Letters for Black Lives: Comic Edition

(And reflections on our one-year anniversary.)

Friends, cousins and siblings,

Letters for Black Lives is one year old today. To commemorate the anniversary, a team of cartoonists are releasing a comic edition of the letter.

Honorariums for the artists’ work was crowdfunded by the LfBL community last year. And as with the letter, you are free to re-use our illustrations (see Creative Commons license) to adapt it for your community.

It’s been one year and there is still much to do. These letters remain relevant: Philando Castile’s killer is free and Alton Sterling’s family is still fighting for justice. White supremacists are coming out of the shadows. It’s right to be angry and all too easy to fall into bitterness, but we mustn’t, in the words of Maya Angelou:

You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer, it eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure.

We have much work ahead of us if we are to achieve justice and equity. Our goal remains the same as it was in 2016: “[to speak] empathetically, kindly, and earnestly to our elders about why Black lives matter to us. As many of us are first- and second-generation immigrants ourselves, we know first-hand that it can be difficult to find the words to talk about this complex issue, especially in the languages that resonate most with our elders. Our hope with this letter and its translations is to make it easier for people to craft their own starting points, and serve as a first step towards more difficult intergenerational conversations about race and police violence.”

So friends, cousins, and siblings, we must continue to lift one another up and keep making space to hear each other’s stories. Respect and build on the work of those who come before us. If you have an idea, find your people and try it. Carve out new spaces for action. It’s okay to falter, lose momentum, or fail; but keep trying because when you pursue your work vigorously and conscientiously, you never know where you’ll end up.

We’ll see you around the internets.

In solidarity,

Your siblings

Comic adaptation by Wendy Xu (editing, art direction), Jason Li (writing layout, lettering), Jamie Parreno (penciling), Ellen Gezi (inking), Michelle Xu (coloring), Carina Browder (editing).