Resisting Racism and Responding to the Crises of our Day.

“We can’t go on like this no longer, Lord. We can’t keep on a-fighting and a-fussing and a-cussing and a-hating like this. Let your peace come into our hearts if you only will. Come by here, if you please.” Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander’s “Prayer in the Wilderness of Reconstruction”

My heart has been heavy this week. We keep losing people. I don’t know how to pray. I don’t have the time to add an ounce of eloquence to my emotions. Poverty, the prison industrial complex, environmental racism and medical apartheid play key roles in the loss of Black life around the country. Racial minorities are in a generations-long war on quality of life, meaning many of our people live in a perpetual state of pandemic.

In Louisiana, our people account for 70% of COVID deaths but 33% of the population. In Michigan, Black people represent 14% of the population and 40% of COVID deaths. Chicago’s losses in Black communities are 70% of the city’s COVID deaths, while Black Chicagoans are about 29% of the population; and in St. Louis city, 14 of the 17 losses were Black people.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams’ pathological statements are not the answer. The administration of the 45th president is intentionally causing miscommunication, panic, and racist threat. We will not have it. I said we will. not. have. it. OK!? I already made plain that I haven’t the time to harmonize eloquence with my emotions. Black people make marquee status in appropriation and death, but our lives are not included in conversations about response and resource. We continue to be reminded that #WeGotUs or else no one will. So we stay in the God-blessed business of resourcing our own abundant life. The ‘rona, COVID-19 and surrounding crises prove that this is no time to change course. We are seeing once again, that this is why we fight.

Make some noise on the socials April 20th - shout out the people you trust to #ProtectBlackFutures

COPY FIRST - Protect Black Futures Templates (1).jpg

History reminds us that racism is the root of all kinds of evils that we face today. But we also have the testimony of resistance in our past and present. Our sisters Sojourner, Shirley, Bree and Angela, all remind us that we got us. Harriet Tubman spent eight years going in and out of hiding for the sake of freeing others, and her spirit inspires us to “keep going” as she is known to have repeated.
April 20th 1853 is the legend-claimed day that Harriet Tubman began work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Monday April 20th, Faith for Justice will join activist, artists, educators and grassroots organizations to commit to continued action - in word and deed - to #ProtectBlackFutures. We need you to help us spread the word.

Use your social media to post the images from our posts, and List 20 / Give 20/Tag 20. Uplift 20 orgs doing the work, give $20.00 or more to each of them if you are able, and tag 20 friends to invite them to do the same.

We are doing what we know best: amplifying the people doing the work. The #ProtectBlackFutures campaign is meant to connect pandemic response campaigns rooted in or crucial to racial equity. Join in and show your solidarity in this season of separation. These freedom fighters are the answers to our prayers for protection, power, and embodied hope.