Dear John

Today, five years after a gunman motivated by prejudice and hate murdered nine people at the Charleston Emanuel A.M.E. Church with a gun he never should have been able to buy, we are again--still--coming face to face daily with unimaginable acts of violence against people of color. 

People poisoned by racism and hatred continue to arm themselves. Leaders at the highest levels are sowing division instead of providing leadership and making essential reforms. And this country that prides itself on "liberty and justice for all" is reckoning with having denied liberty and justice to so many of its citizens for more than 400 years.

We are on the precipice of something immense. 

Black and Brown people and their allies are demanding long-overdue justice and equality. For those of us who are white, this means understanding, on the deepest level, how we have benefitted simply from having light skin. And it means being willing to dismantle the system that has afforded us those benefits. 

You can start by learning about the so-called "stand your ground" laws, laws that are a license to kill and have been used disproportionately to exonerate white people who have killed people of color. We must start dismantling and blocking laws like this. Act today by signing on to this petition to (fill in the blank and probably insert a button between this paragraph and next).

We must honor the memory of the victims of the Charleston Emanuel Church shooting by being willing to do this work. We must honor George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, and so many others by actively removing the scaffolding that allowed for their deaths. Otherwise, our words are just words. 

Clai Lasher-Sommers

Executive Director