John,

We’ve collectively been devastated by a global pandemic, we’re grappling with the aftermath of destructive flooding, and now we’re seeing historic inequities of racial injustices coming to a tipping point in communities across America.

The predominant feeling I hear from Black Michiganders is exhaustion.

I cannot imagine the chronic fear African American parents have every time their children, spouse, or loved ones leave the house.

Knowing that a simple traffic stop or a phony allegation of a mal-intended person could get my loved one killed.

When a black man simply kneels in peaceful protest and becomes vilified, but a white man with a badge and gun kneels the breath out of George Floyd and does so without compunction -- we must demand better.

It is wrong, infuriating, devastating, gut-wrenching.

As United States citizens, we have to demand change for a better future: A future free of a system that treats Black Americans and other people of color as less than full human beings.

We must pull together and treat people with dignity, compassion, and humanity.

We will get through this, together.

Fighting for change,

Gretchen Whitmer