We share your outrage and pain at Alameda County Community Food Bank. In the midst of a pandemic, which is disproportionately impacting Communities of Color, there’s one thing that remains alive and well and thriving: racism.
We must remember and say their names: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Christian Cooper, who lived, but whose life while bird watching could have been taken.
If you’re wondering why ACCFB is so focused on racism – is this even a question anymore?
People of Color are continuously at the top of a death list: contracting COVID-19 and dying from it; helping us on the front lines and risking their lives or dying from it; locked in prisons where violence or COVID-19 chips away at their chance of survival, day by day, minute by minute. All we need to do is look at who’s living on the streets and in encampments, or who is barely hanging on to make rent, who is on the front lines here, at ACCFB.
John A. Powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, sent one of the best summaries and encapsulations of the emotions of the moment:
“With the collective trauma that the nation is facing, it is more than understandable to despair. And yet, we must resist this inclination. Not only because there are glimmers of hope and cracks in the solid wall of injustice and hatred, but also because our care for the world calls on us to keep the struggle for love and humanity alive. This does not mean we do not despair, feel pain, and just get tired. But these feelings are only part of who we are and who we insist on becoming. We must acknowledge our pain and embrace hope at the same time,” he said.
We must renew our commitment to undo the legacy of racist policies that keep people stuck, stand strong together, and not back down. When the arc of justice seems to be taking too long to bend, that’s when it’s time to get to work.
