[embedded content]. March has stepped off heading west. pic.twitter.com/Blbpb3TLF1. — PRO_NYC (@protest_nyc) July 26, 2024. Protesters are marching in NYC demanding justice for #SonyaMassey. NYPD is out in big numbers to repress the protest. Despite this repression, protesters continue to march, albeit mostly on the sidewalk. Cops are doing whatever they can to make things difficult. pic.twitter.com/EzxFQkCIGH. — Ash J (@AshAgony) July 26, 2024. @tahyira reporter for News In Progress was on hand to talk to some of the white attendees of the protest. Many who opted not to be on camera but spoke to her about how they feel. She shares her experience in a statement below.. It was a small crowd firstly. I was a little shocked to see that not that many Black women showed up but there are tons of sister protests coming across cities this weekend. I thought about what angle we should take, I have been discussing Black Lives Matter cases for a decade. I went out for Eric Garner and stayed out all day doing different die-ins, blocking traffic, making noise, and asking for DASH CAMERAS or BODY CAMERAS. We were successful. But for what? To now bear the witness of all these Black people who died just because they had a run in with police officers? I didn’t really want to talk to Black attendees but non Black guests. The first dude I spoke with was Mexican. I asked him if this was happening to his race, what would he be doing to try and stop it. “We have to change people’s mindsets – its not about laws.” I agreed. I felt like an idiot honestly because no one has an answer to a version of dehumanization unseen since the terrors of the Holocaust during the German Reich. And even then – there are people who deny the Holocaust. The next white woman I asked the same question said that this one was more case by case but also apart of the broader issue. She said, “the police weren’t really designed to respond to other communities outside of my own. But if my husband is a cop and I call to say he hit me, no one is coming.” I agreed again. My final person was a white guy. He wore a mask so some of his words were choppy. I asked him, “Do you think if a group of Black gangs went around targeting white kids at school to lynch them in this same park, would that make a white person understand what Black people have known for their entire existence here?” He was definitely taken back by that question. He went on to bring up two people I pretended to know that were lynch mob people but didn’t take on revenge or something of that sorts. But I pressed on, using white examples like CNN’s former host Chris Cuomo who got fired days after he stated that if white kids were being killed the way Black kids are killed this wouldn’t be happening. He took a sigh and said well yeah. I went on to ask him if more white people who become COPS knew the history of where the COPS come from, which is slave catching techniques down in the south and going after Native Americans, then maybe they would understand why policing in America is swayed against a skin-tone of humans. There is only one race, the human race. He agreed. More knowledge and origin stories maybe needed to help explain a lot of the policies we see in 2024. I got one protester to be on camera which is the video we shared on Youtube. Rest in power to Sonya. The fight for Black Lives continues.. View this post on Instagram. A post shared by Tahyira Savanna / Tee Slaves (@iletthegoodtimesroll). Related
