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Statement on Amir Locke

To our re:power community, 

It’s taken some time for me to weigh in on this because we don’t want to be another organization using tragedy to promote our work or to rile people up. And we don’t want to add to the trauma.

But as hard as I tried to not say anything, I’ve been moved to speak. Because the injustices Black people and other communities pushed to the margins continue to face are why re:power exists, they are why I do this work.

A couple of weeks ago, a SWAT team of the Minnesota Police Department quietly entered a home before 7 AM and within seconds murdered 22-year-old Amir Locke. 

I’m not going to spend my time, or yours, detailing the various circumstances that led to Amir’s death. There is enough of that happening in the news/media. From my vantage point, there is no justification for Amir’s killing. I don’t want to engage in the nitpicking of whether Amir had a gun, was it legally purchased, where was it at the time of shooting, etc. I don’t need to get into that, because it’s clear to me, and you, that the system isn’t set up to protect the lives of people like Amir. The lives that were protected last week were the officers. Protected at any cost. Even if the cost is an innocent life, like Amir’s. 

What I want to do is to say that Amir mattered. Amir’s life mattered. And it still matters. Amir’s life was callously and carelessly taken away in a matter of seconds, but that doesn’t mean that we forget him. Amir was an aspiring music artist who had planned to move to Dallas to be closer to his mother. He was 22 years old. 

Amir is not just another statistic, another number, another news story that continues to desensitize us. Amir was a human being. He is survived by his family, his friends, his community… and us. We say his name, just like we continue to say Breonna, George, Tamir, Sandra, Daunte, Eric, Freddie and so many others

I’m doing all I can to center Amir as a person. And as I do that, the question I still sit with is this—why are the people who are hired to protect us, so willing to kill us without regard? The answer I keep coming up with is: they aren’t hired to protect us. At least not me, not Black and Brown people, not my people. 

Black people—we are forced to move through this world with no protection and no safety. We don’t get the opportunity to explain ourselves or justify our actions. Due process just isn’t a part of our reality. Our trials are over before they even start, because the system wasn’t built for us to begin with. 

I don’t have all the answers. Sometimes it is difficult for me to remember what the work I’m doing is in service of, when nothing around me seems to change. Sometimes the unknown of a new system feels overwhelming—what will that be like? It can be scary to try and embark on something new and leave behind something that’s already built. 

But this right here—this doesn’t work. Not for me. And not for you. It doesn’t work for any of us. And I’m tired of this cycle.

So today, I’m remembering Amir and those who were killed that came before him. I’m holding our Black children in my heart, portals of our future. I hope you will take some time to do just that. Continue to tend to your physical and mental health. Replenish your enduring strength. Connect to our ancestors. And recommit yourself to this fight.

We speak your name, Amir. 

With love, 

Karundi

The pain of leading while Black

May 25, 2021 marked one year since George Floyd was murdered by the police.

re:power Executive Director Karundi Williams used this solemn occasion to reflect on what Black leadership looks and feels like in a world where Black bodies are constantly under attack. 

“I am trying to create a new reality for people like me — not only in our impact work but also within my organization, and so are many of my fellow executive directors of color across the country. We are all trying to answer an impossible question: How do we lead when faced with the never-ending and persistent trauma we are experiencing in America?“

Read her piece in the Philanthropy News Digest.

What is Justice?

Yesterday, George Floyd’s murderer was found guilty on all three charges. This verdict confirms what we already knew—that what the world witnessed last summer, as we watched a Black man slowly die at the hands of a White Minneapolis police officer, was murder. But let’s be clear, this is not Justice. 

This guilty verdict is the bare minimum that America owes George Floyd, and this conviction is important. But, the reality is that Chauvin, the officer who murdered George Floyd, is the product of a larger system—a system of policing that was created from its inception to control and harm Black bodies. Chauvin’s actions represent a system working exactly as it was designed. The conviction and sentencing will not bring George Floyd back to us.

Mere moments before the guilty verdict was delivered, Ma’Khia Bryant—a 15-year old Black girl—was shot four times by a police officer in Columbus, OH. She is now another victim of this state-sanctioned violence on Black and Brown bodies across the country. Black folks will be forced to listen to the justifications of this violence, but the reality is another Black person has been erased from existence. 

So what is Justice? Justice is about dismantling the system that allowed this atrocity, and the many others like it, to happen. Justice is reimagining and fundamentally transforming the system that continues to murder its own people. Justice is moving beyond holding an individual accountable to ensuring that the system that breeds and shields murderers is held accountable. Justice is a due process under the law, not a system where police decide to be judge, jury and executioner. It must be a re-envisioning of what it means to protect Black people and other people of color in this country. It must see Black people as those who are worthy of protection and investment, not as those the system is protecting itself against. Justice is bringing an end to the current system of policing in the United States as we know it.

We are proud of the case George Floyd’s legal team assembled and grateful to all of the witnesses who shared their trauma on the stand to ensure this verdict, and to Attorney General Keith Ellison for filing these charges against an Officer. And we’re left wondering, what is it going to take?  

It’s been almost one year since George Floyd was murdered, and in that time we have witnessed continued killings of Black and Brown people at the hands of the police. Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, David McAtee, Rayshard Brooks, Andre Hill, Marvin David Scott III, Duante Wright, and Adam Toledo.  What will it take to see these people as humans deserving of life? What will it take for the state to recognize that their system is flawed and must be changed? 

What will it take for Justice to be served?

Take care of yourselves.

Strengthening the Infrastructure For Black-Led Social Change

 Our Executive Director Karundi Williams recently joined the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the National Council on Responsible Philanthropy, and a panel of dynamic nonprofit Black leaders for a public conversation on how philanthropy can help realize a more just and equitable world beyond February.

Her fellow speakers included Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, Founder & President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC); Raymond Pierce, President and CEO, Southern Education Foundation and Nana Gyamfi, Executive Director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

They had a very candid conversation that touched on the current trend within philanthropy to invest in racial equity and Black-led organizing and social change organizations. Karundi, and all of the other panelists, made it very clear that Black-liberation – and the liberation of all marginalized and oppressed groups – is not trendy, and should be funded with the urgency these issues require. 

You can watch the video of that conversation below.

Statement on the Breonna Taylor Decision

Our hearts once again go out to the family and friends of Breonna Taylor. We #SayHerName today and every day.

We are not surprised that a Kentucky grand jury decided not to hold accountable any of the officers involved in the murder of Breonna Taylor. After all, when has the criminal justice system, which is rooted in slavery and white supremacy, ever worked for Black people?

We are, however, disgusted and angered, that the only charges levied were against an officer who ‘disturbed the peace’. The lives of Breonna’s neighbors — who are alive and well today — mattered more to this grand jury than her life. Bullets fired into walls of an apartment building were seen as more criminal and egregious than the bullets pumped into the body of a woman sleeping in her bed.

This miscarriage of justice is an offense to Breonna’s memory, and to the efforts of the countless folks who have uplifted her name in recent months. But it is not shocking.

This non-decision is yet another reminder that this system — this society — is not the center of our power. Rather, it is the center of our fight. We cannot continue to attempt to work within a system that perpetuates white supremacy and state-sanctioned violence. Instead, we must care for each other while collectively and strategically dismantling each and every institution that seeks to oppress us.

Black Lives Matter. Black Women’s Lives Matter.

Our Strategy is Working

The United States Congress has confirmed the election of Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris – the result of a fair and legal election. At re:power, we are celebrating this next step toward seeing the first Black and South Asian and first woman Vice President with pride and joy. We also celebrate the victories of Senator-elect Raphael Warnock, who will be the first Black senator from Georgia, and Senator-elect Jon Ossoff. Their wins are a testament to the power of multi-ethnic/multi-racial coalitions building power together over the last ten years led by the inimitable force that is Stacy Abrams.

The hostile actions of white nationalists, both inside and outside of Congress, were an attempt to distract us from the historic nature of these wins. We watched as our elected Representatives and Senators stood up and made baseless claims that the 2020 election had been “rigged,” “unlawful,” and “fraudulent,” undermining our democractic institutions within the halls of our democracy. Just outside, a mob of white nationalists echoed these sentiments through more violent and physical action.

What we witnessed Wednesday afternoon was not simply a coup d’etat, but rather the result of centuries of white supremacist and white nationalist culture that has been upheld by American democracy. Senator Harris was forced to sit in a chamber and witness several of her White peers call her election fraudulent. Before she’s even taken office, they have undermined her authority and rightful place. These elected officials chose to call this election, one in which Black and Brown people created the margins of victory, fraudulent, perhaps because they are too ashamed to say what they really want to: White votes should be given more weight than Black and Brown votes.

Nothing we saw on Wednesday was shocking – it was simply the system doing what it was built to do – to reinforce white supremacy. Joe Biden’s & Kamala Harris’ election, the historic organizing in Georgia, the incredible turnout of Black voters who created the margins of victory – these are all actions that are breaking the carefully constructed system of power designed by White men. And a mob of angry white nationalists storming our halls of congress is an indication they are losing.

As we go into the weekend, we wanted to reach out and help ground everyone in this moment. We should not feel dismayed or confused. We should feel empowered that our strategy is working. Long-term, cycle-over-cycle organizing of people of color and their White allies, is what will ultimately loosen the tight grip of white supremacy on our institutions of democracy. We are not simply here to restore our democracy, we are here to STRENGTHEN it by working tirelessly to recognize the humanity of Black, Native, Latinx & Asian people, and by centering the voices and leadership of those who have been pushed to the margins for far too long.

Dismantling white supremacy is messy, but we will win.