5 Things Friday
A confession, a coup handbook, a ray of sunshine in human form and more.
Dr. Akilah Cadet of Change Cadet and The Ally Nudge.
Before writing this, I just re-read our 5 Things from last week. I can't help but chuckle (errr...sob?), because while the past week has been a roller coaster, that new reality we were supposed to arrive at today? LOL. Obviously, the trip will take far longer than we anticipated. And I'm not talking about those final ballot counts. Or the lawsuits. I'm talking about that red map. About 55% of all white women in this country. And, to be real, the other 45% of us, too, who didn't call our cousin or our aunt or our old BFF from high school. (I personally hail from Ohio, and am sitting with the reality that I exchanged a lot more words with like-minded folks from CA than my people back home.)
But guess what? You're here. You're reading this (thank you!!). And it's looking like we will have a few less insane things we will have to waste our energy fighting against over the next 4 years (science denial, tweet rage, utter incompetence), freeing us up to battle the important ones with all we've got. Friend (and REP CO exec) Temi Adamolekun wrote this yesterday, and it pretty much sums it up:
"As we wait for the final results of the election, the refrain, it should never have been this close keeps playing in my head. America, these numbers show with crystal clear clarity, we have a LOT of work to do with dismantling white supremacy and fighting racism. Whoever wins, remember, nobody can and nobody will save us from ourselves."
So, how about we go ahead and do these 5 Things, shall we?
HAVE A GIRLS' NIGHT Are you white? Are you a woman? I know, it's not the best look right now. 55% of us voted for Trump. That's 3.5 million more than voted for him in 2016. Extra embarrassing? That the media was acting like we had all had some political revelation and were gonna swoop and save the day this time. And while the premise of this popular episode of The Daily doesn't age so well post-election, we think the practice of white women calling in other white women is something that will never go out of style—and is needed now more than ever. So give a listen and then figure out how you can inject some changemaking (and mind changing) into your white girl hangs. Pro tip: Start by signing up for the Ally Nudge as a crew.
UNDERSTAND THIS How and when will we know if America is really being hit with the c-word? And what do we do about it? To many, especially those who have lived their entire lives on American soil, the word “coup” might seem alarmist or extreme. But to so many others who have spent time in countries that have been through it in recent memory it is clearly a concept that America is intensely flirting with. For the first time in history, a sitting president is refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose. According to the Transition Integrity Project (who released this statement back in June): “We assess with a high degree of likelihood that November’s elections will be marked by a chaotic legal and political landscape. We also assess that… President Trump is likely to contest the result by both legal and extra-legal means in an attempt to hold onto power.”
READ THIS Take a break from the insanity and spend a few minutes getting to know this certified ray of sunshine in human form: Mr. Limata is a second grade teacher in Oakland, and when the pandemic shuttered his second grade classroom, he launched a virtual storytime—and the whole world tuned in. “It was one way of like, I’ll keep exposing those kids to books. And then also, if they see especially, you know, a man, a Black man reading...those are things that would be encouraging.”
WATCH THIS Eddie S Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton, gets real with MSNBC. We’ll let him tell it.
SHOW UP TO THIS Remember when thousands of marchers took to the Golden Gate Bridge to demand justice for George Floyd? That was the first protest organized by 17-year-old Tiana Day. And she hasn't stopped since. Her new nonprofit, Youth Advocates 4 Change, has been behind nearly a dozen protests and get-out-the-vote initiatives over the last few months, including March 4 Our Future, a pre-election action last Sunday. Tomorrow, the group convenes again, back at where it all started. “We are back to the streets this Saturday November 7th, 12 p.m.-2 p.m., either protesting or celebrating depending on the outcome of the election. It'll be across the Golden Gate Bridge where my activism began, so I am very excited to get out there and hopefully to celebrate the outcome of the election, but I am coming into this week prepared to exercise my freedom to protest if it goes south.”