The powerful #BlackLivesMatter has captured mainstream media attention and confronted elected officials across the country. This week, though, one potential Democratic presidential candidate decided to do something a little different: organize a listening session to proactively seek out their voices. The video above shows some powerful statements from local Ferguson community activists and residents who speak out about the injustices they see and experience everyday in their community.
Here are their voices:
:30 seconds — On the reality of the police state in Ferguson and so many black and low-income communities across the country:
“My son goes to school down the street, and he’s afraid to walk home because he thinks the police are going to shoot him - so i have to go get my baby everyday after school, because he’s terrified of officers.”
:50 seconds — On the shooting of Mike Brown, killed August 9th, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking massive outrage and a movement for justice:
“What would you tell a 7-year-old child - little boy - that witnessed a body laying in the street for 4 hours, in the heat, shot up - what would you tell him? How can you make this right for our kids?”
1:39 — On the criminalization and infantilizing of black youth in America today:
“Stop telling us at 10 ‘o clock we gotta go in cause it’s curfew - that’s slavery”
1:56 — On the harsh economic realities in so many black communities:
“Some boys can’t even walk down the street - we didn’t choose to live in the ghetto - the ghetto chose us, what you made us the ghetto - we’re not the ghetto, we’re a community - we just don’t have the resources”
1:56 — On outright racism and prejudice against black people, and the failure of the American Dream:
“When did it become so wrong to be black? I was told as a child, you can never make it if you don’t try. Well I’m trying, but why does it seem like I’m not making it?”
4:26 — A woman who graduated from college and became an RN but is going through hard times:
“I remember being hungry to the point where not only did I not know where todays meal was coming from, I didn’t know where tomorrows or next weeks was coming from - not only mine but my children.”
6:43 — On the conspicuous absence of other presidential candidates and elected officials:
“He [Lessig] was the only person that I have heard to this point, who can eloquently talk about Black Lives Matter - and all the other inequalities we have been experiencing - whether it is intellectual violence, economic violence, housing, lack of housing. I have nothing against Bernie Sanders, but he is not in this room.”
7:43 — On the importance of moving beyond slogans and words to action:
“Nobody else has done this to this point - on the national stage - because everybody is afraid. You know how it is. Everybody is fronting - they think putting Black Lives Matter in a sentence or a speech is enough - it is not enough to just say Black LIves Matter and that be the end of the day!”
Learn more about #BlackLivesMatter here. And about the listening session here.