The Gayming Podcast: Black Lives Matter
This week, there is no episode of The Gayming Podcast. We have thought long and hard about what we can do to help, and instead of spending 80 minutes listening to us talk nonsense about video games, we invite you to spend 80 minutes doing something truly worthwhile to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
As LGBTQ people we know about protests, our entire movement was born out of protest, and to this day we continue to fight for rights, both in our home countries and also in developing countries who have a lot fewer rights than we enjoy. However, we must not forget that it was black trans members of the community (namely Stormé DeLarverie, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera) who started the modern gay rights movement 51 years ago at Stonewall.
Through riots, protests and raising their voices, they raised awareness and started us out on the path to change. Now it is our turn to lift up and amplify the black community to bring about the systemic change the world so badly needs when it comes to racism.
In the 80 minutes we normally take out of your day, here’s some of the things you can do instead to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Donate
There are so many ways you can donate money to help with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
You can donate directly to the Black Lives Matter Foundation, a global organisation in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
You could also donate to organisations committed to ending mass incarceration and extreme sentencing, like the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to people who have been wrongly convicted, unfairly sentenced or abused in state jails and prisons.
Bail funds are typically collectives driven by volunteers who exist to raise money to free people on bail, as well as to advocate for systemic bail reform. You can donate to a bail fund in your city or state; the National Bail Fund Network lists a number of bail funds by state. Or, you may chose to donate to groups focusing on helping specific communities like the Black Trans Protesters Emergency Fund or the LGBTQ Fund.
Listen
Listen and subscribe to the Black Lives Matters’ What Matters podcast. It combines documentary narrative with interviews to illuminate specific, timely issues, aiming to create safe dialogue to promote freedom, justice, and collective liberation.
Check out the podcast series About Race by the author of Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge. She interviews key voices from the anti-racist activism community and addresses the recent history that lead to the politics of today.
Four hundred years ago, in August 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. 1619, a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones, examines the long shadow of American slavery.
Watch
13th, by Ava DuVernay, explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States”. Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, the film walks through the origins of the mass incarceration of black men, stretching all the way back to the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865.
King in the Wilderness follows Martin Luther King Jr during the last years of his life through personal stories of the people who were around him: from the passage of the Voting Rights Acts in 1965 to his assassination in 1968.
Just Mercy chronicles criminal justice reform in Alabama and stars Michael B. Jordan as lawyer Bryan Stevenson. Based on Stevenson’s book of the same name, the movie tells the story of one of Stevenson’s first cases as a young lawyer – the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian, an innocent black man who spent six years on death row for the murder of an 18-year-old white woman. An almost entirely white jury convicted McMillian on the basis of flimsy evidence raised by a white sheriff and district attorney.
Play
First released a little under a week ago, indie games website itch.io have pulled together over 1000 games to form the Racial Justice and Equality bundle.
With this bundle, itch.io plan to donate proceeds to both the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund– split 50/50. Each donation — with the minimum price being $5, will be helpful in the fight against racial injustices.
To date, the bundle has raised over $5 million for these causes.
Act
Register to vote. Have your voice heard in whatever country you reside at the ballot box and the first step to achieving any change is to make sure you’re registered to vote.
While there is rarely a legal requirement for any official body to respond to a petition, they are a powerful way of gauging public opinion and they are bringing about change, all of the officers in the George Floyd murder are now facing charges thanks in part to the largest ever Change.org US petition of all time.
There are hundreds of petitions that can be signed and one of the most comprehensive list of petitions and resources on the internet comes in the form of this Google Document. The document notes that some petitions may only be open to US residents with an applicable zip code, but handily lists a few you can use, meaning you can sign even if you live overseas.
Whatever you do, thank you. But remember, it is not good enough now to be simply ‘not racist’, we must all be anti-racist. We must all reflect on our shortcomings and use our time to educate ourselves and stand-up for the anti-racism movement.
#BlackLivesMatter
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