Dear NAACP Vancouver Members,
I hope and pray that you and your family are safe and healthy during these uncertain and unprecedented times. Please know, NAACP Vancouver remains hard at work.
The Health Committee Chair, Benita, is calling as many senior members as possible and checking in with them.
The Education Committee is working with schools and the VHA to support the efforts of our youth in schools and colleges.
The Legal Redress Committee continues to support and ensure that our community rights are protected.
Our membership coordinator is in contact with small black-owned businesses, ensuring they get the information and support needed during this time.
The NAACP of Vancouver is collaborating with local BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) nonprofits to continue the mission of Ensuring The Rights of All Persons.
COVID-19 is not only exposing America’s health inequities, it is also exposing America’s deep racism. Not long after it was reported that Black and Brown people are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 did American citizens started saying “Time to open up the country."
I wonder, had the reports said that people who are blond and male are more at risk than any population in America to be affected, would Americans be clambering and eager to “open up?”
I am saddened by the effect of this virus on my community. We simply must believe in science. Not Facebook or Twitter, but science. It is a virus, and it is contagious.
This is not hypothetical to me. I lost my Aunt in March to COVID-19. My heart is broken, my cousins having lost their Mom too soon. A woman who served her community and family all her life died alone and in severe pain.
If we do not listen to the CDC and scientists, we will lose a generation of African Americans. The generation that, as children walked with Martin Luther King, worked and passed the Civil and Voting Rights Bill, helped to “Free Mandala,” and worked to bring down South Africa’s racist apartheid government. They sacrificed so much, so we can enjoy the freedoms we have so often taken for granted.
I end with a quote from Maya Angelou “My wish for you is that you continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness."
Sincerely,
Bridgette Fahnbulleh
President of NAACP Vancouver