Content warning: This email contains details about racially-motivated murder. Please read if you’re able, but take care of yourself first.

John,

It’s hard to put into words the heartbreak, anger, and trauma Black communities across the country are feeling.

Four days ago, George Floyd (known as Floyd by his friends and family) was brutally murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department in broad daylight under the knee of a police officer. He was unarmed. He was beloved.

This is a modern-day lynching, John. It comes on the heels of the fatal shootings of Ahamaud Arbery, another unarmed Black man who was fatally shot while jogging in Georgia, Breonna Taylor, a Black EMT who was shot 8 times by Louisville police who entered her apartment unannounced, and Tony McDade, a Black trans man killed in Tallahassee.

Incidents like these aren’t new – more of them are just being caught on film. They’re part of a long, painful history of oppression that’s designed to maintain White privilege in this country.

There’s so much work to be done to begin to address racism in America, and part of that is demanding justice for George Floyd and his family right now. One of the best ways you can help is by supporting Black-led organizing efforts in Minneapolis.

That’s why we’re asking you today to make a donation to Black Visions Collective: an organization working on the ground in Minneapolis right now to call for justice for George Floyd’s murder. Can you chip in $5?

100% of your donation will go directly to Black Visions Collective.

While the police officers involved were fired (and one officer, we just learned, was taken into custody and charged with murder), there is still so much work to be done to build a city that invests in Black, Brown, and Native communities.

It is clear that safety comes from the community, not the Minneapolis Police Department, which is why Black Visions Collective is fighting for investments in community-led safety and health strategies over investments in policing.

Our communities are fed up, and tired – and as MLK said, “a riot is the language of the unheard.” Protestors are in the streets because they understand that the murder of George Floyd is yet another example of the systemic racism in our country that’s gone unchecked for far too long.

If you’re reading this, especially if you identify as White, it is imperative that you educate yourself, interrogate your beliefs, and get comfortable with confronting your own racism. The system is working as it was designed, and it’s up to all of us (White folks especially) to dismantle it piece by piece.

Donating money isn’t enough, but it’s one concrete thing you can do right now to make sure that community organizers have the resources they need to take care of their community in this moment and fight for the long-term changes that are needed.

Until we’re all free,

Charlene A. Carruthers
Women’s March Board Member