Open Letter: Our Silence Means More Violence
As White people who aren’t seething with racism, we have the duty to show solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters in the aftermath of the Ferguson decision. We have the duty to listen, and not lecture. And we have the duty to speak out just as loudly against police brutality, even if we aren’t the ones who are the most directly affected.
Today, a White police officer kills a Black person every 28 hours. In Utah, police are responsible for more homicides than gangs, drug dealers, and child abusers combined. And the number of Black people killed by police has now outpaced the number of Black people who were lynched during the Jim Crow era (which never really ended, when you consider this statistic).