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Dear Supporter,
In the days since four Minneapolis Police Department officers killed
George Floyd, hundreds of demonstrations
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have broken out around the country. Race Forward stands in
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solidarity
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with the millions who have marched to demand justice for George Floyd,
Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and for those Black lives who have been
taken prematurely by police brutality. We join their condemnation
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of all forms of racist violence, whether state or state-sanctioned or
from individuals and groups. We join the call for the arrest and
prosecution of all four officers involved in this merciless murder.
We recognize that these protests took place in a week when a white woman
in New York City's Central Park called police on a Black man who had
only asked her to leash her dog in a section of the park where that was
required. We have witnessed police across the country
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—in the name of "public safety" and the protection of
property—brutalizing and arresting peaceful demonstrators, including
children and the elderly, and firing rubber bullets at demonstrators,
journalists, and bystanders. We have heard our President
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urge leaders to "dominate" protestors. We see him pressing the National
Guard and the U.S. military into service against Americans who march to
oppose racist violence.
All of this is occurring as a pandemic has taken more than 100,000
lives, disproportionately those of Black people, Indigenous people,
other people of color, immigrants, and the incarcerated. Many have been
deemed "essential" workers, and required to work without being provided
the gear or equipment to protect themselves from the virus. They are
deemed exploitable and expendable. Their forced labor is valued over
their precious lives. Or they are simply abandoned. Over 40 million
Americans are unemployed. Black and Latinx people have been twice as
likely as whites to lose their jobs.
After mainstream news outlets began in April to report on racial
inequities in COVID-19 infection and death rates, armed white terrorists
stormed government buildings to demand that officials remove quarantine
orders and "reopen the economy." While those who work in the White House
enjoy all of the practices and protocols recommended to prevent the
spread of the virus, they refuse to support state and local governments
that are trying to make the same available to all—exacerbating health
inequities in a murderous cycle.
Americans face a trifecta of crises—state and vigilante violence against
Black people, a pandemic, and an economic depression. Political
leadership—beginning with the White House—offers us only a toxic
combination of malign neglect and counterproductive, divisive measures.
The structures of racism that leave Black, Indigenous people, and people
of color more vulnerable to death than whites are being laid bare. The
social contract is broken. Communities of color are demanding a new one
that centers our health and well-being, and pivots toward life.
In this moment, we at Race Forward affirm with a renewed sense of
purpose
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our work of catalyzing the racial justice movement. In media, advocacy,
training, research, policy, and narrative, we will continue to center
communities of color that are setting the course for a shared, equitable
future.
We will continue to convene
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those working for racial justice to share best practices in the movement
for equity and justice. We will continue to tell the untold stories
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, advance the best ideas, and lift up the leadership
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of our communities. We will continue to justice
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. We will continue to organize and lead governments
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to advance racial equity.
We stand with the Movement for Black Lives
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and communities of color across the country who are calling for
divestment from police and investment in health, education, housing,
arts and culture, and the environment. We support community calls for
policy changes, such as establishing a national database of decertified
officers and ending cash bail. We commit to work with governments,
institutions, and community organizations to advance far-reaching
reforms and to abolish the current system of policing and prisons. We
support and lift up the work of local Black-led organizing on the ground
in communities across the country, like the Black Visions Collective
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, Reclaim the Block
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, and these organizations
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in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Most of all, we vow that we will not stop until we all live in the kind
of just, vital, multiracial democratic society that we all deserve.
Justice is our horizon line. We look forward to walking alongside you on
this march to freedom.
Yours in solidarity,
Glenn Harris
President
Race Forward
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