Black Lives Matter: The Wake-up Call
By Debra Nicholson, Official JLF@Boulder Blogger
Arthur Flowers opened the session, “Black Lives Matter: A Dream Deferred,†with a blow of a horn and a call to “walk on the holy ground of this conversation.†Carolyn Finney, Marcia Douglas, and Jovan Mays forayed right in with a discussion about Black Lives Matter and its collective cry from a group of people who have worked to be seen and heard for the past 400 years. “It’s nothing new, but it’s time to wake America out of its stupor and make us uncomfortable with the truth.â€
Social media makes it possible with its immediacy. Carolyn Finney called on all to “work to make connections between people so that every voice can be heard.†A black couple in the White House challenged the discourse of black lives. As Marcia Douglas suggested, having a black couple in the White House is like putting a nice cover on a book; it doesn’t mean the book is good. “The system is damaged, and expectations for Obama to change everything were overblown.â€
Referring to the football player, Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand for the national anthem, Joven Mays challenges us to question what we mean when we sing that song. “What are our values?†These writers write to make lives visible. As Arthur Flowers said, “It’s getting worse because it’s getting better.â€
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