Thread by @CoriBush

#AhmaudArbery and #SeanReed should be alive today. They are not; they were hunted down, to their deaths.

PLEASE READ my full statement below:

The implication of these murders is clear: in the midst of a global pandemic claiming more lives than any other this century, many white people cannot imagine a greater threat than black Americans simply existing.

There are hordes of predominantly white protesters demanding states reopen—which poses a direct & serious threat to the black community. Make no mistake, these protestors, and the politicians who enable them, have calmly calculated that the “right” to re-open will ...

... directly sacrifice the lives of our essential workers. Many of these same protesters called people like me terrorists when we spoke out for black lives against police violence during the Ferguson Uprising. For the crime of defending our humanity, we were labeled “unpatriotic”

We were hit with cars, bullets, and tear gas. We were harassed, censored, and incarcerated, and our trauma continues.

So let me be clear: Black people WILL live on. It’s not an ask, or a question. It is our truth.

We have survived The Middle Passage, slavery, Jim Crow and on through today. In spite of all your efforts, we are here, and here we will remain alongside our indigenous and immigrant kin.

Let go of the mental chains that convince you this is the only path forward. I should not have to say it, but: it is not our existence that breaks the peace, but your inability to comprehend our beauty.

We are free. We are resilient. And we will not wait for you to come to your senses. We will organize ourselves, as we always have. #BlackLivesMatter