Human Rights Commission statement on Recent Acts of Racial Violence
London N. Breed
Mayor
Sheryl Evans Davis
Executive Director
COMMISSIONERS
James Loduca, Chair
Joseph Sweiss, Vice Chair
Melanie Ampon
Karen Clopton
Hala Hijazi
Lyn-Tise Jones
Mark Kelleher
Jason Pellegrini
Abby Porth
Michael Sweet
Irene Yee Riley
For Immediate Release
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Contact
David Carrington Miree
415-252-2502
[email protected]
Cities across the country are in mourning. We are collectively traumatized, grief-stricken and enraged by yet another public lynching of a Black person.
While most of the world’s attention has been focused on our fight against COVID-19 in recent months, Black people have been fighting overexposure to the coronavirus compounded by relentless racial violence, both fueled by structural, systemic and institutional racism.
For many Black people, the fear of dying in police custody is greater than the fear of contracting and dying from the coronavirus. In the United States, police use of force is the sixth-leading cause of death for young Black men. This is a symptom of a greater illness: white supremacy. It is unacceptable. It is not normal.
We hear the righteous rage of our beloved community. For too long, these expressions have been a cry not only for recognition of a collective, inhumane experience, but also for solutions to resolve them. We must move past hollow gestures of diversity and equity language. This moment demands racial equity in all of our actions.
The Human Rights Commission was created to confront anti-Blackness in San Francisco and advance economic and social justice. 56 years later, our fight for justice and equal protection under the law has grown the tent of who we fight for, but equity continues to be our guiding star. This commitment was cemented through the creation of the Office of Racial Equity.
We stand in solidarity with those that feel unsafe, unheard, and unseen. We share your hurt. We commit ourselves to uprooting the virus of racial terrorism against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in San Francisco and ask that you all, especially if you benefit from our cishet, white supremacist, patriarchal system, step up, step in and stop looking away.
#BlackLivesMatter
#AhmaudArbery
#BreonnaTaylor
#NinaPop
#SeanReed
#GeorgeFloyd
#TonyMcDade
Click HERE to download a pdf of this statement