Simply Living is Dangerous for Us

From the Washinton Post - 

I can’t breathe

By Sergio Peçanha

I can’t breathe.

Eric Garner, New York City

I can get killed by police at a Walmart.

John Crawford III, Beavercreek, Ohio

Or when I’m playing at a park.

Tamir Rice, 12, Cleveland

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/ever-growing-list-what-black-people-cannot-do-without-risking-their-lives/?arc404=true

Good For Business? What's the Message?

This is a horrific graphic to have put up on air.

My god. pic.twitter.com/HoDof1AN9l

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 5, 2020

Somebody's Baby

ok baby names dot com go off pic.twitter.com/4jkDQHKsDP

— bij (@bijanstephen) June 9, 2020

When It's Too Much to Bear, Bake Some Cookies

From Delish - 

Cookie Recipes

https://www.delish.com/cooking/g1956/best-cookies/

For All the Mothers

   June 15, 2020

    https://time.com/5847667/story-behind-george-floyd-time-cover/

    https://time.com/5847487/i-cannot-sell-you-this-painting-artist-titus-kaphar-on-his-george-floyd-time-        cover/

Where is Kaep's Apology?

Everything is meaningless and falls on deaf ears until there is a formal apology to Colin Kaepernick.

We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv

— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020

Michael Che "Black Lives Matters" Stand Up Comedy | Laugh Into Tears

The History of Lynchings

An excerpt from the NY Times - 

Art That Confronts and Challenges Racism: Start Here

Our writers suggest works that illuminate and tackle issues of police brutality, social injustice and racial inequity.

By Melena Ryzik, Wesley Morris, Mekado Murphy, Reggie Ugwu, Pierre-Antoine Louis, Salamishah Tillet and Siddhartha Mitter

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, 

the Alabama museum dedicated to the history of lynching.

Credit...Robert Rausch for The New York Times

Artists and thinkers have already shown us how: Bryan Stevenson, the crusading lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, has a memoir, and a movie based on it, “Just Mercy,” that is attracting a new audience, alongside the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Alabama museum dedicated to the history of lynching, which embodies his life’s work. The filmmaker Ava DuVernay made the documentary “13th,” about the roots of mass incarceration, and has long been boosting independent black voices with her distribution company Array. Here, writers recommend other works that illuminate and confront racism, tracing a path, thorny as it may be, forward. MELENA RYZIK

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/arts/racism-writings-books-movies.html?searchResultPosition=1

We Cannot Stay Silent About George Floyd | Patriot Act Digital Exclusive...

Mayor of DC Painted the Street - Love her!

#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/OQg6977n5r

— Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MurielBowser) June 5, 2020

From Rolling Stone - 

Street in Front of White House Officially Renamed ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’

“Black Lives Matter” also painted on the street leading up to the president’s residence

By BRENNA EHRLICH 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/black-lives-matter-plaza-1010752/ 

What We Have To Do

@skoodupcam

Jus some unwritten rules my mom makes me follow as a young black man ##fyp ##blacklivesmatter

♬ original sound - marcappalott

BLM to NFL . . . We'll See

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael Thomas (@cantguardmike) on Jun 4, 2020 at 6:07pm PDT

How Can We Win

Police Have a License to Kill Provided by the Supreme Court

An excerpt from USA Today - 

Police act like laws don't apply to them because of 'qualified immunity.' They're right.

There's a legal obstacle that's nearly impossible to overcome when police officers and government officials violate our constitutional and civil rights.

By Patrick Jaicomo and Anya Bidwell

On Monday, May 25, Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. While two officers pinned the handcuffed Floyd on a city street, another fended off would-be intervenors, as a fourth knelt on Floyd’s neck until — and well after — he lost consciousness.

But when Floyd’s family goes to court to hold the officers liable for their actions, a judge in Minnesota may very well dismiss their claims. Not because the officers didn’t do anything wrong, but because there isn’t a case from the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court specifically holding that it is unconstitutional for police to kneel on the neck of a handcuffed man for eight minutes until he loses consciousness and then dies.

And such a specific case is what Floyd’s family must provide to overcome a legal doctrine called “qualified immunity” that shields police and all other government officials from accountability for their illegal and unconstitutional acts.

The Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1982. With that novel invention, the court granted all government officials immunity for violating constitutional and civil rights unless the victims of those violations can show that the rights were “clearly established.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/30/police-george-floyd-qualified-immunity-supreme-court-column/5283349002/

Love Her!

Click the arrow on the right about midway down the page to proceed to the next page. 

View this post on Instagram

#justiceforgeorgefloyd #blacklivesmatter

A post shared by BILLIE EILISH (@billieeilish) on May 30, 2020 at 3:31am PDT

"I Just Wanna Live"

View this post on Instagram

just singing what’s on my heart...hope this blesses someone🙏🏾❤️ @sdhtoronto thanks for this dope shirt!!🔥🔥 #ijustwantolive #blacklivesmatter #ijustwannalive #equality #black #blackexcellence #racism #justice @mstinalawson

A post shared by Keedron Bryant (@keedronbryant) on May 26, 2020 at 2:01pm PDT

Black Girl Magic @ MIT

An excerpt from CNN - 

MIT elects first black woman student body president in its 159-year history

By David Williams

Danielle Geathers will be the president of the Undergraduate Association at MIT 

where about 6 percent of the graduates are black and 47 percent women, according to the school.

Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have elected a black woman as president of the Undergraduate Association for the first time in the school's history.

Danielle Geathers and running mate Yu Jing Chen won the student government election earlier this month.

Geathers just finished her sophomore year at MIT and is majoring in mechanical engineering. She served as the diversity officer last year.

"In terms of coming from that diversity space and being focused on promoting equity across MIT, it would kind of be important to have someone in the President's role who's focused on that," she said.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/mit-black-woman-student-president-trnd/index.html

The Added Burden of Keeping Up Appearances

An excerpt from Medium - 

Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot

I just witnessed the lynching of a black man, but don’t worry Ted, I’ll have those deliverables to you end of day.

By Shenequa Golding

Between Amy Cooper’s Oscar worthy Central Park performance, Ahmaud Arbery shooting death in Georgia, Breonna Taylor’s assassination inside her Louisville home, and the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, black people in America are running on fumes.

We’re tired, angry, confused and yet, this space is familiar to us. This place of torment and trauma has become a home of sorts. The cycle begins in the far corners of Twitter with rumblings of a killing. Then a recording of the victim’s last moments pop up and shortly after, we finally learn the person’s name.

A new name to add to a growing list no one wants to be part of.

Sparks of outrage, disgust and bewilderment soon follow. Maybe a protest happens, and in the case of Floyd, uprisings. Men and women ballooned with righteous anger take to the streets to make their presence known; to scorch earth and shout from the pits of their belly to the top of their lungs that their lives matter. Whether the powers that be hear or acknowledge their chants is one thing, but it’s the community formed by the injustice of another black death that acts as a temporary solve.

And while some of us take to the streets, the rest of us have to hide these shared feelings behind professionalism.

https://medium.com/@shenequagolding/maintaining-professionalism-in-the-age-of-black-death-is-a-lot-5eaec5e17585

NETFLIX Supports BLM

To be silent is to be complicit.
Black lives matter.

We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.

— Netflix (@netflix) May 30, 2020

STARZ Supports NAACP & ColorOfChange

.@NAACP @ColorOfChange pic.twitter.com/R8v1XMjzlv

— STARZ (@STARZ) May 31, 2020