“We cannot give up on the heart of our democracy.” – Reverend Dr. William Barber
Last night, Americans across the nation took to the streets to protest recurring police brutality. Youth in Minneapolis formed lines and did Colin Kaepernick-like kneels in the street. People in that city, Sacramento, Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and Las Vegas came together in crowds, armed with their smartphones, recording nonstop, documenting their own resistance. There was chanting, yelling, smiling, cursing, and solemn calm. There were black, brown, and white people standing on the front lines, holding body-length metal shields, bringing to mind the metal garbage can lids that black South African students used to protect themselves during their 1976 uprising in Soweto. One guy hustled down a street, carrying a gallon jug of milk to counteract the effects of teargas, just a little ways away from a burned-up police precinct. All ages of people were blocking intersections, wearing masks, and carrying signs bearing the slogans, “Stop Killing Black People,” “I Can’t Breathe,” “Wake Up America,” and “Black and Brown People Unite.” In a shot I will never forget, a protester in a flowing skirt pushed along with a walker, taking one slow, determined, heavy footstep at a time, in the midst of a fast-moving crowd. In city after city, history makers stood side by side and raised their fists in a Black Power salute, a timeless expression of resistance and solidarity.
Your voice is your weapon.
– from The Hate U Give
There are those who say that protests and marches don’t matter, that getting in the street doesn’t change anything. If you want to make a difference, they say, get out and vote. But I have never believed that public protest was futile. It is a charge that can jolt a city or a country out of apathy, indifference, and hopelessness, a release for an anger that might otherwise rip a person up inside. It builds unity and momentum and lets you know that you are not alone in your frustration and desperation. It is the rumble beneath the feet reminding us that the status quo ground upon which we live, breathe, and work is a land that we do not own, one that can crack, crumble, and take on an entirely new shape when subjected to steady pressure and intense determination.
I have heard some politicians use the word “chaos” to describe the Friday night protests. The characterization is dismissive and condescending. There was much, much more than chaos taking place on Friday. There were people speaking out, thinking quickly on their feet, marching with a purpose, trying to make their way to the White House lawn, and fighting for “the heart of our democracy.”
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have been silenced forever. We must speak.
The destruction happening in our cities is real and excruciating to watch. But as much as I hate watching it, I am at the same time disturbed by people who chastise protestors for failing to carry out a 100% orderly street demonstration in the midst of a cyclone of back-to-back racial traumas and the storm winds of a life-threatening pandemic. Why not stay focused on the racist, murderous violence that led to the protests in the first place?
The thing is this: meticulously planned and orderly demonstrations of the past did not keep Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, or George Floyd from being killed. This is not to say that these demonstrations were useless. Much has changed in this society for the better as a result of that kind of resistance. But there is still much that is staying stubbornly the same, and there is no road map for how to get us to the next level.
Seventeen-year-old Darnella Frazier had the unbelievable presence of mind to record the killing of George Floyd in real time. This was not a planned filming; she was terrified and acting with urgency, using what she had at the moment. MSNBC correspondent Lawrence O’Donnell has rightly called Frazier a hero, noting that her on-the-spot video is the sole reason why anyone at all has been criminally charged in Floyd’s death.
“The BCALA roundly condemns the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers within the Minneapolis Police Department.” – from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) Facebook page
When I read about the history of social change in America, what is clear to me is that there was no one strategy or tactic that made it all happen. People had to march; they had to vote; they had to get in people’s faces; they had to educate themselves; they had to plan; they had to act on the fly; they had to speak up; they had to write; they had to publish on their own; they had to make people mad; they had to go to jail; they had to fight. Many activists of the 1960s who are lionized today were, in their own heyday, criticized time and again by established authority figures for being too rash.
I do not agree with people who write off the events of Friday as chaos or with those who say that we should just vote in November. Whoever wins on Election Day will not assume office until eight months from now. We do not need to give racists eight more months to ram their knees into people’s necks. We need to do something now, whether it’s marching in the streets, pressuring Congress, boycotting institutions that do not support humane policies, or speaking out publicly. Our democracy cannot wait.
Stacy Torian 