Black People's Lives are More Important Than White People Being Uncomfortable

Tony McDade - shot and killed by police in Florida

Breonna Taylor - shot and killed by police in her own home in Kentucky

George Floyd - killed by police in Minnesota

These are just the most recent individuals on a long list of black individuals who have been killed by police. The last few weeks have been filled with deplorable, heartbreaking news. News about the police killing black people. Unfortunately, these horrible stories are beginning feel familiar. so familiar that their details have begun to echo each other.

In July 2014, cellphone video captured Eric Garner’s final words as NYPD officers pinned him to the ground on the sidewalk and sat on his head. On May 25th of this year, Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pinned George Floyd to the ground and knelt on his neck, as he pleaded for release and uttered the same three words as Eric Garner: “I can’t breathe”. 

I’ve heard people say, well, George Floyd was suspected of forgery and Tony McDade was the suspect in a fatal stabbing. 

Have people (well, white people) forgotten about Dylann Roof, James Holmes, Jared Lee Loughner or Nikolas Cruz among many, many others? These men are murderers, and yet were taken in by police without incident. 

In comparing the two groups, the racial inequality and injustice is clear to see. Let it sink in that black people were brought to rioting during a pandemic because of constant police brutality and get shot at with plastic bullets and teat gas, but privileged white people took their guns to governmental buildings because they wanted to get hit cuts and nothing happens to them. It doesn’t make sense.  It is no surprise to me that riots have broken out across the country, demanding justice for George Floyd, demanding the end of police brutality towards black individuals. Riots are often the desperate response of people who feel they have no other recourse.

Martin Luther King Jr. said “A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.” (You can read King's entire speech or watch it here)

We are a country built on riots. Riots are caused by real injustice. From the Boston Tea Party to the Los Angeles riots to the current riots all over the country in response to police brutality, violent resistance has often times led to positive social change. Often, rioting has drawn attention to oppressive ruling, spurred investigations into the corrupt and incompetent policies and leaders, forcing real change. 

Pride month begins today and it both infuriates and saddens me when I’ve seen members of the LGBTQ+ condemn the current riots. Have they forgotten that Stonewall was a riot - violent, disruptive, and purposely resistant? The police were not there to protect and serve, but to persecute and torture. Have the forgotten that if it wasn’t for BIPOC activists such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson that the LGBTQ+ community wouldn’t have the rights we have today? But despite the diverse leadership it initially took for the LGBTQ+ movement to advance, many of the achievements since have benefited the most privileged within our community: white cisgender gay men.

BIPOC, black trans women in particular, are still murdered at alarming rates. They have a bleak life expectancy between 35 and 37 years old, according to Julian K. Glover, an African American Studies doctoral student at Northwestern University and receive an average annual income of $10,000 — well below the poverty line

It unnacceptable to see the lack of diversity and the erasure of black queer and transgender revolutionaries during Pride month. Pride wouldn’t exist without the work of BIPOC LGBTQ+ activists who risked their lives and reputations on behalf of a community that haven’t paid their proper respects.

Change is possible when people speak up. Just like the police were not on the side of the LGBTQ+ population, the police are still not on the side of the BIPOC population. Systemic racism is killing Black men. It is killing Black women. It is killing this country.

The revolution is still not over; there’s plenty of work to be done.

There are multiple ways to donate and support:

• George Floyd Memorial Fund - Official GoFundMe to support the Floyd family: gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

• Minnesota Freedom Fund - Community-based nonprofit that pays criminal bail and immigration bongs for individuals who have been arrested while protesting police brutality, https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/

• Black Visions Collective - A Black, trans & queer led organization that is committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence and shifting the public narrative to create transformative long-term change, https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/

• Campaign Zero - Online platform and organization that utilizes research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America, https://www.joincampaignzero.org/