Black Lives Matter

Black lives matter.
Black men’s lives matter.
Black women’s lives matter.
Black children’s lives matter.
Black disabled lives matter.
Black LGBTQ+ lives matter.
Black trans women’s lives matter.
Black lives carrying guns matter.
Black lives carrying toy guns matter.
Black lives carrying cell phones matter.
Black lives “mouthing off” to cops matter.
Black lives charged with crimes matter.
Black lives convicted of crimes matter.
Black lives harassed and brutalized by police, the justice system, the prison system, and capitalism matter.
Black lives matter in a hurricane.
Black lives matter in a wildfire.
Black lives matter in a pandemic.
Black lives matter in any disaster.
Black protesters’ lives matter.
Black homeless lives matter.
Black lives battling addiction matter.
Black lives just living their lives and going to school and work and whatevs matter.
Black successful and rich lives matter.
Black families matter.
Black lives matter even if there are no Black people on your project team.
Black lives matter especially if there are no Black people on your project team.
Black lives matter when you can’t tell that your users are Black.
Black lives matter even when the customer says they don’t have any Black users.
Black lives matter even when someone tries to convince you that “Black people can’t…” or “Black people don’t…” (especially when they’re not Black).
Black lives matter regardless of what industry sector you’re working in.
Black lives matter regardless of what you bring home in salary every day.
Black lives matter regardless of what your job is or how you get rewarded.
Black lives matter even if your life, too, has a been a raging garbage fire.
Black lives matter even though the protests have been going on for a few week.
Black lives matter especially because the protests have been going on for a few weeks and we’ve barely changed at all.
Black lives matter even if you’re sick and tired of hearing it, because Black lives have heard that they don’t matter every damn day for over 400 years.

We’re three White folks above the age of 30 running this show here and we screw up a lot. We’re doing our best to own it when we do. Call us out when you see us screw up. (Fellow White people, you don’t have to wait for the BIPOC audience to speak up if you see us being asses.)

And in the meantime, regardless of what else we post here, we see you. We think you matter. We’re working to change ourselves and we’re working to change each other and it’s not enough — it can’t possibly be enough.

Black lives matter.

Author: Anne Gibson

Anne Gibson is a UX Designer and general troublemaker outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She's an editor and writer at The Interconnected. She is also published at A List Apart and The Pastry Box, and publishes short fiction when she's not persuading the terriers to stop wrecking things.