Hoodie Day—SF Bay Area
June 13, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
Fifty people gathered at the Fruitvale BART train station in Oakland for a rally, and another 25 at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. Thousands of stickers got out at area high schools and the KMEL Jams concert and other outings leading up to and on Hoodie Day.
In a Neighborhood
The Revolution Club in a neighborhood held a "hoodies up for Trayvon photo day" at a park in the community on June 9.
Hoodie Day, Oakland, California, at the Fruitvale BART station where Oscar Grant was murdered by police. Photo: Special to Revolution
The afternoon began with making a banner that read, "We are all Trayvon, the whole damn system is guilty." This banner was to be used at the next day's demo. A group of shorties took up this assignment enthusiastically, painting the banner with the slogans but also putting their names on it. This drew other youth and adults to their activity, "supervising" the painting and adding their names. And pretty soon groups of youth were seen standing together, holding up various display of Revolution centerfolds of BAsics 1:13, and on a couple of occasions reading out loud the quote from BA, which has struck a chord with so many people. An hour later, the same scene happened again with another wave of shorties and adults.
Palm cards of BAsics 1:13 were distributed widely along with hundreds of Trayvon stickers and posters. Clips of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! were shown to several individuals on the spot also.
Later on in the afternoon, six members of a social club in the community showed up, wearing black hoodies, ready for a video production for justice for Trayvon which had been pre-arranged from a week prior. A rapper from the Revolution Club stepped up to the beat track from a local rap group in the hood, as the social club moved to the beat, speaking to the deep sentiment from those in the hood that "we are all Trayvon Martin."
Afterward, the social club and others passed their phones around taking pictures for their hash-tags, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook friends. People were proud of what they had done, wanting to do more; and the social club then set up a video showing/discussion of the DVD BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! specifically for their next meeting.
At Castlemont High
At Castlemont High School in East Oakland, a racially mixed crowd of about 60 students were greeted leaving the campus on June 7, the last day of school (before finals) with a small contingent of Revolution Club members and others holding banners and placards reading, "We are still Trayvon Martin." A beat track from the boom box chanted Trayvon's name over and over as students came forward individually to hold up the banner that was signed by many from their school during the week.
It was quite a challenge to buck the peer pressure and step out, as about 20 students took turns one by one holding the banner, not quite gelling a critical mass of students to change the tide. Some of those students holding the banner went to others standing on the side and challenged them to join in. And later the banner was moved by a couple students to the front of the school so others were having their pictures taken. All this went on, with people on the street occasionally joining in, including an older woman in a wheelchair, and with posters and stickers of Trayvon quickly getting out, while at the same time some other students actually snuck out the back entrance.
Then a member of the Revolution Club began a rap as over 30 whistles were passed out. At first it was cacophony, but when the rapper chanted, "Trayvon Martin didn't have to die; we all know the reason why, the whole damn system is guilty" in time to the beats (Too Short's track "Blow the Whistle"), people began to change their tune from "fuck the police" to "yeah the whole damn system is guilty!" And the whistling then kept the beat!
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