A five-minute exercise to make yourself a more effective activist

Our parent company, Medium, launched a new blog about the fight against anti-Black racism. We are committed to a long-term conversation about awareness and change so that anti-Blackness is confronted and, with time, wiped away. Read it here.

✅ Today’s tip: Use a pie chart to find an action that matches your emotional state.

In this moment of upheaval, you may be unsure how you can be most effective in the fight for racial justice — but when you don’t know what to do, the danger is letting yourself be paralyzed into doing nothing at all.

On our sister publication Elemental, the therapist Julia Bartz has a tip for channeling your thoughts and emotions into a personal action plan. Step 1: Make a list of everything you’re feeling. Step 2: Transfer that list to a pie chart, drawing up the size of the slice based on the strength of the emotion. Step 3: Next to each section, write down concrete things you can do to respond to that emotion.

“For example, under ‘hopeful,’ you might write ‘attend a rally,’” Bartz explains. If “frustration” is on there, you might focus on amplifying sources of Black joy. Use your chart to figure out where you’ll be most effective, and then act on it.

📚 More from Forge on getting to work:

Performative Allyship Is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead)
Read more >>

How Not to Look Away
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Outrage Isn’t Allyship
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