It’s no secret that we all tend to follow others on social media who remind us of ourselves. People who look, act, and think like us. But, the more we diversify our world around us, the more we learn and grow. One way we can help to unlearn our own racial and other biases, it learn more and live more closely with people who are different than us.
With the recent murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, more and more of us are finally asking, “What can we do?” There are so many great educators and activists who have been fighting racial injustice for years. Their ideas on how to fight injustice are the voices we need to be listening to and amplifying. It’s so easy to say that we don’t know where to start with this problem. But, one obvious place is within ourselves.
One suggestion I’ve heard about how to unlearn racism is to follow and listen to BlPOC voices. Listening to and learning from those of us that have had a different experience than we have had is a great way to just learn about how the world can be different based on who we are. In an effort to amplify more minority or oppressed groups of people, I’m going to be sharing BIPOC/LGBTQ accounts on my Instagram. Every Thursday, I will continue to feature minority voices on either my feed or in Stories. The last two weeks, I’ve shared two categories of minority voices: illustrators and writers/educators. You can check out each of these accounts on Instagram:
Illustrators:
Jena Holiday, Spoon Full of Faith Studio, Illustrator who loves florals, patterns, women + kids
Winnie Weston Illustrations, Illustrations by Justine Magnum
Shae | She Is This Designs, Illustrator of Women of All Color
Blessing Manifesting, Self Care Blogger and Mental Health Advocate
Jess Bird, Bless the Messy, Magic making queer Illustrator ⋒
Melanie Odelusi, Illustrator and Hand Letterer
Writers/Educators:
Black Coffee with White Friends, Account and Writer about Racial Justice and History
Rachel Cargle, Authore building an intellectual legacy through teaching, storytelling & critical discourse.
Founder of @thelovelandfoundation and @thegreatunlearn
Lisa Sharon Harper, Founder and President, @freedomroad.us and Host Freedom Road Podcast, Author of several books
Meena Harris, Founder / CEO of Phenomenal Tees, Children’s Book Author
Franchesa Ramsey, Actor, author of Well, That Escalated Quickly, former @thenightlyshow writer & host of #MTVDecoded
Latasha Morrison, Speaker, NYT Bestselling Author of Be the Bridge, Founder & President of @Beabridgebuilder
Heather Thompson Day, Author of It’s NOT Your Turn, Barna Contributor, PhD, Professor, Serving college students & women, unapologetically
Check back each month for more BIPOC/LGBTQ voices. You can follow them, support them online with likes, follows, comments, and shares, and further support them by purchasing some of their fabulous products! If you have someone you think should be featured, please leave their instagram handle in the comments below.
