But here's the thing. It's not just cops killing black people.
Capitalism kills black people at a rate cops could never begin to compete with.
For starters, there are grossly disproportionate black deaths to disease, whether it be COVID, heart disease, or diabetes.
Capitalism kills black people at a rate cops could never begin to compete with.
For starters, there are grossly disproportionate black deaths to disease, whether it be COVID, heart disease, or diabetes.
The median black family owns a few cents for every dollar the median white family owns, which impacts everything from educational quality to medical care quality.
And that wealth difference means white people can afford to move away from black people and hoard public resources
And that wealth difference means white people can afford to move away from black people and hoard public resources
White schools are better funded than black schools
White hospitals are better funded than black hospitals
Cops in white neighborhoods look like the smiling sheriff from the Andy Griffith Show, while cops in black neighborhoods act out their Punisher fantasy on our black bodies.
White hospitals are better funded than black hospitals
Cops in white neighborhoods look like the smiling sheriff from the Andy Griffith Show, while cops in black neighborhoods act out their Punisher fantasy on our black bodies.
Environmental racism means we are far more likely to develop asthma as children (I almost died of it when I was young), or suffer developmental disorders from lead poisoning
#Flint's water is just the tip of the iceberg, our neighborhoods are America's pollution dumping grounds.
#Flint's water is just the tip of the iceberg, our neighborhoods are America's pollution dumping grounds.
And so much more. That's why #BlackLivesMatter is such a radical statement.
It's not just that there are openly racist, violent white male predators (cops or neighborhood watch) looking to lynch black men .
It's not just that there are white women willing to sic the cops on us.
It's not just that there are openly racist, violent white male predators (cops or neighborhood watch) looking to lynch black men .
It's not just that there are white women willing to sic the cops on us.
It's that - from top to bottom - from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, American structure was built on the notion that Black Lives are disposable all while our constitution says clearly that all lives are created equal.
#AllLivesMatter is a cruel mockery when we know
#AllLivesMatter is a cruel mockery when we know
That Black Lives have never been allowed to truly matter in America because capitalism needs its unpaid labor, from plantations in the 1800s buying slaves to corporations in the 21st century renting slave labor from prisons.
The only way to fight for #BlackLivesMatter is to fight against the extractive economy, which seeks to cheaply and abusively extract labor from black and brown people and the working class the same way it extracts resources from the land it stole from indigenous people.
Society doesn't have to be about the endless pursuit of wealth. That's how we get Jeff Bezos approaching TRILLIONAIRE status while people die in the streets.
Society can be about building the best world for all of us. Nobody on the outside. Nobody disposable.
Society can be about building the best world for all of us. Nobody on the outside. Nobody disposable.
*should read "schools in predominantly white/black neighborhoods" and same for hospitals but character counts sorry
