Content warning: This email discusses police violence against Black
people.

 

Hello Indivisibles,

Ezra and Leah here. Like so many of you, over the last few days we’ve been
mourning George Floyd and watching the news from Minneapolis, feeling
overcome by anger, sadness, and a sinking sense of deja vu. Yet again,
we’re hearing the horrific story of a Black person murdered by police; yet
again, there’s a shattering video capturing the horror. 

And we feel, like so many, the grief and anger of having seen such stories
before; of having seen, over and over and over again, as clear-cut cases
of police murdering Black people regularly end in dropped charges or
acquittals of the police responsible. It was just four years ago in the
Twin Cities that the police officer who murdered Philando Castile in front
of his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter was acquitted. And we
know, sickeningly, that more murders pass without nearly the same
attention not because they’re any less unjust or horrific, but because
they went unfilmed. 

We normally write these monthly newsletters to tell you what we’re
thinking about, and the truth is that everything feels hollow right now in
the face of such staggering pain and massive injustice. And frankly, what
we feel isn’t the point, because we know what we’re feeling right now
isn’t comparable on any level to the anger, pain, fear, exhaustion, and
more that our Black friends, neighbors, and colleagues are grappling with.
To everyone who’s suffering right now, our hearts ache with you. 

It’s important to say some things that we do know. We know that what’s
happening right now is a pattern of abuse and violence that stretches back
for generations. That this isn’t about a few bad apples in a few cities;
it’s about a system that’s fundamentally rotten, designed to terrorize
instead of protect. Before murdering Floyd, police officer Derek Chauvin
had been subject to eighteen complaints -- all but two closed without
discipline. When a system “fails” eighteen times, it’s painfully clear
that it’s not actually failing. It’s working as designed -- to protect
police officers as they terrorize Black and brown communities. In other
words, to protect white supremacy -- together with the prison industrial
complex, the latest manifestation of a system that extends back to our
history of slavery.

In the wake of this horror, as protests have begun in Minneapolis and
spread nationwide, we’ve seen the ways in which people, organizations, and
structures assert the continued horror of white supremacy -- the brutal
police responses of tear-gas and projectiles, the immediate turn to
arrests, the media focus on property damage over the injustice of George
Floyd’s murder and the deeper, longer crisis of lives destroyed by racism.
Compare these reactions to just a few weeks ago, when overwhelmingly white
“reopen” protestors with AR-15s invaded statehouses in Minnesota,
Michigan, and Ohio -- and were treated with respect and caution by police.
And now, Donald Trump is [ [link removed] ]openly calling for the murder of (Black)
protesters.

The events of this week have been a series of visceral, painful reminders
of the realities that our Black friends, neighbors, and colleagues live
with every day in our white supremacist society. Minneapolis demands an
immediate response, but for white folks like us two writing this
newsletter, these events also call for reflection on how we show up as
allies. Those of us who have privilege must show up in support. We must
push ourselves, and our own families and friends. That’s our job. Directly
impacted people cannot and should not carry this burden alone.

What we’re reading

Indivisible has put together an initial [ [link removed] ]resource on standing in
solidarity with Minneapolis, which focuses heavily on local, Black-led
racial justice organizations to support and amplify. We also highlight a
few different resources that we think are important right now, including
[ [link removed] ]this Google Doc with anti-racism resources for white people, and
[ [link removed] ]this classic essay on white privilege by Peggy McIntosh. There are a
ton of valuable essays and articles to read through if you’re looking to
self-educate or just remind yourself of key ideas and actions you’ve
learned about before.

One thing we think it’s important to understand right now, is that the
events in Minneapolis -- and now across the country -- are taking place
against a backdrop of a pandemic that has disproportionately harmed Black
and brown communities. That’s not an accident -- it’s the product of
systemic oppression, and the Trump administration’s response has been
driven by a calculus that, quite simply, values white comfort and wealth
over Black and brown lives. This piece by Adam Serwer [ [link removed] ]in the Atlantic
earlier this month describes what he calls “the COVID racial contract.” As
Serwer writes, “White Americans are also suffering, but the perception
that the coronavirus is largely a black and brown problem licenses elites
to dismiss its impact. In America, the racial contract has shaped the
terms of class war for centuries; the COVID contract shapes it here.”
COVID reveals this reality in stark terms, but the reality was there all
along. 

We hope essays like Serwer’s, along with the briefs, webinars, and
trainings Indivisible puts out are helpful for understanding the moment
we’re in. But education alone is not enough -- our goal is to marry an
understanding of reality with active use of our privilege and power in
order to affect real change. So, yes, these are the things we are reading
at this moment -- but we are reading in order to act.

Until next time

We’ll close by again encouraging you to follow, uplift, and support the
following organizations fighting for justice in Minneapolis:

* [ [link removed] ]Black Visions Collective: Supporting Black activists on the ground
* [ [link removed] ]Minnesota Freedom Fund: Bail fund for activists
* [ [link removed] ]Reclaim the Block: Community fund
* [ [link removed] ]Northstar Health Collective: Medical donations
* [ [link removed] ]Unicorn Riot: On-the-ground independent & radical media coverage
* [ [link removed] ]George Floyd Family/Memorial Fund  
* If you only have a few bucks to spare and can’t decide where to send
them, ActBlue has created a page splitting donations between several
deserving organizations [ [link removed] ]that you can find by clicking here.  

We’re working together to build a better world at a time when everything
seems to be crumbling around us. The hard times keep getting harder, for
some of us even more than others. That makes this work all the more
important. We believe we can build a movement based in the politics of
solidarity -- in standing indivisible with one another against the forces
of hate and bigotry. We’re thankful to every Indivisible member for
building that movement with us.

In solidarity, 

Leah & Ezra

P.S. Thanks to all who wrote in response to our newsletter last month with
congratulations, advice, and book recommendations. Our new baby will be
coming into an uncertain world in October, but with an incredible
community of support. Thank you!

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