No Justice No Peace
The staff and Board of the Equity in Education Coalition are enraged at the lynching of yet another black man in our country. We demand, alongside our many brothers, sisters, and siblings across the world, justice for George Floyd, Sean Reed, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many other innocent black people lynched every year at the hands of police.
Police brutality is embedded in our nation’s structures of white supremacy and a direct result of our country’s capitalistic roots in slavery. Justice for George Floyd and all black people who have died at the hands of state employees means we have to have a fundamental reckoning with our country’s history. We must also transform our “business-as-usual” routine to one that is in service to, and reparations of, black lives in America.
Anti-racism is the only way forward.
Incremental reform led by liberal white politicians is not working. Even with the Seattle Police Department under a consent decree from the Department of Justice for its patterns of racist policing since 2012, police could not stop themselves from enacting police brutality at an anti-police brutality march.
We are also seeing our own government in Washington move so fast to enact a curfew and send the National Guard on protesters for the Black Lives Matter Movement. Our local, regional, state and federal governments were quick to enact a curfew, enable the atmosphere for looting, and call in the National Guard.
We ask: Where is this ability to act quickly when addressing police brutality, how COVID-19 is disproportionately killing black and brown people, the homelessness crisis, and lack of food resources for our communities?
We call on Mayor Jenny Durkan to hold the Seattle Police Department accountable for their brutality. Do not protect police officers who mace children.
We call on Minnesota’s Governor to ensure that the investigation into the killing of George Floyd is independent, fair and conducted by the Attorney General’s Office.
We call on the news media to cover these protests with compassion and remove all anti-black racism from your coverage. If you’re focusing on looting and not the murders of black people by state employees, you are a part of the problem.
We call on Governor Jay Inslee to take a stand and do what is right in protecting Washington State residents from police brutality and white supremacists walking the streets armed and looking for a fight. If Gov. Jay Inslee wants support from people of color in this State, he needs to show his support and compassion for the black lives affected daily by policing in this state and the country as a whole. This is not a matter he is allowed to remain silent on.
We call on police officers in the force to step up and through the blue wall — It is no longer enough to post videos of you dancing to our music. You MUST stop your brothers and sisters in blue when they are infringing on the civil and human rights of black people — when they are abusing their power!
We would call on the President of the United States of America and his whole team behind him to do something … but … !
At the EEC, we continue to examine our own anti-Blackness, internalized racism, and complicity.
We will step up and step in to work on becoming abolitionists of white supremacy.
We continue to stand strong in saying BLACK LIVES MATTER and working towards a future where black people can live and thrive without getting murdered by police, the systems and institutions that protect those police.
