The Center for Public Representation denounces the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis – the latest in a series of Black deaths, including Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. We condemn the structural racism that has allowed this to take place.
We stand with protesters in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Louisville, Columbus, New York City, Washington, Philadelphia, D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, and every community across this nation.
We harken to the words uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967:
I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear?
As disability lawyers fighting for change, we have a responsibility to change a system that has repeatedly failed to deliver justice for all. Even though our work challenges the status quo, we are still part of the system – the system that failed to deliver justice when Freddie Gray was killed in Baltimore, when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, when Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida.
This racism is entrenched in American society.
And it is that same institutional racism that has led to Black and other communities of color being disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, health care inequities and the long-term impact of poverty.
Racism underlies it all. And all of us must do more to combat it.
We are committed to standing with people from Black and communities of color and to condemn the racism and the killings that have horrified us. We commit to working to understand and address our own implicit bias, to address racism in our work – to listen, to hear, and to act.