Rise Up: A Beginner's Guide to Social Justice

With a Donald Trump presidency on the way, the world is a frightening place. Our country has been fucked, but with a fascist leader empowering hate, things can only get more dismal. After you’ve gotten through several stages of grief, follow-through and organize.

If you’re looking to get involved with social justice, here’s a guide to get you started featuring books, websites, terminology, and other resources to get familiar with. This guide is not intended to be all-encompassing, there are a lot of topics to cover, but this guide is intended to move you forward in the right direction.

Here are some terms to become familiar with:

Privilege – a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others.

Intersectionality – the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. For example: I am a Black woman. I am Black, and also a woman. These identities intersect.

Feminism – the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.

Womanism – a social theory deeply rooted in the racial and gender-based oppression of black women.

Safe space – a space dedicated to the safety of marginalized groups; the space is typically regulated by not allowing hate speech and/or any other forms of violence whether verbal or physical.

Tone policing – a silencing tactic; telling people how to react to their oppression; is usually used when people are justifiably upset about the violence/oppression they face.

Gaslighting – also a silencing tactic that abusers often use to make the victim question their sanity. Gaslighting often involves sayings like “you’re crazy,” “that never happened,” etc.

Neocolonialism – the policy of a strong nation (usually “developed” nations) in seeking political and economic control over a nation (usually poor or less “developed” nations) or geographical area without claiming said nation as a colony.

Misogynoir – racialized misogyny specifically affecting Black women.

Cisgender – having the gender identity associated with the sex you were assigned at birth.

Transgender – (NOT: “transgendered”) having a gender identity not associated with the sex you were assigned at birth.

Transmisogyny – misogyny that specifically affects Trans women.

Hegemonic masculinity – the belief and justification of men being superior to and having more access than women.

Ableism – discrimination against people with disabilities.