Why won’t they let us breathe?
Dear ZORA Family,
It is difficult to put into words the heaviness of this week’s news cycle. We had barely mourned the loss of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor when two new racist incidents blindsided us. The now-infamous phone call by Amy Cooper falsely accusing a Black male birder of attacking her in Central Park when he did nothing of the sort set the Twitterverse on fire. Then, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police sent us reeling, wondering once again what will it take for Black people to be treated as human beings, and worthy of the same civil rights others enjoy openly and unencumbered.
Imagine if these incidents had not been caught on videotape? Some people refuse to believe there is blatantly unfair treatment in this society based on race, and these videos provide indelible proof. Yet there are those who will still wonder what these Black men did to provoke their white adversary’s behavior, in complete and utter denial of the scourge of white privilege and white supremacy.
In Danielle Moodie’s latest piece for ZORA, “Amy Cooper and the White Embrace of Racism,” she examines the root causes of these incidents and so many others throughout our country’s history.
Somber as this all seems, I remain hopeful. Whether we take our grievances to the streets in protest or, in this presidential election year, exercise our right to vote out anyone who supports such systemic injustices, there are ways we can empower ourselves. We have too much to lose to remain silent.
I hope you are taking care of yourselves during these troubling times. Just know that we are also here for you, doing the critical work of chronicling the world as we see it, and speaking truth to power, unapologetically.
Stay in touch,
Vanessa K. De Luca, Editor-in-Chief
