These words rang heavily as the flood disappointment resounded throughout Twitter after news spread that Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the shooting death of Michael Brown.
[FLASHBACK: #BlackLivesMatter Killer Mike’s Emotional Ferguson Speech + Darren Wilson’s ABCNews Interview (VIDEOS)]
I myself already figured that the grand jury would not indict Wilson. However, some small gleam of hope prevailed. As a member of the NAACP I immediately called my local office to see if we would rally or protest but sadly my calls weren’t returned, and there was no updated information regarding that matter. I hope my local chapter can do a little better with a grass roots campaign.
Immediately, I scanned Instagram and Twitter hashtags and found out about a protest rally called “Shut It Down ATL” ? I passed the info along and my boyfriend and I decided to go to the event.
Underground Atlanta served as the meeting place, there were different speakers and as I walked up another large crowd was marching towards the capitol.? I later found out that this group was the crowd that blocked 75.
Some people don’t understand why the protestors would block the highway but as a speaker from the Malcolm X grass roots movement pointed out, effecting traffic causes people to complain… complaining leads to federal involvement and they MUST pay attention to whats happening because it will effect ALL commerce.
Another speaker was a lady from Palestine who in fact mentioned she had been pressured by the police and racially profiled. She mentioned that people in Gaza were tweeting the people of Ferguson how to deal with the tear gas.
Genocide had been mentioned a couple times, and if you look at the definition “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation” you see that young black men are indeed being targeted.
There were all races and ages represented and no one was violent or disrespectful. We were all there with one mission, to show our disappointment with the judicial system to include that of the police who have killed numbers of young minorities across the nation.
People are asking ‘what can we do?’, well you have to first start by showing up to these rallies and marches!
The civil rights movement didn’t just occur overnight. They marched, they rallied, they cried, they fought, they went to jail, they died? For YEARS but eventually something happened. Sitting at home doing nothing helps nothing. Don’t talk about it, be about it.
According to the NNPA the African American community is set to spend about 1 Trillion dollars. Not 100 million or even 100 billion. 1 Trillion!! What if we only spent half of that imagine what we could do wight the rest of that money? The only way to flex or power is with our money!! We aren’t even 20% of the population, hover we have the finical ability to impose change on a society. I will be parting of the #HandsUpDontShoot movement I hope you do as well. The only way to create change is we have to fight for it. We have to eat and breathe change. We can still save our sons and daughters.
Find a grass roots campaign and get involved in our community, if we won’t care why should anyone else?
[Editor?s Note: This post was written by friend of the site and fellow blogger, Zeralyn. Thank you so much for sharing your story!]
What are your thoughts about the Ferguson protests?
Did you participate in ‘BlackOutBlackFriday‘ or any of the protest rallies?
Photos: Zeralyn, Twitter & Prince Williams (ATLPics)