THIS IS A NATIONAL CRISIS
THIS IS A NATIONAL EMERGENCY
WE MUST RISE IN LOVE TOGETHER!

#BlackLivesMatter

✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿❤️✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻

Greetings everyone, from the deep wound at the heart of the United States of America, after one of the ugliest & violent weeks of police brutality in our country’s history.

I realized that even though I have been very outspoken about my solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and bringing attention to Anti-Racism efforts and Dismantling White Supremacy during my Live Stream Events and via my Instagram Stories, I hadn’t yet posted an official statement about where I stand with what is unfolding currently.

I write to you today brimming with a whole wheel of active emotions… anger, sadness, fear, and disgust at the Minneapolis Police Department’s murder of George Floyd, but more-so, that we find ourselves in a very untenable situation with our current police state, criminal justice system and those in power and how it has and continues to approach our Black & Brown Brothers & Sisters.

It is easy (and promoted by media) to feel disempowered, hopeless, and in despair. Fearful of getting involved. However, this is no time for apathy or caution. Especially from all of us who are white. This is OUR TIME to rise in love, and show up in active, engaged and sustained solidarity for our Black & Brown Brothers & Sisters. PLEASE GET ENGAGED, INVOLVED, & ACTIVE. 

I wholeheartedly ask you to take an active role in dismantling white supremacy from your Life and from our Country. There will be no Peace for our Human Family until there is Justice FOR ALL, not some.

I am a white male. I have lived a life of white privilege. Acknowledging this “white privilege” doesn’t discount the struggles I have had, it doesn’t deny the life struggles of many working-class, lower-middle-class and poor whites. There is most definitely a class disparity that is very real, however, this is not about that.

This is about how this country was born off the backs of a people who were kidnapped from their home violently and abruptly, and forced into manual labor in this country, creating the very foundation of the economy that our country now benefits from to this day. 

This is about how the so-called “Abolition of Slavery” in the 13th Amendment, having within it a clause that exempts penal labor from its prohibition of slavery. This allowed the state to use prisoners who have been convicted of crimes to be required to perform labor or else face punishment while in custody. And so began the “prison-industrial complex” that has led us down the road to where we stand today.

I feel that this is the moment for major transformation, and it will take EVERY ONE OF YOU READING THIS to get involved to make it happen.

/// HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED AND ACTIVE ///

I see there are 3 stages to engagement:
IMMEDIATE, SHORT TERM, & LONG TERM.

1. IMMEDIATE: Seek Justice for George Floyd. We are already seeing great movement with the petitions, calls and protests as the Governor of Minnesota has handed the case to the Attorney General of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, who has now charged the main officer Derek Chauvin with 2nd degree murder, and the other 3 officers with an accomplice to murder. We must set a precedent with his case that will ripple out to other cases across the country. 

If you haven’t already, PLEASE sign the petition, and make phone calls to apply pressure to those in charge and donate at justiceforbigfloyd.com & ColorOfChange.org (You can also Text 'Floyd' to 55156 to call for #JusticeForFloyd). Then, please SHARE the links with your family and friends, post on social media and spread the word to help inform and educate those you know and invite them to join you in being a part of the solution.

Simultaneously, we need everyone in the streets, if able, in non-violent protest, following, supporting & centering black voices, and protecting black voices. If you can’t get to a protest to support, then PLEASE donate to the organizations listed below who are helping with protestors on the ground and check the resources available to you to begin to see the many ways you can get involved.

We must use and direct our anger and emotions at these overwhelming injustices and brutality with precision to benefit our Black & Brown brothers & sisters. Get organized in your community. Find your local chapters of Black Lives Matter. Get involved. 

Don’t let your emotions distract the focus of what is needing to be addressed. Don’t pile on your grievances of the system, always center Black voices and leaders showing the way. This is so incredibly CRUCIAL! We must lift up our Black & Brown Brothers & Sisters voices right now. Use our privilege to give them the microphone.

Please Follow & Support

The King Center
Bernice A. King
Black Lives Matter
Grassroots Law Project
Color of Change
Lee Merritt, Esquire
Reclaim the Block
Minnesota Freedom Fund
Black Visions Collective

Where to Donate
& Advocacy Resources

National Resources List
Grassroots Law Project
Black Lives Matter
Campaign Zero
Reclaim The Block
The Bail Fund Project
Equal Justice Initiative
Black Visions Collective
Minnesota Freedom Fund
George Floyd Memorial Fund
The National Police Accountability Project
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

BLACK VOICES TO FOLLOW

Lee Merritt, esq., Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, Benjamin Crump, esq., Rachel Cargle, Layla Saad, Bree Newsome, Andre Henry, Leesa Renée, Marc Lamont Hill, Shaun King, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Roxane Gay, & Austin Channing Brown.

2. SHORT TERM: This is an election year: Vote in Progressive/Black Lives Matter supporting DA’s, Mayors, City Council People, Governors, State Legislators, Congresspeople, & Senators. And, if you are in a state that still can vote in the primaries, vote for Bernie Sanders, for if he tallies more delegates, he will be poised to have a stronger voice in developing the Democratic Policy Platform to support a robust criminal justice reform plan, his is the most transformative reform of any presidential candidate in the history of our country (Learn more here: https://berniesanders.com/issues/criminal-justice-reform/).

3. LONG TERM: Criminal Justice Reform, and the long-term dismantling and eradication of Systemic Racism & White Supremacy from ourselves, each other, and our systems of government. This is the biggest work. Looking within. I have been working with this for 4 years now, and I am still in the Elementary school years of my study. But, it must be done. We must do the inner work.

BOOKS & RESOURCES

There are many courses, books, videos and ways to educate yourself on this topic.

Below are a brief list to get you started.

HOW TO BE AN ANTI-RACIST
by Ibram X. Kendi

ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY
by Layla Saad

THE NEW JIM CROW
by Michelle Alexander

JUST MERCY
by Bryan Stevenson

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

WHITE FRAGILITY
by Robin Diangelo

MOVIES TO WATCH

If you prefer watching movies to get started, I recommend these 3 films to get historical context.

12 YEARS A SLAVE -> LINCOLN -> The 13th (available only on Netflix).

The first film is the hardest to watch. But, please keep your eyes wide open and feel it all. It’s the only way we can heal it all. We must bear witness to the history of white supremacy & racism.

To Conclude.

I AM SORRY I have not been more fully dedicated to this movement sooner. I am sorry it has taken me so long to understand the depth and pain of it all, and that it took these videos of Ahmaud Arbery & then George Floyd to get me off the sidelines.

I believe this is a flashpoint moment. If we are able to organize those of us who have sat on the sidelines, to get mobilized and engaged this time, we can achieve the dream of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of a Beloved Community. Maybe not in this lifetime, but our future generations will look back on this moment as the flashpoint that reset the timeline to one of true and lasting Justice For All, Freedom For All, & Peace For All.

Thank you for reading.

I LOVE YOU,
Cornflower

#BlackLivesMatter