Here are some voices of the millions who are fighting for Black Lives Matter, an end to police terror and for a just world. Send your comments to info@peoplestribune.org
— The Editors
“Daddy changed the world,” said Gianna, George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter. Gianna’s mother, Roxie Washington said, “He will never see her grow up, graduate, walk down the aisle [and] if she needs her Daddy, she does not have that anymore . . . Gianna wants to know how he died, and the only thing I could tell her is he couldn’t breathe.” (ET Video)
Sarah-Ji of LoveandStrugglephotos.com: “Making #BlackLivesMatter means building a world in which police and prisons and surveillance are not necessary, where we have the resources to care for one another and meet all our needs. And to do that we need to take a step back from the cops, the military, the corporations, the rich (and abolish them).”
The Movement for Black Lives: “We demand community control. The most impacted in our communities need to control the laws, institutions and policies that are meant to serve us – from our schools to our local budgets, to our economies and police departments. . . . #DefundPolice #DefendBlackLife” (Facebook)
Tristan Taylor, Detroit Black Lives Matter: “We say this is America’s problem, right? . . . If this is America’s problem, it’s actually the obligation and duty of America to stand with Black and brown bodies.” (Facebook)
Minneapolis Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU 1005): “More than ever we need a new Civil Rights Movement . . . that is joined with the labor movement and independent of the corporate establishment’s political parties…” [Left Voice]
Paula Jean Swearengin, WV candidate for U.S. Senate: “I was in Morgantown attending a #blm march. I am so proud to see folks in this state standing up on the side of justice. We must take stock of our accountability . . . be intentional, anti-racist, and stand up for African Americans. To those that chose to disrupt this non-violent protest: Your actions put college students who are standing up for African American lives at risk. It is completely unacceptable!”
Ice T in The Ice opinion: “Rage ignites the fire, but once the flames get going, poverty takes over. The bottom line was people were broke.”
Kimberly L. Jones, author: “Let’s ask ourselves why in this country in 2020, the financial gap between poor blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel like their only hope and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them is to walk through a broken glass window and get it . . . Why are people that broke? Why are people that food insecure, that clothing insecure . . . ?”
High school senior: “The city of Chicago should be investing that money … in our communities . . . in after-school programs and mental health resources . . . we don’t need more cops . . . we are just being set up for the school-to-prison pipeline.” (Chicago Tribune)
Labor Notes: “All told, the United States spends $100 billion on policing each year, and then another $80 billion jailing people.”
The murder of George Floyd: All lives can’t matter until black lives matter
