June 5, 2020
This work is hard.
I’m so glad you’re here with me.
I wrote a very terrifying, but rewarding letter to my graduating class from my high school. It was a risk that was extremely rewarding.
So, I thought I’d share it with you if it helps you tackle your own journey. Take the parts that are useful for yourself.
May we all courageously embark in the Proselytization of Anti-Racism.
—-
To The Alumnae of My HS Graduating Class
Hello Everyone,
I hope you know why I’m here.
I hope you see me approaching you with kindness.
I love you, and I really truly cherish the memories I built with you all at __Insert Institution___. I can not compare that chapter of my life to anything that I’ve experienced since. I know that I am extremely fortunate and very privileged to have gone there & I am grateful at the joy of knowing you.
However, I must say;
This is an unfortunate reckoning.
There have been continual & blatant racial murders in my community.
Instigated by an authority that is funded by the state to Protect & Serve its citizens.
Our nation’s president chose to leverage the most recent tragedies as an opportunity.
Then the nation’s president unleashed the US military on civilians with tear gas & rubber bullets.
He enforced curfews as an excuse to terrorize American citizens, & deter them from their right to protest his abusive disregard for the sanctity of their human life. Enforcing a curfew that limits a civilians’ right to protest their systemic abuse, results in more black bodies arrested and documented into the very same system that was designed to keep them from becoming anything more than corporate chattel.
America’s president does All Of This during a global Pandemic.
And I gotta say, money’s been tight lately - & I’m exhausted from the mourning.
I hope you can forgive me when I say that our President’s tactical manipulation is offensive and intolerable. I additionally hope that you agree with me - but I also accept the very real possibility that you don’t.
____Insert Institution____ enjoys the luxury of boasting about me & my successes in their marketing materials. They have benefitted from that privilege for years. Please read the recent Alumnae Profile they did about me and you’ll get a glimpse of my unusual coming of age story, before & since my time there. ____Insert School___ and other institutions, for the entirety of my life, have bragged about me. I make them look good. I speak well, and I’ve got a face for minority grant money. I am “one of the good ones” in that way.
So, I am dismayed as I regret to inform you that I have noticed a disconcerting silence from ____Insert School___ in acknowledgement of the nationwide civil protests & in offering solidarity to the cause #BlackLivesMatter.
I also find it particularly irksome that twice this week I received a call from a student who was lead astray in the belief that this was an appropriate time to ask me to part with my money, in support of that institution.
I am incensed. The reasons for which I may elaborate upon, if you’d like to know, but this exchange is not intended for that.
I am asking you to please contact whomever needs to know at __Insert Institution___ that their messaging leaves much to be desired.
Please tell them, before I take it upon myself to do so.
I realize that this means that ___Insert Institution___ will have to confront the displeasure of their benefactors. I do hope that they are prepared to assess their moral stance in the matter. I hope they are prudent enough to listen and seek guidance from a coterie of people of color as they learn how best to navigate the matter. I truly hope that many among you are equally wise.
I believe that all institutions; educational, corporate, or otherwise will face a moral reckoning. So, I encourage everyone to affiliate themselves primarily with establishments that display bold, unabashed, and proactive ACTIVISM in the defense of Black Bodies.
The change that occurred in me between last week and this, is that my country’s President; the man who has always professed To Make America Great Again, chose to support an institution that has perpetually traumatized myself and my community - inflicting murder and constant bereavement. I hope you see that his mandate for ‘Law & Order’ is less in consideration of your safety, and more a tactic used to sow fear in everyone, but specifically within the black community. It is an excuse to terrorize, mutilate, and kill black bodies (much like mine) in his ineffectual desire to continually and avariciously exert his power. Which is very unAmerican & certainly not Christian. I cannot possibly know, but I imagine that he would spontaneously combust if he ever dared to step foot in church - his ACTIONS are that Reprehensible!
So now, given his continued pattern of abuse, I am compelled to shine a light into the abyss of this nation’s Complicity. I will yell into the dark anxiously listening as my every ‘Help’ echoes and reverberates off those cold indifferent walls. I will continue to express my displeasure until I see the places of my past acknowledge the world that I must live in.
Please begin practicing having conversations with your loved ones; about race in America, about systemic oppression, about institutional racism, and about the necessity for reform within America’s prison system. I advise you to be vigilant and primarily seek information from sources that have been vetted and approved by black people. Please watch Ava Duvernay’s “13th” on Netflix for salient talking points to sticky subjects. Please dare to question the preconceived notions that you think you already know, and when in doubt ask questions. Please hear me when I say that to defend “All Lives Matter” is defending a regime that harms me. There are people in this group, mutual friends of ours, who can offer more clarity about how & why that is the case. You should listen to them. We can all stand to build a growing awareness of each other. Those of you who are able to mentor others through these difficult concepts, I ask you to please make yourselves known. There are friends and loved ones in our lives who need your guidance.
I am continually posting information on my social media (here on FB & in my Insta Stories: @alexmarshallbrown) with resources, knowledge, and actionable steps that can give us purpose through this unconscionable time. I also have book recommendations for how to initiate these conversations with children of any age; 0-99yrs. I can not promise that I’ll be actively engaging with it everyday, but I can promise that the information curated there is designed to help.
It scares me to ask for allies among you, because I know that the consequences of my asking will potentially add to my mourning.
Nevertheless, I will be devoting my focus on connecting with allies and assisting them in the education & the recruitment of more allies. So, if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, then you know where to find me.
~Alex Marshall-Brown
-Class of ____. SGA, Vice Chair Judicial Board
Sole candidate for the MLK speech our senior year