Week of Why Day 1 - Sent June 6, 2020

Dear Family and Friends,

Reading this message will take about 5 minutes of your time. If you don’t have the ability to pause and fully engage right now, I strongly encourage you to mark this email as unread and come back to it later.

If you’ve been watching the news or checking social media in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard the names George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery many times. George Floyd was unarmed when he was arrested and ultimately murdered after an officer kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while Floyd repeatedly gasped, “I can’t breathe.” Breonna Taylor was an EMT who was asleep in her home when police entered without knocking or announcing themselves and fatally shot her 8 times. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in broad daylight when two white men, one being a former police officer, followed, physically attacked, and fatally shot him twice. While these are the deaths that have sparked the most recent wave of outrage and protests, they are only three among thousands.

As a white woman, I will never be able to fully understand the deep and hurtful history that has shaped the inequality faced by black people every day in this country. However, I have a voice that can do good and the privileges of an education and a strong community to allow me to use it. I have decided to use my voice by creating this email series which I’m calling “Week of Why.” Over the next seven days I will be sending one email a day highlighting a different organization or fund that supports black lives and communities of color, and discussing important questions that I’ve been asking myself, such as “why is this happening?” “why is this important?” and “why do we need to get involved?” 

There are so many sources of information that it can be difficult to differentiate fact from fiction, or know how to help. This can make it overwhelming and hard to know where to start, especially as a white person. Listening to black activists leading this fight, two crucial things we can do are educate ourselves and discuss human rights and equality, in an effort to transform our country into one that is truly fair and free.

Despite the research I’ve put into this project, I know that I still have a lot to learn. I am not trying to speak as if I have perfect knowledge, but rather am attempting to share the vital information that I have sought out with the people I care about.

For Day 1 of Week of Why, I am highlighting the organization My Block My Hood My City, a community restoration organization based in Chicago. Their mission statement is as follows:

“My Block, My Hood, My City provides underprivileged youth with an awareness of the world and opportunities beyond their neighborhood.  We take students on explorations focused on STEM, Arts & Culture, Citizenry & Volunteerism, Health, Community Development, Culinary Arts, and Entrepreneurism.”

They are currently raising money for a small business relief fund to help repair the damage caused by looters who took advantage of protests for personal gain, unrelated to the goals of this movement. As one of the organization’s main objectives is to instill pride in Chicago’s youth by taking them on trips to see their city, repairing and supporting small businesses is crucial, especially since they have already suffered financially due to the pandemic.

In this interview, the organization’s founder, Jamal Cole, explains My Block My Hood My City’s importance:

“We just expose them to different professions so they’ll have more options to choose from, so they won’t choose violence...Kids I work with, they order their food everyday through 3-inch bulletproof glass windows. Helicopters fly over their house at night. … This is their reality. I take those kids, and I show them the world doesn’t end at the corner of their block.”

As a new Chicagoan, a member of a city with an openly gay, black mayor, I have taken pride in this city, in its closeness and community, and yet I acknowledge its struggles. Chicago has a long and difficult history with race, ranging from the 1919 race riots to current inequality in poverty, homelessness, and health, something that we can’t gloss over. I am therefore committed to civic engagement as a member of the community, and thus am choosing to highlight this organization as one of seven over the course of the week.

One way to support My Block My Hood My City is through a monetary donation to their small business relief fund by clicking here.

If you are local to the Chicago area, you can sign up to volunteer to help with small business repairs through this organization by clicking here.

Additionally, they are hosting a peace walk tomorrow, Sunday, June 7th at 10am. It will be starting at 7900 S. Cottage Grove Ave. and ending at 7801 S. State St. where they will deliver food to people in need (more info can be found on their instagram account @myblockmyhoodmycity).

I understand that everyone cannot make a monetary donation, or attend peaceful protests, so my goal with this project is simply to provide information and resources for donation and active involvement. Please understand that in just reading and sharing this email you are already taking action to support the movement. If you feel like I missed something, would like to engage in a further conversation, or have questions, please reply to this email (reply individually, not reply all) and I would be happy to continue the discussion or recommend further resources.

I also want to acknowledge that I am in no way an expert, or trying to speak on behalf of the black community, but am using my voice and privilege as a white person to amplify those whose voices and stories have been typically ignored and excluded from popular narratives throughout history. This quarantine has given us some extra time, and I want to encourage us all to take it to challenge ourselves: get educated, get involved, and share what we learn.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read through this message and I look forward to continuing this communication and conversation throughout the coming week.

Sincerely,

Grace Hochberg

Informational sources referenced:

https://news.wttw.com/2017/10/04/my-block-my-hood-my-city-founder-jahmal-cole-why-exposure-key

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/

https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/us/breonna-taylor-birthday-charges-arrests-case-trnd/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html