JOINT STATEMENT ON BREONNA TAYLOR

This last week, the justice system failed Breonna Taylor and once again placed more value on property than a Black body. The fact that a charge was filed based on bullets that went into drywall instead of the bullets that killed Breonna, speaks volumes about the justice system in America or as we have grown to know it, as the “unjust” system.

We know that these same systems have also permitted the proliferation of environmental racism impacts such as rolling back water quality regulations in favor of corporate interest, placed warehouses in our communities, and allowed hundreds of additional diesel truck trips next to our schools and homes, thus polluting our air and slowly contaminating our lungs and harming our children’s bodies. Even though Black people make up about 7% of the Inland Empire population, they, unfortunately, represent 22% of the region's impoverished.

In fact, the same systems have allowed the Coronavirus (COVID-19) to kill Black people at a high rate in the state of California, in which, while only representing 6% of the population, accounting for 4.3% of cases and 7.7% of deaths.

Lastly, Black women are three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy or delivery complications than white women.

It goes without saying, but Black Lives Matter and Black Women deserve better, period.

In Solidarity,

Mitzi Archer

Board of Directors

Marla Matime

Board of Directors

Gabrielle Scott Thetford

Staff - Office Assistant