By Hailey MacDonald, Editor-in-Chief
White t-shirts line the walls of the St. Germain Campus Center to commemorate 107 individuals of color who lost their lives due to police brutality. The display is called “I Can’t Breathe,” which were the last words of Eric Garner and George Floyd before their lives were prematurely taken by police officers.
“The exhibit is meant to give viewers a conceptualization of the damage police brutality has done to many lives,” says BreAnna Lowery, the student who created this exhibit during the last week of Black History Month.
Lowery is a member of United & Mutually Equal, the University’s multicultural student organization, and hosted a few other events during Black History Month as well. This organization is one that celebrates diversity and spreads awareness and education throughout the Western New England University campus, and this initiative was just one example of one of their February events.
Lowery specifically wanted to bring attention to Kimani Gray, who was a 16-year-old that was shot 11 times by the police while he held a toy gun. “I wanted people to understand the difference in which people of color are dealt with by the police as well as raise the question to anyone who views the cases: would this person have died if they were not of color?” questions Lowery.
Lowery hopes that this exhibit, even after it is taken down, will stick with students and give them the opportunity to remember and honor the lives of these individuals.
“I feel as if nowadays it is easy to hear of someone dying and not be affected by it if you do not have a direct connection with them,” she says. Being able to see the variety of t-shirts, I hope that students and anyone who sees them is able to see them as people and not just numbers as well as see each person individually instead of a whole.”
