Dear Sierra Club North Star community, we are reaching out to you all with our hearts in this terrible, tragic time.
In the words of our Chapter Chair Kamau Wilkins and national Executive Director Michael Brune, “we all deserve to thrive in safe communities. Yet the inhumane daily assaults on Black and Brown people directly threaten our ability to maintain a healthy planet. The cruel, public lynching of George Floyd is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We cannot expect to come together to protect the planet if racism continues to tear us apart.”
The Sierra Club is committed to confronting the inequality embedded into our society that has allowed these tragedies to persist. If we want to create communities that are truly healthy, just, and equitable, we must continue fighting for the humanity and the dignity of all people. As a community, we must rise for justice and systems change.
Right now, we are following the lead of our partners in sharing these urgent action steps:
- Call for visionary leadership from the Minneapolis City Council. Ask for their immediate commitment to cut funding for the Minneapolis Police Department, while shifting public investments to resources that keep people safe and healthy -- especially in the Black community. This is a demand our partners are making, from those who are closest to the harm. We support their leadership and wisdom in proposing solutions that will work. Read more and take action with Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block.
- Demand that Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and other decision-makers arrest all officers involved, see justice done and murder charges brought, and implement the broad systems change we so desperately need. Officer Derek Chauvin’s arrest today was a first step. Read more and take action with COPAL (Communities Organizing Latinx Power and Action).
And, we want to share ways you can directly support immediate needs:
- Black Visions Collective believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.
- Minnesota Freedom Fund values a society that values its people, their freedom and recognizes their contribution to the greater good -- a society that does not condition pretrial freedom on class or identity, that has ended mass incarceration, and that invests in restorative and transformative justice.
- Other local organizations are coordinating relief and mutual aid, raising funds or leading food and supply drive for neighborhoods without transit or groceries. As the situation evolves, please check their websites for updates on what is needed:
We share the grief around the violence. In recent days, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been frequently quoted: “A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
Chapter volunteer leader Scott Russell wrote a blog focusing on the root causes of the demonstrations and the anger we are seeing. We encourage you to read it here.
Our eyes are on the goal: changing structures that result in these murders, reforming our police system (and other systems), and prosecuting officers who commit brutal acts. Because we know all people deserve a healthy planet with clean air and water, a stable climate and safe communities -- the right to live free of racial discrimination and violence.