STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY IN THE FIGHT FOR BLACK LIVES 

June 1, 2020

Black Lives Matter

The Safety Net Project stands in unconditional solidarity in the fight against all forms of white supremacy and anti-blackness. With sorrow and rage, we recognize that the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, David McAtee, and Ahmaud Arbery represent only some of the many Black lives lost to racist state violence in all its forms. We speak their names and the names of others like. Eleanor Bumper, Amadou Diallo, Kimani Grey, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, David Felix, Delrawn Small, Deborah Danner, Saheen Vassell,and so many more killed by the NYPD. We mourn their deaths and we unequivocally condemn the racist policing apparatus that has taken so many Black lives.

Black Lives Matter

We recognize that genocide of indigenous peoples and centuries of violent repression of Black communities form the bedrock of this nation. We see the continuum of this in our work. We see it in the orchestrated violence perpetrated daily by government bureaucracies, courts, and police in Black and brown communities. We see it in the police harassment and abuse of our homeless neighbors on our streets every day, on our subways every night, and in city shelters. We see it in the criminalization and punishment of public benefits recipients such as Jazmine Headley, who was brutally attacked with her baby in an NYC welfare office. We see it in the menacing police presence that public housing tenants are subjected to daily in their own homes. We see it in the relegation of Black and brown lives to gradations of disposability. We see these continuums and we know that we must do more to fight for what is right.

Black Lives Matter

To the politicians of all stripes who excuse police brutality and ally themselves with police forces who terrorize communities, the same politicians who would slash social services while maintaining bloated police and prisons budgets, the same politicians who support increasing police numbers, we say enough. We know that policing is not what will keep our communities safe. We know that justice is not found in batons and prison cages. And we know that white supremacist racist violence inhabits every fiber of the militarized police apparatus routinely terrorizing Black and brown communities.

Black Lives Matter

We see the righteous anger and the deep sorrow in all the current uprisings across our country and around the world. We see the deep structural inequality of our society, which values profits and property over people. A society that has spent more on militarizing police and prisons than it has on hospitals, essential medical supplies, and housing for our homeless neighbors, even while a global pandemic brings widespread death. And we ask: what are we saying about the value of Black and brown lives when the nurse who will treat you is wearing a garbage bag but the cop who will beat you is equipped with the finest military grade weaponry? We cannot allow this to go on.

Our hearts are heavy. However, we are inspired by the tens of thousands who have had the bravery to confront racist state violence head-on. We are also strengthened in our resolve to bring all that we can to the collective struggle for a world beyond police and prisons, a world that cherishes Black lives, a world that has justice and equality running deeply through its veins.

Black Lives Matter