Listening To What’s Important

As you may have seen, we’ve recently launched a listening and discussion series with our partners at Black Women’s Blueprint, “100 Days of a Feminist Agenda:  Healing from Centuries of Oppression—Our Work is Not Done Yet.” Over the past four years, it’s become evident that listening (and uplifting) the experiences of those communities who have been harmed most under the Trump Administration is a critical component in moving us forward.  

We hope you can join us for our next session tomorrow, February 11, at 5 pm EST, on “The Unspoken Impact of Police Brutality against BIWOC, TGNC & Latinx Communities.” You can sign up for the event here.   

The issue of police violence and lack of accountability for the disparity in killings by police in marginalized communities is a core issue for NOW. Unfortunately, we know that police brutality against Black people and the legal system’s oppressive nature towards communities of color is not a new phenomenon. However, it has recently been exposed on a much broader scale than ever before through camera captured police violence, mass incarcerations, racial profiling and excessive sentences for non-violent offenses.    

Days ago, we saw footage of a nine-year-old Black girl handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by Rochester police. On what would have been her 34th birthday this past Sunday, we remember Sandra Bland, who was killed by state-sanctioned violence. These continued instances of excessive police force and violence are why we must continue demanding justice, structural change and lasting reform.   

As our featured speaker, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales recently said in an interview she did with the Brennan Center for Justice, “Police, prosecutors, judges and other actors in the criminal legal system are part of perpetuating racism. We cannot talk about the overarching effects of the system without talking about the people who are a part of the system.” 

Momentary public outrage is not enough. We need to center the lives of BIWOC and Latinx women and girls and other marginalized communities in the national discourse. We must work together for reform to combat the patterns and practices of race and gender discrimination in law enforcement. 

This is why our focus for these first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration is to ensure the continued fight for BIWOC representation and that the issues that affect our lives the most are centered in the new feminist agenda.    

As we said within the name of our listening series:  our work is not yet done – and we’ll continue listening and discussing these issues that matter most.