Statement in Response to Police Brutality in Olympia
Dear Olympia,
We are honored to begin our 5th voyage with you this coming week. As a collective of diverse queer folks, we have witnessed and been working through many feelings in the wake of the shootings of Andre Thompson and Bryson Chaplin this past May. The shooting of these two people is the most recent example of the continued use of the brutal and often lethal force used by local police departments against people of color.
As a collective, we feel called to address the community at large. The liberation of people of color and the liberation of queer and trans folks cannot be separated. Queer and trans struggles are historically rooted deeply within the intersections of race, sexual and gender identity/expression, as well as the fight to end police brutality and state-sponsered violence.
This is a movement that has been born of and galvanized within the response of communities no longer willing to endure police violence: lest we forget the White Night Riots, and the Stonewall Riot.
We at Queer Rock Camp are actively working to further our knowledge and understanding of the systems designed to target marginalized communities for violence-- especially communities of color. The shooting of Andre Thompson and Bryson Chaplin has brought that conversation home yet again - calling us to question and dismantle the myriads ways that racism manifests itself - in our relationships, our organizing work, our summer camp, and our home here in Olympia, including within the queer community and at large events such as Pride.
We are working towards a future where POC and queer folks are no longer targets of violence in our communities. To do so, dismantling the many ways that racism manifests itself must be at the core of our values.
To do so, we much stand in solidarity with the work of folks like Full Circle United (360°), who are in turn doing crucial organizing work as well as directly supporting the families of Andre and Bryson in the wake of the shooting.
To do so, we must amplify the resilience of our overlapping and separate communities, and empower our young folks to leave evidence of themselves in whatever ways they can. In the wake of suicide, bullying, hate crimes, all the ways we are taught to hate ourselves, and all the ways the systems and institutions of this world attempt to ignore, assimilate, or destroy our identities, contributions and lives, we believe that leaving evidence of ourselves as survivors, creators, dreamers, fighters, is paramount!
At Queer Rock Camp we aim to open the pathways for this evidence to be created, witnessed, and shared. Through musical expression, self- and community-empowerment, sharing love and joy: we fight, we learn, we grow. By connecting to the historical roots of our struggle, and aligning ourselves with the larger battles being waged against marginalized peoples everywhere, including here in our home town: we fight, we learn, we grow together.
Olympia, thanks for letting us rock you for the last five years. We look forward to many more to come.
-The Queer Rock Camp Collective