Here are a range of resources to guide and coordinate action, to align understandings and work in solidarity with humility and accountability. We mourn the stealing of the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tony McDade at the hands of the police and white vigilantes. In mourning, sorrow and anger, we recommit to the lifelong work of ending the 400 year old nightmare of white supremacy.

From SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) national director Erin Heaney: 

“White folks – you’re probably waking up this morning, turning on the news, full of rage. The urge to call other white people out today is going to be overwhelming. Please do not spend your precious energy doing that. Our enemies are not other individual white people. Yes, white people are racist. AND our enemy is racialized capitalism and white supremacy. We have been asked to build a base that can actually flex enough power to defund the police, to stop the fascist in the White House from getting re-elected, and to transform our economic system to one that doesn’t exploit and kill poor and working people. Today, let us turn our rage upward to those in power and let us take action today that moves us closer to the visionary demands declared by those on the frontlines. Let us move resources to people supporting uprisings. Let us spend one of our most precious resources, time, bringing in the thousands of people who are coming into consciousness in this moment, messy are they are. Let us be strategic and rigorous. There’s too much at stake to spend our time performing and not organizing.”

 

Statement from Cat Brooks and Rebecca Ruiz of Anti-Police Terror Project:

“What is the risk of catching a virus when you are told continuously that your life doesn’t matter and can be stolen from you at any time? The risk in the minds of many Black and Brown people is worth it. Rightly so, we feel enough is enough and post this pandemic, we want a world worth fighting for. One where there is a semblance of justice. One where our lives actually do matter. It’s a conundrum because we want to live but, also, we want to live.”

Political Analysis

Police accountability

Understandings of Looting

The same debates on tactics, ethics, and media narratives arise as they often do around looting and property destruction during an uprising. Who are you talking to? What are you hearing? Here are some valuable perspectives, re-frames and deeper understandings of “looting”.

“If you felt unease watching that Target being looted, try to imagine how it must feel for black Americans when they watch themselves being looted every single day. Police in America are looting black bodies.”

“America has looted black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here, looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. If you want us to do better, then damnit, you do better.” —Tamika Mallory, Nat. Co-Chair of Women’s March

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