This Is Not A Riot!

About This Reading List

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed black man, cried out that he couldn’t breathe as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck and three other officers aided in his eventual death. George Floyd’s murder joins an ever-growing list of Black death captured on video and played in a 24-hour national news loop. This event, another instance in the long history of police and vigilante violence toward Black Americans including the recent murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, sparked a series of nationwide protests that have catalyzed a movement of people in solidarity against the senseless deaths and violence over policing of unarmed Black men and women. 

Exacerbating these issues is the global COVID-19 pandemic that has disproportionately devastated the Black community, killing Black people at rates multiple times higher than most other groups. In large cities, Black Americans are vastly overrepresented among workers on the frontlines, forced to risk their lives while being grossly underpaid. At the same time, working-class communities of color, long struggling due to government underfunding and straggling investments, have been hard-hit by the virus, with alarming numbers of minority businesses forced to shut down, many risking the threat of never opening again. 

We are all feeling exhausted, numb, confused, helpless, and scared right now. But we must persist…

This reading list was made with the intention of helping you, and anyone who has witnessed the rapidly-expanding protests of the last few weeks, navigate your own feelings, and field questions you or others may have surrounding the protests. Here, we encourage you to teach yourselves with these readings, to broaden and deepen your understanding of the protests and their purpose. 

One of the first steps of understanding is to listen. Now is the time to listen to and elevate Black voices. There is no easy way to summarize centuries of silenced injustice - if you haven’t begun already, now is the time to do the work!

How To Read This List

Treat this list as a handbook to navigate awkward, uncomfortable, and sometimes tricky conversations about race, social injustice, and the uprisings occurring around us. Find the sections most relevant to the concerns arising in your own mind, or to answer a question that a loved-one has posed, then use the readings, summaries, and key quotes as tools to educate yourself, and animate your thoughts and arguments. 

Each section in this list engages with a common question or point that has emerged in discussions of the growing protests. These readings are meant to equip you with a baseline of knowledge to help you flesh out your own thoughts on the topic.