On the Racist Killings of Black Americans

The racially motivated police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by white men in Georgia are the latest incidents of hundreds of years of violence against Black people in America.

Racist attacks shouldn’t be the norm. But they still are.

It is well past time to end white supremacy in the United States. People of color, especially Black people, will never be free until the deep roots of racism are gone.

We support the protesters in Minneapolis, Louisville, and across the country. The protests are a response to embedded institutionalized violence and hate, to the murder of George Floyd, and the failure to jail the police officers who killed him. They are a response to the elected racist president whose message to them is, “when the looting starts the shooting starts.” And they are a call to action for all of us who refuse to be complicit in the betrayal of people of color during the period of moral crisis that now confronts us.

Social justice organizations that are primarily white-led, staffed, or governed must do more to stand in solidarity with those communities and individuals most harmed by racist threats and violence – Black Americans.

DREDF steadfastly, wholeheartedly, and publicly condemns and rejects the ongoing brutality perpetrated against people of color–whether at the hands of the police or by white civilians who are privileged and protected by the powers that be.

DREDF has always been a progressive organization. We are proud of our history, proud of our advocacy and proud of our track record upholding the civil and human rights of disabled people over the last four decades. But we also publicly acknowledge that we have benefitted from the historical and structural racism that favors the status quo, that prefers and rewards whiteness, that naturalizes and  perpetuates how white people in power do things.

DREDF pledges its solidarity and commitment to our friends, colleagues, loved ones and comrades of color who are defiantly and bravely working to change the unacceptable status quo. We will take your lead.  We will do better.