Black Lives Matter
A message from our founder, Doniece Sandoval
June 3, 2020
It took 8 minutes and 46 seconds to rob George Floyd of his life. A life of 46-years filled with family and friends, hopes and dreams, fears and doubts. The full complement of the human experience abruptly and cruelly ended because of the color of his skin.
How many more lives must be lost before we fully embrace the reality that ALL LIVES ARE NOT EQUAL?
As a Latina, as the mother of a mixed-race child, adopted through the foster care system, who shows up in the world as a beautiful African American girl, my heart breaks over and over again as we witness these brutal, senseless deaths. I ache wondering how hard the blows are to her self-esteem and drown in anger as we process the message that if you are black or brown ‘you are worth less’. She doesn’t have the language yet to fully express what she feels but I see the sorrow and confusion in her eyes.
I started Lava Mae (now LavaMaeˣ) because three of my neighbors – all African American men in their 80s – were summarily evicted only to die on the streets because our city refuses to do what’s needed to shelter our unhoused neighbors. Despite the fact that African Americans comprise less than 6% of San Francisco’s population, they make up 37% of the unhoused. Systemic inequities from the cradle to the grave have shaped that grim reality.
It’s well past time for things to change.
Protests are important but that’s not where the work is done. We must vote to change the leadership in this country. We must advocate for and support policy changes that redress inequities. We must rebuild virtually every institution from education to healthcare and criminal justice.
And we must all take careful stock of ourselves to ensure the ‘shallow understanding from good people’ that Dr. King wrote about in ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ is not a trap we fall into:
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
There is much work to be done.
On behalf of LavaMaeˣ, I offer our love and comfort to the family of George Floyd and the countless others whose sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers have been robbed of life; of their potential, of their dreams.
In Solidarity,
Doniece Sandoval, Founder of LavaMaeˣ
What Can I Do?
Sign petitions to seek justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmuad Arbery, Tony Dade, and so many others.
Text JUSTICE to 668366, FLOYD to 55156 and ENOUGH to 55156
Make calls and send e-mails to the Minneapolis Mayor’s Office, Jacob Frey (612) 673-2100 and Minneapolis District Attorney, Mike Freeman (612) 348-5550 or email: citizeninfo@hennepin.us
Make donations to the victims, bail funds and other organizations fighting for black lives.
Continue to educate yourself and spread the word. Get involved in your local Black Lives Matter organization, or start your own.