It seemed irresponsible not to say anything on our next staff call, but I didn’t know what to say, so I’d been vacillating. Then our senior staff reporter sent a text and asked if we—he wouldn’t write it, he noted—should have an editorial response to the most recent murders of Black folks. Here again, we probably should but what would it be?
“Please stop killing us”— A plea for another human to recognize our humanity is paradoxical.
“Black lives matter” —A statement that means nothing to a person for whom this isn’t a truism.
Stats, stats, stats, comparisons, comparisons, comparisons – Who really cares besides the people who may show up in them?
Quite frankly, shit is hard. We’re tired and know you probably are too. You’re tired of being sad, crying, feeling helpless and angry. Tired of explaining to people why you don’t want to see the video(s) and maybe even how these issue(s), ultimately, impact us all. There are some of us on staff who believe peaceful protests and non-violent resistance are some of the best tactics to freedom. Others of us delight in seeing things on fire, expecting that the blazes mean freedom lies in the ashes. Still others, depending on the moment in the day dash from one end of the spectrum to the other. In the meantime, we’ve cried, raged, rested in numbness and buried ourselves in work. Because the girls and young women we work alongside never let us forget they are our work—their comfort, support, sounding boards, advisers, home—and our rescue. Even this is a reminder to us that there is a place for all of us in this work, this movement. And so it is as June Jordan said, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
