June 2, 2020
Disability Rights Center-NH Response to Recent Killings of Black Men and Women
Like many groups across the nation, we been horrified, angered, and demoralized by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and David McAtee. Yet again, we have clear evidence that people of color in America are subjected to police brutality, structural racism, and systemic inequality.
Although attention is properly focused on these most recent outrages, we recognize that they are not rare occurrences, and that our country has a long journey yet to travel before anyone can truthfully say that it has a system that provides equal justice under law.
We work with and for people who are barred from full participation in American life and encounter bias and discrimination in the criminal justice system and elsewhere. Our work makes us acutely aware of the continuing need for careful and clear-eyed examination of the sources of injustice, effective oversight of law enforcement agencies, and accountability whenever power is abused.
The disability community, the community we serve, does not exist in a silo. People with disabilities are members of all races, religions, socio-economic classes, genders, and sexual orientations and are subject to intersectional discrimination on a daily basis. We commit to amplifying the voices of black people with disabilities and people with disabilities from other minority groups in our work and to supporting those who share our values of equality, civil rights, and justice.
