I need community. I love invitations.
I value accountability.
My name is Emily Drake. Creating the Justice Marathon was reactive. I was on a social media hiatus and read about Ahmaud Arbery and felt sick, and the sickness stayed as I read about Breonna Taylor. Then George Floyd.
June 1, 2020 marked the beginning.
My first training day.
The vision of the Justice Marathon is to activate and engage 1,000 allies across the country in 2020, committed to an action framework we call Three A Week.
Through action, we make change. History has taught us the implications of letting up and seeking comfort - a natural response, and one we have to fight against daily. We need to train to stay with the discomfort.
Three a Week focuses on:
Learning.
Much of what I need to do is educate myself, on the systems that are designed to make racism an explicit and implicit part of the fabric of our country. Panels on policing, exploring my relationship to my whiteness, and focusing on my metro area - all of this is part of the Learning Action.
Investing.
Intentional consumerism, supporting Black businesses, not only puts financial resources into the hands of Black entrepreneurs, it also introduces us to products, services and experiences that broaden our reach.
Footwork.
Showing up with our bodies is powerful; a representation we internalize but can also share with our networks to show that the work is continuing, the protests are still happening. Getting to know organizers, listening, asking questions, chanting and making connections. In a time when we’ve found ourselves in sheltering-in-place, masking up and stepping out serves so many purposes.