Philly Rising: 2 businesswomen show Black Lives Matter is more than a moment

While thousands hit the Philadelphia streets in protests the Saturday following George Floyd’s death, roommates Delilah Dee and Fatou Barry put their creative talents into action.

"That week in general, it just felt very heavy in our household," Dee said. "We didn’t even leave our rooms, and we just kind of were trying to figure out what are we doing? What can we do?”

“We came up with this the same day we dropped the shirt."

The t-shirt designs feature a single repeating phrase in bold letters: “This Black Life Matters,” “Her Black Life Matters,” or “His Black Life Matters.” As the lines progress, the letters become warped as if melting from the shirt.

No justice. No peace. In 2020 Black men and women are still being murdered and reduced to hashtags at the hands of the police and racism. In the middle of a global pandemic, we’re forced to leave our houses to protest and demand equality for BASIC human rights. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY. Nor is it longer acceptable for the world and “allies” to turn a blind eye. It is the responsibility of every single person to speak up and demand change + action. We all play a part thru education, conversation, donation, and amplification. Using creativity as vehicle for social change is at core of my ethos which is why I’m honored that @heyabmg and @shft.world have partnered up to release a special edition shirt that will donate 100% of profit from sales to both #GeorgeFloyd’s official fund and @blackvisionscollective In an effort to be as transparent as possible. We’ll be publicly sharing weekly contribution amounts from sales made. Help us support the Black community and organizations committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence. — Click the link in my bio to purchase your shirt and donate. — #BLACKLIVESMATTER #JUSTICEFORGEORGEFLOYD #justiceforbreonnataylor #justiceforahmaudarbery

A post shared by Fatou B. Barry ---- (@itsfatoub) on May 30, 2020 at 7:20pm PDT

Barry says, like art, the design is up for interpretation. To her, it represents action.

“The design illustrates the warped noise. I’m tired in many ways of just hearing that these lives matter but without any real action being taken behind it,” Barry said. "As you see, the words warped and become illegible. It represents how I feel about people who say Black Lives Matter but put no action behind it."

In just the first week, t-shirt sales raised nearly $10,000, with all proceeds going to the George Floyd Memorial fund and the Black Visions Collective.

“What we do on a daily is we literally operate out of love. ... We thought we were just going to be able to raise a couple hundred dollars,” Dee said.

Dee says, to their surprise, they even got orders from customers in Poland, Taiwan, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Singapore and more.  

“These are things that we do. These are things that we’re good at. This is what we're going to use as a vehicle for how we can contribute to this cause,” Barry said.

For full disclosure, they post the donation receipts on Instagram.

Submitted our first round of donations from the @heyabmg + @shft.world collaboration tees ---- Thank you to everyone who purchased a tee and continues to do so. We were able to donate this much because of you all -- #blacklivesmatter #donate

A post shared by Fatou B. Barry ---- (@itsfatoub) on Jun 9, 2020 at 7:49am PDT

Both Dee and Barry say this is only the beginning of their work and not just a trend.

“There’s always a moment. There’s always a trend. And that’s not what we're here for," Barry said. "So, why would we take the shirt down? Why would only make it for a limited amount of time if black lives matter all the time? So, the shirt is there until 3005."

As sales continue, the pair hope to diversify where they allocate donations.

“There’s so many organizations. We need to donate to the organizations that are making sure that justice is brought to black women, our black queer LGBTQIA and trans community, as well,” Dee said.