A Message from Kerry Kennedy

To those who condemn the violence in our country today:

We stand with you.

We condemn the trafficking, rape, torture, and enslavement of the Africans who arrived on American soil 401 years ago, that deep-rooted anti-Black racism that still manifests today in the structures of our society.

We condemn the mass criminalization that separates families and sends one in three Black men to prison, and where 60% of the 2.3 million people caged every night are people of color.

We condemn a public school system that still disproportionately targets Black students with suspensions and expulsions, and even corporal punishment and incarceration.

We condemn the growing racial wealth gap in the United States, where 40% of Black children live in poverty, a rate twice as high as among white children; and where the median wealth of white families is 10 times greater than that of Black families.

We condemn the theater of partisan politics affecting food insecurity, which could leave 54 million Americans without food due to the economic consequences caused by COVID-19. Pre-COVID, 10% of white households experienced hunger, while households of people of color experienced hunger at a rate of 21.5%.

As Robert Kennedy said: "For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter."

We condemn the violence of institutions. And we commit ourselves to action. Action to repair the harm of this generational violence. Action to invest in the well-being of our communities so that a true cure can take root.

At this moment, every politician in this country, from the president to the local police commissioner, must be asked:

- Do you support reparations for the victims of police violence? And what is your plan?

- Do you support redirecting funds from the militarization and criminalization of communities in order to invest in their well-being? And what is your plan?

And then we must ask ourselves: what is the role I can play? What is my own privilege? How can I support the Black leadership in my community that is demanding justice? Where can I repair the harm in my own relationships, in my own community, in my own heart?

Kerry Kennedy President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights