solidarity

“Al­though it is an hon­or to be nom­i­nat­ed by my peers for Artist of the year, live per­former and em­cee I will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in any ca­pac­i­ty this year. I have asked to be re­moved from all fliers, ban­ners and pro­mo­tion­al tools with my im­age on it for the SAM­MIES. I will not help pro­mote, I will not per­form or boost traf­fic for any­thing as­so­ci­at­ed with Sacra­men­to News & Re­view – SN&R at this time. Please, don’t vote for me and I will be no­ti­fy­ing SN&R to take me off the bal­lot this year. Thank you for your con­tin­ued sup­port and love.”
—An­tho­ny Giovni­ni, Sparks Across Dark­ness
 

His name is Joseph Mann. He was mur­dered.

While I am not SAM­MIE nom­i­nat­ed and do not speak for the artists in­volved, I can tell you that this boy­cott* is the symp­tom of a much larg­er dis­ease. There is a se­vere lack of di­ver­si­ty in news­rooms around the coun­try and our city has fall­en vic­tim.

Make no mis­take, this boy­cott is not a gripe against the SAM­MIE nom­i­na­tion process or a shot in any way at the pro­mot­ers. It is the un­de­ni­able scream of peo­ple that do not feel heard. Specif­i­cal­ly black and brown peo­ple. I know from talk­ing to many of you and watch­ing so­cial me­dia that this is the first time you’ve heard this scream. I en­cour­age you to lis­ten.

I want to en­cour­age the white artists (and non-artists) tak­ing part. You are im­por­tant. Your voice is need­ed and wel­comed. I’m here if I can help sup­port your ally­ship ef­forts, but we must rec­og­nize that far more im­por­tant than our voic­es or feel­ings is that peo­ple of col­or stand in the front and lead this con­ver­sa­tion. We must sup­port them. There are beau­ti­ful, amaz­ing lead­ers in this com­mu­ni­ty al­ready do­ing this work. Sup­port them. Black­Lives­Mat­ter Sacra­men­to is a great place to start.

We’re talk­ing about the un­war­rant­ed mur­ders of black and brown peo­ple. Not your feel­ings about an award show.

His name is Joseph Mann. He was mur­dered.

This is about jus­tice and rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

I’m proud of you Sacra­men­to, the mu­sic scene and this gen­er­a­tion of young peo­ple. Keep dig­ging. Keep push­ing. The world is watch­ing.

Black Lives Mat­ter. Black Jour­nal­ists Mat­ter. Rep­re­sen­ta­tion Mat­ters.

Have a good day.
 
 

—an­dru de­f­eye

*So far I know of The Phil­har­monik, Hobo John­son, Write or Die, Tel Cairo, and Sparks Across Dark­ness boy­cotting the SAM­MIES this year due to the killer cop cov­er sto­ry and sub­se­quent ac­tions. Have I missed any­one?

Flom­mist An­dru De­f­eye is the Guer­ril­la Poet Lau­re­ate of Sacra­men­to. Copy­right © 2018 An­dru De­f­eye. Pic­tured: Joseph Mann, fam­i­ly pho­to­graph as post­ed at Sacbee.com.

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