ofc! not all of these are black owned, but all are poc and small local businesses.

scores sports bar, owned by black firefighter kb balla, was burned down. his wife is a member of the sounds of blackness singing group. they have four children. you can donate here.

ghandi mahal burned down as well. owner ruhel islam’s statement was, “let my building burn. justice needs to be served, put those officers in jail.” however he is still left with immense financial burdens. you can donate here.

holy trinity lutherin church opened their doors to act as medics for protestors, most of whom came in for tear gas related injuries. you can donate here.

jose tamay’s local and immigrant owned business was destroyed, just weeks after being destroyed again in an incident unrelated to the riots. you can donate here.

e&l supermarket and deli, owned by adil albosaad, was damaged and looted. you can donate here.

midori’s floating world cafe is a japanese owned resturaunt which was destroyed. they also appreciate what the riots are representing, but again, are faced with financial and timely damages to rectify. you can donate here.

Be mindful of the content you’re putting on your social media accounts. Stop retweeting/reposting violent images and videos of black people dying. Know that content like this, even with trigger warnings included, can be very emotionally disturbing/distressing and yes, even traumatic, for black people navigating the internet right now.

Report any images and videos you see where protestors’ faces are visible/unblurred, particularly in content surrounding the lootings. Don’t retweet or repost these images and videos. This can be a death sentence. 

DONATE, PARTICULARLY TO MINNESOTA-BASED BLACK YOUTH MOVEMENTS / MUTUAL AID FUNDS WHO ARE DOING WORK ON THE GROUND. FOLLOW/BOOST IF YOU CAN’T.

• The Minnesota Freedom Fund, a mutual aid group fighting back against the unjust MN bail system, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• The Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based freedom fighter organization creating campaigns for justice, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• Reclaim the Block, a coalition to demand that Minneapolis divest from policing, is taking donations. (Twitter)

• Crowdfunding for black trans people in need thread. 

Yep.

And don’t forget the Irsih elk, which supposedly went extinct because its antlers were too bleeding huge for it to function, and the ladies wouldn’t bang a man if his antlers were not huge enough.

I work in retail and I long for the day I don’t have a blackout card before lunch.

Every day I get up. I go to work. I sell people things. There are fewer people coming through and they’re buying more because they’re stocking up or they haven’t been shopping in a month, but there are still lines, like always. There’s plexiglass between the cashiers and the customers, and no dividers, and we have to continually yell at people not to put their items on the belt until we’ve finished the previous transaction, and they ignore us or argue with us, same as always. The more rules we have, the more rules there are for people to ignore. And the longer it goes on, the more normal it gets. Pretty much no one thanks us for coming in to work anymore. People are starting to act like we should never, ever run out of an item. It’s just blanket assumed that we will have hand sanitizer and soap and toilet paper and people are shocked when we say we’re out.  But there are still ads on the TV in the break room telling us all to stay home and the more the customers ignore social distancing, the more management puts pressure on us to set a good example, until we’re expected to follow standards that are physically impossible.

The longer this goes on, the less ‘essential’ I feel.

And then I come home and get online as always and there are all of these people asking what you’re doing while you’re stuck in quarantine and coming up with fun things to do when you’re in quarantine and talking about what you’re going to do when this whole thing is over and you can finally, finally leave your house. Everyone just seems to assume that you, the person reading their words, are in quarantine, because everyone’s in quarantine. It’s like this big, international, universal experience that you’re not a part of.