Black lives matter no matter where you live in this country. Yesterday two really important things happened in our lives. In the morning two of our closest friends gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. The joy I feel for this new person entering our community is intense. I can’t wait to meet him and welcome him to the beautiful chaos that is Divaland. The other important thing that happened was the outcome of the Grand Jury in Ferguson for the Michael Brown shooting. Like many people here in Seattle I was driving home, listening to the radio, as the Prosecutor in Ferguson blamed social media and the 24-hour news cycle for the chaos in Ferguson. But never once mentioned the extreme armored police or the underlying issues that eventually led to a white cop shooting a black boy. Eventually the prosecutor also said that they were not going to indict the police office who shot Michael Brown six times. SIX TIMES!
The new member of our Divaland community is also a brown baby boy. And I am personally horrified that he has to grow up in a culture that thinks his life somehow has less value. #BlackLivesMatter
On a personally level it is important that our new brown baby framily member, kids in our neighborhoods, and those across this nation are given every opportunity to live out there lives. #BlackLivesMatter!
Here is a roundup of what I am doing personally to make sure this horrible incident in Ferguson never happens again.
- Educate oneself – 12 Ways to Be a White Ally to Black People | Because Ferguson is happening right now, but systemic racism happens every day.
- Vote – Lowest voter turnout in a generation. Well guess who has the power to put policies in place that make it ok for someone to shoot first and ask questions later?
- Demonstrate – Yeah I get that burning down your own neighborhood doesn’t help the matter. But I completely understand the frustration and motivation behind it. You can only take so much before it explodes. For me personally demonstrate means putting pressure on the federal government to bring a civil rights suit against the police officer who shot Michael Brown. It means supporting the Brown family in what ever they decide to do including bringing a civil suit against the Ferguson Police Department. Demonstrate so hard that when I drive through my neighborhood at night and see six cop cars stopping one black person Othello to stop and report using social media!
- Keep Using Social Media – I find it personally weird that a prosecutor blamed social media. Well guess what I am not going to stop using a tool to express a level of dissatisfaction with a system where it is ok for white cops to shoot black people. What is this world where the main means of communicating with ones community is now the problem by a white establishment?
BLACK LIVES MATTER
