Voice of Consciousness

“If I didn't  define myself  for  myself , I  would  be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.” -- Audre Lorde Tamika Mallory's speech provides an important lesson and warning about letting other people define what the nationwide #GeorgeFloyd protests means for us and why you should not allow people to write our story of our actions. See my full transcription of the speech below. View this post on Instagram A post shared by matthewacherry (@matthewacherry) on May 29, 2020 at 3:13pm PDT My transcription of Tamika Mallory's Speech on Nationwide #GeorgeFloyd Protests This is a coordinated activity happening across this nation,  And so we  are in  a state of emergency. Black people are dying,  in a state of emergency. We cannot look at this  as an isolated incident. The reason why buildings are burning are n...

People will try to rewrite Atlanta's protest history. When they do so, remember this. This is where it began.   The is Atlanta right now. Worth a million words. #GeorgeFloydprotest pic.twitter.com/O8S5X0nvAD — Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) May 29, 2020

Wednesday evening I went to visit with a friend in DC, and ended up at a Black Lives Matter  protest . It is not the first time I have ended up at a protest in the name of friendship and love, but this protest I won't forget. It was not just peaceful; It was festive. This is a short unedited video of #BlackLivesMatter protesters dancing as the sun goes down.  #BlackLivesMatter DC occupied the National Fraternal Order of Police (#FOP) for approximately 17 hours, starting about 5am on Thursday and ending around 10pm. I came in around hour 14. The organizers ultimately decided to end the occupation with a party preceded by libations to the victims of (extra)legal brutality, including Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and many more. Black protesters were asked to stand behind a row of red cups laid out in the street. Each of the cups had a name of a victim written in black permanent ink. Protesters were asked to #SayTheirName af...