Thread by @NAACP_LDF

WATCH LIVE:

LDF President and Director-Counsel @Sifill_LDF and singer and actress Audra McDonald host an important dialogue at @BLKTheatreUnite's inaugural event "Activating Black Artists and Allies for Racial Justice."

"The reason why it's important is because...we have convinced ourselves that they don’t see or they didn't hear us. And I want people to understand that they do see...they do know. It is a choice not to be responsive to it."
-@Sifill_LDF on the killing of unarmed Black people

"We have to be brave enough to confront that there is deep, deep cruelty and inequality. That it is deliberate. That it is structural."
-LDF Pres. & Director-Counsel @Sifill_LDF

"The 14th amendment...is the most powerful innovation that this country has ever created...the 14th amendment cleans up the mess left...by the original founders who decided to kick the can down the road about our humanity."
-@Sifill_LDF at @BLKTheatreUnite's inaugural discussion

"...the 14th Amendment...says, 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States shall be citizens.' And it is an innovation...the purpose is to undo the Dred Scott decision...it is the first time that the word equal is used in the Constitution." -@Sifill_LDF

"Almost immediately after that there was an effort to try to undo that work...so tired of it that when Callie House tried to create a reparations plan..so that former slaves could have a pension...they hounded this woman, accused her of mail fraud & imprisoned her."
-@Sifill_LDF

"When you create greater equality and justice for people on the bottom, it actually defies the laws of gravity and cascades up. It is the one way you can ensure that you will actually protect everyone is when you start with those who are at the bottom.”
-@Sifill_LDF

"As terrible as it feels the exposure of it is what allows us to tackle it...When it’s clear that it’s about life and death...there can be no pretense that it is not what it is...it’s a snapshot into the American soul."
-@Sifill_LDF (@BLKTheatreUnite)

.@Sifill_LDF on the confluence of factors that created the moment we are in today: "[This moment] is borne of many things...Plus it comes with the 5 years of grassroots activism that never stopped since #EricGarner was choked to death."

"...over the last 5 years grassroots groups have been doing this work. We created a Policing Reform Campaign in January 2015..and we’ve been doing this work pretty intensely."
-LDF President and Director-Counsel @Sifill_LDF

"This is largely an issue about how we tackle American democracy and American democracy will not work without a real commitment to equity and inclusion and justice. It just won't."
-@Sifill_LDF

"I’m challenging people to recognize your own geographic location...you can't be located in a place and then not be engaged with what's happening in that place...you have to be concerned about justice issues."
-@Sifill_LDF (@BLKTheatreUnite )

"Then you have to care about the macro-issues which I call ‘the scaffolding of injustice’...it is the scaffolding that allows injustice to happen...And that's when we begin to talk about voting & policing reform & the census & economic justice & housing access…”
-@Sifill_LDF

.@Sifill_LDF's call to artists: "You have the power to get right into someone and to be able to influence and shape and readjust narratives about this country."

"We’ve all been embedded with those narratives and it’s hard to break through and that’s why it took the videos..of police officers torturing people for people to even believe that there might be a problem." - @Sifill_LDF

"Everything that you do you have to be conscious of what narrative you are either continuing or...interrupting or... creating..This is a moment where you will have to be uncompromising about the perpetuation of narratives that actually kill us." -@Sifill_LDF

.@Sifill_LDF on allyship: "Allyship means standing next to, and sometimes behind, but not ahead of...Being an ally takes a measure of humility...The learning you're doing is not for me, it’s learning about your country...And if you didn't know about America, that’s a problem."

"...if you understand how colossal systemic racism is, then you understand that everything you do is either perpetuating what was already created or is potentially interrupting it." -@Sifill_LDF

"This country tries to take away from artists their right to be engaged citizens. And you all have to fight back...this year there’s going to be an election [in every town]. You have the right to care about that. And therefore you have the right to speak about it." -@Sifill_LDF

"The entire #voting rights movement was premised upon..the belief that exercising political power would allow Black people to change the material condition of their lives...it is not just about voting every 4 years." -@Sifill_LDF

"Embed things that give you new tools. We have these moments in our history..where all the cylinders are firing at the same time...But they’re windows and they do close...You need some things that on the other side of 'the moment' are tools." -@Sifill_LDF

"If at the end of the day we don’t have any tools..then we just have the symbolism. So for everyone who feels the fight right now...get something on the dotted line."
-@Sifill_LDF speaking with @AudraEqualityMc at @BLKTheatreUnite's inaugural discussion

.@WendellPierce asks @Sifill_LDF about her recommended negotiation tools:
1. Know your history.
2. Prepare.