Correspondence from Readers:

Election Night in Mount Greenwood—
This Is Amerikkka 2016.

November 9, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On election night, what was playing out at the ballot box was also playing out in the streets of Mt. Greenwood in Chicago. On Saturday, November 5, off-duty pigs had killed a young Black man, Joshua Beal, who had come from Indiana to take part in a funeral for his cousin’s burial.

The racist outpouring that night where the family was gathered and again at a protest the next day from this all-white enclave of cops and cops’ families and supporters in Chicago, was a naked display of ugly white supremacy. The revcoms put out a challenge to the major media about their failure to cover the white supremacy of the cop-loving mob. Articles and editorials have begun to appear, and the Mayor was forced to make a timid rebuke of the racist vitriol spewing out from Chicago Police Department members/supporters.

On Tuesday, election night, a small number of activists, religious figures, and the Chicago Revolution Club marched into the middle of hundreds at what was in effect a “Pigs Lives Matter” demonstration in Mount Greenwood. Once again the virulent white supremacy was on display as this mob yelled at Black people in the protest—“n***er,” “coon,” “This is America, not Africa.” Police allowed these racists to flood from the sidewalk into the street when the protestors arrived in order to surround and threaten physical violence.  People there described it as incredibly intense. For more than an hour and a half, the protestors stood their ground and got in the face of these reactionaries who were chanting, “USA, USA, CPD, CPD, Trump, Trump, Trump.” Within this scene the Revolution Club was a strong pole of attraction in their shirts as they led chants of “1,2,3,4 Slavery Genocide and War; 5, 6, 7, 8, America Was Never Great.” “Sixteen shots and a cover up; thirteen shots at a funeral.” They called for revolution to sweep away the white supremacy embedded in this system.

DNAinfo’s reporter grew up in this part of Chicago and was receiving tweets that he is a “n***er lover” and had been made into a “hood rat.”

On the other side, one teenager, whose mother is a cop, said he considered Black Lives Matter protestors domestic terrorists. Another cop’s family member said they were tired of gang funerals going through their area and now there is one less to worry about since the police killed Joshua Beal.

Father Pfleger was one of the religious figures present. The well-known Catholic priest posted, “Just got back from the protest in Mt. Greenwood at 111th and Kedzie. I have not seen so many angry White People filled with such Hate since a child in 1966 in Marquette Park [Ed—This is a reference to when mobs of white people attacked with bricks and bottles a march led by Martin Luther King to integrate housing].... I was called every name and cursed with every word, by adults and children walking with their parents... an area that is not only White, but heavily Catholic, and will be at church on Sunday... I am embarrassed as a Priest and a Catholic to witness what I witnessed tonight.... Earlier today a man said he wanted to break my legs and drag me from a truck.... Mt. Greenwood you should be embarrassed... by those who represented you tonight....”

Some of the activists at the protest thought they could appeal to the reactionaries through prayer and patriotic displays (while taking a knee). This is a dangerous illusion. What was on display in Mt. Greenwood was a celebration of the execution of a Black man, the white supremacy of the Chicago Police Department, cops angry that their killing with impunity has been dragged out into the light of day with the murder of Laquan McDonald, and pumped up as part of the fascist social base unleashed by Trump.

This situation is roiling around the city and interpenetrating with the election of Trump. After the police shooting of Joshua Beal and the protests over it, a student at Marist, a Catholic high school in the Mt. Greenwood area, had texted, “I F***ing hate N***ers.” Her friend replied “same.” A tweet with a screen shot of this text went viral. The high school had to issue a statement as did the Catholic Church condemning the racism. Now at high schools around the city, students are holding mini-rallies to condemn this and organizing to all go down to Marist to take a stand on Friday, 11/11. Only 12% of the Marist student body is Black. One student expressed how deeply angry she was about this text to the Chicago Tribune, “A senior who is black said that while she has been called racial epithets before and during her time at Marist, she was shocked and hurt that the girls whose text messages were publicized, some of whom had been longtime friends of hers, would say such things.... She said she feels like their relationships have been irreparably harmed by the texts and doesn’t plan to reach out to any of the girls about the messages.”

DO NOT TURN AWAY, DO NOT BACK DOWN. PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE!

 

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