#ByeAnita WINS State’s Attorney’s Race
Assata’s Daughters, Black Lives Matter: Chicago, BYP100, Fearless Leading by the Youth will hold a #ByeAnita Press Conference today, March 16, 2016, at 26th & California, at 3 P.M.
CHICAGO, IL – The #ByeAnita campaign celebrated last night. Not because Kim Foxx won, but because Anita Alvarez lost. Due to her essential role in the cover-up of Laquan McDonald’s murder, young black organizers relentlessly targeted Alvarez’s campaign for reelection in the final weeks. Not because we support Kim Foxx, but because Anita Alvarez is a prosecutor who has demonstrated that she does not believe Black Lives Matter. When we began to target Alvarez’s campaign she was ahead of her opponents in the polls. Last night, we saw the fruits of our labor manifest as Anita Alvarez conceded the Cook County State’s Attorney race.
As long term organizers, we are fighting for a world where prosecutors do not exist. We intentionally did not endorse Kim Foxx because we intend to hold her administration accountable for how it will explicitly impact the black community. Kim Foxx, and all members of government, should take notice of how young black organizers are impacting electoral politics. Our rage against the system and love for black people has dominated this year’s presidential election and removed two prosecutors, Anita Alvarez (Chicago) and Tim McGinty (Philadelphia) so far. We are demonstrating that organized radical black love and rage can impact elections, and ultimately institutions that disproportionately negatively impact black lives.
As history and reality has shown us, young black organizers are committed to materializing tangible justice for all black people. One of the ways we intend to fight for black lives is through direct action, specifically civil disobedience, that targets those directly responsible for injustice. The indictment of Jason Van Dyke and firing of Gary McCarthy does not equate to justice for Laquan McDonald or Rekia Boyd, Ronald Johnson, Bettie Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. Terrorist police are a product of a system that devalues black life and promotes genocide in the black community. The system as it is will never justly favor black people. Mostly because elected officials are complicit with the anti-black institutions that have shaped this society since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Young black organizers, particularly queer, gender non-conforming, women and femmes, are committed to abolishing the inherently fascist system that is the United States of America. We do this until we free us.
