News and Updates
6/4/2020 - Raise-Op issues statement regarding the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
6/4/2020 - Raise-Op issues statement regarding the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Black. Lives. Matter.
Public lynchings like George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s are the final outcome of the terror black people experience in this country on a daily basis, including here in Maine. The systemic racism that we are living in today has been reinforced time and again, including throughout the last century when politicians drew red lines on America’s city maps to segregate humans by the false premise of race. Lines dividing people by race determine who has access to quality health care, healthy food, clean drinking water, and safe housing.
Black people in Maine are more likely to be incarcerated, and to have a negative— even dangerous and potentially deadly— interaction with the police. Uncovering the truths we must face to live in the world we want requires us to be honest with ourselves; white supremacy exists in our own backyards. Our state’s history of racism persists today. Black, brown, and indigenous children in Maine are more likely to live in poverty, and less likely to have adequate nutrition, or attend a sufficiently funded school.
Being black is a barrier to finding and keeping quality housing in Maine. Housing justice cannot exist without racial justice. The outrage we are seeing in our city streets is bigger than police brutality against black bodies. With each new generation, weather patterns become more extreme and deadly; our systems of exchange for goods and services are devastating the natural world. Our economic system is falling apart, and retelling the false narrative of scarcity. COVID-19 has revealed that our globalized systems are more fragile than we want to believe, and has had a particular devastation on black, brown, and indigenous communities in Maine and around the world. The diseases of hopelessness— mental illness, substance dependence, and suicide— are growing out of the poverty that gets deeper with each generation. Americans are living shorter and shorter lives. We are in a moment of crisis in this nation unlike any we have seen.
Black lives, black bodies, and black breath matter equally to white lives, white bodies, and white breath, and until that is recognized and the state stops sanctioning violence against black bodies, all of our bodies are fodder for systems that privilege the few. No one is free until we are all free. Black Lives Matter.
#blacklivesmatter
Public lynchings like George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s are the final outcome of the terror black people experience in this country on a daily basis, including here in Maine. The systemic racism that we are living in today has been reinforced time and again, including throughout the last century when politicians drew red lines on America’s city maps to segregate humans by the false premise of race. Lines dividing people by race determine who has access to quality health care, healthy food, clean drinking water, and safe housing.
Black people in Maine are more likely to be incarcerated, and to have a negative— even dangerous and potentially deadly— interaction with the police. Uncovering the truths we must face to live in the world we want requires us to be honest with ourselves; white supremacy exists in our own backyards. Our state’s history of racism persists today. Black, brown, and indigenous children in Maine are more likely to live in poverty, and less likely to have adequate nutrition, or attend a sufficiently funded school.
Being black is a barrier to finding and keeping quality housing in Maine. Housing justice cannot exist without racial justice. The outrage we are seeing in our city streets is bigger than police brutality against black bodies. With each new generation, weather patterns become more extreme and deadly; our systems of exchange for goods and services are devastating the natural world. Our economic system is falling apart, and retelling the false narrative of scarcity. COVID-19 has revealed that our globalized systems are more fragile than we want to believe, and has had a particular devastation on black, brown, and indigenous communities in Maine and around the world. The diseases of hopelessness— mental illness, substance dependence, and suicide— are growing out of the poverty that gets deeper with each generation. Americans are living shorter and shorter lives. We are in a moment of crisis in this nation unlike any we have seen.
Black lives, black bodies, and black breath matter equally to white lives, white bodies, and white breath, and until that is recognized and the state stops sanctioning violence against black bodies, all of our bodies are fodder for systems that privilege the few. No one is free until we are all free. Black Lives Matter.
#blacklivesmatter