Solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives

Things are not getting worse. They are becoming more transparent as they get uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back this veil. – Adrienne Maree Brown

Last week’s murders have left us reeling. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Delrawn Small Dempsey. We condemn these murders of Black people as we condemned the murders of Michael Brown, Tanisha Anderson,  Eric Garner, Sandra Bland; the hundreds more who have died at the hands of the state whose names we’ve heard in the news  and the thousands more whose names never entered our national conversation.

The murder of Black people is not new. The U.S. has yet to reconcile its history of Black exploitation and oppression with the promises of the U.S. Constitution. What’s new is the hyper-visibility of these murders to those of us who have been more shielded from the violence until now. It is more important than ever that we do not look away, but rather go toward the source and uproot it.

We also condemn the murder of the five police officers in Dallas. Modern policing in the US was born out of slave patrols and policing as we know it is not going to solve our country’s problems. However, neither is violence toward the individuals who serve as the face of our racist system.

We want to amplify the voices of #BlackLivesMatter leaders and organizers, who have consistently and clearly expressed, “Black activists have raised the call for an end to violence, not an escalation of it. [Thursday’s attack on officers in Dallas] was the result of the actions of a lone gunman. To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible. We continue our efforts to bring about a better world for all of us.”

We recognize that this is a time of mourning and grief for Black folks and other communities of color, and that it is also a time for action. We encourage non-Black people of color and white folks to heed the calls of Black leaders to dismantle racism by talking to other non-Black people about the problems and solutions that Black grassroots movements have identified. Now is not the time to remain silent. We also particularly encourage young people with wealth and class privilege to connect the historical and current racialized wealth gap, systemic racism, policing, and violence as endemic to a system that overwhelmingly amasses wealth into the hands of straight, white, class-privileged, Christian men.

Early in 2015, Resource Generation compiled resources and organized our community to move $1.4 million to Black-led, Black liberation organizing, to support the incredible movement-building by and for Black communities in the wake of the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others at the time. With the help of dozens of Black leaders we compiled a list and visual map of over 150 Black-led, Black-focused organizing hubs in the US and some statements to help draw the connections between economic justice and anti-Black racism and violence. Several are linked below.

We encourage you to use these documents and the many others out there to talk to your family and community about the interconnection between wealth inequality and the escalation of violence against Black people.

We know that none of us will be free, safe, or able to thrive until all people have that same security.  Thank you for all you do to contribute to creating a more just and equitable world.

With love and solidarity,
Jessie Spector, Executive Director

What was the “It Starts Today” campaign, and the principles behind it? 
What do we mean when we say “Black led organizing for Black liberation?” 
This is the map and list of organizations from 2015, compiled by Resource Generation
This is a spin-off map and list, being kept up-to-date by the Making Black Lives Matter initiative at the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, a foundation supporting social and racial justice.