Today, June 17th, 2015 the Black Student Union at UC Berkeley is holding a vigil for lives stolen by the terrorist attack that took nine lives at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. We will gather to mourn both the lives taken on the night of June 17th, as well as the daily attacks on the Black community by white terrorists, the cops, and the many manifestations of white supremacy. We are reminded that as Black people, we are not safe in this country, and why the Black Panther Party advocated for armed self-defense, because America has, and never will protect us. We must protect each other.
The terrorist attack is reminiscent of 1963, when four little girls were murdered at 16th street Baptist Church in Alabama when Ku Klux Klan members bombed the Black church. We are reminded that we still live in Jim Crow racial terror. Nine people were killed at Emmanuel AME Church in South Carolina, including Senator Clementa Pinckney. This is nothing short of an assassination. We urge for people to stand up, take the streets, and deplore these acts of racial hatred. Silence is violence. As Black students, we have a duty to our community on campus, and off campus. We will keep fighting, and we will win.
In Struggle and Revolution,
The Black Student Union at UC Berkeley.
