Sign on to the petition with us
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John,
Across Washington state, protestors are joining millions across the country to call for justice for victims of police violence, to defend Black lives, and to put an end to destructive institutionalized white supremacy in all of its forms.
Those calls have centered on two major demands:
Defund the PoliceInvest in Black Communities
WCV supports these demands and those calling for these structural changes. The right to peacefully protest and call for change is protected by the U.S. Constitution and deeply embedded in our work to protect our environment. Without an open and fair democracy, we will never build the cleaner, healthier future we want to see.
Join us in signing the petition created by Movement for Black Lives. [[link removed]]
As our country takes an honest look at our racist history, we as an organization need to be honest about our own action and inaction. WCV has not always been the ally Black communities needed us to be. We have not always spoken quickly or often enough. But our first task is listening to calls from those communities who are most impacted. We join them now in their calls to defund the police and reinvest in Black communities.
Police violence against Black Americans is just one of the most visible symptoms of a system of oppression that exploits Black communities. Climate change and runaway toxic pollution in our air and water rely on "sacrifice zones," places where polluters have intentionally dumped the worst impacts of a fossil fuel economy on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. These enormous impacts require we have people who are considered disposable, a mindset permitted by systemic racism.
The racist and exploitative systems that allow for these injustices to flourish are the same extractive systems that treat our natural world as resources to plunder. We all need to see ourselves in this struggle and recognize that, to achieve our environmental goals and build a resilient future, we must dismantle these systems and fight for racial justice together.
The demands to defund the police and invest in Black communities will look different across the state as individual communities make decisions. Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities can and should decide for themselves how best to invest in and set the right policies for their community. Our state leaders need to listen to their calls. And it is our job as public advocates to listen first and lend our support.
Sign on to the Movement for Black Lives’ petition and support these demands with us. [[link removed]]
It should be seen as a call to action for our cities, counties, and state government to reverse the decades-long trend of spending more resources on incarceration and criminal justice than community health and wellness. WCV will be evaluating ways to leverage our political power to help make these demands a reality. Without our members we wouldn’t be here and we will make sure you are a part of this process with us.
The global coronavirus pandemic has opened our eyes to how important it is for communities to support one another. It has also revealed how hundreds of years of oppression has left so many vulnerable.
This is a time for bold action and we hope you will remain in solidarity with Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities leading the fight for justice.
Without racial justice, there is no environmental justice.
In solidarity,
WCV Staff
Graphic icons created by Movement for Black Lives
Washington Conservation Voters
1402 Third Avenue, Suite 1400 | Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 631-2600 |
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