LeBron James and other athletes to form ‘More Than A Vote’ to stop black voter suppression
by Jace Evans,
One day after calling out the systemic racism that he said manifested in Georgia’s lengthy voting lines in certain neighborhoods, LeBron James announced a political endeavor of sorts: fronting More Than A Vote, a new voting rights organization to support African-Americans.
“This is the time for us to finally make a difference,”James, the four-time NBA MVP, said in discussing the formation of the group in an interview with The New York Times.
James said the goals of More Than A Vote are not just limited to registering voters.
“Yes, we want you to go out and vote, but we’re also going to give you the tutorial,” James said to the Times. “We’re going to give you the background of how to vote and what they’re trying to do, the other side, to stop you from voting.”
Some other notable basketball figures involved in the organization include James’ fellow NBA All-Star Trae Youg; WNBA star Skylar Diggins-Smith; and longtime NBA great Jalen Rose.
Voting rights groups called problems with Georgia’s voting Tuesday “a complete catastrophe.” Some voters waited up to seven hours to cast ballots, while others were turned away without being sure their provisional ballots would be counted.
James told the Times he will use his platform to call out voter suppression, and he hopes that his actions serve as a model for other star athletes.
“I’m inspired by the likes of Muhammad Ali, I’m inspired by the Bill Russells and the Kareem Abdul-Jabbars, the Oscar Robertsons — those guys who stood when the times were even way worse than they are today,” James told the Times.
“Hopefully, someday down the line, people will recognize me not only for the way I approached the game of basketball, but the way I approached life as an African-American man.”
On the court, James is hoping for a chance at a fourth title in his career with the NBA season aiming to resume on July 31. The 2019-20 season has been paused since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Michael B. Jordan Speaks Out at Anti-Racism Protest in L.A.: “Invest in Black Staff”
by Trilby Beresford,
During a protest against police violence organized by the Big 4 agencies in Century City on Saturday, Michael B. Jordan took the microphone to reflect on some of his film roles and share what they have taught him about racial injustice and inequality.
Playing Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station gave him the “opportunity to feel the pain of his family, his daughter, his mother,” said Jordan. “I lived with that for a very long time and it weighs on me.”
Referencing the time he played a fireman who joined a revolution in Fahrenheit 451, the actor said,”Producing that movie made me really realize the lengths that the government and oppressors will go to keep knowledge out of your hands.” He continued to say that he also had the “honor” of playing Bryan Stevenson in Just Mercy, “and in doing so I learned his tactics. I learned his mentality. I learned his approach to things. Very calm. Very strategic. Very thoughtful. You have to be proximal. You have to be close to [the] issues.”
Jordan continued to address the crowd, emphasizing that he supports everybody attending the protest and understands that “we have to be here together.” Referencing those who have financial ties to the police, he said, “We have to relook at our business.”
He further called on people to “invest in black staff,” including studios and agencies. “A great agent doesn’t have to be a great organizer, but a great agent could advocate for relationships with organizers.” He later said, “What we are doing today will make our values heard and our voices heard. We’ve got to keep agitating things. “We can’t be complacent. We can’t let this moment just pass us by, we have to continue to put our foot on their necks.”
The latter was a reference to Floyd, who died on May 25 as a police office in Minneapolis pressed a knee into his neck. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second degree murder.
Three other officers who were at the scene were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. All four police officers were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.
Jordan has been vocal on Instagram in the past week, demanding justice for Floyd as well as urging people to call the Liberty County District Attorney to demand that Gregory and Travis McMichael be charged for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
Saturday’s protest took place at the ICM Partners building, where Jordan was one of several speakers.
Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not
By DANIELLE CADET,
Let’s cut to the chase. It’s been a tough few days…weeks…months. For many people, working in the midst of a global pandemic has been difficult.
For those of us fortunate enough to continue doing our jobs safely at home, we’ve had to somehow make ourselves look presentable for nonstop digital meetings, and had to learn how to be productive as the lines between our personal and professional lives continue to blur. We’ve run out of shows to stream, Instagram lives to watch, things to bake. We’re confused and scared, and we don’t know when any of this will be over.
But there’s a tale of two quarantines. Because while some Americans have been consumed by banana bread, others have had to navigate surviving a pandemic in a country they were never actually meant to live in. Over the last few months, Black people have not only watched their friends and family members die at higher rates from the coronavirus, they have also watched people who look like them be gunned down while going for a jog, be murdered in their homes, threatened while bird watching in Central Park, and mercilessly choked on camera.
And every day, we have woken up and answered the emails and gotten on the Zoom calls. We’ve showed up with a smile, and put the pain and fear behind us. We’ve swallowed the rage while responding to our bosses, and offered the assistance and worked twice as hard for half as much — because that’s all we know how to do. But here’s a newsflash for all the white people unaware of this fact: your Black colleagues may seem okay right now, but chances are they’re not.
The likelihood that your Black colleague lost a family member to COVID-19 is painfully high. The chances that your Black colleague was triggered by the viral video of Amy Cooper because a white woman used her race and privilege and weaponized it against him is incredibly likely. The possibility that your Black colleague is afraid to go for a run, or terrified when her husband leaves the house, or just simply enraged by the incessant lies this country keeps telling us about equal liberties is so high you’ll need a ladder to get it down.
And yet, she’s responded to your passive aggressive email, and he’s smiled through your condescending questioning. Or even just found the strength to peel themselves out of bed and simply show up. Every day, Black people take the personal trauma we all know to be true and tuck it away to protect white people who are ignorant to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to keep going when your grandma won’t survive coronavirus because she has serious pre-existing conditions. It’s hard to be your best self at work when we watch white women feign terror on the phone with authorities that will arrive at the scene and kill the Black man she called the cops on. It’s even harder when you watch those cops kill that Black man on video, and sometimes the killers aren’t even cops.
But we show up for work anyway. And we contain our rage, tears, fear and sadness. We write to each other in group chats. We send each other articles that articulate our feelings. We post and repost and retweet on social media. But we don’t take our pain to work.
So while you navigate this pandemic which has ravaged our way of life — and prematurely taken the lives of so many no matter what race — acknowledge that burden is falling on your Black colleagues disproportionately. And know that they’ll never show it. They’ve learned to navigate their worlds too well for that. And although we were told the degrees and the jobs and the accomplishments would somehow protect us from being treated like second-class citizens; although we were made to believe that working hard and contributing to society would mean society would treat us like human beings, we’ve learned the painful truth — that’s a lie.
On behalf of your Black colleagues: we’re not okay. And you shouldn’t be either.
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change
Written by, Barack Obama
As millions of people across the country take to the streets and raise their voices in response to the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing problem of unequal justice, many people have reached out asking how we can sustain momentum to bring about real change.
Ultimately, it’s going to be up to a new generation of activists to shape strategies that best fit the times. But I believe there are some basic lessons to draw from past efforts that are worth remembering.
First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation — something that police in cities like Camden and Flint have commendably understood.
On the other hand, the small minority of folks who’ve resorted to violence in various forms, whether out of genuine anger or mere opportunism, are putting innocent people at risk, compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause. I saw an elderly black woman being interviewed today in tears because the only grocery store in her neighborhood had been trashed. If history is any guide, that store may take years to come back. So let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves.
Second, I’ve heard some suggest that the recurrent problem of racial bias in our criminal justice system proves that only protests and direct action can bring about change, and that voting and participation in electoral politics is a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it’s often only been in response to protests and civil disobediencethat the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices— and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands.
Moreover, it’s important for us to understand which levels of government have the biggest impact on our criminal justice system and police practices. When we think about politics, a lot of us focus only on the presidency and the federal government. And yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a U.S. Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it. But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.
It’s mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions. It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions. In some places, police review boards with the power to monitor police conduct are elected as well. Unfortunately, voter turnout in these local races is usually pitifully low, especially among young people — which makes no sense given the direct impact these offices have on social justice issues, not to mention the fact that who wins and who loses those seats is often determined by just a few thousand, or even a few hundred, votes.
So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.
Finally, the more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away. The content of that reform agenda will be different for various communities. A big city may need one set of reforms; a rural community may need another. Some agencies will require wholesale rehabilitation; others should make minor improvements. Every law enforcement agency should have clear policies, including an independent body that conducts investigations of alleged misconduct. Tailoring reforms for each community will require local activists and organizations to do their research and educate fellow citizens in their community on what strategies work best.
But as a starting point, here’s a report and toolkit developed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and based on the work of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing that I formed when I was in the White House. And if you’re interested in taking concrete action, we’ve also created a dedicated site at the Obama Foundation to aggregate and direct you to useful resources and organizations who’ve been fighting the good fight at the local and national levels for years.
I recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting — that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life. But watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks, of every race and every station, makes me hopeful. If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals.
All four former officers involved in George Floyd’s killing now face charges
Derek Chauvin will now be charged with second-degree murder
Three former Minneapolis police officers were criminally charged Wednesday in connection with the death of George Floyd in their custody, according to court records.
In addition, Derek Chauvin, a fourth former officer who had already been charged with third-degree murder in the case, will now be charged with second-degree murder, the records show, in addition to the previous charge.
The ex-cops, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, had assisted Chauvin in arresting Floyd on Memorial Day on the suspicion that Floyd passed a counterfeit bill. They were charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree murder are punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Manslaughter and aiding and abetting manslaughter are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Trump blocked comedian Sarah Cooper on Twitter. Now she calls him her ‘head writer’
By GREG BRAXTON,
President Donald Trump and comedian Sarah Cooper really don’t care for each other. But these days, they are in perfect sync.
Cooper has become one of the hottest comics of the coronavirus era with her social media videos, in which she lip-syncs some of Trump’s most controversial pandemic-related pronouncements. With a mix of deadpan flair and exaggerated facial expressions, she has spun his headline-grabbing statements into comedy gold.
In “How to Medical,” she lampooned Trump’s comments at a press briefing at which he suggested to Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, that the virus could be attacked by hitting the body with a “tremendous” or ultraviolet light. He also suggested that “injecting” disinfectant into the body or lungs could “knock it out in a minute.”
Attired in a blue jacket and black blouse, Cooper illustrated his comments with a lamp in her home and by pointing to her face and rear end in showing how light could enter the body. She held up a bottle of cleaner when showing how disinfectant could battle the virus. Wearing the same outfit minus the jacket and changing her appearance slightly, she portrayed the incredulous Birx too.
The video caught fire and has attracted more than 18 million views on Twitter.
“It’s not something that people have seen before — a black woman lip-syncing Trump’s words in a very realistic, sort of documentary kind of way,” said Cooper.
In a video posted Saturday, Cooper, with a fan blowing her hair to mimic Trump’s own rustling in the wind, channeled the president’s declaration that “MAGA loves the black people.”
She previously showed how Trump conjured up the name of his conspiracy theory about former President Barack Obama with her eyes darting from a copy of former White House photographer Pete Souza’s book “Obama: An Intimate Portrait” to a small gate nearby.
“Obamagate,” she/he declared, her eyes brightening.
“I’m having a moment, but it’s definitely been surreal,” Cooper said in an interview from her New York home. “Agents who wouldn’t call me back three years ago now want to talk to me. Things are going really well while the world is falling apart. It’s been quite a roller coaster. One moment, it’s ‘Oh my God, what’s happening with the pandemic, lockdown and quarantine?’ and the next moment it’s ‘Oh my God, Ben Stiller retweeted my tweet.’”
She added, “I’m feeling so many emotions at once. People are having a good laugh when it’s really hard to laugh. As a comedian and artist, you always wonder, ‘Am I making a difference? Am I doing something worthwhile?’”
Cooper gives much of the credit for her newfound success to “the writing, which is so good.” She explained, “Trump is an amazing comedy writer without realizing it. There were so many moments I was able to use. I put the video out within a few hours of him saying those words. A lot of people said they saw the parody before they saw the real thing, which made it not only good content but newsworthy.”
Trump’s stumbles remind her of her former career as a designer for Google, where she was required to attend a stream of monotonous meetings where much was said but little was accomplished.
“When Trump started doing those daily briefings and being confronted with how incompetent he is and how out of his element he is, I was just reminded of being in the corporate world and seeing people BS-ing through a meeting, making their coworkers think they know things when they really have no idea what they’re talking about,” Cooper said.
Her distaste for Trump has fueled her comic sensibility: “It seems like we’ve been gaslighted for three-and-a-half years. Now he’s saying ridiculous things that make no sense, but people are nodding and no one is calling him out. That frustration is part of the reason why I wanted to do something like this.”
The feeling is mutual. When it comes to Cooper, Trump is no fan.
When Trump in October of 2017 launched one of his countless Twitter attacks against the mainstream media, saying, “The Fake News Is going all out in order to demean and denigrate! Such hatred!,” Cooper tweeted, “Fake news: Donald Trump has become unfit for office. Real news: Donald Trump was ALWAYS unfit for office.”
That response resulted in Trump blocking her from his millions of followers. One of the descriptors in her Twitter bio is “#blockedbytrump.”
“Sarah has always been super political,” said Katie Morrissey, a friend of Cooper’s who is also a comedian. The two had been performing at stand-up venues before the shutdown in New York.
“Seeing what’s happening with her is just wild,” Morrissey said. “Having Trump’s words come out of a woman of color shows how ridiculous he is, and how old white men get away with saying things. The American people have been numb for so long to what he says that something like this wakes you up a little to the absurdity of it all.”
Cooper started dabbling in comedy about 11 years ago. “I had wanted to be an actress when I was little, but I wasn’t very good at it, so I tried a lot of different things. One night I went to an open mic and just told a story. I found that I liked that a lot better than playing a character.”
(Sarah Cooper/TikTok)
She developed routines about life as a single woman (she is now married) and her Jamaican immigrant parents. “When you’re Jamaican, you don’t consider yourself African American even though everyone else considers you that,” she said. In one joke she and her father were walking around a mall. Her father pointed out, “Sarah, look at those black people over there,” to which she responded, “Dad, that’s a mirror.”
While at Google, she started writing blog posts about how to appear smart at meetings. When those posts began to get attention, she got a deal to write a book titled “100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying.”
The success of that book convinced her to devote more of her energy to comedy: “I had a platform. There was a period when I was teaching the business world about humor and bridging the two worlds.”
Her stand-up career was just starting to gather some momentum when the pandemic struck. But breaking through duringa quarantine when comedy venues are shut downhas been bizarre.
“I had just done my first Montreal ‘Just for Laughs’ audition,” she said. “I was starting to get noticed, hosting open mics. Now I’m not able to go out and perform at night. It’s been a little bit of a blessing because I can focus on my comedy now working at home.”
Since Cooper is still getting used to feeling comfortable in front of audiences, she’s been able to better process her sudden success.
“I feel things happen the way they’re supposed to happen,” she said. “This might be a little better for me. I do have anxiety, so maybe this was a better way of putting myself out there [more] slowly than if I had gotten bombarded and put on stage in front of 5,000 people where I might have been completely overwhelmed. I see this as kind of a blessing.”
And it hasn’t all been about looking for laughs. The “How to Medical” video was developed during an emotional week.
“I had started the week crying about this5-year-old girl, Skylar Herbert, who had died of COVID-19,” she said. “Her parents were first responders. I was very depressed, very sad. On Thursday, I made that video. By Friday, it was blowing up. I posted comments for people to donate to Skylar’s memorial fund. I was able to use an opportunity to help. I was proud of that.”
So far Cooper says she has received little backlash on her Trump attacks. She’s even heard from Trump supporters who are amused by the videos.
Asked how she thinks Trump would respond to her “Trump mode,” she paused.
“That’s a real good question,” Cooper said. “I’m of two minds on this. One, he wouldn’t realize I was making fun of him. He would probably think, ‘There’s a black woman who supports me. Get her to the White House.’ Or he gets really angry that his voice is coming out of my mouth, and he sues me.”
In the meantime, she’s working on a new book — an Audible original that will be “my take” on Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” she says. She’s also working on developing a late-night stand-up set.
And of course, there will be more videos: “I’ll keep on doing them as long as my head writer gives me material.”
Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot
By, Shenequa Golding,
I just witnessed the lynching of a black man, but don’t worry Ted, I’ll have those deliverables to you end of day.
Between Amy Cooper’s Oscar worthy Central Park performance, Ahmaud Arbery shooting death in Georgia, Breonna Taylor’s assassination inside her Louisville home, and the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, black people in America are running on fumes.
We’re tired, angry, confused and yet, this space is familiar to us. This place of torment and trauma has become a home of sorts. The cycle begins in the far corners of Twitter with rumblings of a killing. Then a recording of the victim’s last moments pop up and shortly after, we finally learn the person’s name.
A new name to add to a growing list no one wants to be part of.
Sparks of outrage, disgust and bewilderment soon follow. Maybe a protest happens, and in the case of Floyd, uprisings. Men and women ballooned with righteous anger take to the streets to make their presence known; to scorch earth and shout from the pits of their belly to the top of their lungs that their lives matter. Whether the powers that be hear or acknowledge their chants is one thing, but it’s the community formed by the injustice of another black death that acts as a temporary solve.
And while some of us take to the streets, the rest of us have to hide these shared feelings behind professionalism.
I don’t know who decided that being professional was loosely defined as being divorced of total humanity, but whoever did they’ve aided, unintentionally maybe, in a unique form of suffocation.
If I am to perform my duties for 40 hours a week, it’s asinine to assume that the life I live outside of those 40 hours won’t rear its head. Whether I’m a sleep deprived single mother of two or a struggling college student who really needs this internship to graduate, the belief that only the part of me that fattens your bottom line is allowed in the workplace, is stifling.
This is magnified for young black professionals who are recruited for their culture, but told, in so many words, that their blackness and the struggles that come with it are to be left at the door.
A black man went for a run only to be ambushed by two white men, shot and then killed. A black female essential worker was asleep inside her home when police serving a “no-knock” warrant shot her eight times. A white woman, enraged that a black man asked her to follow the park rules lied to cops about being threatened. And a black man died face down on the ground because a white cop suffocated him.
But yeah, I can totally have that presentation for you by end of day, Ted. No problem.
Your black employees are exhausted.
Your black employees are scared.
Your black employees are crying in between meetings.
Your black employees have mentally checked out.
Your black employees are putting on a performance.
Forgive us if our work isn’t up to par, we just saw a lynching. Pardon us if we’re quiet in the Zoom meetings, we’re wondering if we’ll be the next hashtag. Spare some grace if we’re not at the company happy hour, because the hour of joy that most adults look forward to has been stolen from us due to the recent string of black death.
We’re biting our tongues, swallowing our rage and fighting back tears to remain professional because expressing that hurt caused by witnessing black death is considered more unprofessional, than black men and women actually being killed.
So if you can, please, be mindful. Your black employees are dealing with a lot.
A great-grandma’s upcoming college graduation proves there’s no age limit on overcoming a lifetime of challenges.
“It’s never too late to achieve your aspirations in life,” says San Francisco’s Jules Patrice Means, 67, who will graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, this summer with a near-perfect record of all A’s and one B, reports Berkeley News.
“I will walk across the stage with the utmost grace and feeling that I accomplished my goals at one of the most prestigious universities in the world,” she says of achieving her dream. Unfortunately, the school had to reschedule the original May 16 ceremony over coronavirus concerns.
Still, Means, who is described as “down to earth” by her fellow students, will receive her degree in sociology to go along with her whopping five associates degrees that she earned in 2017 at her previous college.
And the scholarly senior’s not done yet. Means plans to apply for a degree in social welfare at UC Berkeley’s grad school and eventually work as a counselor to help low-income earners from minority communities.
It’s been a long and tumultuous road for the graduating granny. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in San Francisco’s Richmond district, Means had to endure horrific racism from her classmates, who reportedly called her every slur in the book.
And if that wasn’t difficult enough, Means became a single mom at 17, which she thought would dash her dreams of ever pursuing higher education.
Despite being a straight-A student, “I felt my life was going to be terrible, that I’d be on welfare and not able to take care of the baby,” says Means of her tumultuous youth. However, the tenacious teen persevered and graduated from high school in 1971, the same year that her son was born.
Years later, she suffered back-to-to strokes in 2010 and 2014, which affected the whole left side of her body. But that didn’t stop the then mother of four from attending the local community colleges, where she earned straight A’s and degrees in psychology, behavioral science, social science, administration of justice, and arts and humanities.
Her appetite for learning not yet satisfied, Means successfully applied to UC Berkeley, which she described as “like being accepted to heaven.”
The super senior’s impressive résumé has earned her the respect of her much younger peers, who describe her as having a “motherly vibe to her.”
“Ms. Jules is the mom, grandma, auntie or that one lady from your childhood who you could always count on,” Tomie Lenear Jr., program coordinator at Berkeley’s Student Parent Center, tells Berkeley News. She adds that “she’s outlived most of our life circumstances, so the times when we’re troubled are hindsight to her.”
However, Means, who is known as Ms. Jules to her classmates and even teachers, doesn’t suffer fools, either. Fellow student Avalon Ansara recounted one time when the no-nonsense granny advised her, “boyfriends are nice, but grades can lead you to a better place.”
“Education is the key to unlocking the doors that prevent people from reaching their goals,” says Means. “If I can do it, they can, too.”
I had to go to Minneapolis. I needed to be right there on 38th Street and Chicago where George Floyd’s life was tragically stolen from him. I needed to see the people in that community — how much love they had for their community and their people and how much pain this has caused. We feel the pain go across the world — the anger and the hurt. Those visuals will never be removed from our minds.
We’re in the middle of a pandemic and instead of coming closer together and operating as one humanity, people go within and want to protect the focus on an old mind-sets of classism and racism. This doesn’t have to exist anymore. People are searching for a new normal. I don’t want to go back to our old normal — clearly that was killing us on many levels.
What we need is a new normal, a new paradigm.
I want us to focus on our humanity and dismantling racist systems that we don’t need that perpetuate crimes of inequality and oppress communities of color all over our country. We have to dismantle all of those systems that this country was built on.
That’s why so many people get it wrong when it comes to racism. People think ‘Oh no, I’m not a racist.’ But if you support this system, you support racism. If you don’t step up and say this system has been wrong for years — from the war on drugs to criminalization of black men in general to the school-to-prison pipeline to the prison industrial complex. It’s a form of modern day slavery. There are more black men in jail today then there were enslaved [in the 19th century]. These are concepts that people overlook daily. Unfortunately it takes a matter like George Floyd for people to say ‘I didn’t know this. It didn’t hit my feed. It wasn’t part of our daily conversation.’
If we’re going to talk about what the solutions are, it has to be complete reform of not just a police department but of policing in general. I think it starts by removing the word ‘police.’ Why be a police officer when you can be a peace officer? When you see a police officer, you’re supposed to feel safe. They’re supposed to protect you. My kids are scared of police officers. In their minds, they’re the bad guys.
This is clearly the problem. What happened to George Floyd has been going on for years and years. Now technology has given us another liberty — to see first hand what is going on. Now that we can see it we have got to hold them accountable. From excessive force to murder — everything we see, we have to hold them accountable — including the so-called good cops standing by allowing this to happen. One bad cop isn’t acting alone. There are several other bad cops allowing that one to do what he is doing.
I’m finding signs of hope in both mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. To see them respond immediately with care and compassion was the right thing to do. I saw a lot of pain and disappointment in their law enforcement. Being at 38th and Chicago and seeing people crying at the memorial — it was disappointment more than anything. They didn’t think something like this would happen in Minneapolis. But it did. This is what America is. If it can happen in Minneapolis, it could happen in Georgia and it can happen in Los Angeles and it can happen in New York.
The same thing that made me go to Minneapolis is the same thing that made me go to Ferguson and to Charlottesville and to jails in Cook County and Washington, D.C. and to study criminology at Howard University. I did not want to be another celebrity tweeting or reposting a picture. I want to be authentic and educated and informed. I had to go to it.
