The Coalition for Social Justice stands in solidarity with those demanding justice for the black community which is suffering violence at the hand of systematic racism or the hand of the police. We join the families and communities of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY and George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN in anguish, outrage, exhaustion and grief.

Our state, and our country, was built through the exploitation of black and brown bodies, taking from them their land, their health, and their wealth. The rage coursing through the streets of our country right now is born from hundreds of years of oppression, exploitation and violence boiling over. A restorative approach is needed, including a deeper understanding by all residents of what systemic racism is, how it affects our black & brown neighbors, and how it shows up differently in different spaces.

We see how the institution of white supremacy is connected and upheld by individual acts of murderous violence by white people, by white women weaponizing their race against innocent black men, by police department cover-ups, by governments that allow armed white militias to storm state capitols while tear-gassing peaceful protesters on the streets. Policy changes must be made to undo the current practices and procedures of the police and the criminal legal system so as to end this continuous cycle of violence directed at the community.

We are united with organizations through Southeastern MA, our state, & country in resistance to the vicious attacks of the state against black and brown people. However, words are clearly not enough.

We challenge our local leaders and establishment to finally take seriously the entrenched and systematic nature of racist police violence and economic systems that maintain racial inequality.

Onward,

Coalition for Social Justice