The Yankees followed up on Sunday with their “Blue Lives Matter” promotion, an event in part to honor New York Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, who were killed in the line of duty this past December.
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Of all the tweets I’ve ever tweeted-and I’ve tweeted many-by far the ones that have gotten the most exposure were a couple of tweets I hastily banged out a year ago while Twitter was collectively melting down over police brutality in Ferguson and the mainstream media’s stubborn reluctance to make a big deal over it. However, the only way to overcome it is to look beyond it by following President John F. Kennedy’s lead: “Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet”.
“There was never any intent to cause controversy or ill-will feelings toward anyone in the community or outside the community”.
Two women who took the podium demanded attention to the case of Michael Brown, 19, and others killed by police, and the issue of police use of force in Seattle.
But Fontenot says protesters are doing what they have to, to get their message heard.
Their goal was to raise money for the Liu and Ramos families, who lost their main source of income, to help pay for their children’s college tuition.
But the problems faced by black people worldwide have all been created by racialized capitalism as it formed modern nation states – states which have a vested interest in keeping black people globally from banding together to think about how our struggles are interconnected, and how we can support one another. “People of all nationalities were there”.
Attendees received a Blue Lives Matter wristband featuring the Staten Island Yankees logo with every ticket purchase.
Some 200 demonstrators chanted “Black lives matter” at a rally Sunday in Seattle.
In New York City, protesters gathered on Sunday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and at a government building in Harlem before a planned vigil in Manhattan’s Union Square. This movement is here to dismantle the discomfort leading up to Black life lying dead in the middle of the street for four and a half hours.
There is a clear way to recognize that all lives have inherent worth and dignity but that the lives of African Americans were systematically devalued during slavery, and often today, to varying degrees, they still are.
In a statement forwarded to The Root from the reader, Holley said the Yankees put “a lot of though into whether or not to hold this promotion when Blue Lives Matter originally approached us”.
Mike Holley, the senior director of marketing for the Staten Island Yankees, admitted the timing of the event was a “very unfortunate coincidence”. One year later, we’re not asking questions, we’re demanding answers. And I would say that’s just kind of unheard of. The group knew that both deceased officers’ families were baseball fans, he said.
Today, as the dawn of Brown’s death re-enters into our lives, we must refocus our efforts and re-commit ourselves to the actual fight which brought us here.
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“We’d be open to helping people on all sides for any conflict”, he said. This movement is headed towards the liberation of Black people in a country that still has its chains on us.
