When someone discovers a law that’s unfair and/or discriminatory, many people want to see to change immediately within 5 seconds. Unfortunately, change comes at a slow pace with talking with our local leaders and having votes shot down until the process has succeeded and change is made. Changes with racial justice is a different animal. This involves a different racial background. A commitment to change the process of how they treat people, talk to people and even believe their stories. The process of change within racial justice will have a list of skills and resources that can be used and followed.
A huge skill that can process change for racial justice is simple: Talking. Have a conversation. There are so many missed opportunities for law enforcement to have simple conversations to people that live in the city or even the neighborhoods to improve their relationships regarding crime and leadership. Ever since the murder of George Floyd, there was an investigation that came out that the most of the officers within the Minneapolis Police Department don’t even live within the city limits. A lot of the officers live out in the suburbs. Even some live out as far as western Wisconsin or even in St. Cloud. There is missed opportunities and disservice for these officers to not connect with the local people. I feel that these officers just come into the city to do a job for “X” hours and drive home to their quiet homes out of harms way.
If you are new to figuring out how to provide resources to others on racial justice or to even have resources of your own, you’ve come to the right. There are a lot of websites right now that have documents of information on how to break down the walls and making issues more equitable and diverse. One example would be the resources for the ACLU’s (https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice) website. Under the headline “What’s at Stake”, the section states “Deep-seated systemic racism and inequities that disadvantaged communities of color are still woven into the fabric of our institutions today— from education and housing to our criminal legal system.” The ACLU and others websites are a start to educate others and look at additional education that’s out there to learn going into the future.
This is only the start of collecting the resources and showing you the skills in how to combat racial justice and voicing change within the area you live in.