Voices from the Streets of Ferguson: “My big eye-opener was Kent State”; “Being out here.... I had chills several times.”
August 23, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Saturday, August 16 was the first night of the "State of Emergency" and the midnight to 5am curfew. The police viciously attacked people, using teargas to clear the streets (see Dispatches from Ferguson Saturday, August 16, Saturday, Sunday, August 17 and Sunday, 11 P.M.). Earlier in the evening, up at the Quick Trip [the convenience store that was burned down after Michael Brown was killed] lots of people were standing underneath the gas station overhangs to get shelter from the pouring rain. I used this as a chance to go around and talk to people. These are two interviews I did that night:
Ferguson, August 16. Photo: Li Onesto/revcom.us
“My big eye-opener was Kent State”
I’m a teacher and I teach high school. I teach currents events and I teach an advanced placement world history class near Ferguson, Missouri.
Who are your students, mainly?
The students are—so this is a suburb of St. Louis and it’s a relatively affluent school district—it’s a little bit different makeup than Ferguson. It’s I would say, maybe 15 percent African American and about the same Asian, and then we have some Latino community there. It’s very mixed. I think there are about 13 different languages spoken at the high school.
But it is predominantly white?
Yes, it’s predominantly white. It’s sort of a plurality, I don’t know if it’s more than half.
So why are you out here tonight?
I am out here, I am both angry and sad at the same time with what happened. I have been involved in these kinds of situations before for a long, long time. I see this as a continuity for a lot of things that have happened in the United States. I suppose my big eye-opener for me was probably a good 30 years ago I was at a protest at Kent State and I got tear gassed and you know I thought how could this happen in America, it’s such a nice place and that sort of thing.
Are you talking about the demonstration at Kent State when the National Guard killed people?
It was a demonstration after that. I went to a place called Antioch College in Ohio. So a group of us went to Kent State – they were planning on putting some buildings up where the students were killed by the National Guard. And so there was a protest and I was just kind of riding along. That was probably about 1977, I’m guessing. And then it was a very peaceful protest and I thought, this is good, free speech this is what it’s all about and then out of nowhere, I want to say there were about 300 police or so, came at this crowd and just started shooting tear gas. I was running away and hacking and coughing, you’ve probably heard those stories of people getting stuff in their lungs and eyes. It was pretty horrible, there were people running away. To make a long story longer that’s how I got involved in this work. I just thought, this can’t possibly be happening.
Ferguson, August 18. Photo: Li Onesto/revcom.us
So what do you see as the relationship between that experience and what’s happening here in Ferguson today?
Like I said, it’s a continuity because you have the police who are I think just over zealous in not understanding that the United States, in a democracy, it’s all about people. If people don’t have the power, then who does? And if it’s just people with guns and weapons then you’re in a military state. I mean that’s kind of a bottom line for me. There’s a lot more to it of course but that’s at least a beginning for me. This is not only just a journey for American history but there are personal journeys along the way. You know Michael Brown getting shot, you know, that’s a spark. You can hear it in the background here, you know, the anger and the frustration.
Were you out at the protests around Trayvon Martin?
There wasn’t much here—what I’m understanding is that there’s a connection between that and this because there have been many killings of young people and so that’s what I mean by continuity is that this isn’t an isolated incident—I know that sounds rhetorical. But it’s a part of something that’s ongoing, and not just here in Ferguson, Missouri, but around the United States. So I mean I think that’s what’s bringing people like myself out, that frustration, that anger, that this just has to stop. You can see here that people are taking the street, literally walking up and down the street. I think it’s a good protest here. People are trying to speak freely and it’s being squelched and I think that escalates the issue of people being able to say what they want to say.
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“Being out here.... I had chills several times.”
Just say a little about yourself.
I’m 35 years old, I’m a virtual assistant so I work online as an assistant.
You live around here?
I live about 10 minutes away. However, I grew up here in Dellwood and my mom was also born and raised in Dellwood which is just the next municipality over.
What’s that community like?
Just like this. I would say the majority is Black people and then the minority is older white people.
So you grew up in a majority Black neighborhood?
Yeah, up until I was 15 and then went to a majority white neighborhood and that was an eye opening situation.
So tell me a little bit about that, what was that like?
I’m going to be completely honest here. I grew up, my extended family, my grandmother, my aunts and uncles are racist, they’re bigots, I guess I should say...I grew up like that.
They use the N word?
Yes they do, no matter who the person that’s the word they use. And then being in predominantly Black schools, since I was the minority, I was treated badly since I was the minority. And then I went to a predominantly white high school and I was the majority and I saw how the Black minority was treated and that’s when I realized that ignorance comes in all colors and I stopped the cycle there. I was no longer—I didn’t like the N word anymore, I got out of that cycle. I now judge people by their character.
So I am here today because I know there’s racism, institutionalized racism, and the cops and the people around here. And that may go on forever because it seems like we all divide ourselves, whether or not it’s left, right; Republican, Democrat; religion; race. It’s sad that we continue to fight each other instead of bonding together because we’re not going defeat this oppressive government unless we all bond together.
So is this the first night [Saturday] you’ve been out here?
No I was out here all day on Thursday. I got here at about 10 o’clock on Thursday and left about 10 o’clock at night.
What was that like?
It was unbelievable. I have never felt so much love and unity in my life. And I’ve never been to such a big protest either and I’ve been to quite a bit of protests. I’m a political activist before this. I’ve been a political activist since 2007. I started waking up to the militarization of the police and the oppression that’s going on; the corruption, no accountability, no transparency. I started waking up to it in 2007...what was the question?
You were talking about Thursday.
Oh Thursday, yeah, that’s right. I’ve never been to a protest that big and I’ve never felt so much love and unity that I actually felt it physically. I had chills, several times. I cried a few times.
And that’s because....
The unity, the love that was going on and the fact that people were standing up and they weren’t backing down. The fact that they lasted that long. I mean that’s brave to keep coming back out here night after night after night—after being met with riot shields, snarling dogs, big guns, lasers pointed at you. During the daytime even you had guns on you, tanks. I mean, I was watching it online and I was just sick. It was sick. And then it hit me even harder because this is where I grew up too. So after Wednesday night I said, I’m going down there, I can’t take it anymore.
Wednesday night was a night when they went after people with tear gas, right?
Yeah, some really horrific pictures came out of Wednesday night and I said, I can’t sit here and watch this go on anymore. I’ve got to go down there because if I don’t stand up for them who is going to stand up for me when it’s my turn.
Yeah, I came down here and it was just, the love, the unity—I was thanked more times than I can count. I’m seeing the divides online and I’m trying not to pay attention to it. I’m trying to stay positive and look at all the positive stuff that’s coming out of this. The little small things that are having rippling effects—I see a lot of positive stuff coming out of this.
What do you think about the fact that they’ve now declared a State of Emergency and a curfew AND the fact that they haven’t indicted and arrested the cop who killed Michael Brown?
I don’t even know what to say. It’s mind boggling. [Governor] Nixon who called the emergency hasn’t even been here. So how do you really know what’s going on down here if you’re not down here, if you’re going by what the media tells you...
He knows what’s going on down here...
Well, I guess, I don’t know. Yeah, I guess so. But he’s got to play that game because that’s the game he’s in.
And there being no arrest of the cop...
It’s totally unacceptable. But you know what, it happens every day. I see a police brutality video—and that’s another reason I’m down here—because I see a video every single day on police brutality and the fact that we’re standing up, now’s the time. Something’s got to change. Police brutality everyday. And it was almost like when I first heard about Mike Brown, it was almost like he was just another statistic because that happens every day, sad to say. It really does—there’s some kind of botched raid, someone’s getting killed, being hurt, like the baby that got the grenade thrown. There’s just innocent people being victimized by the police state everyday.
So what’s different this time?
Well, there’s still no accountability. The only difference this time is that the people that are peacefully assembling aren’t backing down. That’s the difference is that they’re not backing down. So I’m glad and I’m proud that it’s coming from St. Louis.
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And still no justice for Michael Brown.
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