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To #SayTheirNames Is To #SayOurNames

Estimated reading time ~ 1 min
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There’s a lot we can do in America in 2016. We can change systems, innovate, and break barriers from here to eternity. But that isn’t enough to absolve us from the risks and realities of being Black in America in 2016 – to make us feel like if we do the “right thing” and live and work in the “right places,” we will be safe.

We like to think we are leading conversations to shift disparities we know exist. We’re helping others earn seats in boardrooms and working to unlock access to opportunity. But when two men – someone’s sons and siblings and partners – join an already all-too-long list of others who have been senselessly murdered, we feel horrified, scared, and compelled to take a step back.

If this week’s events in Louisiana and Minnesota have reminded us of anything, it’s that Black Americans, regardless of our varying levels of privilege, live on a precipice. And we saw last night in Dallas that manifestations of systemic racism serve to incite further tragedy. It’s a vicious and volatile cycle.

Today, there is a lot we need to do, and that starts with remembering Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and too many others whose names we’ve learned about not through their lives, but through their deaths.

We’re remembering that their lives are our lives, too.

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