The collective movement and protests these past few days happening across the nation (and world) are truly powerful. It is impossible to convince ourselves the world we live in today is equitable or just, especially for the #BlackLivesMatter community. It's not. There are deep wounds, systemic issues, and unjust parts of our society that span decades, even centuries, which have affected the black community.

I tend to veer towards optimism where I believe change is around the corner and will happen in my lifetime. And right now, we need to establish change. I personally donated to the following groups to ensure progress for the issues we're witnessing in the black community happens in some shape or form:

https://www.naacpldf.org/support/

I'm offering to anyone who comes across this post (at any point) to simply email me "I want to support" and I'll donate on your behalf. I'll forward the receipt to you upon donating.

Why do such a thing?

Because the inequities are far reaching. Here are a few things I came across which really highlights this:

How Big is the Racial Wealth Gap?

A deeper look at the racial wealth gap and economic inequality in the United States.

It might be hard to believe, but the typical White household has 10 times as much wealth ($171,000) as the typical Black household ($17,000) in the U.S.

It’s not just one disadvantage one time. It is the cumulative effect of discrimination that negatively compounds on individuals, their communities, and, ultimately, their ability to build wealth.

For example, when slavery ended in 1865, most Black families had no economic base to start from. And whatever economic base they were offered, in terms of free land, was typically taken back years later. It’s hard to compound wealth when you don’t have any in the first place. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland came to a similar conclusion when they studied the racial wealth gap as well. After analyzing prior studies that looked at the gap, the researchers stated:

• Because the relationships between observable characteristics and wealth are estimated over short periods of time in those studies, they are likely underestimating the importance of initial conditions and income disparities for future wealth.

Race And Healthcare: Recognizing And Addressing the Issues Facing Black Patients

The systemic issues that plague black communities are extremely prevalent in healthcare, and we should think about how to address them

Many of the predominantly black states do not have Medicaid Expansion. This cause many black adults to fall into a coverage gap, where they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to qualify for premium subsidies in the individual health exchanges. If you can’t pay for care, you avoid care.

Even once you do finally get care, treatment looks different between races. There are lots of studies that look at some of the more implicit biases where this happens, but two well-studied and more explicit ways this manifests is in pregnancy and pain management.

I recommend you not just read posts like these, but really learn and listen to what's happening right now. It's critical history happening before our eyes.