Illiterate

Eight minutes, forty-six seconds


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Eight minutes, forty-six seconds.

That is how long a police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck. A murder committed on an unarmed black man, in broad daylight, by law enforcement.

Today, we are silent for 8 minutes, 46 seconds - to honor and remember George Floyd, and the many others who have died, as the United States confronts the injustices of police brutality, systematic racism, and white supremacy.

The United States wrote in its founding document that “all men are created equal”, and it has not lived up to that promise. America can no longer hide from its past. But the promise is not in vain, because the promise does not come from the past.

The promise of America comes from the striving of its people. It has always been the people. Our history is the history of people who wouldn’t accept things as they were. We are a nation unwilling to let things be. We are a nation of protesters. We are a nation who does not give up on our people.

There is a saying on the Great Seal, a saying even older than the Declaration.

E pluribus unum. “Out of many, one.”

The forgotten promise of so many, for so long, must become the promise of one.

One nation, one people.

Let us all do the work.

Links:

  • Color of Change
  • Sign this petition calling for the end of police violence against Black people.

    https://act.colorofchange.org/signup/state-emergency-black-people-are-dying

    • Nationwide Bail Fund
    • Help support bail for protestors in your community.

      https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bail_funds_george_floyd

      • Campaign Zero
      • A look at data and research-informed policy solutions communities can put in place to end police violence.

        https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#campaign

        Media Resources:

        • Movies
        • 13th (NETFLIX)

          American Son (NETFLIX)

          Dear White People (NETFLIX)

          If Beale Street Could Talk (HULU)

          King in the Wilderness (HBO)

          See You Yesterday (NETFLIX)

          The Hate U Give (CINEMAX)

          When They See Us (NETFLIX)

          • Podcasts
          • 1619 (NEW YORK TIMES)

            About Race

            Code Switch (NPR)

            Intersectionality Matters!

            Pod Save The People

            Pod for the Cause

            Seeing White

            • Books
            • So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

              White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

              A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

              Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

              Evicted by Matthew Desmond

              Nobody by Marc Lamont Hill

              Blackballed by Darryl Pinckney

              The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

              ...more
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              IlliterateBy podcastgod

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