End State Violence on Black Bodies

The Young Gifted and Black coalition stands against the many forms of state violence, police killings, mass incarceration, poverty, and more. We stand for justice of all black lives lost to the hands of the state. We stand for community and self-determination. We will not stop until we are free.

The state is committing unrivaled levels of violence against the brown and black communities in the greater Madison, WI area. Dane County and Madison are ranked the worst place to live if you are black. According to Race to Equity(1) we have an 11-1 arrest disparity of black people vs white in Madison, we make up close to 50% of the jail population and we only make up 6% of the population. About 75% of our black children are living in poverty. Institutionalized racism and white supremacy is destroying Madison’s black community through educational inequality, wealth inequality, through the criminalization of poverty, and through an unjust justice system.

On Friday March 6 2015, Madison Police Department officer Matt Kenny murdered 19 year old Tony Robinson, before his life was able to truly start. Now, the Young Gifted and Black coalition is putting a petition forward to call upon the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Organization of American States commission on Human Rights, to launch a dual track investigation. The first being an independent investigation into the death of Tony Robinson at the hands of Madison, WI police officer Matt Kenny. And the second being an independent investigation into the persistent and systemic racial disparities and inequities in the greater Madison area (Dane County, Wisconsin), with particular focus on poverty rates and the ways in which the police are used as an occupying force in black communities in order to maintain those inequities. This petition can be found at ygbcoalition.org . This nation must reckon its past and present with the lies we continually tell ourselves.

Young Gifted and Black is pushing Dane County to Build The People Not The Jail. We are in a fight to stop the proposed plan to renovate our current jail. Instead we are calling upon Dane County to invest in mental health services and black community led resources. We know that when we build people over jails we improve our communities. We must stop the funneling of money into mass incarceration, into the New Jim crow immediately. We must stop the robbery of black bodies and invest into those the state has continually oppressed. We know when we support and build those the most oppressed all other oppression starts to lift.

Be a part of the movement to end the many forms of state violence.

10% of the donations will go directly to Tony Robinson’s family.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty win. We must love and protect one another, we have nothing to lose but our chains.”

-Assata Shakur

1. Race To Equity http://racetoequity.net/