ARC – Awareness, Relationship, Commitment principles

Some action steps to increase your Awareness include the following:

• Watch documentaries about the racial history of the United States.
   
• Diversify your social media feed by following racial and ethnic minorities and those with different political outlooks than yours.
   
• Access websites and podcasts created by racial and ethnic minorities.
   
• Do an internet search about a particular topic instead of asking your black friends to explain an issue to you.
   

Some action steps to develop interracial Relationships include:

• Start with the people you know. Most of us know someone of a different race or ethnicity. Have you talked with them specifically about their experiences and perspectives of race and justice? These individuals cannot merely be projects or sources of information. They are real people with whom to pursue meaningful friendships. Still, it takes intentionality to diversify our social networks, and we should start with those nearest us.
   
• Find new places to hang out. We are creatures of habit and convenience. We often go to particular places simply because they are familiar. A purposeful effort to develop relationships with people from diverse backgrounds will carry you to different restaurants, grocery stores, and hangouts. If you strategically organize your spatial habits, the mundane places where you enact your regular routines can become the richest sites to encounter those who are different from you.
   
• Join a sport, club, or activity with people who are different. Those who have the most diverse networks of friends often have participated in some sort of activity that brought them into frequent contact with people of other races and ethnicities. You may have to engineer these opportunities, but they can lead to organic friendships that cross traditional lines of social division.
   

Some action steps for developing a lifelong Commitment to racial justice include:

• Create something. Write a blog post. Write a book. Write a sermon. Participate in a Sunday School class. Host a forum. Write a song or a poem. Create something that speaks to racial justice. As you do this, though, remember it always helps to get feedback from persons of different racial or ethnic backgrounds who are willing to help.
   
• Join an organization that advocates for racial and social justice.
   
• Donate money to organizations that advocate for racial and social justice.
   
• Speak with candidates for elected office in your area and ask them about their views of racial justice and the policies they advocate.
   
• Vote.