enable yourself - things for my best friend’s white boyfriend Chad to do during a quarantined furlough: a thread

yes really his name is chad. he’s been dating my friend, Lynn, for 3 years. super kind, treats her like the Wonder Woman she is, has great manners, is a wonderful boyfriend. and he’s white.

and i would say... an average white person. drinks beer, old navy tees with basketball shorts, socks with flip flops, cheers for his schools football team, drives a truck, is an engineer.

and he’s shocked about George Floyd’s murder, doesn’t get why people are burning down Targets and stealing lamps, and thinks POC hate him. because he’s white. and his name is Chad.

Lynn says she wants to marry Chad when it comes, but is concerned about his ability to have conversations about race. he thinks everything’s about class.

So here are books, movies, podcasts, and episodes that I want to recommend to Chad to get him enabled. Because the world is fucked, he’s got time, and he needs to help.

Part 1: Books

Something super palatable and very relevant.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
Protagist is relatable, the topic is real and plays out in real time. And you see a shooting of an unanarmed black man from a human perspective start to finish. movie’s good, book is better.

Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
The chapters of story walkthrough portions of her life where she starts to understand she benefits from a systematic system of oppression.

You may be thinking to yourself, there are black people in Minnesota? Well yes and that’s because
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Greatest Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Well why was he downtown, we all know you should never go downtown in any city it’s too dangerous. Glad you asked - why not talk about
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Tired of America? Think it doesn’t happen anywhere else? Cool! Let’s look at apartheid in South Africa.
A Dry White Season by André Brink. Once again movie is good, book is better.

Not all books you were forced to read in highschool should be forgotten. Go dig that Portable Frederick Douglas by Frederick Douglas out of your box of books.

How about another history lesson? We can go back in time and learn something new because The Half Of It Has Never Been Told: Slavery and The Making of American Capitalism by Edward E Baptist

Stuff that happened “way back then” feeding your fancy? That’s alright, how about everything happening now. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

You may be asking yourself but why all the violence? It’s good to understand that “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.”
The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcom X.

We can’t have Malcom without MLK so the entire America In the King Years by Taylor Branch will cover it.

That might be a good start for books right now. Let’s move on to Movies/TV.

The 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s series CNN made all have good episodes on a range of topics from The a Civil Rights Movement, the assassination of MLK and Bobby Kennedy, to how Michael Jackson was banned from MTV during the Billy Jean era.

Another CNN series called 1968. A Year That Changed America gives good backup to the MLK books.

Obviously 13th has to go in here - a look into the prison industrial complex and how the 13th amendment has loopholes.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts by Spike Lee helped me get a grasp on a national disaster that happened when I was 10 and to why Kanye said “George Bush hates black people”.

LA Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later puts what’s happening now into perspective of 1992 when Rodney King got beaten on film and the cops still got off.

Now Chad I know you love football! So do I (Here We Go Steelers, Geux Tigers) So Football is US: The College Game is a ESPN 30 for 30 that can help us recognize the problematic roots of a sport we all love and how it relates to race.

Just watch Beyoncé’s Homecoming, ok? Just do it.

Ok now, gotta get out of the house because everyone is getting on your nerves? Let’s listen to a podcast!

Dissect is a series by Spotify Studios that breaks down an entire album, song per each episode. They’ve done 2 season on Kendrick Lamar and the latest season is on Beyoncé’s Lemonade.

Southern Fried True Crime dedicated its entire platform to talking about crime, murder, etc occurring in the South. Large portions of the content are about crimes against POC and crime against women.

And that’s all I’ve got. Enable yourself, Chad.