Take Care, Bring Love, Stay Safe & Free
But if you can’t…
In light of recent events in Charlottesville, to be silent is to be complicit. Speaking with one voice, we at Youth ALIVE! passionately denounce white supremacists and the national “leaders” who openly or tacitly encourage them. We also acknowledge shameful acts in our own back yard – from microaggressions to racist taunts and assaults, hate crimes and ICE raids — by people emboldened by seeing hate go unchecked.
This is our check:
In this time of tension, anger and confusion, when those in power warmly invite hateful racists to come chanting out of the woodwork, Youth ALIVE! remains dedicated to peace, healing and the prevention of violence.
And yet, we share our community’s strong instinct to defend our neighbors, our children, our dignity, and to continue to claim our right to an equal place in America. In a society built on the domination of whites over people of color, where we can’t have peace until we have justice, we offer the following hopes, and a few resources:
To our loved ones who were already vulnerable to attack because of your race, country of origin, gender, religion or sexuality, and who are now even more vulnerable: we hope you are not confronted with a fight or flight situation, but if you are, have a plan.
To our friends standing for what’s right, speaking for inclusion, respect and sanity: take care, bring love, stay safe and free if you can; and if you can’t, prepare.
Here are some things to help us talk to our young people about all of this, even as we hardly understand it ourselves.
Here are some resources to help us cope with the stress and tension this causes in our lives.
And for those of us with the most privilege, again, here are some resources to make ourselves as visible as those that spread hate with impunity in our name.
Youth ALIVE! stands with you and against injustice.
Justice is what love looks like in public. – Cornell West