How to Support Black Lives Matter Initiatives Outside Protests

By Kenny Lo and Sonal Tulsyani

Student Lifestyle Editor and Staff Writer

While protestors are taking to the streets in a national movement to demonstrate with other advocates of Black Lives Matter (BLM), many are eager to assist but can’t protest.

Here are five things people can easily do every day to continue to support efforts to combat social injustice:

Educate yourself. It is important to know why people are protesting against this anti-racist struggle. Before jumping on the bandwagon by protesting on the streets, make sure that it makes sense to support the cause: Read up on the situation. The most important first step is to learn something about it.

Look up the history or Herstory of Black Lives Matter. Watch YouTube videos such as this piece from Great Big Story, and from credible links (check that they are viable!) posted on social media about police brutality, racial inequality and historical injustice. This is not just happening in the United States. it is happening around the globe.

Big companies like Netflix are doing their part in raising awareness of Black Lives Matter by having an entire section and collection dedicated to BLM. Maybe there is something to learn from it.

Show solidarity on social media. People can watch stream-to-donate YouTube videos to help BLM-related organizations.

According to this Allure post, two great ways to show solidarity on social media are to follow, repost and retweet social media from Black creators and Black community leaders.

Sign petitions. There are numerous petitions circulating online from the past couple of months alone. The petitions demand that officers accused of brutal killings and savage mistreatments of Black people everywhere be brought to justice.

Here are two Google Docs owned by Black Lives Matter with various resources: one has more petition links, and the other has more donation links.

Vote. Self-educate on the candidates and their platforms, so that voting brings positive change. Systemic change cannot happen unless people exercise their right to vote. Vote to speak up against racism.

Support Black-owned businesses. Support Black creators, entrepreneurs and small business owners. This is especially important because according to a survey conducted by UNIDOSUS, only 12% of Latinx and Black business owners received federal stimulus financial assistance of less than $20,000 they requested.

People are self-educating and supporting Black-owned businesses by actions such as shopping at Black-owned bookstores.

Here is a list of Black-owned businesses in New Jersey created by Support Black Owned.

People can use the app eatOkra to order food from Black-owned restaurants.