It Only Took 24 Hours For The Internet To Donate $400,000 To The Family Of Alton Sterling

The only words that can presently be associated with the names Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are ones akin to “tragedy,” and all the agony, outrage, and exhaustion it entails. Both black men were shot and killed by white police offers Wednesday and they were caught doing so on film.

There have been more than 500 people gunned down by police officers in the first half of 2016 alone, and when institutions seem to fail a population so completely, the people only have each other to turn to for support—especially when that failing institution is the police force. On Friday, a community has sprung up around the victims’ families, and in the past 24 hours a scholarship fund set up for the children of Alton Sterling has raised almost $470,000 from nearly 16,000 contributors as of this writing. He leaves behind five kids.

The GoFundMe page was set up by writer and actress Issa Rae, who is best known for her YouTube series Awkward Black Girl and her recent development deal with HBO. The goal of the fund was to raise $200,000, and Rae posted a thank you note to Twitter after the amount was reached in just nine hours.

Separate GoFundMe pages have also been set up for Castile’s family, you can find them here and here.