Getting Started for White Folks IV: Voices and Organizations Edition

6 min readJun 9, 2020

Building on A Getting Started Guide For White Folks, this is the fourth of a series diving deeper into recommendations for white folks seeking a place to start, to listen, and most importantly, to act.

Of all the recommendations I’ve made, following these voices and organizations is both the simplest and in some ways the most important for the longer-term. It is essential for the journey to always have these voices to provide perspective on what’s going on in the world. For a recent example, did you see pictures of police officers kneeling and walking with protestors and feel warm, or relieved, or even share them so others could feel good too? Go see how the folks below felt and responded to those same images. As white people, we have a lot to unlearn.

Though there are many, many important voices in the discussion on race, it’s important for white folks to learn from other anti-racist white folks and Black folks who have chosen anti-racism work. It’s not Black folks’ job to help or educate us. Learn about your whiteness from those who have graciously chosen to share their knowledge.

Also, if you’re just getting started on this journey, take a quick look at Part I: The Basics.

Check out other posts in the series: A Getting Started Guide For White Folks Overview , Videos, Documentaries and Film Edition, Podcasts, and Workshops and Classes and Books and Articles.

Voices

Ijeoma Oluo

T: @IjeomaOluo | IG:@ijeomaoluo | F: Ijeoma.Oluo | Ijeoma Oluo
Ijeoma Oluo is an activist and New York Times bestselling author of So You Want to Talk about Race, a foundational book for anyone looking to put their good intentions into action.
— Want to learn more? Order So You Want to Talk About Race from Black-owned online bookstores.

Tim Wise

T: @timjacobwise |F: timjacobwise | Tim Wise
Tim Wise is an activist and anti-racist educator who began his career working to defeat white supremacist David Duke when he ran for Senate in 1990.
— Want to learn more? Subscribe to Tim’s podcast Speak Out with Tim Wise.

Ibram Kendi

T: @DrIbram|IG: @ibramxk | F: ibramxkendi | Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is an academic, activist and New York Times best selling author and a leading voice in the antiracist movement in the United States. He’s authored How to Be an Antiracist and children’s book AntiRacist Baby as well as Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and the young adult version Stamped.
— Want to learn more? Order How to Be an Antiracist from Black-owned online bookstores.

Layla Saad

IG: @laylafsaad
Layla Saad is an anti-racist educator and the New York Times best-selling author of Me and White Supremacy, an anti-racism education workbook.
— Want to learn more? Order Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor from Black-owned online bookstores.

Kimberlé Crenshaw

T: @sandylocks| IG: @kimberlecrenshaw | YT: aapolicyforum | F: TheAfricanAmericanPolicyForum
Kimberlé Crenshaw is an American lawyer, civil rights advocate, and a leading scholar of critical race theory who coined the term and developed the theory of intersectionality.
— Want to learn more? Check out her TED Talk on The urgency of intersectionality, her Intersectionality Matters podcast, and her Under the Blacklight series on YouTube.

Rachel Cargle

T: @RachelCargle | IG: @rachel.cargle | F: rachelecargle
Rachel Cargle is an academic, writer, and lecturer who brings an honest and empathic approach to educating white people. She has created #DoTheWork, free 30-day self-paced course is designed to be an eye-opener and a call to action for those who seek to be allies to Black women by intentionally breaking down the systems that continue to oppress and disenfranchise the Black community, as well as the The Great Unlearn, example-based learning dissecting messages she has received.

Dr. David Campt

T: @thedialogueguy |F: david.campt | IG: @thedialogueguy | Dr. David Campt
Dr. David Campt is the creator of the White Ally Toolkit Workbook, a comprehensive guide for allies to effectively engage in anti-racism dialogue.

Patrisse Cullors

T: @OsopePatrisse| IG: @osopepatrisse | F: OsopePatrisse | Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of Black Lives Matter, is a prison abolition and civil rights activist and as well as the author of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.
— Want to learn more? Order her book from Black-owned online bookstores.

Robin DiAngelo

F: RobinDiAngeloOfficialPage | Robin DiAngelo
Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer and author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism.
— Want to learn more? Order her book from Black-owned online bookstores.

Michael Skolnik

T: @MichaelSkolnik |F: OfficialMichaelSkolnik | Michael Skolnik
Michael Skolnik is a respected leader in the social justice movement, and has helped ignite conversations around America’s relationship with race, the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Eric Garner.

W. Kamau Bell

T: @wkamaubell | IG: @wkamaubell | W. Kamau Bell
W. Kamau Bell is an author and sociopolitical comedian who is the host and executive producer of the Emmy Award winning CNN docuseries United Shades of America. (Massive hat-tip to his former podcast, Politically Reactive, whose guest list helped set me on a path to being able to create these posts.)

No White Saviors

T: @nowhitesaviors | IG:@nowhitesaviors |F: nowhitesaviors | No White Saviors
Follow this account. Listen. Process. Educate yourself. Do better.

Organizations

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

T: @showup4rj | F: Showing Up For Racial Justice | IG: @ShowingUpForRacialJustice
SURJ moves white people to act as part of a multi-racial majority for justice with passion and accountability through a national network of groups and individuals working to undermine white supremacy and to work toward racial justice.

Color of Change

T: @colorofchange | IG: @colorofchange |F: colorofchange | Color Of Change
Color Of Change is an online racial justice organization that leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities by challenging injustice, holding corporate and political leaders accountable, commissioning research on systems of inequality, and advancing solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.

Southern Poverty Law Center

T: @splcenter | IG: @splcenter |F: SPLCenter | SPLC
The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.

Fair Fight

T: @fairfightaction| IG: @fairfightaction | F: FairFightAction
Voter suppression of voters of color and young voters is a scourge our country faces in states across the nation. Founded by Stacey Abrams in the wake of her run for governor in 2018, Fair Fight brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications.

The Movement for Black Lives

T: @Mvmnt4BlkLives | I: @mvmnt4blklives| F: mvmt4bl | Movement for Black Lives
Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, and convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy.

Real Justice

T: RealJusticePAC |F: realjusticepac | Real Justice PAC
This is a controversial one to include. Shawn King is a problematic figure, so do your homework and make your own decision. Other members of Real Justice include Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter.
District attorneys are among the most powerful local elected officials in the U.S with broad discretion to reinforce or reform structural racism within our criminal justice system. The Real Justice PAC works to elect reform-minded prosecutors at the county and municipal level who are committed to using the powers of their office to fight structural racism and defend our communities from abuse by state power.