We stand in solidarity with the family, friends and community of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, the African Americans and all those living in America of all races, genders, sexualities, abilities, ages, religions and ethnicities who have come out in their millions publicly to protest the most recent police killings, to condemn racism in all its forms, to remind us all that Black lives matter, that racism is an insidious, soul destroying, inhumane form of violence.
We note that the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade are not isolated or maverick occurrences, but part of a repeating pattern of unjust murders of African Americans which is related to systemic, institutionalized anti-Black racism enforced through continuous racial profiling of the Black population by the police and state apparatus.
We call on CARICOM and ALL Caribbean leaders to unite with us, the millions of African Americans, Black folks living in the US and other Americans of all ethnicities and the global community to:
• Call for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, and to demand that ALL those responsible for their deaths be brought to justice;
• Offer solidarity across national divides for the family, friends and community of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and all others who have been arrested, tear gassed and assaulted by law enforcement;
• Dismantle state endorsed racism and violence that makes itself visible through the incarceration, surveillance and deportation of Black folks;
• Call on the United States government to listen to the voices calling for an end to the institutionalization of racism in America in all its forms, and to commit to dismantling covert and overt racial discrimination and to enact the words of the American constitution, which states that all are “created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”;
We also call on CARICOM and its leaders to also take stock of the police and military killings in their own countries.
Vincent/Canada
Opal Palmer Adisa, Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
Chelsea Fung, Guyana/Canada
Monifa Adebola, Barbados
Vanda Radzik, Guyana
Kimalee Phillip , Caribbean Solidarity Network, Canada/Grenada
Danuta Radzik, Help & Shelter, Guyana
Alissa Trotz, Canada/Guyana
Kurt Williams, Trinidad & Tobago
Danielle Smith, Canada/Barbados
Angela Robertson, Canada
Alexandrina Wong, Antigua
Lynette Joseph-Brown, Individual, Guyana
Karen de Souza, Red Thread, Guyana
Wintress White, Guyana
Kirk Quevedo, Trinidad & Tobago
Akende Rudder, NGO, Trinidad and Tobago
Holly Bynoe, Tilting Axis, St Vincent and the Grenadines/Barbados
Ralph Murray, The Bahamas
Orchid Burnside, Bahamas
Annalee D Davis, Independent Visual Artist, Barbados
Beverley Mullings, Canada/Jamaica/United Kingdom
Terry Ann Roy, Queer Corner, Trinidad and Tobago
Akeema Driggs, USA