By Ted Glick
It
was about 6 am this morning, and I was in the last part of today’s
several times a week, 1 ½ hour, north Jersey bike ride, my freedom time.
I was feeling pretty good, still high after my participation in
yesterday’s historic demonstration of many thousands in Newark against
racist police violence and white supremacy. Long-time residents of
Newark said it was the largest demonstration they had seen in many
decades.
All
of a sudden I started seeing Black Lives Matter messages on the
pavement within a Nutley, NJ park that I was riding through. Then I
started seeing young people, teenagers, mainly women and mainly white,
stretching out for what became a quarter of a mile, chalking literally
dozens of messages, including: “We See You, We Hear You, We Mourn With
You, We Stand With You, We Fight With You, Black Lives Matter”—“Remember
George Floyd”—“Remember Ahmaud Arbery”—“Remember Breonna
Taylor”—“Donate to Fund Racial Justice at Black Lives Matter”—“If You
Are Neutral in Situations of Injustice, You Have Chosen the Side of the
Oppressor, Desmond Tutu.”
As
I rode my bike by these wonderful, inspiring young people, I gave every
one of them a thumbs up or said, “good job,” or “great work.” It was
like a gift from God.
As
I continued my ride, I began thinking that I should go back and take
some pictures, so after I got home, I got in our car and did just that.
The young people were still there when I arrived, and after I took a
number of pictures I spoke with one of them, an Asian American woman. I
told her who I was, that I have been working on racial justice issues in
NJ for 20 years, and that I was at the big demonstration yesterday in
Newark. I asked her if their group was an organized thing, and she said
no, that what had happened was that one of them who had gone to the
Newark demonstration yesterday had texted to the others with this
chalking idea. They were all Nutley residents. And like young people
often do, they didn’t waste any time putting the idea into effect.
These are the kinds of things that happen when a mass movement is alive and well, inspiring and moving new people to action.
Nutley
is not exactly a hotbed of anti-racism, or of progressive activism in
general. It’s a predominantly Italian American town historically, though
there have been some demographic changes in recent decades. For these
young Nutley residents to be taking this early morning action was very
noteworthy.
One
of the many good things about the massive demonstration in Newark
yesterday was the unity in action on the part of the predominantly Black
and very multi-racial gathering. Larry Hamm, leader of the People’s
Organization for Progress which called the action, made it clear over
the loudspeaker to a lot of applause that if people were there for
something other than the planned mass march for justice, they should go
somewhere else. News reports this morning indicated that later in the
day there was some minimal violence by some demonstrators, but none
during the several hours of the march for justice.
I
have no idea where all of the energy, overwhelmingly positive, of this
multi-racial uprising against white supremacy is going to lead, as far
as systemic changes in the way the racist US criminal justice system and
individual police function. Right now, it sure looks like conditions
have ripened for this piece of the progressive agenda, in addition to
Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, a humane and just immigration policy
and more, to become a top priority over the coming months.
That
will only happen if not just Black people and other people of color but
growing numbers of white people, like those chalking this morning,
speak out and take action, taking Desmond Tutu’s words to heart and
publicly rejecting the oppressive and racist system.
