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Many celebrities are speaking out against police brutality and checking their white friends amid protests across the country.

The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many others have rocked the country as masses of people are once again calling out anti-Black violence.

Actors and artists are pushing the cause either in person or online. On Monday, The Flash star Candice Patton shared some posts about white privilege.

One post was a quote from author and poet Scott Woods. “The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that,” the quote starts. “Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not.”

The quote continues, “Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no on is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe.”

 

Patton then went on to share a few words shared by writer and director Little Marvin.

“Your white skin privilege is not a benign and celestial gift that was bestowed upon you. It is a benefit accrued over generations of erasure, and genocide, and enslavement, and torture, and capture, and segregation, and redlining, and predatory lending, and prison pipelining, and exclusion, and dismissal, and contentment, and convenience, and complacency, and neglect, and apathy, and silence. It didn’t materialize. It calcified. It wasn’t earned. It was stolen.”

 

A few days earlier, Patton shared her heartbreak surrounding the death of George Floyd by posting some of his last words “I can’t breathe.”

Floyd died after police officer Derek Chauvin was caught on video with his knee pinned against Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes. During this time, Floyd can be heard pleading for his life by yelling “I can’t breathe.”

 

Since Floyd’s death, Chauvin has been fired along with three other officers involved, and he’s been arrested and charged with murder. Many people are calling for the three other officers involved to be arrested and charged.

Protests and vigils have erupted across the country honoring Floyd’s life along with the lives of other Black people killed by the police. 

It seems the outrage of actors is also spreading to creators behind the scenes, as major media companies like Netflix have announced their support for #BlackLivesMatter. Even the co-creator of The Flash, Greg Berlanti, shared some words from Warner Bros, which is behind The CW network where The Flash airs.

Warner Bros shared a quote from lawyer and social justice activist, Bryan Stevenson.

“Somebody has to stand when others are sitting. Somebody has to speak when others are quiet.”

The WB wrote, “We stand with our Black colleagues, talent, storytellers and fans — and all affected by senseless violence. Your voice matters, your messages matter. #BlackLivesMatter.”