M. Suzanne Terry

In a former church I loved, my favorite story ever told was the story of the muskox. When attacked, the herd will engage in a circle defense – they will wad up and face outward. You can’t just fight one muskox – you have to fight them all.

Let’s be muskoxen. Wad up against inexcusable injustice of black lives being thrown away by the people hired to protect them. Or by anyone.

Do not tell me you are pro-life if this doesn’t enrage you. Do not tell me you have the legal right to own/carry a firearm and then fail to be outraged when law enforcement kills someone for legally carrying a gun.

Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Know their names. Watch the videos. When the subsequent nightmares mean you don’t get adequate sleep, consider that a small price to pay for the injustice we have allowed to continue. Recognize the privilege in having the nightmare go away when you wake up.

This is our mess.

Further reading:

“Picking up the trash of white supremacy is my job.” – Abby Norman via SheLoves

“If the illegal killing of Black people by the police bothers you, as it should, talk to your White friends about it. There are many nuances and ambiguities in institutional racism, but the police committing murder is not one of them.” – Justin C. Cohen’s Advice for White Folks in the Wake of the Police Murder of a Black Person.

And listen:

“Imagine your grip on the hope you’ve carried in your heart about their future since the moment they left your body loosening as they look less and less like innocent children to our society. Imagine doing everything right as their parent. Imagine raising them to realize their potential and know their worth and to be proud of their skin. But also imagine having to teach them the realities of living in it, how to persevere in spite of them, and yet still sit with that fear revolving around your heart because this society has yet to move past lynching and hunting bodies housed within Black skin.” – A’Driane Nieves – Brick by Brick, You Must Obliterate the System

“We have learned to justify these people’s murder, feeling validated in our assertions of their guilt by things discovered after the person is already dead and gone. We paint the victim as a villain, dehumanizing them to the point that we no longer see them as someone’s child, someone’s father, someone’s brother…but just another thug who got what they deserved.” – LaSondra Spears – What Do We Tell Our [Black] Sons?

“We cant breathe and yet we speak back. We band together and raise our whispered voices to a shout. We gather together in public spaces both physical and virtual and shout that our lives do matter. When it is we who have long been the victims of violence are told to ‘remain calm’ we will not. I am not calm.” – Austin Channing – Age of Understanding