To Our Community:
The current uprisings and rebellions (I refuse to call them riots) reflect the long-overdue need to address the murders of our black brothers and sisters at the hands of law enforcement which have resulted in many lives lost over decades to violence and systemic oppression.
Our community has been traumatized day by day with the loss of so many to the brutality and corruption of those in law enforcement who fail to see us as people. The collective loss has been so uncomprehending as to not only insight an outpouring of pain, but to cause us to choke on it.
Our people are enraged and overwhelmed by it all. Some protests have shifted into violence, and “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his speech “The Other America.” An observed moment in that speech is his question posed after it: “What is it that America has failed to hear?”
Day after day, body after body, video after horrible video, and ultimately name after name, it has become evident that law enforcement does not consider some of us to even be human. We are beyond tired of the names we have repeated over and over again, the names of our people who have closed their eyes while being brutalized and never reopened them. It has become our living legacy to carry on for them, to honor their memories, and to right the wrongs done to them. We have to speak and rally and take to the streets to cause change. Today and tomorrow we have to overturn this system.
This is all I can offer to you as you process the pain. I ask that you focus the intention to creating change. Build organizations, create safe spaces, become our politicians and advocates. Write and tell our stories. Unite and gather into a collective might that will take on the White House. We must carry on in the name of so many lost because we are all that can one day prevent the next atrocity from happening.
Today I walked with my people. I chanted, and I raged inside. That is what we have to do across the nation. It is a mourning of all we have endured and an outpouring of pain after there will come a great collective clarity.
We have to clearly remember how we have risen above time and time again. My fam, I want you to pour this into a movement. Look to Black Lives Matter. Join your local NAACP and Colors For Change. Let us back our leading voices like Tamika D. Mallory and Colin Kaepernick or donate to Reclaim the Block, Black Visions Collective or the Louisville Bail Fund. I want to walk away from today with the feeling that tomorrow we will turn to each other and help our brothers and sisters.
You are powerful. You can turn your rage and pain into change.
I am with you, the entire =SPACE family is with you. Take care and take action.
Citi Medina, Co-founder of =SPACE
TAKE ACTION WITH US AND ACTIVELY MAKE CHANGE IN NEWARK
HELP US ESTABLISH A CITIZENS POLICE REVIEW BOARD:
Step 1: Call 609-815-2955
Step 2: Press 1 for English/Press 2 for Spanish
Step 3: Press 3
Step 4: Let it ring
Step 5: If someone picks up or if you get a voicemail
“Hello my name is ________ & I demand that the Supreme Court uphold the appeals court decision for NEWARK to establish the police review board. Thank you”
If you wanna practice your Spanish ?
“Hola. Mi nombre es _______ y hoy exijo que la corte Suprema confirme la decisión de la Corte de Apelaciones de que NEWARK pueda establecer la Junta de Revisión Policíal. Gracias”
