Changes you can make to your website to support racial justice

While fighting institutional racism (housing discrimination, prison industrial complex, police violence, racial profiling, etc….) is work we should all be doing in one way or another…

There are some small ways your website can contribute to shifting the culture toward racial equity and social justice.

This is not an exhaustive or particularly well researched list – so I’d love to hear your thoughts or additions!

1. Show Support for #Blacklivematter

If you have a business on main street, and you display a Black Lives Matter sign, it means your patrons don’t need to guess where you stand. People can feel supported and know that your business is a safer space for them.

Your website can also display a sign of support.

Check out this solidarity banner plugin by Mandeeya. It comes up when you search Black Lives Matter in the WordPress plugin repository. On their blog, which is all about software development, they have both a #blacklivesmatter banner (that they created!) and a Covid-19 Alert.

Contact support@buildwithmaple.com to have this installed on your WordPress website for free.

2. Share your values! Show people where you stand on the issues

Your website already has strong statements around your values

Your Privacy Policy shares your values around protecting (or not protecting) the reader’s privacy on your website.

Your Terms & Conditions share your values about how you do business, what your boundaries are, what to expect.

Your About Page, can share your alignment with any of the issues that are important to you. This gives people reading your website a chance to learn about you and where you stand.

One example I love is from wanderingaimfully.com

They put a badge on their footer “Our Stance on Social Justice” and dedicate an entire page to explaining why and how they are putting this stance into practice.

I’m inspired by this and wanting to create my own page that can not only share values, but be a resource for people who are curious to learn more.

3. Blog about things that matter to you, show up, be authentic

Your Blog can give people a personal look into your life. It’s good to mix blog posts about your topic into personal stories. See evescidery.com for a great example. Instead of creating a fairy tale version what they think their customers want to see, they are being authentic selves and growing a base of fans who are able to learn about cider but also about the social issues that are important to a family living in the hills of Van Etten, New York.

4. Acknowledge the Land Where You Are Based

If you live in a settler occupied area such as the United States it’s important to acknowledge the people whose land your operate from.

Most websites have their location in the footer or about page, so instead of writing the colonial name for where you live you can also give an acknowledgement of the original people.

See the bottom of this page for an example of this.

If you don’t know, you can research this here, https://native-land.ca and then add this to your website along with your postal address.

And so much more…

If you have any other ideas for ways to use your website in service of racial justice, please contact me! I’d love to add them here.

Do you want help adding these things to your website?

Please contact me right away and we’d be happy to help! Support@buildwithmaple.com