day of reckoning is overdue for those who have misplaced or misused their political and moral authority. Today, we hold them accountable and demand they do better.

Do this: Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives is a live document, compiled by Carlisa Johnson, listing actions we can take to bring to justice those responsible for taking Ahmaud, Breonna, George, and other Black lives. Sign, email and call! Do one thing. Do them all.

Read this: The anger behind the protests

Watch this: Protesters have "lost faith in the justice system"

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DAY 2

To understand why there is such deep, unabated grief and anger about the recent murders of Black Americans, we must understand the role lynching has played historically. “Our country’s national crime is lynching,” Ida B. Wells noted 110 years ago. A form of violence used specifically to enforce racial inequality and segregation, lynchings are acts of terror. In the past, perpetrators were never held accountable. Today, acts of terror continue against Black Americans, with few held accountable. In 2019, 24% of those killed by police were Black, despite being only 13% of the population. Death by cop is just American lynching 2.0.

Today, we honor those killed, acknowledge the anger, and learn about the realities of racialized terror for Black Americans.

Share this: A Decade Of Watching Black People Die. Share on social media & #SayTheirNames

Read this: A litany for survival by Audre Lorde

Watch & reflect: Watch this 7-minute video of Kimberly Jones, How can we win, without interruption and then:

• List two different emotions you felt while watching this video and what evoked those feelings.

• Kimberly brings up history that may be new for some of us—the way slavery built the American economy, the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, and the wealth gap between black and white Americans, to name a few. In watching this, what challenged your thinking? What do you want to learn more about?

• Kimberly says “when you focus on the what, you don’t focus on the why.” What have you learned about the "why" behind the current uprising?

• Who in your life needs to hear this message and how can you share it?

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DAY 1

This is a precarious moment for American democracy. Accelerationists on the right and left are exploiting the rightful rage of people subjected to injustice after injustice. We cannot allow the distraction of chaos to cloud our view. This is not the time for divisive ideological agendas. Today, before we do anything else, we must fully realize what’s at stake and commit to protect and nurture a fully inclusive multiracial democratic nation.

Read this: 21 Things We Can Do Right Now

Watch this: Gathering the Good

Do this: Sign up for the 21-Day Pledge. Spread the word on social media:

Facebook: I’m taking the #PledgeForInclusiveDemocracy @westernstatescenter. 21 Days. 21 Actions. Join me and let's fight the fear together.

Twitter: Join me in taking the #PledgeForInclusiveDemocracy @wstatescenter #21Days #FightTheFearTogether

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