There won’t be anything “white” about Christmas in Chicago this year. Instead the unseasonable warmth gave way to rain and turbulent wind—something of an appropriate symbol for what 2015 has meant to black communities across the country.
These leaders, organizers, and activists in the streets aren’t looking for a quick fix. Instead, they’re fighting for a gift that will keep on giving—for families who lost loved ones to police brutality, for scores of people whose lives could be spared with substantive reforms, and for city budgets rocked by hundreds of millions of dollars in police misconduct payouts.
Without the work of protesters, 2016 presidential candidates wouldn’t have been forced to answer questions about #BlackLivesMatter and police accountability during the debates. Without the marches, journalists wouldn’t have researched widespread trends, or outlined how corruption and expediency in the judicial system allows police officers to get away with murder. Without rallying cries like “16 times” there would be no interventions from the Department of Justice in cities and towns where police accountability seems to be an afterthought.
