JORDAN DAVIS. TRAYVON MARTIN. RENISHA MCBRIDE. ISRAEL HERNANDEZ. JONATHAN FERRELL. JESUS HUERTA. KENDRICK JOHNSON.
These are the names of our babies. Black and brown youth who grew up in American cities - Miami, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Valdosta, Detroit.
But these aren't just any cities. They are cities of the American 21st century - MAD cities, cities where black and brown youth are shot down in streets, in schools, or in the back of police cars.
In MAD cities, children are removed from school and put behind bars for throwing pencils, wielding tootsie rolls, and quarreling with classmates. Prisons profit off youth bodies in private jail cells, corporations profit off standardized testing in public schools,
In Florida, Jordan Davis was shot for playing loud music. In Georgia, Kendrick Johnson walked into school with a book bag and came out in a body bag.
Madness has swept silently across American cities while generations sleep senseless through the injustice. But it's time to end the nightmare and WAKE UP. How do we end the madness?
You can start in YOUR community. The truth is that you HAVE to start in your community. It starts with your family, your friends, the people that you go to school or church with, the people at your barber shop or hair salon.
This time we won't organize our energy into another march or rally. This time we know that our long term goal is building power and bringing our communities together - so we start with important conversations.
We start our push forward now. Together. We are providing the tools so that you can start having the right conversations with the people around you.
Would you like to host a townhall or a house meeting somewhere in your town, city, or area? Dream Defenders would like to supply you with the Good Kids Mad Cities Toolkit, including:
1) A Townhall Host facilitation guide and agenda
2) A Good Kids Mad Cities Powerpoint presentation
3) Promotional townhall flyers
4) One pagers and information on how laws like Stand Your Ground, systems like the school to prison pipeline, and the criminalization of youth of color contribute to Mad Cities across the country.
http://dreamdefenders.org/goodkidsmadcities/