Since protests against police brutality and racism began after the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year, people of all races have asked what they can do to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Amid the current uprisings, 19-year-old New York University student Alexis Williams decided to put her powerful coding talent to good use. The computer science major put together a timely website containing resources that can connect people to petitions, organizations, educational tools and more.
The website — Pb-resources.com — explains how people can bolster the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement and support Black women, Black trans people and Black businesses during these unprecedented times.
The wunderkind spoke to Blavity about her innovative work and what spurred her to dedicate her talent to the movement for equal rights.
"The death of George Floyd opened the floodgates to information regarding the systematic racism that manifests within our criminal justice system," Williams told Blavity. "I found myself pained over the ways in which people in power were using laws and policies to maintain the oppression of Black people. At first, uncovering this information made me feel powerless to a system that has flourished for centuries. I didn’t think that there was anything I could do. Eventually, I realized that I had the power to create a tool to bring people together, a tool that would hopefully act as a hub of education and action."
"Thus, pb-resources was born. The site exists as an aid to the re-education that is so necessary in fighting systematic oppression but also gives communities the tools to fight individual policies all in one place," she added. "The website was built to give access and outline action items that can cause real structural change when used en masse. Soon it became clear that although I may not be able to conjure change alone, there is so much power in numbers."
The New Jersey native is only a freshman at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering but has been able to garner significant publicity around the useful website through Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.