Archive for the ‘George Zimmerman’ Category

Division within the American democracy | News | thechartonline.com – Chart

The idea of democracy comes from the brilliant minds of philosophers from long ago in ancient Athens, Greece. The word has its roots in the greek language, where demos, refers to the citizens or population as a whole, and kratos, which means the strength or power to rule.

The United States of America is one of the longest standing democracies in the world. Though America established its independence in 1776, Harry Rubenstein, chair and curator of the Division of Political History at the American History Museum, said that the symbolic birth of our system of government didnt come until its noble ideals were actually put to the test.

On Sept. 19, 224 years ago, Washington published his farewell address, marking one the first peaceful transfers of power in American history and cementing the countrys status as a stable, democratic state, according to the

Smithsonian Magazine.

Once Washington stepped down from office, both Federalists and Democratic-Republicans began to scramble for power, but ultimately it was up to voters in America, mostly men who owned land, to vote.

Today, Americas electoral system remains strikingly similar to how it has been in the past. Though America may have a shaky passed, we presently live in a democracy conceptualized by many of the founding fathers from years ago.

Associate Professor of Political Science, William Delehanty, said in todays society that democracy means the ability of the public to be self-governing.

That can mean choosing people to rule on their behalf, or rule indirectly, said Delehanty.

You can think of democratic governance at the personal level, as the notion that we can somehow determine our own fates.

This means that ultimately, it is up to the American people to elect candidates who reflect their own personal ideals to govern the nation on their behalf.

This leads to the expression of beliefs between Americans, however, we as citizens are autonomous and do not always share the same beliefs.

Over time, tension has been culminating, ever since the Democratic and Republican parties became the two primarily dominant parties in the United States political sphere, there has been a power struggle among the right and left.

While discussing voting in America, Delehanty said that the electoral system that we have limits peoples choice, but the two political parties over time have tended to be broad and inclusive.

The really critical question is less about the choices, but rather getting more responsiveness from the two existing parties, said Delehanty.

The problem is the partisan division makes it harder for the parties to be more responsive because their tendency is to polarize.

The two choices tend to do a really good job at representing the broad interests of American society, however, both parties are unyielding to the idea of policy change. Even when an overwhelming number of supporters voice change they would like to see toward party officials, it is not likely that immediate modifications to policy will be made.

The unwillingness from political parties to budge or respond to the American voters shows how the power has shifted from the people to the government as time passes. Whether change is made or not, voters will likely stay loyal to their party because as a whole, it reflects their ideals more than the opposition.

The beliefs and partisan differences are the biggest source of division among Americans, said Delehanty.

I think its really clear that identifying with a political party has the effect of strongly dividing individuals on the basis of partisan differences, because it limits peoples access to information, who they speak to, and how they think about political questions.

Many people in America whose political ideals are concrete tend to socialize and spend time with those who share the same political beliefs.

According to University of Richmond Psychology Professor, Donelson R. Forsythe, joining groups satisfies our need to belong, gain information and understanding through socializing, and define our sense of self and social identity.

When individuals socialize with only those who share the same opinion as their own, there is not much to be learned or gained, and political views begin to become a part of our self-identity.

By not collaborating with those who have opposing views, Americans are unable to discover new perspectives in regards to any given political climate.

This can be detrimental because sharing new beliefs is a way in which ideas grow, and limiting oneself to a singular group of information can explain the lack of tolerance between Democrats and Republicans.

The United States may be partly to blame for creating biases among viewers.

There is a chicken or the egg problem, such that the medias job is to generate content that appeals to their consumers, and the consumers fuel the media by indulging in the content,

said Delehanty.

The media in that sense responds to the interests of the public, so I think it is both the public and the media that have blame.

In the current digital age, Americans are obsessed with consuming content, especially when it involves political news.

Fox News, a widely known conservative news outlet, releases news that strictly favors Republicans, and CNN, a widely known liberal outlet covers topics that favors Democrats.

It is not likely for either media outlet to paint one another in a positive light. Delehanty said that the viewers are partially to blame, due to the audience selectively consuming content.

There is a really strong argument to be made that the public, given their preexisting beliefs, selectively exposes themselves to certain information and not others, so in that sense, what the media is doing is being responsive in providing content to support those preexisting beliefs, said Delehanty.

So if the consuming public were less inclined to selectively expose, I think that we would see media companies respond to a group of people whose preferences part for that specific ideal.

This is an example of how Americans would rather confirm their own biases by consuming media outlets that reinforce their own beliefs, than have a discussion as to why both sides have their beliefs, why they are important to the individuals, and how their beliefs impact their own lives as well as others.

One current issue that is being handled in antithetical ways is the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. When discussing the good nature of the movement, Delehanty said the positive effects are the recognition that not all lives are being considered equally valuable, and our history clearly shows that black lives have not been equally valuable.

Though relevant more than ever, this is not the first time the Black Lives Matter movement has become a controversial topic in this decade.

The movement began in 2013, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin, 17 months earlier in February 2012.

Three years, and many more displays of police brutality towards African-Americans later, The Black Lives Matter movement gained more exposure and press when NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem in protest of inequality in America.

This story was picked up by multiple media outlets and the symbolism of the act of kneeling for the National Anthem began to be misconstrued. The media focused on how the protest by kneeling was disrespectful towards military members, past and present, rather than the original message of inequality.

Today, the message of the Black Lives Matter movement is still being twisted by many sources in the media.

Due to recent outbreaks of violence by a minority that align themselves with Black Lives Matter, the majority are losing credibility as a peaceful movement.

Violence allows those in opposition to the movement to essentially ignore the more important moral question, said Delehanty.

Non-violence is the proper tactic in displaying discord to current injustices, because using violence to display contempt for injustice is counterproductive, because in ways you are acting unjust in pursuit of something you perceive to be an injustice.

Though many are growing tired of the bridge of police brutality in America, violence as a justification is clearly not the answer towards progressing towards a more peaceful society.

Though grim, American democracy is not doomed. Despite all the current tension, there are still possibilities to mend the tension between citizens.

Being aware and critical of your own biases, understanding the way in which you think about the political world and how you adjust your beliefs when given alternative information having different points of view, having a bigger perspective for other people in the world which is not always easy and trying to negotiate differences in a way that reflects the value and dignity of all people, are all ways tensions can be mended between Americans, and it is not always easy, said Delehanty.

Tackling a tempestuous climate like the society of America will of course never be easy, but it must start somewhere.

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Division within the American democracy | News | thechartonline.com - Chart

Protest Is Part Of The Black American Tradition. Young Activists Are Reshaping The Movement In Their Image. – BuzzFeed News

When I first spoke with Bennie Williams, a 19-year-old sophomore at Morehouse College from Stockton, California, in July, hed just finished organizing two protests, one in Stockton and another at the state capitol in Sacramento on the 4th of July. He was lively and spoke definitively about where he thought the movement was headed locally and nationally.

Right now, its either: You are advocating, witnessing, or looking at this, or youre choosing to ignore it. Those are the two options. Theres no in-between right now, Williams told me about the movement that was building in the weeks after videos of George Floyds killing went public and as more people learned about the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Theres action right now. Theres conversations. People are talking to each other and teaching each other.

The tributes to Taylor and Floyd and the demands for justice have flourished into a broader global movement focused on the work of tearing down and restructuring the pervasive aspects of racism that affect the wealth, well-being, and, ultimately, the lives of Black and brown people in the United States. Younger and older activists and community organizers I spoke with over the summer told me that they felt like this was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. This year, a global pandemic has kept people at home and forced many into unemployment. The government's slow-moving efforts have not helped the crisis. People's attention was undivided, and their increased attention on footage of racist incidents created the perfect storm for a mass movement for the country to come to terms with what injustice looks like for many Americans.

A handout photo of Bennie Williams, a young activist from Stockton, California.

It feels like were finally at this moment where this country is going to have to acknowledge and finally admit to all of the wrongdoing and the injustice that it has allowed to take place in Black communities and against Black communities, Williams told me.

Its going to have to look in the mirror at every ugly part of the face of this country this country is going to have to recognize the genocide of Native Americans; its going to have to reconcile with putting children in cages, and with mass incarceration, and profiting off of Black bodies in its prison systems, that its stayed silent on the death of trans lives. Its going to have to reconcile with all of that.

After a brief pause, Williams added another thought:

I hope it puts us on a path to liberation.

Williams ardent thoughts about where the movement was headed were reflective of where scores of Black and brown activists stood in the moment for many, it felt like there was something markedly different in the air in June and July. The large multicultural protests that took over cities across the country, the teach-ins, the push for reform from activist networks, and the DID YOU KNOW? Instagram story cards written in an aesthetically pleasing modern typeface all felt like there was a consensus building across the country. In the streets, young activists at the helm of the movements in their cities were demanding that their own communities looked at the ways racism affects things like policing, education funding, and housing. There was a sort of skeptics optimism, similar to that charged feeling in the air when the clouds start rolling in and the first cracks of thunder sound off just before a storm. It felt like, for the first time during the modern uprising, the collective of Black Americans whod been marching, posting, crying, yelling, and prodding the country toward equity had finally been heard and embraced by large parts of the rest of the country. It felt like hope that things would change.

This summer felt different.

I hope it puts us on a path to liberation.

And then the focus of the country shifted viral videos of protesters clashing with militarized police forces and the nearly endless number of posters for listening sessions and rallies gave way to raging wildfires in California, the presidential debates, and the undermining of American institutions like the Postal Service (an issue not divorced from the voter disenfranchisement efforts that have obstructed Black voters for decades).

The waning and waxing of interest in and acceptance of political and civil rights movements is nothing new for Black Americans.

If youve checked Twitter in recent years, at a time when the country fixed its attention toward the movement work of Black folks, youve seen at least one viral tweet referencing Martin Luther King Jr.s favorability ratings in 1966 versus those today. Gallup polls conducted in 1966 and 2011 found that 63% of Americans in 1966 viewed King and his work unfavorably while just 4% viewed him unfavorably in 2011. A constant and poignant reminder that movement work and the progress it pushes the country toward is slow-moving at worst and incremental at best.

Polls in the midst of the movements that spread across the country during summer 2020 suggested that there was a fast-moving coalition and consensus building for many Americans. In July, the New York Times reported that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated in protests following the deaths of Floyd and other Black Americans, according to four surveys.

Since July, Ive spoken with four Black activists, including Gen Zers and young millennials from different parts of the country with different approaches and ideologies about the work, their lives, the momentum of the summer, their view of the movement, and, particularly, this summers place in history.

This moment isnt a reckoning for them its a continuation of a troubling, grander Black American tradition.

Will the legacy of this moment be remembered as a quick jolt to the norm during an unusual time, or a long-lasting adjustment to the way a vast majority of Americans think about race and the racism in this country?

Young Black people have already experienced a lifetime of watching the justice system and, ultimately, the countrys entire political system fail them and pay them lip service in response to protests. Theyve spent their childhoods hearing stories of those systems failing their parents and intentionally mistreating their grandparents and generations down the line, and about the resistance and determination it took to gain even the most basic rights. The circumstances of their lives and futures have been defined by activism: This moment isnt a reckoning for them its a continuation of a troubling, grander Black American tradition. Its a legacy of resistance passed down from the earliest generations of Black folks on this countrys soil one that they understand will take time but they hope future generations wont find necessary.

A handout photo of Williams (center), at a protest.

Theres a frighteningly familiar pattern, for many Black people across the country, when it comes to incidents of publicized police brutality:

The video of a Black body being harmed by the police or harassed by another person for existing in their space goes viral

The reluctant (and often forced) view of the video on social media as it circulates across timelines

The You good? and Dont check Twitter texts in group chats

The grief

The outrage

The protests

The public backlash to the protests

The militarized police response

The semi-heartfelt check-ins

and ultimately:

For Black Gen Zers, that pattern including the social media dimension started early in their adolescence with the killings of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old boy from Florida who was shot by a George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, while he was walking home from a gas station in 2012, and Michael Brown, an 18-year-old from Ferguson, Missouri, who was fatally shot by police in 2014. How different factions of people across the country reacted in the aftermaths of Martins and Browns deaths were the catalysts that would shape Black Gen Zers view of the country, their faith in the political system, and their role in a grander Black tradition in the fight for equality. Everyone I spoke with for this story had experienced the trials and seen the footage of those incidents at formative ages from early middle schoolers to high schoolers about to start out on their own adult lives at universities across the country.

Clifton Kinnie was just into the first few weeks of his senior year at Lutheran High School North in the St. Louis area. Brown was killed blocks away from his schools campus just two summers after Kinnies late mother had sat him down to have the talk about interactions with police and other people. The lecture had been prompted by the Florida jury reaching a not guilty verdict during Zimmermans trial.

For many of the young activists, those cases solidified thoughts that the country wasnt out to protect citizens who looked like them an early disillusionment with existing institutions and a swift thrust into the kinds of activism theyd learned about from previous generations.

Clifton Kinnie is seen in a handout photo.

In the days after Browns death, Kinnie, then 17, began organizing with other students from his high school and founded Our Destiny STL, a network of young activists across Missouri who organized statewide and national school walkouts.

Trayvon was the seed that was planted, and I think that flourished in Ferguson into the Movement for Black Lives after Michael was killed, Kinnie told me. I didnt really want to be a protester I didnt want to be an activist. Thats not what I thought I was set out to do. But we were mourning in Ferguson because they left a Black boy dead in the streets for four hours.

Kinnie recalled seeing photos of Browns body on his Instagram feed on the day of the shooting and thinking that it had to be a screenshot from a movie.

There were nights when I would protest up to 4 a.m., slide to my grandmas crib to take a shower, and then go to school and then go right back to protesting.

I realized that it was around the corner from my school and my grandmothers house, he said. He recalled protesting with other Black activists in Ferguson in the days after Browns death into the early hours of the morning.

There were nights when I would protest up to 4 a.m., slide to my grandmas crib to take a shower, and then go to school and then go right back to protesting, he recalled. He said that when he would return to school after protesting the night before, hed hear his teachers calling the people marching in the streets thugs and looters.

How could they do such a thing? he remembered one teacher saying.

Kinnie walked out of the classroom. I dont know how they could say any of those things when there was literally a revolution happening around the corner, he remembered thinking. Over the course of the day, nearly 50 people from his school also walked out; they showed up at his grandmothers house to vent and organize.

Kinnie has a look of weary sincerity in his deep-set eyes. Often interviewed after Ferguson, Kinnie has been photographed staring directly into the camera, his fist pushed toward the sky like scores of photos of Black activists from the decades that preceded his own work. Kinnie graduated from Howard University, where he supported students who created movements at predominantly white universities, like Mizzou, to protest the racism they were facing on campus.

Hes quick to say that he loves to be a teacher in the St. Louis area and that he's both nervous and proud that his own students are telling him about the protests theyre attending and organizing in their community. Hes also quick to tell you that hes a student of the Black radical tradition and that he centers his activism in knowledge hes gained from studying past civil rights movements and revolts from enslaved people.

Black radicalism is not just this image of Black fists held high. Its a part of it but not the totality of it, Kinnie told me. Black radicalism is about our means of resisting racial capitalism and the oppression from racial capitalism. Our movements have always been about that. Black people used to escape and found marronage communities during slavery; that was their means of resisting. And today we see folks out in the streets, walking out of schools. You see the unrest thats happening due to the lack of concern from our political leaders.

Kinnie sees those early days of protest in Ferguson as foundational to various youth-led organizing efforts that have taken over the country in the past four years. He pointed to the interconnectedness of movements like March for Our Lives, which he has worked with, and Black Lives Matter as different fronts working toward the same goal. Both movements, he said, pushed the country toward a moment when mass protests after Floyds death popped up across the country.

We built a coalition, Kinnie said. We realized that we were building true youth power, but we didnt realize that we were building the blueprint for newer movements to be inspired by.

In the years since he led protests in Ferguson and contributed to efforts at his alma mater in Washington, DC, Kinnie has also caught the attention of politicians like former president Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have sat with him to talk about Black Lives Matter and the antigun violence movement. In July, when we first spoke after hed attended protests in St. Louis, Kinnie said he saw the movements success at that moment as a response to the governments inaction to citizens conditions. He warned that if things didnt get better, they would see more mass action. When we spoke again in the fall after months of sustained protest, Kinnie was weary but issued the same warning.

Its been over a hundred days since the first protests began. Portland is still going up. Louisville is still going up, Kinnie told me. The last time I remember the movement being this sustained was back in Ferguson, when we were in the streets for more than 300 days.

I dont want people to confuse seeing thousands of young people out in the streets with enthusiasm for either of the political parties.

Over the course of the summer, Kinnie told me, hed been watching the growing momentum of the movement that found its footing on the streets of Missouri in 2014. Since then, he feels, other groups whose struggles have largely been shrugged off by politicians, have also embraced the means; out of that avoidance, the broader movements have continued to pour out into the streets to demand action and to be seen in recent years.

I dont want people to confuse seeing thousands of young people out in the streets with enthusiasm for either of the political parties, he said. No one is truly speaking to the concerns of young people in general and specifically to the concerns of young people in poor and Black and brown communities.

Kinnie said that while hes grateful for the work that has persisted and flourished since Ferguson and about the broader embrace of the movement this year, he hopes the reason people went out on the streets in the first place doesnt become diluted.

This is personal for me after practically growing up with this movement and watching it grow and shape cultures, birth other movements, and rearrange politics after Ferguson, he told me. Its personal because I see folks trying to steer us in a direction that isnt actually going to ultimately benefit the people.

We need to make sure that our principles and values are aligned with the people and why we went out to the streets in the first place.

Omer Reshid at a protest in New York City.

By late July, Omer Reshid had already attended 13 protests that had been organized in his community to address different issues. He was planning to attend another community-planning meeting to talk with elected officials about how city funds could be used if they moved forward with a plan to cut funding for the citys police department. Hed also begun working with the city council to push a bill to enforce police accountability and ban officers from using chokeholds.

The recent high school graduate from Baltimore County, Maryland, believes Gen Zs climate change activism is built on the youth-led movement models that emerged after the Ferguson protests. Reshid, who also serves as the student representative for the local school board, participated in protests and has lobbied for climate change bills in Baltimore County. His work then, organizing around the climate crisis and planning protests to hold officials accountable, was fundamental in helping him hit the ground running when he found it imperative to protest after Floyds death.

When the George Floyd incident happened, a lot of my friends from that movement were like, Hey, now is the time that we need to stand up, he said. It was this sense of Oh wow, this just happened again.

Through organizing and his work on the school board as the student representative, Reshid and his friends, he said, eventually pushed school board members to adopt a Black Lives Matter resolution with commitments. Reshid, who proposed the resolution, said he wanted the resolution to include commitments to hire more Black teachers and principals to reflect the citys population, adapt history curriculums to teach a fuller picture of American history, and increase funding for African American studies.

After a drawn-out process that Reshid believed was an attempt to water down the resolution, the school board committed to proactively invest in diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels and said it believes it has the special responsibility [to] understand and intentionally work to undermine racism and other forms of injustice in our curricula, our policies, our classroom culture.

We just feel so powerful in this moment as 15-,16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds who are just doing what we can in this moment to hold people accountable until we can become the adults who are in charge, Reshid added. I dont see this movement dying down anytime soon, even though the Instagram feeds and Twitter are getting back to normal. Were still out here marching and were still protesting.

Reshid, who emigrated from Ethiopia three years ago, has gotten involved in many civic organizations since starting high school in the United States. In addition to his seat on the school board, Reshid has done work with his student government, climate organizations, and has represented the young people of his county on equitable policing and youth climate advisory boards.

I was used to being surrounded by Black people and after some time, I began to realize that I wasnt the only person of color who was feeling left out and that things were unfair.

Advocacy and student leadership for me started after having a pretty big shift from coming from Ethiopia, Reshid said. I was always confused by the fact that I was one of the only people of color in my classes I was used to being surrounded by Black people and after some time, I began to realize that I wasnt the only person of color who was feeling left out and that things were unfair.

When I spoke with him in the immediate aftermath of the deaths of Floyd and Taylor, he was pushing the city council officials to address and adopt bills that would reform policing in Baltimore County. Since then, the school board adopted his resolution after a hard-fought session. Baltimore County has since passed a bill that issued police reforms and banned chokeholds.

Hes also started his first year at George Washington University. Hed always thought hed been on a premed track; he said his parents still believed that was where he was headed when we spoke again in the fall, but he had been considering a shift to political science and focusing on community organizing after participating in this summers protests.

In October, Reshid whose civic engagement in his community seemed central to his views in July explained that while he still believed working in step with politicians to change the circumstances for Black people was the way forward, he didnt have faith in the system overall to do that work willingly and without demands.

I do see it as being crucial, he told me. As much as we yell, as much as we march, as much as we protest, if our representatives and policymakers and the people who are supposed to be doing whats best for us dont listen to us, there isnt much thats going to be done. I still believe in the power of policy change and the people who are representing us.

Like many, he thinks there isnt one singular moment of exponential change. Reshid is focused on individuals: He said its up to representatives to actually listen, and he stressed the importance of voting people out of office if they dont represent the publics demands. And he hopes that many of the people who protested this summer will return.

Its up to us to make them listen, he added.

Despite the bills that have passed and the work hes done with local politicians through youth organizations, Reshid said he has noticed the momentum that he felt this summer has begun to slow down but hes hopeful about the incremental work of the collective movement.

I wouldnt say that Im as optimistic about the system. I know that the system itself isnt really designed to support underrepresented people and African American people. It wasnt designed that way I believe that, Reshid said. For me, its whos in office and how much theyre willing to change rather than the system itself.

Candace Livingston at a protest in college.

The voice of Crime Mobs Diamond loudly rapping her (objectively iconic) verse on Knuck If You Buck blared through the speakers of my phone when I clicked into Candace Livingstons Instagram story. The verses of the woman rapping dropped a few notches every now and then to give way to the crackle of a megaphone and a young Black woman yelling affirmations to Black people on the street and demands to degentrify downtown Charleston, South Carolina, and to defund the citys police department. Two young Black women led a caravan of protesters through the streets of downtown Charleston past where Black residents have been priced out of neighborhoods for student housing, past high-end boutiques less than a mile from sites like the markets where enslaved people were bought and sold. Past bricks that bear the fingerprints of the enslaved people who were forced to make them. In the city where a white supremacist shot nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME and just miles from the site where police killed Walter Scott, an unarmed Black man.

ALL power to the people!

I see you, Black man! I love you! We see you!

I see you, Black woman! Keep your head up! We love you!

Black trans lives matter!

Black lives matter! Today. Tomorrow. Yesterday. And forever!

The protest came about because Black women were fed up. That was the basis of it.

Livingston, a doctoral student and former history teacher from Georgetown, South Carolina, whod been organizing with a largely women-led coalition of Black activists in the area, said the caravan protest was long coming; tension between activists and city officials has laid buried under a facade of Southern charm and gentility presented to tourists, despite the murders of the Emanuel 9 and the clashes between business owners and protesters. For years, activists felt that the city was trying to quell any concerns about racism and tensions reached a high point as business owners condemned protesters after some of the storefronts on King Street were destroyed over the summer.

The protest came about because Black women were fed up. That was the basis of it, Livingston told me about the protest calling on people to boycott downtown Charleston. A group of us were fed up with how Charleston was responding to the racial violence across the nation, she said. They were trying to minimize uprisings by doing little small things or by saying that this commission was going to happen.

They were trying to calm folks without actually dedicating themselves to systemic change.

That June protest led to a Zoom call between demonstrators and Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, during which they discussed the groups demands and the issues it had raised against the city. Activists said they still felt patronized by the invitation of Charlamagne tha God, cohost of the Breakfast Club radio show and a South Carolina native by city officials. One of those demands was the removal statue of John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina native and former US vice president (and adamant defender of slavery) that towered in Marion Square, a large park in downtown Charleston.

The Calhoun statue came down as a result of Black women and LGBTQ folks rallying and being consistent with our demands and staying on the politicians heads so that was one small win. One symbolic win. There are still folks who are organizing there for more change, Livingston said.

This isnt part of a newfound motivation for activism in the moment Ive covered many of the organizing efforts that Livingston has participated in and planned since we were both students at Winthrop University, a small college outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.

One of the first times I interviewed Livingston was during a protest on the universitys campus, where a group of students occupied Tillman Hall named after Benjamin Tillman, a white supremacist and former US senator to demand that the university communicate with the state legislature that it wanted to change the name of the building after holding a die-in.

In a 2017 interview for USA Today, Livingston told me how off-putting it was for Black and brown students to visit the building named after a man who could care less about our bodies." That occupation was held in conjunction with a die-in on campus after Charlotte police officers killed Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old Black man.

Those moments were followed by work with environmental justice groups and activist networks in Charlotte and Charleston that focused on issues like prison abolition, removing police officers from schools, gentrification, and tearing down Confederate monuments.

Livingston told me she was pushed into civic work from a young age and after noticing the shift in the national conversation after the deaths of Martin and Brown, just before she started college that she was motivated to start protesting and organizing in her community.

It wasnt that it was the sole thing that politicized us or radicalized us, but it was something that pushed our minds and actions to shift at a young age, she said.

Despite that work, she said she doesnt feel like shes lost any part of her adolescence to activism and community organizing.

Im not an ahistorical person; looking at the history of Africans and Black Americans on this soil, I cant disconnect that from Black adolescence. Ever since weve been here during that period and during our lives, theres been resistance. Weve had to resist and fight for something. Weve had to reach and grab and crawl toward some sort of freedom while also trying to maintain some sort of innocence and adolescence and being able to juggle all of it at once, Livingston said. The only way that I would feel that way is if I compared my adolescence to the white experience. Thats not something I do.

Im not an ahistorical person; looking at the history of Africans and Black Americans on this soil, I cant disconnect that from Black adolescence.

In the early days of her activism, after the deaths of Brown, Walter Scott, and Keith Lamont Scott, Livingston had focused on making policy changes: advocating for bills around policing reform like the use of body cameras and a ban on chokeholds. But as those measures were enacted and police shootings and brutality continued, she started to look closer at solutions like prison abolition and defunding police departments.

There was a shift happening from placing all of our anger and rage on the murderers to an acknowledgment of that rage but adding an aspect of what is next, and how can we prevent a next? Livingston said of police reform over the past several years. A lot of us had this reformist thinking in that moment, and we were shifting toward more decisions that would be made politically. We were pushing ideas like body cams and citizen review boards or police accountability and bias training, and now weve arrived at abolition.

Im able to see the progression from Trayvon Martin to Walter Scott and Mike Brown and Eric Garner and Rekia Boyd to now, where a lot of our thinking is now where were looking at abolition, she added.

Livingston told me that watching the justice system continually fail Black people alongside her work with grassroots organizations to hold the politicians whod made empty promises accountable had pushed her into a political space where she valued collective action over transactional politics.

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Protest Is Part Of The Black American Tradition. Young Activists Are Reshaping The Movement In Their Image. - BuzzFeed News

Florida road to be named after Trayvon Martin – WSET

  1. Florida road to be named after Trayvon Martin  WSET
  2. Miami street to be named after Trayvon Martin  WRCB-TV
  3. Street Outside Trayvon Martin's High School To Be Named After Him  news9.com KWTV
  4. Street Near Trayvon Martins Miami High School Will Be Renamed for Him, 8 Years After His Death  PEOPLE
  5. We Still Want George Zimmerman In Jail: Street In Miami To Be Named After Trayvon Martin  Hip-Hop Wired
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Florida road to be named after Trayvon Martin - WSET

George Floyd’s Death Distresses and Inspires Wesley Students and Faculty – The Whetstone

By Wendy-Akua Adjei; The Whetstone

WesleyalumnusDaQuanMartinsaid hewas very upset when he heard what happened to George Floyd, theblack man killed when a white police officer kept a knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds in Minneapolis last Memorial Day.

The emotion I felt at that time was anger, he said.A lot of it because Im tired of seeing the same results with the same people in the same uniform.There were real chills running down my body as I was standing outside in the heat on an 88-degree day.

Black Lives Matter rally in Wilmington

Students, faculty, and staff at Wesley were mostly sad and not surprised to see or hear about the killing of George Floyd. This incident stirred up feelings of the deep wound of racial anger and bewilderment in the United States and is well reflected at Wesley College.

North Campus Area Coordinator Jovana Fitzgeraldsaid Floyds death affected her family.

It sparked a lot of interesting conversations within my household. shesaid. Trayvon Martin (Martin, a 17-year-old Black youth, was killed in 2012 when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, who is white, shot him in Sanford, Fla.) was one of the cases that I kept thinking about and that my mother and I talked about. My mom is white, so when I was growing up it was hard for meto talk to her about cases like Floyd and Martin.

Professor of Religion Jeffrey Mask said he was sad that Black people continue to be killed by the police.

My first reaction hearing about Floyd was, Not again, Mast, who is white, said. How many timesis this going to happen? What were doing with the police in America is wrong. This is nothing new inAmerica and there isnt a political will to do something about it.

Floyds death was recorded and went viral on social media, re-sparkedthe Black Lives Mattermovement last summer.

Quameshia Callwood, the director of campus life,said she was upsetwhen she saw the video of Floyd.

I felt enraged because his life was taken for somethingsoinsignificant as the color of his skin, and for hate,Callwood, who is Black, said.

Floyds deathhit home for a lot of African Americansacross the country, includingsenior LydiaLaSure, who saidshe felt she had a duty to join protestsin her hometown ofBridgeton,N.J.

I felt I had to do something because it could have been me or someone I know,LaSure, who is Black, said.

SeniorMaliaSmith, who is Black,said shedid not attend a protest, butsaidFloyd could havebeen a loved one.

Being Black is an unwritten crime, we always fit the profile, she said.Itsnot just the police we fear, but racists in general. We have to be vigilant and always watch our backs.

Christine McDermott, director of student success and retention, said she was saddened to see the video of Floyds death.

I thought[the video of George Floyds death]was a joke at first. McDermott, who is white, said.But then I realized as I watched it that it wasnt a joke. When I realized the video was real and that the officers were literally killing him, I cried.

LaSuresaid she was happyto see and hearabout theprotests around the U.S.and in her hometown.

We all came together to support agood cause, and it wasnt just Black people,there wereHispanicsand white people. she said. It was nice to see us standing together against a great injustice.

Senior Mercy Ariyo, who is Black, said she attended protests in Philadelphia.

It was beautiful to see Black people come together as well as the white people supporting the movement. she said. But we need more help from white people than just protesting.

SeniorMariaynaLovelace, who is white, said white people need towork harder to change racism in America.

At this time, we cant be neutral or not have an opinion.she said.We must actively work to end systemic racism.

Lovelace said the Black Lives Matter movement helped her understand white privilege.

Not everyone who is white has had a perfect life, but the color of their skin is one of the things that does not make their life harder, she said. There are many things I never thought about that this movement has brought to my attention.

Black Lives Matter rally in Wilmington

Senior Elizabeth Manlove said white people need to realize theirprivilegein order to help change society.

I am disgusted that my friends and family of color have to be worried aboutthe things that they do because, as a white female, I realize my level of privilege. she said. Change will occur when people realize how things impact more than just themselves.

Many Blacks said they are too getting too used to events such as Floyds death, including the deaths of Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin,BreonnaTaylor and Eric Garner also have been killed presumably because they were Black.

Smithsaid she hated what she saw on the video that showed Floyds death, but wasnt surprised.

If Im going to be 100 percenttruthful,the video (of Floyds death) didnt hit me as hard as it would have a couple years ago. she said.WhenTrayvon Martin was killed I was a lot more responsive because it was one of my very first experiences with this kind of death.

Martinsaid he is no longer surprised when he sees another black person being killed.

Im still human with a compassionate side and that side is what gets mebecauseno one deserves to be shot multiple times where every situation with these cops couldve been controlled, he said.

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George Floyd's Death Distresses and Inspires Wesley Students and Faculty - The Whetstone

Trayvon Martin to Be Honored With Street Named After Him – The Root

Photo: Ben Gabbe (Getty Images)

The death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman was the first high-profile case to spark what would later become the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, the street outside of the high school Trayvon attended is set to be named after him.

The Miami Herald reports that last week, Miami-Dade commissioners approved a resolution to add Trayvons name to the part of Northeast 16th Avenue that leads to Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High, where he was in the 11th grade at the time he was killed.

The portion of the road will be called Trayvon Martin Avenue and, according to the Herald, Miami-Dades Public Works Department said the new road signs should be up within a few weeks.

From the Herald:

The motion approved unanimously by commissioners without discussion includes a focus on Martins life as a teenager in the Miami Gardens area, where he lived with Fulton.

Trayvon Martin was a typical teenager who enjoyed playing video games, listening to music, watching movies, and talking and texting on the phone, read the resolution, whose primary sponsor was Commissioner Barbara Jordan, the outgoing District 1 commissioner.

Martin was also developing advanced mechanical skills and, among other things, was known to be able to build and fix dirt bikes... Martin intended to stay close to home and attend college at either the University of Miami or Florida A&M University.

The county resolution adds Martins name to Northeast 16th Avenue between Ives Dairy Road and Northeast 209th Street.

G/O Media may get a commission

The resolution also mentioned that although Trayvon Martins life was tragically cut short, his death elicited national conversations about race relations, racial profiling, gun rights, and stand your ground laws and was a catalyst that set nationwide demands for social justice reforms in motion.

Right now, we are in the midst of a racial reckoning in America. The movement has largely been mobilized on social media, which is used not only to organize demonstrations but also to bring attention to the stories of injustice that would likely get little to no national media coverage otherwise. Although Zimmerman was acquitted of murder, in many ways these relatively new methods for raising racial awareness and forcing change started with Trayvon. His death arguably created the modern civil rights movement.

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Trayvon Martin to Be Honored With Street Named After Him - The Root