Who We Are

Our names are Shannon and Izzy, and we are rising sophomores at the University of Washington with passions for writing, web development, graphic design, and social media marketing. We also both feel strongly for racial equity and the abolition of systemic racism. Neither of us are Black so we recognize that we cannot speak for the Black community, but we hope to spread awareness about the Black Lives Matter movement and improve allyship through this platform.

 

Why We Made This Website

Amid the death of George Floyd and nationwide protests, we had the opportunity to adjust our final project for our English class to be relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement. But we wanted to carry our work beyond the class and make it a long-term project, which is why we created a resource compilation.

 

Although resource compilations in the form of Instagram posts or Google documents that we've seen recently are useful, they either 1) don't have live links, 2) don't describe any of the links, 3) have too many links, 4) lack lasting engagement with the content. There also aren't a lot of resource compilations that are directed towards students. We took all of these into consideration as we made the decision to create an entire website dedicated to providing resources and make it optimized for students like us.

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What to Notice

• The Number 9:  We included 9 resources in each section of our website, not only to honor George Floyd, but also to make the amount of resources digestible and less overwhelming.

• Color Theory:  Through the use of colors that are natural, comforting, and eye-catching, we tried to foster a positive connection between art and activism, as we wanted the appearance of our platform to be unique and memorable.

• Our Blog:  One of the most important things we can do as allies is foster discussions within our communities, so we created From Our Pack to provide the necessary space for your voice to be heard. If you have a significant experience, personal story, or words of wisdom, we encourage you to share it! Head to our Contact page to see how you can get started on your own post.

 

Where We Found Resources

We were inspired by many resource compilations that have been made available via social media platforms. Here are some of the places we pulled resources from, and we encourage you to check these out if you are still looking for more ways to help.

• UW STEMinist Club

• ASUW Womxn's Action Commission

• UW CSE Undergraduates: Showing Up for Our Black Peers

• UWB Social Justice Organizers

• The Balanced Bean

• Seattle Black Businesses

• Ways You Can Help

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How We Plan to Proceed

We don’t know how much longer this subject will stay in the headlines, but we do know that we need to keep up the momentum. We plan to continue updating our site as frequently as possible and maintain an active community through our blog. We hope you will join us as our generation makes history.

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As always, you can connect with us at educatedallies@gmail.com or on Instagram @educated.allies. Please be patient as we continue to add more resources and adjust it as things change. We are open to suggestions and you can always give us feedback by checking out our Contact page. Thanks for being a part of this!