Many powerful images are coming out of the Movement for Black Lives. Most of them are from people on the ground who are organizing to end police brutality. However, this new video from Mic News called “23 Ways You Could Be Killed if You Are Black In America” features celebrities like Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Rosario Dawson, Pharrell, and A$ap Rocky discussing the many ways that Black people are murdered by police in the United States.

 

What is so moving about the video is that it shows how even actions like “laughing” or “walking away from police” or “making eye contact” are used as reasons to kill Black people. This is especially disturbing given recent calls for Black people to simply comply with police (even though that doesn’t guarantee safety). If doing literally nothing can get you killed for being Black, the solution isn’t about us. It is about dismantling white supremacy and the systematic devaluation of Black lives.

 

Photo: YouTube

Author

  • Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others. Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.