To our EJUSA family,
Last week, George Floyd became the latest chapter in America’s history of racial terror when a police officer in Minneapolis killed him in broad daylight, in front of multiple cameras, while three other officers watched.
This weekend, the pent-up grief, trauma, and rage that this triggered poured onto streets across the world.
Volumes of ink have been spilled about police violence, protestors, riots, blame, and more. There is no agreement, just an onslaught of opinions. This global debate must not steer us away from the true focus that demands our attention: the trauma and pain inflicted on Black people in America every day.
Mass incarceration…COVID-19’s ravaging of Black and Brown communities …Trayvon Martin… the war on drugs …confederate flags and statues…Ahmaud Arbery…slavery…job discrimination…Philando Castile…police violence…segregation…Eric Garner…housing discrimination…higher rates of maternal mortality…Michael Brown…higher rates of violent victimization…racial epithets…Atatiana Jefferson …lynchings…redlining… Alton Sterling…being followed in stores…being denied health care…being shamed for living…being constantly under a microscope…being reported to the police…being slighted…being feared…just being and existing…
…The list is so very, very long.
To my fellow white people: We have one job: to decry and end racism. To stop the harm. The violence against Black bodies and hearts is relentless, gut-wrenching. Please join me and listen to the despair. It is the pain and anguish of centuries. Let that pain be our guide to break down our defensiveness, to silence our “yeah buts,” to root out the white supremacy we all carry inside of us, and to move us to anti-racist action.
To the Black and Brown members of the EJUSA family: EJUSA stands forcefully against our country’s long legacy of racism and violence. We will fight together until a true reckoning arrives, until justice is no longer a tool for racist oppression but for healing and equity. As our leader, I pledge to hear you, to see you, and to fight with you for the rest of my life. EJUSA and I stand with you.
These days have driven home the urgency of our work. We cannot be satisfied with reforms that seek to fine-tune profoundly broken institutions. We must remake our nation and hold forth a vision of justice where safety, healing, and restoration are available to all. That is our task. No less.
Thank you for standing with EJUSA in the fight of our lifetimes.
Toward justice,
Shari Silberstein
