GAYLETTER

I’m just so upset. My hashtags on Facebook feel stupid, but they help with combating any other bullshit that wants to be on my feed today. It is important that black lives matter drowns out everything else on the Internet, especially today. People of color are literally dying while in the process of trying to be heard. A man was murdered in front of his four year old daughter and girlfriend. This is irreversible. This is not right.

I have several links open on Chrome, each one reporting the same atrocities America calls familiar. “I think he was just black in the wrong place,” Philando Castile’s mother said. This is the basic, terrible truth. What else is left to be said, really? It’s not safe to be black in America. These stories — Alton Sterling, Philando Castile — prove this yet again.

But some people still want to rebuttal this fact. They want to partake in some kind of shallow defensive where the dead are criminalized and placed on the offensive, placed in the wrong. If these men who die in savage ways are so wrong, then why is this officer who shot Philando Castile “four or five times” while he reached for his wallet not? Tell me: what is right in that sentence? Why am I watching a man get murdered in a parking lot? Why are some people still not seeing things fucking clearly?

Until black men stop dying, there will be “no justice, no sleep,” as activists in Minnesota have taken to chanting.

“The Stop Mass Incarceration Network & the NYC Revolution Club call on you to get in the streets right away in response to the outrageous and criminal murder of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and of Philando Castile in Minneapolis MN. Stop police terror! Indict, convict, send the killer cops to jail! 14th Street (south) end of the park near the steps. Bring your signs, your banners, your drums, your noise makers, your anger and your determination to #StopPoliceTerror.”

“Just this week we have #3deadin3days! Starting with so-called Independence Day: Monday Delwarn Small was shot by an off duty cop in front of his family during a road rage incident in Brooklyn NY. Tuesday, Alton Sterling was murdered while pinned down by officers which was caught on video in Baton Rouge LA. Wednesday, Philando Castile was murdered in Falcon Heights, MN in front of his girlfriend after complying with officers, also on video.”

“If you feel helpless, but want to play a small part in easing the burden of #AltonSterling’s family, consider donating to this scholarship fund for his 15-year-old son (and his other kids).”

As they said, take to the streets. Change has to come from somewhere.

Today in NYC: 5:00PM-7:00PM at Union Square Park. Bring banners and signs.