Voice of Consciousness

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...

The Race and Policing Research Library (#RxPRL) is live because of me watching the video #PhilandoCastile's death. I was so affected by the emotions behind the voices on the video  that I volunteered to assume responsibility for the collection when we received strong words of warning from well-intentioned lawyers. They were concerned that we were overreaching fair use precedent by providing public access to copyrighted papers at the intersection of research on race and policing. I have since sought legal counsel and restricted functionality of the Library following guidelines posted earlier this week . When the resistance came, I knew deep in my heart that I would do anything to make these files available to the Public. I had just come from Atlanta's #StrategyForChange Townhall meeting at the House of Hope in Decatur, GA, where the community explicitly called for information, education, and wisdom. editorialized versions of the Truth, which are prone to issues of bias and m...