to the people telling me to stop posting this stuff because it's "sad" or it's "not something i should be posting", with all due respect, fuck off. it's EVERYONE's duty to ensure that bigotry isn't perpetuated. it's EVERYONE'S responsibility to ensure the safety of their brothers, sisters and siblings, regardless of true relations. it's EVERYONE's duty to call out hatred and injustice when it shows itself.
YOUR silence speaks more than your poor attempts at silencing people ever could - it proves you don't care. and the second you stay silent is the second you comply with hatred and violence. silence becomes ignorance, and ignorance enables.
if you think you're uncomfortable reading on what's happening right now, imagine how the people who live in fear of this happening to them or their loved ones must feel. why is it that kids as young as fourteen years old are targeted & beaten by bigoted, corrupt police officers, and yet fully grown adults can't seem to grasp the importance of what's being spoken about? why do people in positions of power seek to "cleanse their timelines" of the supposed "politics" that are being shared? (yes, someone called this discussion "politically charged" despite the fact that HUMAN LIVES should NEVER be considered something worth debating against) it's because the system is skewed in their favor, and rigged against those that it seeks to harm. it's because they turn to ignorance, when many people can't choose that option. they can simply ignore it - it's not something they've lived with their entire lives. and that simply won't do.
this entire discussion SHOULD make you uncomfortable. this SHOULD make you upset. and this SHOULD prompt you to do something about it, because THAT'S THE POINT of the discussion - to show the ugly, horrid, desolate truth of what's happening to people. to make us remember the ugly, horrid, desolate things that people are doing to innocent folks. just making a few posts about it & saying "well, enough for me" is little more than performative activism & it's just as hollow as saying nothing. do your part - if you have it, use your privilege to uplift the voices of those who seek to speak out. find links to places you can support. check in on your friends. figure out what you can do to spread the word & uplift the voices of those who are effected. i know damn well i'll be doing it.
i'm speaking up to stand in solidarity with my black brothers, sisters & siblings who are getting killed at the hands of authority. as a gay, trans, and Métis person, i can sympathize with your plight, as indigenous folks & LGBT+ folks have also been victim to countless hate crimes in a similar vein as the ones on display here - the communities of people of colour & LGBT+ people are long & interwoven with one another, for our history involves working together through such plight. see Stonewall. see the HIV/AIDS crisis. see the Pulse tragedy. but also as a Métis person, being of both Indigenous and European descent, i understand that i have privilege. being trans or gay won't absolve me of having that privilege. innocent people are getting killed for nothing, and i understand the pain that it causes, because it tears lives apart. it happened in the past, and it is continuing to happen. our communities have both been treated in similar ways by similar authorities. i want to use this to sympathize and push the voices of those who want to be heard - of those who need to be heard. my heart aches for everyone involved.
i'm not saying this to garner any sort of goodie points or whatever; that's not the point of what i'm saying right now at ALL. i don't deserve to get congratulated for something that should be commonplace, for something that everyone should be doing. the point is that i want to use this privilege that i have for good.
Canada is not innocent. racism & the corruption of the police force is not just an American thing. don't think you can ignore this just because it's supposedly not happening where we live. it is, and it's disgusting. fuck the police. Toronto police threw a black woman over her balcony & proceeded to tell MULTIPLE news outlets to not cover her death because it was a “suicide”, despite the fact that they were in her house. eyewitnesses reported that they saw them push her off of the balcony themselves.
her name was Requis Korchinski-Paquet. listen to the voices of the outraged. listen to the voices of the oppressed. listen, learn, and dedicate yourself to the cause. #BlackLivesMatter.

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