Over the past week or so as I’ve followed the protests around the country in response to the police murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others I’ve felt pretty helpless. I’ve seen a lot of people getting creative with ways to get involved, both on the ground at protests and remotely, and have been trying to figure out how I can contribute - I’m gonna try something a bit unusual and see how it goes.

Lots of people do fundraisers for marathons, 5Ks, charity rides, etc. - think of this as that but instead, it’s gonna be just me, and the event is a roughly 150 mile bicycle ride from Vermont to Boston. If I’m able to raise $1,000 over the next week or so I’ll attempt this ride in a single day, and I’ll give all the money to organizations working for racial and economic justice in the US.

I’m under no illusions that individual efforts like this, even if widespread, will be sufficient to challenge the massively entrenched capitalist system which is built on racial violence and systemic exploitation of black and brown people throughout the world. However, as a beneficiary of this system with the privilege of a road bike and an obsession with going on obscenely long rides, I feel obligated to try and do something here and now.

This is a much longer ride than anything I’ve done before, and I’ve only been back on the bike for about two months since returning from India. If there’s interest, I can live stream parts of the ride so people can observe my misery - I’m really not sure how this will go so it could be good entertainment.

GoFundMe seems like the easiest way to organize this, so I’ve created a page and will be posting receipts and photos after the ride. Organizations I’ll be splitting the money between include Reclaim The Block, Community Justice Exchange, and whatever bail fund needs it at the time, but I’m open to other suggestions as well. If you’re in a country where GoFundMe doesn’t work but would still like to donate, send me a PM.


Thanks for reading and please donate/share! Solidarity forever!