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The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Black lives matter

In August, Ferguson, and by extension St. Louis, was caught in a racial uprising so large that one commentator stated it was this community’s reclamation of its lost “1960s moment.”

After the shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9 by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, hundreds surrounded the spot where he died, left lifeless on the street for hours after his death. Permeating the crowd were feelings of loss and anger. Brown’s stepfather, held a sign: “Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son.”

This anger exploded into a conflagration over the following weeks. Some would describe the events as riots. Others would describe them as uprisings. While the word choice matters (one is mindless and the other a concerted challenge to a system or government), that is not the focus of this article. This article will not be talking about how Ferguson police violated protester’s constitutional right to assembly by not allowing to protesters to stand still and protest. This article will not discuss the fact that more money has been raised for the police officer who (however unjustly) shot a boy six times, to his death, than for Organization for Black Struggle, a leading organization in Ferguson and St. Louis designed to end all forms of oppression and exploitation. This article will not discuss a government’s apparent inability to indict Darren Wilson, which only means he might have committed a crime in killing Michael Brown.

No, this article will discuss a rallying cry that is not heard or repeated enough in American discourse: “Black lives matter.”

Black lives matter. The life of a black boy matters more than the destruction of a QuikTrip. His life, and the matter of his death, deserves more attention from onlookers and media than the destruction of a QuikTrip. His life is worth more than a building.

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Black lives matter. No matter how justified you think Darren Wilson was in killing Michael Brown, there’s something terribly wrong with the ease in which the lives of black men and boys can be ended by a gun. John Crawford, a young man walking around a Walmart with an unloaded air rifle was shot by police officers in Ohio (a state, ironically enough, that allows individuals to carry guns openly). His father described the killing as “an execution. No doubt about it.”

Black lives matter. I go to Walbridge elementary for an after-school literacy program, and I work with the young kids and affirm them as often as I can. Despite this, I can’t help but see those boys reflected in those protesting in Ferguson (only a few miles from Walbridge), defying police partly because that’s how one can express their manhood. Their lives matter more than what they’ve been given by a negligent society. I don’t want more boys in pitched battle with the police (them with Molotov cocktails and police with assault rifles). I want a collective society to actively show they believe in these boys and young men. I don’t want this generation of boys forgotten by the larger populace. I don’t want the first time for you to see these young men is when they are choking on tear gas. As Ferguson filled our news feeds, some began to learn about “the talk” that black parents have with their boys: don’t mess with the police, because as an officer said to Sylvester Brown Jr., a former St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist: “We are the police; we can do any damn thing we want to you.” I want parents to eventually not need to give that as anything more than a history lesson.

Black lives matter. The responses this campus had to Black Student Alliance’s (BSA) protest and demands were despicable. Yes, the Yik Yak posts were racist, but at least they were honest. I saw too many good people go silent and cold when black students (and allies) on this campus cry out: “Listen to us! We want more!” Silence still ensues.

Black lives matter. If you agree with this statement, which you all should, then hear me now. Here are ways to show you agree. First, go to the rally downtown this Saturday for Ferguson October, a national mobilization to seek justice for the death of Mike Brown and to protest police violence. Second, get out of SLU for more than Ted Drewes. I know you love frozen custard, but it’s time you started showing love towards impoverished communities on this University’s doorstep. Third, start giving an earnest ear to the folks in BSA that are demanding more from this University. Read their statutes for change, and talk with your friends about them.

Black lives matter.

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