This picture above was shown and elevated across media platforms all over the world. It is pulled from RYSE's solidarity with Ferguson protest in 2014, the ad on the right cropping out RYSE and all Black and Brown youth entirely; repurposed for a re-election campaign. Source: KQED and Instagram.
RYSE is tired. We are tired of the ongoing and persistent violence against Black bodies. We are tired of having to create post after post of murder by the state against our Black kin. Tired of posts about murder and harm against our kin that look like us, that are us. Tired of quelling our righteous rage at the systems that are quelling our humanity.
We are very tired of the media’s love affair with white saviors, and white validation of Black and Brown pain and trauma to make it real and worthy. Tired of all our systems’ toxic love affair with whiteness, made possible by the deletion of Black and Brown labor, existence, and resilience. This picture has been shown and elevated across media platforms all over the world. This picture was possible because Black and Brown young people made the conditions and context possible, and possible despite the opposition from many in the white progressive order of Richmond. White people did not make this picture. But whiteness claims it, captures it, and consumes it. Like a colonial expedition. For RYSE, this photo is a painful, frustrating reminder of the complete erasure of who and what is ‘not pictured’ in order to maintain this costly supremacist narrative.
Not pictured: The Black and Brown young folks and staff from the RYSE Center that organized this protest even while we fielded active threats against them.
Not pictured: The hate mail from white Richmond residents threatening the RYSE Center should there be any destruction from this action
Not pictured: The white photographer who insisted the then viral image was her image and should be recognized for it without ANY recognition of why we were all there to begin with. White ownership of Black and Brown pain, same ol’ shit different day.
Not pictured: The email from Mayor Tom Butt (who is pictured) telling us RYSE would be held accountable for the damage to businesses and property and police overtime, letting us know ‘these kinds of problems don’t exist in Richmond.’
Not pictured: Pedie Perez’s family whose son was killed by Richmond Police and would likely disagree with the Mayor’s assessment of these problems not existing in Richmond.
Not pictured: How quickly elected officials who spoke out against this action ran down for a photo op, never apologizing to the young people for working to actively dismantle this action.
Not pictured: The Black and Brown officers who were there that day but did not make the photo op, because at the end of the day they’re still people of color and they don’t fit the media’s white savior narrative.
Not pictured: (Well we serve as the ‘urban backdrop’) the RYSE Center. The actual space that centers safety and love for our BIPOC children so that they can stand fully in their humanity and power. The Youth Center that has, and continues to be, trashed and dragged through the mud from the Mayor and many of his allies.
And while the narrative about this moment persists, while the former Richmond Police Chief elevates to White House positions, the story that was never pictured, is the perpetual systemic terror our children live in; the exhausting state of terror Black parents exist in sending their children out into the world not knowing if it will be the last time they see them. The story that is not pictured is the “community policing” model that allowed the Richmond Police Department to cover up the exploitation of an 18 year old girl at the same time other cities were paying Richmond police officers to train them on our community policing model. What is not pictured is the exhausting work we must do to fight for community services, for libraries, for mental health programs, for art, for a recognition of our existence while the majority of the City budget goes to policing.
For those who are also tired of being not pictured, or tired of the distortions of supremacy, we see you, we feel you, we love you. For those who are not tired, or who find our truth uncomfortable, we call on you to sit in the discomfort of this truth, of shattered illusions. You do not need to call on us. We have already done our work. We have shared our picture. Please check yourself. Check your privilege. Check why this makes you uncomfortable. Check why are you not tired too? RYSE worked with Chief Magnus for many years, we’ve had a lot of healthy struggles. This post is not about him. It is about all of our Black and Brown young people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the media’s insistence on erasing their narrative in a struggle and story that is theirs.
