13: Who Speaks for Me by Celita
From this week's episode:
Resources:
Be The Bridge Organization (for racial reconciliation): https://beabridgebuilder.com/
Documentary: 13th on Netflix
Book: Between the World and Me
Book: Just Mercy
Book: The Warmth of Other Suns
Documentary: Time: The Kalief Browder Story
Planet Money Episode: Episode 654: When The Boats Arrive
Quote from the Planet Money Episode:
"GOLDSTEIN: Now, there is some debate about this. Some economists argue that in the short run, wages for low-skilled workers can fall when lots of low-skilled immigrants arrive. But on the bigger questions about immigration in the economy, economists pretty much agree. For most workers, immigration is not a problem. For most workers, immigrants do not drive down wages. They don't steal our jobs.
SMITH: And the reason for this is that there is not a fixed number of jobs in an economy. When a bunch of new people show up in a country, yes, they get jobs, but they also start buying stuff right away. They start getting haircuts and going to the grocery store. And that means there need to be more barbers and more grocers. That creates more jobs."
“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.” The Case for Reparations
Who Speaks For Me
I’m the little girl in the iconic black and white photo
On my way to desegregate a school
Flanked by three US Marshals
My last name “Bridges” tells a tale
I’m still alive today and both the presidential candidates are older than I am
So…who speaks for me?
I was shopping in Walmart
No cart, browsing
Picked up a toy gun that hung at my side
When police showed up and gave no time to comply
You can still find the video of my shooting online
Who speaks for me?
I crashed my car and was shot by the person from whom I was seeking help
I crashed my car and was shot by the cop who was called by the person from whom I was seeking help
I was in the basement of a church praying – praying for lost souls and equality – praying against lost hope and brutality – praying for bridges when The Broken entered, head filled with lies that had been embedded over time, I silently knew it was my time to die and that I would join those who gathered in churches long before me, praying for equality, praying against brutality and hoping that there would be those who go along after me with the same heart for FREEdom – with same heart to feed them truth
Who speaks for me?
I was talking loudly – shot in the back of the head
I was playing music loudly – and ended up dead
I was in a routine traffic stop - I stopped traffic because my car stalled
I was walking wearing a hoody – I was playing with a bb gun when someone called
I was in police custody and I’ll never be heard from again
My spinal cord was severed
I couldn’t breathe out or in
WHO SPEAKS FOR ME???
Who’s willing to build a bridge
Who can extend themselves beyond themselves
To help someone else live
Who blows my horn?
Who says my name after I’m gone
Who tells the truth even when it hurts
And helps my family to carry on?
Who speaks for me?
I am a victim of the war on drugs
Which was really a war on my ability to hug my child at night
Or stand upright and look another man in the eye
Non violent possession has me facing 20 to life, three strikes
It's a cycle I can't break
Cuz when I get free back to life, back to reality, back to poverty
Back to survivor mentality and it's easier to get a bag of weed than a bag of leafy greens (food desert) and it feels better
I’m a refugee – my country war torn – out of war born – out of war formed – and is now in the phase of destruction necessary before having peace after the storm – but in the meantime I’m displaced and I’m getting the vibe that because my face does not look like the majority I’ll spend the majority of my time climbing mountains too high to climb alone until eventually I’m forced to leave and go “home”?
I was sleeping when the waters rose – when the levy broke and broke in my door – water pooled on the floor and pushed me to rooftops overhead – and overhead I heard the media helicopters but real help was delayed – in the U S of A aid seemed a million miles away
I am a Christ-follower, me
A believer in bodily resurrection
A believer in a God that can do anything
Who's bigger than everything
But with Him in us is if we do nothing
Then we lose opportunities
I need you to hear me
Then I need you to speak for me
Then I need us to come together as one and declare that something must be done b/c my politics can't be separated from the color of my skin & neither can my faith
Let's do what it takes
To tear down the walls and build bridges
WHO SPEAKS FOR ME???
Who’s willing to build a bridge
Who can extend themselves beyond themselves
To help someone else live
Who blows my horn?
Who says my name after I’m gone
Who tells the truth even when it hurts
And helps my family to carry on?
Who speaks for me?
Who’s willing to build a bridge
Who can extend themselves beyond themselves
To help someone else live
Who blows my horn?
Who says my name after I’m gone
Who tells the truth even when it hurts
And helps my family to carry on?
Who speaks for me?
