“I Can’t Breathe”: A Statement From Angelica Berrie
As Americans, we share the profound sorrow and shame at the death of George Floyd and many others before him. Throughout history, Jews have stood against racial injustice, bearing witness and speaking out against evil.
Silence in the face of discrimination makes us complicit. Rabbi Joachim Prinz spoke of silence as “the most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic.” Speaking at the historic March on Washington with Martin Luther King, he said, “America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. It must speak up and act, from the President down to the humblest of us, and not for the sake of the black community but for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself.”
“I can’t breathe” are words that call out to all of us, a powerful reminder of the moral responsibility to address the injustice of inequality in our country.
As philanthropists, the deep pain of our fellow human beings forces us to re-examine our work, to ask ourselves if we have failed to see the extent of their suffering and if we can do more to allow our communities of color to breathe freely.
Rev. Dr. William Barber asked the question, “If you knew you had only 48 hours of breath left, what kind of world would you use that breath to fight for? What kind of world, what kind of nation?” How we respond, with actions, not just public statements, will reflect our own humanity.
The sacred task of repairing the world in keeping with our Jewish values has guided the work of The Russell Berrie Foundation. Creating the world we want is the opportunity and aspiration of philanthropy. Our commitment to building bridges in the community through healthcare and interfaith dialogue has raised awareness of the discrepancies that negatively impact African-American communities. At a moment when the country overall is experiencing the highest rate of severe complications and death from the coronavirus, African Americans are suffering disproportionately.
“Equality is in the air we breathe,” wrote Langston Hughes in his poem “Let America be America Again.” The economic, social and emotional shackles of racial injustice in our society have not been broken. We have a long way to go in addressing the issues of race in America, but we should aspire to fulfill the equality of America’s great promise for black Americans.
Until then, we all can’t breathe.