#MarchForMore: A Black Activist’s Response To #NeverAgain
Consider not further inviting the police state into your schools. You’ve already had them at hundreds of rallies around the world with…
Consider not further inviting the police state into your schools. You’ve already had them at hundreds of rallies around the world with tanks, assault rifles, and kevlar vests. Be critical of certain endorsements, like those from #VeteransForGunReform when we take into account the violence that the United States military has waged around the world. When Black Lives Matter and racial justice activists speak of the police state, the school to prison pipeline, and the hypocrisy of the American public when it comes to youth led movements, this is exactly what they think of —a crowd of largely white people with their children marching happily in support of a movement as hoards of police officers with weapons stands close by.
Photo Credit: CBS News
When I went to Ferguson for “Weekend of Resistance” during my senior year of college shortly after Michael Brown was killed, I arriving to Canfield Apartments the night of a march. News helicopters circled above to document the influx of outsiders coming into town that weekend. I was promptly handed a marker and told to write the number for jail support down on my arm. Despite the fact that the Ferguson Police Department operated differently (somewhat less combative) that weekend, that moment was still very real for me because a conversation I’ve been having my entire life happened earlier that day as well.
Someone told me, “Just know that if you get photographed and that picture ends up on a newspaper, what they’ll say about you is gonna be real different than what they say about a white person.”
At any moment as a black person in this country, I could be killed. This feeling of danger increases every time I step into the street to rally or march. It has happened here in Ohio to many people, including The Black Pride when activists silently blocked the Columbus Pride Parade in 2017 in the name of Philando Castile/violence against trans folks and in result, four people were arrested (two of whom were trans).
I cannot speak to the courage that it has taken for the survivors of the Parkland school shooting and other school shootings to step forward, to speak up and use their voice. But I can speak to the courage that I’ve witnessed every time while marching at a Black Lives Matter, anti-fascist, water protector, anti-rape culture or militant anti-Trump rally. There is an awareness that your stance against a violent government apparatus could get you clubbed by a police officer or maced at close range. It happened to anti-Vietnam War protestors. It happened to the Black Panther Party and it is happening today with the government targeting “Black Identity Extremists” through the “Race Paper
There is an undeniable feeling that crawled through my stomach as I sat at home, combing through live streams and tweets about #MarchForOurLives. The feeling was a twinge of shame for the country that I live in. This shame became more complicated as I watched Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter go on stage and demanded a “gun free world”. Martin Luther King Jr. kept several firearms during the mid-1950’s for protection from white supremacists and after his house was bombed in 1956, he attempted to apply for a concealed carry permit, but racial discrimination won out. The 50th anniversary of his assassination, which occurred after years of state harassment and surveillance, will be in just a few days.
Strangely enough in a truly gun free world, I — a black man — may feel much safer when walking into grocery stores, convention centers, or office buildings if police are present. But I do not imagine that most people imagine a “gun free world” that includes unarmed police. If society had realized and actualized a police without firearms years ago, maybe some of our black children, like Tamir Rice and Ty’re King, would be here today. Maybe we’d find more restorative justice, community driven solutions to the violence around.
How should black people feel about these things during conversations or movements centered around gun violence?
In the three days following the grand jury’s decision to not indict Darren Wilson, the police officer that killed Michael Brown, there were more than 400 arrests in St. Louis, Missouri. Many African Americans were simply not surprised when Barack Obama neglected to meaningfully speak on why protestors resorted to violence in the streets in reaction to police’s antics. In fact, when the Baltimore riots arrived in April 2015, Obama noted that there was “no excuse” for it. In response to #NeverAgain , Obama stated that the young people were a part of #MarchForOurLives on March 24th are “leading us forward”.
Could he not fully believe in the black, brown, poor, or marginalzied people from the ghettos who rose up against police violence? Should any of us expect him to?
Trigger Warning: The video below contains police violence against Ferguson protestors.
If we are talking about gun violence, should we not talk about the guns used against Michael Brown, Charleena Lyles, Freddie Gray, and the thousands of other black bodies shot at by police? Should we not talk about how every black parent must have The Talk with their child? Should we not talk about how your movement’s manifesto asks for more funding to invite more police into schools where mass shootings are happening? It seems that mass shootings tend to happen in predominantly suburban schools, where metal detectors and rampant police are less likely to be because America considers white bodies less of a danger; while sniper rifles are pointed protestors in Ferguson. Should we move all out the police and security out of urban schools and into the suburban ones instead? Would this be a strange reversal of Ameria’s tale of racism and policing?
Should we not talk about the interconnectedness of U.S. police departments to police violence and assassinations abroad, like the recent murder of Marielle Franco?
If you want your movement to be as intersectional as possible, then you must understand how policies within your manifesto could disproportionately affect people of color, people living with mental illness, and people living with disabilities — all of whom are more likely to be killed at the hands of police, who are armed with militarized weapons as well. You must seize this moment in the national and global spotlight in a way that speaks truth and respects that dangers that black folks and marginalized communities face every day at the hands of violence, especially from police.