* 

10. Look forward and back --study

      more history.  Study, in particular,

      the history of the Jim Crow era,

      the Great Migration, the Civil Rights

      movement.

11. Be very thoughtful about your media diet (and your 

     children's).  Spend less time looking at screens.

13. Think about your network.  Who are you touching?  What are you putting out and taking in?

14. Understand government better, know that

        you are a constituent, and stay in effective

       touch with your representatives.

15. Consider running for office or

     taking a government job.

22. Reject ever-escalating expectations —for yourself, for others, for your

     experiences.  Think about the role that social media might be playing

     in your perceptions of your life, and of others’ lives. 

23. Be joyful about the fact that you are alive, and still have time to make

     a difference, in your own life and in the lives of others.

24. Help your kids write actual, physical letters to your elected

     representatives at all levels.  Urge your kids to remind them of their

     responsibility to take care of America’s future.

25. Look people in the eye.  Smile and say hello.

26. Don't let barriers deter you.  Anytime you say

     —to yourself, or out loud— “I can’t go there”

                      . . . figure out how to go there.  

   Here are some things*  that I have been

      doing and that I plan to do more of

      going forward. Maybe you’ll want to

                         try them, too.

1. There is, of course, one very important

thing in the mix besides race and power: MONEY, much of it money that flows

out of our own pockets every day.

Our consumer choices

are under our full control.

2. Think very carefully about every dollar

you spend and where that money

ends up.  Don’t fund hate or

corruption or injustice or

environmental degradation.

More specifically, look out for

companies whose owners support agendas that marginalize

minorities, women, children, and immigrants.  Reward companies

that try to do good.

3. Support non-profits that do good

work supplementing government

services that may be in jeopardy.

8. Educate yourself on unconscious bias, and try to find some training in that area, maybe through your job.  If none exists at your church or workplace, ask them to start it up.

​

9. Seek out relationships with people who are different from you.  Have conversations with people whose opinions are different from yours — including people who voted differently.  It is urgent

that you talk with them and learn what they were thinking, and make them part of the plan

to unite our country going forward.
 

6. In any group setting, seek out points of view different from your own.

Find your own voice, and use it.  Amplify voices that are not being heard.

​

7. Consider, and meditate on, the idea that our core national problems

are failures to truly grapple with institutional racism and sexism.

4. If you’re afraid,don’t give into fear.

​

5. Get outside your comfort zone in as many ways as you can.

*    List by Kelly Bare,

    IntegratedSchools.org 

What Can YOU Do

To Bring People Together?

16. Balance careful examination

      of data with careful reading of human stories.

17. Strive for emotional intelligence.  Nurture it in your

      friends, your family.

18. Be vigilant, and speak up for anyone who is being 

      threatened.  Lend your power for good.

20. Stop being “too busy” to connect with other people.

21. Reconsider your definition of "good."

27. And finally, crucially:

​

      Go out of your way to join up with people who don’t look

      or think like you —at a church, or a community garden,

      or a gym, or a sports team, or a club.  Then talk to them.

​

      Be open to discovering how much more spiritually

      sustaining a more diverse community can be.  Be open

      to joining, or creating, a beloved community of your own.

​

      Go on a Black Lives Matter march, or join in any march

      or rally for a marginalized group. 

​

      And if you have kids, put them into the most racially and

      socio-economically diverse schools you can.  Put your

      back into making those schools even more diverse and

      making them great, which includes not only fundraising,

      but also making them places of real connection and

      dialogue.

      Participate in that school community to the fullest extent

      possible.  See what you learn.  How it feels.  Stay through

      the icky and uncomfortable stuff —there will be icky and

      uncomfortable stuff.

27. And finally, crucially:

​

      Go out of your way to join up with people who don’t look

      or think like you —at a church, or a community garden,

      or a gym, or a sports team, or a club.  Then talk to them.

​

      Be open to discovering how much more spiritually

      sustaining a more diverse community can be.  Be open

      to joining, or creating, a beloved community of your own.

​

      Go on a Black Lives Matter march, or join in any march

      or rally for a marginalized group. 

​

      And if you have kids, put them into the most racially and

      socio-economically diverse schools you can.  Put your

      back into making those schools even more diverse and

      making them great, which includes not only fundraising,

      but also making them places of real connection and

      dialogue.

      Participate in that school community to the fullest extent

      possible.  See what you learn.  How it feels.  Stay through

      the icky and uncomfortable stuff —there will be icky and

      uncomfortable stuff.

"As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality

persist in our world, none of us can truly rest."

Nelson Mandela

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