BLM protests

I marched along with the Black Lives Matter protests in Colorado Springs last weekend. These protests have been going on for a couple of weeks now since the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police caused outrage at the countless similar cases of police brutality against the BIPOC community to boil over. At least in the Springs, these protests have been almost entirely peaceful in that time. The organizers are doing a great job of getting people out and channeling their energy toward demonstrating for real, tangible change to policing policy in a town that was so recently hurt by the police killing of De'von Baily.

The demonstrations were powerful. There is a lot of pain in the BIPOC community right now, and deservedly so. I am an unapologetic ally of BLM and people of color. I don't always get things right, but I try to learn from my mistakes so I can be a better ally. Systemic racism is a sickness in my (white) community, and we (white people) need to do something about it.

I went to the demonstrations hoping to capture some of the energy in a humanizing light. I wanted to do justice to the pain this community is feeling, as well as the positivity of and support for this movement, and I think some of these images come close to capturing that. If you'd like to get some high res copies of any of these images to share or use for your community efforts, please reach out to me through my website or at one of the links at the bottom of the page.

If you have the means to do so, please consider donating to support equality for all through, for instance, the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Lives Matter, and the NAACP. You can also sign the Justice for George Floyd petition at change.org and donate. If you are in Colorado, this is a good resource for finding minority-owned businesses near you to support.

Let me know if there are other links I should include and I will update this list with those.

Tags: #blm #blacklivesmatter #protest #coloradosprings #street