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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRead the short, devastating speech Sandra Bland’s mother just made to Congressional leaders
Video enclosed: Fusion?resize=1600%2C900&quality=80&strip=all
I dont come here playing games with you all, said Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old black woman who died in a Texas jail cell last summer. I dont come to sit and be a part of a caucus where we talk and do nothing, she continued.
Reed-Veal was speaking at the Library of Congress, part of the first symposium of the newly formed Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls. Am I angry? Absolutely, said the mother, who said she does not believe her daughter committed suicide. Her testimony instigated tears and loud sighs in an audience filled with black women. The officer who arrested Bland, Brian Encinia, was fired.
Below is the full transcript of Veals short but emotionally powerful speech.
I want to say to all of you who sit here today, thank you. Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to be here today. Sometimes its rough. I dont have a big long statement to read. What Im going to say to you is that Im here representing the mothers who are not heard, I am here representing the mothers who have lost children as we go on about our daily lives. When the cameras and lights are gone, our babies are dead. So Im going to ask you here today to wake up. Wake up. By a show of hands, can any of you tell me the other six women who died in jail in July 2015 along with Sandra Bland? That is a problem. You all are among the walking dead, and I am so glad that I have come out from among you. I heard about Trayvon, I heard about all the shootings, and it did not bother me until it hit my daughter. I was walking dead just like you until Sandra Bland died in a jail cell in Texas.
Lets get something straight. I as a mother do not believe she committed suicide. I will say that until its proven. But if you want me to believe that my daughterthat I sent down there sitting up, driving her own vehiclewould be sent home in a capsule in the bottom of a plane with luggage on top of her, that Im going to shut up? I will not. I will not. I will continue to speak for every mother paralyzed because of the loss of their child. Six, and Google them. Im looking at your phones. Take two minutes and Google the other six that died in jail. Were not talking about that year, were talking about the month of July. 18-50 [years old]. Kindra Chapman allegedly stole a cell phone; 20 hours later she hung herself. Alexis McGovern downstairs in the infirmary dead, her family upstairs paying the bond. Nobody has spoken these names. And as I go around the country speaking, the fact that no pen is raised in a room, where six other women, aside from my daughter, have died. And nobody knows their names. Thats a problem.
The tears are real, the pain is real, the problem is real. So, I dont come here playing games with you all. I dont come to sit and be a part of a caucus where we talk and do nothing. You, you, you, you dont know my pain. God forbid you go up to another grieving mother and say you know how she feels, that is a lie. Unless you have lost a child. Am I angry? Absolutely. Im not angry enough to create a riot where I burn things down, but I will create a riot, I will set off so that people will understand that this is real. Movements move. Activists activate. We have got to stop talking and move. So I leave you with this: it is time to wake up, get up, step up, or shut up.
Watch the speech below:
Five women that lost their life the same month as Sandra Bland were ... The Root
-none
(1,884 posts)Let us hope that Freedom will never be only for those that have nothing left to lose. That is where we are now heading.
eridani
(51,907 posts)That will continue to enable pushback, thankfully.
malaise
(268,967 posts)Thanks
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)And Hillary does nothing. She's as silent as Trump. I heard Bernie speak for the tenth time a couple days ago. He talks about it in every speech. It all makes me sick.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)just to smear a candidate. A candidate who's fought against racism his entire life.
So you can just get off your moral high horse until you apologize for that repulsive OP.
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rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)on the AA communities.
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)I pretend to know what people care about too. I'ts both fun and trendy (T-shirt and bumper-sticker ready), and we get to believe we're more clever that supporting evidence would actually suggest.
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)sheshe2
(83,751 posts)Please just say their names.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)Don't try to shut me up and misrepresent what Im saying. It is about those in power not knowing or doing anything about this. I was at those speeches the other day and it struck me how there is one candidate only that is getting straight to the point about what is happening. Dont confuse winning with changing. Your a walking insult to claim Im taking away from a mothers grief by pointing out how Hillary and her husband maintained the status quo regarding the police state in this country. I have seen so many people beat up by the police when I was literally standing 10 feet away. I am 100% confident that Sandra's mother would approve my comment, appreciate my dedication to talking about this subject and look at your comment as passive-aggressive.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)Geneva Reed-Veal: I believe that Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to be president of the United States. Its not that shes the more qualified than Sanders or anyone else; shes the most qualified person to be president. She stands for equal pay for women, increasing the minimum wage. She will take a stand.
TR: Did Sandra express any feelings about who she would have voted for before she was taken away?
GRV: Sandy never expressed any feeling towards either (Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton). But if she were here now, shed be 100 percent behind Hillary. Sandy was such a womans woman whenever there was a powerful woman fighting for whats rightSandy would be right there as an ally.
TR: How do you respond to the criticism that these campaigns are exploiting black family tragedy for votes?
GRV: I listened to those who said that about endorsing. Let me tell you. Im an adult and Im not being exploited. Im not being exploited by anybody. I supported Hillary in 2008, and if someone of their own free will wants to come out and work for a campaign, then thats not exploitation. Hillary reached out to my family last year. She sent a handwritten note. She met with me and other mothers in Chicago. No press was there, no one talked about all the things shes done for me and my family. And let me be clear: Had I not lost Sandy, I would still be out there endorsing and working for Hillary.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/02/_i_m_not_being_exploited_sandra_bland_s_mother_talks_endorsing_hillary_clinton.html
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)As usual. Makes me wonder how you ever even got here.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)Just a question. Your tactics remind of what they do. And all your lame backwards accusations. You should get paid by them if your not because your wild accusations are exactly how they are instructed to derail debate online.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)What does that make me? I've seen all your posts as just targeted disruption. I'm surprised you haven't been banned from DU.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)I'm surprised you haven't been banned from DU.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)Good look with life.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)types of threads, no Clinton fans show up unless to harass.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)But I do recall seeing OPs about Hillary campaigning with Sandra Bland's mother or being endorsed by her. I guess I don't recall all that well. They made sure to post about her when it was ultimately about Hillary.
Exploitation. Not just for racists anymore.
.
Response to billhicks76 (Reply #4)
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Response to Post removed (Reply #11)
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Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)she clearly was killed in jail, and there has been no fucking justice.
The racist criminal justice system needs to rebuilt from scratch, it seems.
redruddyred
(1,615 posts)they're the worst. only new orleans has a worse rep. remember that nic cage movie? that was no fiction.
i'd argue that the system's not only racist but deeply corrupt of which the racism is only a single facet, all because there's NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)not sure what that is.
This article is relevant:
http://harvardkennedyschoolreview.com/the-criminal-justice-system-is-not-broken-its-doing-exactly-what-its-meant-to-do/
redruddyred
(1,615 posts)the CJ system is a tool of the 1%! i'll rather insenstively argue that slavery was to do with the moolah $$ and not skin color although they did try to justify it after the fact with various pseudoscientific initiatives. thanks for the link!
cui bono
(19,926 posts)It's very distasteful to post that in this thread imo.
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davepc
(3,936 posts)this one? bad lieutenant the remake
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7793889
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This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.
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Please hide this distasteful pic. There is no reason to post this and it's disturbing to see this in this thread imo.
You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sun May 1, 2016, 09:59 AM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.
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Explanation: Poster was answering a question as to which Nick Cage movie, and the picture is to illustrate why this movie is relevant to this thread. Poster agrees with OP, not trying to be distasteful.
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cui bono
(19,926 posts)stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)was right outside my house. Every day majority of stops were POC and older cars. He'd search every car, I remember one day police searching with his flashlight on the carpeting front floor and I heard him say, he yelled, "what's this a seed?" arrested the man and took him away. terrified people always standing outside their car waiting while 'the man' tried his best to arrest them on anything.
Probably can look it up, Meadows, Texas and Bellaire, Texas just two tiny Houstonneighborhoods with their own Police department and Court building scamming millions in revenue for anyone who dares to drive, walk or bike through "their neighborhood". Bellaire Police have killed POC on their own front lawns.
These are old segregated areas where it used to be part of association rules no sales or rentals to black people. They don't like poor people either. There are thousands of these oppressive neighborhoods/tiny towns across America.
Unconstitutional LOCALS.
present in EVERY state in this union. Some with more than others.
Stellar
(5,644 posts)lovemydog
(11,833 posts)Kindra Chapman, Joyce Curnell, Ralkina Jones and Raynette Turner
brer cat
(24,562 posts)these mothers, only grows with time. They didn't give in or give up, and they will fight to their last breath to keep us from doing it.
Sandra Bland, Kindra Chapman, Joyce Curnell, Ralkina Jones, Raynette Turner
Duppers
(28,120 posts)Truth to power.
For all those daughters and mothers.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)burrowowl
(17,639 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)This needs to stop yesterday. We need to reform our police departments nationwide and instill a whole new attitude in them. Enough with this systemic racism and code of covering up for your fellow officers.
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heaven05
(18,124 posts)will Never change its spots. History is proof of that here in the 21st fucking century. Racism the american cancer. One of the reasons for the awful stench of rot from within. I was talking with an associate at a pre Mayday party last evening about Rome and its decline and fall.......