Bridging Across Black Lives Matter: A fishbowl bridging conversation

Black leaders have lived at the intersection of protecting Black lives for longer than the hashtag’s lifecycle. The epidemic of police violence and community violence have long been lasting effects of structural racism and systemic inequity facing Black families. The question becomes, “How do we provide safety and security for Black people from the state and the conditions that fuel intercommunal violence?” Some leaders have led the call for public safety transformation, police abolition and a radical reimagining of security since the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. While the emergence of the BLM movement has relaunched a national reckoning around anti-Blackness, community violence leaders, often led by the mothers of murdered children, have been calling for a heavier and more constitutional expression of policing that protects vulnerable communities. One community, focused on protecting Black lives, working on bridging across difference that leads to co-creation. This conversation will feature voices from both perspectives, who will engage with one another in a live bridging conversation that will seek to deepen empathy and understanding between groups and open the possibility of a path forward, together