UC Riverside Student Statement on April 14: "Which side of history do you want to be on?"
April 11, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This is a press statement issued by a student at University of California, Riverside:
The criminal (in)justice system is sustaining the slow burning genocide on Latino, African American, Indigenous, low-income, disabled, and transgender communities. If you think it's one or two bad apples, think again. It's about the legacies of Anti-black racism and indigenous racism in which our country was founded on through slavery, genocide, degradation and dispossessment. Slavery was never abolished by the 13th amendment, it only criminalized poor folks and black and brown bodies. How many innocent lives have to be brutally taken for you to see and wake up? How many social well fair programs have to be cut for struggling families and communities for you to have compassion and action? How many transgender women of color have to be incarcerated or killed by the police, family, friends, and strangers for you to understand patriarchy is killing all of us? How many prison walls have to be built for private multinational corporations to reap the benefits from the incarceration of 2.2 million ( not including folks detained in ICE facilities, folks on parole, and folks with felonies)? How many Eric Garner's, Michael Brown's, "Africa's," Trayvon Martin's, Walter L. Scott's, and the list goes on and on and on and on, have to be killed for people to go out in the streets and do something? As the speaker and activist Tim Wise said "Lynching is the extra-judicial killing of people," this perfectly encapsulates the historical legacies of lynching in the United States. A modern day lynching is upon us. Are we going to sit with apathetic eyes and hearts or are we going to stand up for our fellow people? I beg you with an urgent heart to head to this call. On April 14th there will be a national shut down all across the United States to stop business as usual and shut it down. The University of California Riverside will be meeting at the Belltower at 11 am on April 14th and march around campus and do die-ins. Then, we will march down University Ave. to 4100 Main St. "Hall Of Injustice" to protest along with community members to stop murder by Police!!
Find out more and get involvedWe refuse to live this way!! What side of history do you want to be on?
UCR Students have to stand by the sides of these victims in this historical day to bring this guilty system to a halt!! Come join us to heed this call to action!
Gather 1PM @ downtown Riverside Police Station.
#‎ShutdownA14"
Thank you so much for announcing this,
Sarah Doyle
Organizer at the University of California Riverside
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