The Black Lives Matter movement can’t only be about protests. Anti-racism demonstrations that have erupted across the nation have done a fine job of raising awareness about systemic racism in America and have sent a clear message that there will be no peace without justice, but building a community that supports the betterment of Black people also means—for lack of a more sophisticated way of putting this—having our own shit.
BLM Sacramento has taken its first step towards true Black community building by taking unsolicited donations that it received after the wave of protests that began last summer and using them to purchase a plot of land that it plans to use to build its first-ever home in Sacramento’s Oak Park.
The BLM chapter’s founder, Tanya Faison, spoke to ABC 10 about the organization’s plans and what prompted the move.
From ABC 10:
“We see a lot of performative gestures from the city and the county to where we’re not seeing actual change, it just looks like change, and I’m just sick of seeing that, I’m sick of experiencing that, I want to see actual change,” Faison said.
After the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd, which led to nationwide protests, her chapter received an outpouring of unsolicited donations from across the community. After that, as the year went on, Sacramento homicide numbers started to surge.
“There started being a string of killings throughout Sacramento, intracommunity violence,” Faison said. “So at that point, we want wanted to start impacting the community in a way that provides resources to the community.”
That’s when they came up with the idea to use the donations to buy land and, soon, build a home meant to serve as a bit of a ‘one-stop shop’ resource center and safe space for the black community in the heart of Oak Park.
“Because it’s Oak Park, it’s heavily gentrified, we wanted to bring blackness back into the area,” Faison said. CONTINUE READING: Black Lives Matter Sacramento Buys Land to Use as Safe Space for Black People