Our nation is hurting. As we navigate this pandemic, politicians are weighing lives against economics and politics. Surpassing a grim milestone of 100,000 lives lost to the COVID-19 crisis, simultaneously, we regularly face conscienceless acts of injustice against communities of color.
The COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately impacting communities of color, underscoring long-standing disparity in public health access and economic equality. Compounding the resulting trauma are senseless acts of overt racism, costing the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and compromising the safety and humanity of Chris Cooper. People of color are left reeling in fear, confronting the unjust fact that skin color is a determinate of their safety while on a neighborhood run or birdwatching in a park. But, for others, their whiteness provides perverse security while doing the same activities.
As an organization committed to ending intimate partner violence and all types of violence and oppression, we call on you to join us in actively challenging the privilege that provokes messages of force in response to unrest and protests over the loss of lives of people of color at the hands of police brutality and systemic white supremacy and racism. To collectively resist the calls for retaliation against cries of fear, pain, hurt, and sustained injustice. We ask you to stand in unity with us as we stand in solidarity with our friends, families, neighbors, and colleagues who are hurting and healing.
