Charlotte is my home.
George Floyd lost his home and his life as he cried out for his mother. They grabbed him from his car and beat him. They smiled. They smirked. Those officers murdered him on camera, in broad daylight.
There must be justice for George.
Charlotte is my home.
North Carolina has provided me and my family with countless opportunities and I remain forever grateful to my home. The United States gave my parents the opportunity of a lifetime and they created a great life here. That story is not shared by many residents inside Senate District 38 or those outside of the crescent and wedge.
Today, Governor Roy Cooper said something that no southern Governor to my knowledge has said before and that is, “Black Lives Matter.” I wasn’t moved just because the Governor acknowledged my friends, family, and colleagues. I was honored to serve with a Governor who knew it needed to be said.
Black. Lives. Matter. Not just on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or throughout Black History Month but every single day. And every day there are systems, structures, and institutions working against the progress our black brothers and sisters have already made, even working against the hopes and dreams of their ancestors. It has to stop.
As allies, we need to remember that. We need to stand up for them and learn how to sit down and be quiet. Too many well-meaning allies are attempting to co-opt the voices of the most marginalized in our community, police black pain, and even black responses. The greatest ally is an ally who is willing to learn and engage.
Every day at different levels and branches of government bad actors are doing everything in their power to smear the black experience. I proudly take my stand but we need help. We need reinforcements.
To my friends in the press. It is imperative that you learn the difference between a peaceful protest and a riot. They are not interchangeable.
I know many of the community activists in Charlotte and Raleigh who would never create an environment where destruction of property or life is permitted. You do a great disservice mixing the two. We owe it to the victims to get this right every single time.
To the community, know that I am with you, I stand with you, behind you, and when asked beside you as your friend, your advocate, and your public servant.
We can secure justice for Black and Brown boys and girls!
Do not lose hope. The infiltrators of peaceful protests want you to lose hope, they wish to discredit you, defame you, and isolate you. These are their tactics and we have seen it before.
We stand tall against their hateful and racist rhetoric and their distractions. We demand accountability from our police forces, support citizen review boards WITH subpoena power and we won’t stop until it is done.
Charlotte is our home.
We need to destabilize a system designed to lock up black and brown people. We need to reform personnel laws that govern our police departments. We need to ban money bail. We need to reform our grand jury laws in North Carolina. We need to secure safe access to the ballot box by supporting 100% mail-in ballots. We ALL need to complete our census, to ensure we are ALL counted in a country whose president believes we don’t all matter.
From its inception, this country has been bolted to the deadly rock of racism. Every protest, public comment at a local government meeting, every PTSA and neighborhood association formed, every march, rally, and election chips away at that dark rock and past. We can replace that foundation with one built on love, acceptance, joy, and opportunity but we can only do it together.
Thank you to our community leaders and activists who ensured everyone had masks, water, milk, gloves, signs, face coverings, and for some a safe space to rest. Justice and Equity are verbs in Charlotte and I see you all putting in the work. To the lawyers who have offered pro bono services, I appreciate you for answering the call for justice. To our first responders who stopped to “SEE” and “SPEAK” to the protestors, thank you for protecting and serving our community, more work needs to be done. To our elected officials, this work isn’t easy but then again no one promised us it would be. Keep the lines of communication open. Stay true to yourselves. Stay true to our constituents.
The real State of Emergency isn’t in our streets, it’s in the hearts and minds of many of our neighbors.
To my brother Braxton Winston. I see you.
