Last year, just after George Floyd was killed, I asked myself, “Why does that ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan feel familiar?” And discovered that I’d first heard it when Trayvon Martin was killed 7 years earlier.
Seven years of my blissful ignorance of killings and abuses heaped upon people of color. My mother taught me to care about injustice. I was ashamed. But that’s not the point.
The point is that it just keeps happening. Year after year after decade after century.
This post isn’t prompted by news of Rittenhouse or Ahmaud Arbery. It’s simply about noticing, remembering, and acting. Me, I wear a Black Lives Matter wristband 24/7 to wake daily reminded, and I give a bit each month to the Equal Justice Initiative, because that’s the topic I’m most moved by. Popcorn Press’s chosen charity is Feeding America; EJI is mine.
We white folk can’t afford to forget. And we can’t afford to do nothing. There are so many other causes riding on it.
Talk about it. Read about it. Do something about it. Giving is easy.
If you disagree with this post, *sigh*, please don’t bother commenting. It isn’t for you. It’s for family, friends, and fans. There’s a struggle going on, and we can put our shoulder to the burden, if we’re willing to follow. Message me if you’re at a loss as to where to start. Maybe I can help. Or maybe you can help point me.
#blacklivesmatter
A good step would be to de-militarize American police departments. The Pentagon unloads too much surplus shit to them and we also keep hiring ex-military people. Both are huge factors in escalating and then tragically ending in violence. Another thing would be to allow candidates with higher IQs in (Courts have back decisions to exclude people with IQs higher than 105), people who “aren’t cops” aka, more women and non-Whites. Then cut the PD budgets and reroute the money on services the Cop Unions have been sucking dry: mental health, homelessness, childcare, etc. Recently, Austin defeated a terrible pro-Cop bill called Prop A. It was stupid and a Trojan horse. If it passed, it meant that APD had to have a specific ratio of officers to citizens while having no plan on how to pay for this.