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Source Stepping Up

I am proud of Madison’s The Source for stepping up and publishing Ethan Richmond and Dylan Richmond’s June 13 speech in the July 2 issue [“‘So Now We Move. And Now We Change. And Now We March.’”].

On June 13, standing on the steps of the First Congregational Church, Ethan Richmond and Dylan Richmond (at the time, Daniel Hand High School students) looked out over a town meeting of more than 300 individuals gathered on the town green below, approached the microphone, and shared personal experiences of persistent, sewn-in, racism in Madison Public Schools from Kindergarten through Daniel Hand High School.

During remarks made, Ethan commented that the “shrapnels from slavery” are “sewn systemically into every facet of this nation’s government, law enforcement, housing, and education system” and into every fiber of “blackness in our skin.”

In the June 18 issue, The Source reported “The brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis has galvanized a movement across the country that has called for wholesale, fundamental changes to police and other racist systems under the Black Lives Matter banner.”

Black, brown, queer, LGBT+ students are terrorized every day, here, in Madison, and from sea to shining sea in America.

James Hellman

Madison