Dearest Family:

Cynthia Hurd, 54, branch manager for the Charleston County Library System
Susie Jackson, 87, longtime church member
Ethel Lance, 70, employee of Emanuel AME Church for 30 years
Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49, admissions counselor of Southern Wesleyan University
The Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, state senator, Reverend of Emanuel AME Church
Tywanza Sanders, 26, earned business administration degree from Allen University
Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, retired pastor (died at MUSC)
Rev. Sharonda Singleton, 45, track coach at Goose Creek High School
Myra Thompson, 59, church member

We say their names. We grieve.  We rage.  We breathe. We still here though family.

On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof Stone stepped into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Mother Emanuel Church, the oldest Black church in the South, a site of organized resistance to slavery, colonization and white supremacy since the 1800s, burned to the ground after one of its founders, Denmark Vesey, and many others planned a slave revolt. And on the 193rd anniversary of that slave revolt, twenty one year old Stone stepped into this church, which is the cultural and political core of the Black community, and stated explicitly his intentions.

Even as we are faced with despair, we know Black life is sacred and Black life is precious. Even as we are faced with despair, we must take courage from the legacy of the church and the collective resistance it birthed, fortified and gave shelter to.

In the last few days, SONG has watched the media’s capricious spin on this white supremacist, terrorist attack. This is not an issue of gun control, this is not an attack on Christianity, and this is certainly not an isolated, inexplicable incident carried out by a ‘lone wolf.’ We are in a crisis, and this crisis is as American as the confederate flag soaring above the South Carolina state house to this day.

We remember Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, the three Muslim youth in Chapel Hill, NC. We see the current ethnic purging of hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent. We feel the impact of the attack on three Black churches, three centers of Black life, in Charleston, Memphis, and Richmond in the past 48 hours. These are not isolated events but coordinated attacks on Black, Pan-African, immigrant, and Muslim life by white vigilantes and by the state in an attempt to erase us. We charge genocide!
But still we rise. And we are more organized and we continue to resist because our lives, literally, depend on it. At SONG we understand the increase in white vigilantism is also a direct response to heightened Black-led organizing, with Black queer and trans people at the helm of that resistance.

We believe in transformation, true reflection and action. We invite our southern kin and our South Carolina kin to end compliance with the white supremacist attitude, culture and policies in our hometowns and states.  We support the efforts by the black community to self determine what safety looks like without police and state intervention and we acknowledge that the solutions must be profound, institutional and generational.

For those of us who are white, we must act now more than ever. We cannot pretend we are any different than Dylann Roof Stone, as white supremacy is a despicable, seductive bribe that affects us all. We must claim him as our own, take responsibility for him, and fight like hell to take down white supremacy in every aspect of our private and public lives. This is our work to do and today we have a chance to stop colluding with shame and make sure violent racist attacks are a thing of the past.

There is no neutral, no grey, no safe “outside” of this moment. Clearly, it is time for mourning, time for soul searching, and time for seeing and holding the value of each life cut short by this act of hate. Holding love in the light; holding tight to brave and transformative hope for a future where our houses of faith, our communities, our families, our bodies are safe. This is our birthright and if we want to get there then this is a time for action.

ACTIONS

TAKE TO THE STREETS

MARCH FOR BLACK LIVES
CHARLESTON SC
SATURDAY JUNE 20th  6pm WRAGG SQUARE
https://www.facebook.com/events/326526897522495/ blackbrunchchs@gmail.com

PICK A FIGHT
White Silence in the South Still Equals Death: SONG Call-in to Right Wing Radio
https://www.facebook.com/events/1104717592875209/

Dylann Storm Roof is but one soldier of the cultural wars that we hear in our radio waves and on our TVs. The leaders of those cultural wars can be heard loud and clear echoing the same message:

“You [black / brown / immigrant / muslim / gay folks] rape [corrupt, dilute, challenge] our women [institutions / laws / economy / faith] and you’re taking over our [male-dominated – white born, white bred, white dominated] country. And you [ALL!] have to go”

We see white people, especially in right wing media, denying what happened in Charleston as a racist massacre. Dylann Stone is clearly a white supremacist and he has been TAUGHT . People are failing to link this act of racist violence with a larger system of structural violence against Black people in this country. Grab a couple friends and go in team!

White Silence in the South Still Equals Death: SONG Call-in to Right Wing Radio TOOLKIT
http://southernersonnewground.org/radiotoolkit/

GIVE SC GOVERNOR A PIECE OF YOUR MIND

DEMAND THE REMOVAL OF THE CONFEDERATE FLAG and demand that it be forever removed from the South Carolina Capitol Building.

https://twitter.com/nikkihaley
@nikkihaley

SAMPLE TWEETS INCLUDE:

@nikkihaley The #EmanuelMassacre has everything to do with race and racism. #leadershipfail #whitedenial

@nikkihaley Remove Confederate Flag now #EmanuelMassacre #SayTheirNames

@nikkihaley Confederate Heritage = Hate Remove Flag Now! #EmanuelMassacre #SayTheirNames

@nikkihaley white supremacy is alive and well under your leadership. Shame on you take down the flag.

@nikkihaley white people and leaders can no longer wash our hands of white supremacy