To look around.
All our friends out here, our friends
out here, my name is Michelle Arata.
I was born in San Luis Obispo.
I graduated from San Luis High.
I'm a mother.
I'm an advocate.
I'm a volunteer in our local community and
I'm a teacher.
I'm also Tianna's mom.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> This sort of trauma,
fear, tear that has been inflicted on
our family since before the arrest and
the magnitude and the exponential
trauma that has happened since her
arrest is not something that I can
speak on without breaking down.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
When I look at you guys, I see strength.
When I see my friends,
young people that I consider an extension
of my family, I feel strength but
I still feel fear.
And I love San Luis Obispo.
But in that love also
comes accountability.
And for me, people say, well,
why can't we do things with love?
We are doing things with love.
Love includes difficult conversations.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Love includes talking to people,
your family about racism, about
oppression, about systems that has failed.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> This is about love.
This is not political.
This is a human rights issue and how
dare they take it to a political level?
This is a human rights issue.
Racism is a human rights issue.
My daughter's life is at stake here.
Her future is at stake.
She is my world.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Do not let them take her from me.
We need her and
we need all of you, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
>> I'm one of the original members of
Black Lives Matter and co-founder
of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.
>> [NOISE] [APPLAUSE]
>> I heard that some of the folks in
SLO we're saying that there are buses of
people coming up to stand with Tianna and
they're right.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We got
up at three o'clock in the morning,
got on the bus.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> And
we're here to stand with our sister,
Tianna Arata.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I come as an organizer, as a professor,
and also as a mother of three children
who aren't much younger than Tianna.
They're not much younger than Tianna.
What they got wrong when they said
we're getting on buses to come
in to SLO is when they started
saying that we are paid organizers.
We are not paid organizers.
We are students.
We are teachers.
We are parents.
We are community members.
All of y'all who got on
the bus make some noise.
>> [NOISE]
>> Our folks
are skipping classes or trying to do
them on the phones on the bus, right?
Our folks are missing work.
Our folks left their children.
I left my children sleeping in their
beds at three o'clock in the morning
because Tianna's freedom is
about all of our freedom.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> So
we are grateful to have traveled and
arrived safely.
I'm grateful to have traveled and
arrived safely with these
beautiful powerful people,
including sister Trisha Michael,
who is the twin sister of Kisha Michael,
who was murdered by Inglewood
police four years ago.
Say her name Kisha Michael, say her name!
>> Kisha Michael.
>> Say her name.
>> Kisha Michael.
>> Say her name.
>> Kisha Michael.
>> I wanna be very clear that this
struggle that we are engaged in,
this struggle that Tianna is
forging here in San Luis Obispo
is not a theoretical struggle.
This is a struggle about real lives,
about real people.
When Inglewood police killed
Kisha Michael and Marquintan Sandlin
sleeping in their cars,
they stole the parents of seven children.
This is not theoretical.
When we talk about standing in the name
of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and
Anthony McClain and so many others,
the thousands of black folks
who are killed by police every year,
it's not about theory.
It's about freedom.
It's about life.
It's about preserving
the sanctity of black life.
It's what we mean when we
say Black Lives Matter.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> So I wanna be clear.
As we walked through this beautiful
town and walked past that mission,
we were reminded that this is
a country that is built on the stolen
land of indigenous people-
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> And the stolen lives, labor and
freedom of black people.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> And when I say that,
I absolutely mean the folks, our folks,
our ancestors who were stolen
from the shores of Africa and
had to thrust off the chains
of chattel slavery.
I'm absolutely summoning in names like
David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet and
Harriet Tubman and Biddy Mason who
helped to establish California, right?
I'm absolutely calling on those names.
And I'm also summoning the names
of those like George Floyd and
Breonna Taylor and
Anthony McClain and Kisha Michael and
Wakiesha Wilson and
all of these names that line these steps.
When our ancestors struggled for freedom,
we have to remember that this is
a state that is built upon the stolen
land of indigenous people and
the stolen lives of black people.
And when we rise up, when we rise up and
demand freedom as Tianna has done,
the full power of the state
will descend upon you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We have to be
reminded that Martin Luther King
went to jail 40 times.
To add,
we think about this political season.
Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten in a jail for
demanding black inclusion in
the Democratic Convention.
We have to think about,
even what those of us among us,
I think about my own life and my own
cases, I've been arrested six times.
Only last year, I was facing
charges that would have brought me,
could have brought me three and
a half years in prison.
But I'm here and I'm free.
You know why?
You know why?
You know what beats
the power of the state?
The power of the people.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> The power of the people.
The power of the people wins every time.
So we won't allow the state to steal
the life and the freedom of Tianna.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Because we're gonna stand with her.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We continue to say free Tianna.
We continue to say free Tianna because
in freeing Tianna we free ourselves.
In freeing Tianah we usher in freedom
in the names of all of those who walked
before us.
And freeing Tianna we
make Black Lives Matter.
[APPLAUSE]
>> And we will win.
We will win.
Free.
>> Tianna
>> Free.
>> Tianna.
>> Free.
>> Tianna
>> Free.
>> Tianna.
>> Free.
>> Tianna.
>> Free.
>> Tianna.
>> Free.
>> Tianna.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here.
>> Black lives we matter here Ashay.
>> Ashay.
>> I want to be clear here
the system is corrupt.
And our goal is to abolish this system
of slave catching that is policing.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Policing is the legacy of slave
catching.
If you didn't know, now you know.
We're here to abolish
the legacy of slave catching.
[APPLAUSE]
>> But while it's still here,
we demand you take your
oppressive hands off our system.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Right now, white supremacy over
there and all over,
is holding on by tooth and nail.
We see you trying to protect and
hoard and hold on to the resources
that you looted and stole from
our people and indigenous people.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> You see us demanding justice.
You see us continue to win and
you are doing everything you
can to prevent us from achieving
our goal of true liberation.
So we have to protect each
other now more than ever.
And we will we stand in rather
cool loving community and
sacrifice time, resources and energy.
We take extreme measures to stand with,
encourage, heal and
protect one another and
that's why I'm here in SLO right now.
[APPLAUSE]
>> On indigenous [INAUDIBLE] and
[INAUDIBLE] land today,
to use my privilege and
our platform to keep winning,
to keep protecting, to keep healing.
>> That's right.
>> Dan Dow,
you've let this go on for too long.
Reject these charges,
SLO police, police chief and
those in this town that
support these charges,
you should be ashamed of yourself.
[APPLAUSE]
>> You are on the wrong side of history.
You are on the side of the slave catcher.
[APPLAUSE]
>> You are on the side that will lose.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Teanna,
these excessive charges are nothing new.
This is an old tactic that they've
used on many live liberators
before you including Dr. Melina Abdullah.
Some here with us today.
The oppressor criminalizes get this.
You know, 'cause this is a little wordy.
The oppressor criminalizes
the liberator so
that the oppressor can look like
the liberator when they lock us up.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> A wolf in sheep's clothing.
[APPLAUSE]
>> You stand in the vein of
many liberators and these ancestors
are here with you today and
they are walking with you every day and
they are proud of you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Sometimes,
it's not enough to say we're with you.
Sometimes we got to pull up and
show others we mean business.
And that's why we're here today.
Thank you, Tianna.
Thank you for your love for
us for taking a strong stance
against the legacy of slave catching and
oppression.
Thank you for your sacrifice for us.
We will continue to fight with you we will
continue to win as we say when we fight.
>> We win.
>> When we fight.
>> We win.
>> When we fight.
>> We win.
>> When we fight.
>> We win.
>> Black lives they matter here.
>> Black lives they matter here
>> Black lives they matter here.
>> Say, defund the police.
>> Defund the police.
>> Say,defund the police.
>> Defund the police.
>> Say,defund the police.
>> Defund the police.
>> Say,defund the police.
>> Defund the police.
>> I say thank you, Tianna.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Hey, before I start my speech I wanna
say something to you that I
say to my kids all the time.
If you're making change,
you're going to have opposition.
I wanna thank those protestors
over there on the corner.
For showing that we're making change.
[APPLAUSE]
>> My name is Jen Ford.
I am a co-founder of
Women's March San Louis Obispo.
[APPLAUSE]
>> I'm a mother of two young
women who have been raised
in San Luis Obispo County.
My daughter Alexa,
who's here is an activist.
She has led protesters on her
school campus and in her community.
As a mother, I have my fears about
her safety and her well being.
Both in her activism work and
in her daily life.
Yet I know that unlike Tianna and
her mother,
there is a long list of worries
we never have to think about.
We live in the same community, yet
we live completely in different worlds.
Women's March SLOs mission is
to protect women's rights,
human rights, our safety,
our health and our planet.
As we move toward a positive and
just future,
there is no just future if
black lives don't matter.
[APPLAUSE ]
>> Our neighbors of color have been
fighting the injustice of structural
racism while being told over and
over again that racism doesn't
exist here by those who claim
to support them and
by those who claim to protect them.
[APPLAUSE]
>> Judging from the sidelines is only
an option if your life and
your future are not at stake.
As a mother of two teenagers,
I have seen young people rise
up in the name of justice.
I have seen them fight for
a future that would be truly equitable and
inclusive, imagining the world
where diversity is celebrated
because it makes our communities stronger.
>> [APPLAUSE] [APPLAUSE]
>> For a large part of their lives,
they have been witnessing
the crumbling of our democracy,
the deterioration of our environment,
and the abandonment of our values.
Yet their moral compass
points towards a just future.
Tianna deserves a future for
which she fights.
And I would like to help her and
all of our children get there.
She deserves to be free.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> She
deserves to shine her light
in our community right now.
We have the chance to do the right thing.
Women's March San Luis Obispo's
organizers stand with Tianna and
youth leaders who carry the weight.
We call on District Attorney Dan Dow to
not pursue the recommended charges and
we say it loud and
clear that Black Lives Matter period.
Thank you.
>> My name is Courtney Haile and
I moved to this town in high school.
Service to this community is in
my blood as my father Alan and
my mother Barbara, both did a lot of
heavy lifting to make this town better.
I unexpectedly moved back in 2013 and
was dissatisfied with the almost childlike
refusal of San Luis Obispo to acknowledge
that race matters in this community.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> This refusal was accompanied by and
some ways even anchored in the myopic,
faulty math that posits that
a lack of black people somehow
equals a lack of anti-blackness.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> In 2016, I co-founded Race Matters.
We provided anti-racism education,
works to amplify black voices
through a wide range of cultural and
arts projects, and unapologetically
carved out black social spaces.
Yet still, a code of silence around
race persisted in many spaces and
an overall air of contentment remained.
We needed to be pushed through
discomfort by bold voices like Tianna's.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Like Tianna's and
like the other youth organizers
who have forced us to hold
the magnifying glass to this once named,
happiest city in America.
The process of reckoning and
growth that SLO is experiencing
right now with all its pains and
all of its awkwardness,
carries possibilities for transformation.
Can we create a radically
inclusive community of belonging?
I believe that we can.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> But doing so requires that
we tap into precisely the qualities that
our youth leaders embody so powerfully.
Creativity, imagination,
boldness, openness, courage.
Rather than silencing them,
we should embrace the willingness
of the youth to speak hard truths.
To raise challenging questions and
to insist on the possibility of
a better future for this community.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We
should uplift young leaders like
Tianna and appreciate the value and
the vision she offers to all
of us as we seek to learn and
grow to transform ourselves.
I urge district attorney Dan Dow to
forge a path towards healing and
towards growth by not pursuing the
recommended charges against Tianna Arata.
Free Tiana.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I have run and
operated businesses here in
San Luis Obispo for over 20 years.
I support both the business community and
Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
They are not mutually exclusive.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We are working as a community to build
an anti-racist environment.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Disruption is the purpose of
protesting.
It's a fundamental tenet of our democracy.
Black people who are peacefully
protesting should not
be targeted by police just
because they're black.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> By targeting and
arresting the high profile black women
without arresting any of the hundreds
of white people who also participated
in the false imprisonment.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> The SLO PD has proven its role in local
systemic racism.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Because of this action,
I am even more fearful
of racial targeting.
I've been pulled over 20 plus times
in my life, I know what targeting is.
I've fit the description
way too many times.
Tianna should be revered for
standing up for racial justice.
Her courage, her leadership,
her enthusiasm will improve
black lives in the future.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Tianna is fighting for our freedom.
She is fighting for
all of us, all Americans.
Tianna is an American patriot.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> As another American hero,
Fannie Lou Hamer once said,
nobody is free until everybody is free.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I'm a Navy veteran.
I wore the cloth of our nation to
support and defend the Constitution of
the United States and the Constitution
as enshrined in a freedom of speech.
Especially speech that
we don't agree with.
So honor the speech here and
honor the speech across the street,
I love all of you.
I'm also the founder of Mindbody.
My co-founders and I started a scrappy
little company in my garage 20 years ago,
and today it's the largest private
employer on the Central Coast.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> I care deeply about economic
opportunity and jobs and we've got
a challenge here on the Central Coast.
And that challenge is entirely
wrapped up in this topic.
The lack of diversity in this community,
in addition to being a moral and
ethical issue,
is also an economic issue for us.
I'm a founding member of REACH, The
Regional Coalition of Local Leaders that
are striving for economic opportunity.
And I'm a father and a husband.
Jill and I have raised four
kids here in San Luis Obispo.
But, we're committed to this community,
and
we plan to spend the rest
of our lives here.
We count among our circle of friends,
people,
frankly on both sides of the street.
We have a deputy sheriff who's a friend.
She was one of the first responders in
Nipomo when that mentally ill man got out
of a car and started shooting people.
Those first responders, those CHP and
deputy sheriffs saved people's lives last
Friday in our community and
we owe them a debt of gratitude.
Thank you, you're heroes.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> So
what do we have in common here today?
I think we all,
all of us love this community.
And we're all worried and
afraid for our future.
And the events of 2020 have
shaken us to our core.
Who of us could have imagined on
New Year's Eve what was in store for
us in this magical new roaring 20s.
A pandemic wreaking havoc on our lives,
a pandemic tearing apart our economy.
And then these horrible killings
of Armaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,
George Floyd, bringing the surface
deep systemic problems of our country,
problems that are really
uncomfortable to face,
but are realities that have been here for
decades and decades.
As a middle aged white dude, I had to
come to the realization that the promise
of equality of the civil rights
movement of my childhood and
of Martin Luther King and John Lewis and
so many other heroes isn't done yet.
They did amazing things.
We've made some progress
that is not done yet.
And what I see happening today, what I see
in this beautiful audience, what I see
what Tiana, as I see young people who
are idealistic, who care about our future.
And you know what?
Older folks like me, the future is theirs.
This will be their country, this will
be their society and their community.
And I think what they stand up for
is powerful, it's important, and
it's precious that we have young
people who are idealistic and care,
that's why I'm here right now.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> The first
time I saw Black Lives Matter sign was
when my daughters Madison and Elena,
16 and 20 years old, went online
on Amazon and ordered one, okay?
The thing shows up on our front door,
they plant it in the front yard.
And I was like, okay,
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Black Lives Matter.
Yeah, I mean, don't all lives matter?
And then I didn't really get it at first.
I'm gonna admit that to you.
When the Black Lives Matter
protests started in our community,
I was frankly first surprised
at the level of intensity.
I mean, really,
we have that much to be upset about here.
I didn't get it because I'm not black and
I'm not young.
But then I remembered the first rule of
parenting and that is that when your child
feels what they feel is their reality,
when they skin their knees and they come
home and they're sobbing because they
hurt or somebody bullied them at school.
A parent doesn't tell their child no,
you don't hurt.
That's not real.
No, we first acknowledge their pain,
we tend to their wounds and
we help them heal.
And as parents, we listen, we show
compassion, we practice empathy, and
then we help them address the problem.
And so I feel that that's what needs to
happen today with all of the young people
here, can we just take a moment.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Please take a moment.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> If you live here on the Central Coast
regardless of how you stand on the issue,
would you please just raise your
hand as a member of this community?
So these are our neighbors.
These are our children.
Above all, we just need to listen to them.
And look,
we don't have to agree on everything.
Yeah, by the way, how many people have
reached out to me since I heard I was
gonna be here and say,
have you seen those video clips?
Yeah, I can't say I agree with all of it.
I can't say that I think that that
was all the best way to go about it.
But we're all human beings.
And I put my life on the line for
this country to give people the right to
speak their mind even when
I disagree with them.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> And
the principle at work here
is all the right principles.
It's the principles of freedom of speech,
of equality, and diversity.
So while I know there are many different
points of view represented here today,
I believe we can all agree that we
have a real problem on our country.
I mean, just yesterday, a black man was
shot eight times in the back by police
officers while he was attempting to
get into the car with his children.
We don't know the facts yet.
We don't know what happened.
But my God,
what is going on in this country?
Yes, of course, all lives matter.
But the focus right now is there is
a specific group of people in our
country who have had
their lives put at risk.
And this is opinion, this is fact,
the numbers supported its data.
So-
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Black Lives Matter, absolutely.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> Just like all of our lives matter.
>> [APPLAUSE]
>> We're living in troubled times.
How do we find our way out of this?
How do we make our community, our nation,
and our world a better place for
our children?
I don't know exactly.
But I think it has something to do with
consciously choosing love over fear,
it comes from just practicing
the hard work of empathy.
It's about putting down these damn
devices for a few minutes and
actually listening to each other and
having real conversations.
And it comes from assuming good intent.
Let's assume that the other person is
actually trying to do something good as
most people in the world
are trying to do something good.
Let's acknowledge our humanity and
especially practice these things when
there's tissues that we disagree about.
I had the honor a couple years ago
meeting Michelle Obama and she said,
it is hard to hate up close.
And I think in these troubled times,
we all need to get a bit
closer to each other.
That is Jill's and my hope and prayer,
for San Luis Obispo and for our nation.
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
[BLANK_AUDIO]
