Good evening, It's great to see you all
here tonight. Thanks for joining us for
the first talk in this year's Dr. Bruce
J. Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series.
I'm Jeff Groves, Dean of the Faculty and
Professor of Literature at Harvey Mudd
College. This year the Nelson Series
theme is "Now: Social Justice and STEM," and
we're excited to spend the next few
months exploring contemporary issues of
social justice and considering how we
might incorporate social justice work in
both our daily practice and our
long-range plans. Tonight we are pleased
to begin this conversation with Milena
Abdullah, the Chair of the Department of
Pan-African Studies at Cal State Los
Angeles and a chief organizer of the Los Angeles Chapter of Black Lives Matter.
Before Melina is further introduced, I'd
like to acknowledge the generosity of
the family of the late Bruce J Nelson,
class of 1974, for establishing this
educational series to honor Bruce's
memory. Bruce died unexpectedly in 1999,
though not before having a tremendous
impact on the many people whose lives he
touched as an unconventional eclectic
and irrepressible free spirit. He
graduated from Harvey Mudd as an
independent program of studies major and
later earned his master's in computer
science from Stanford and his PhD in
computer science from Carnegie Mellon. At
the time of his death, he was the chief
science officer at Cisco Systems. We're
honored and grateful to the Nelson
family for the opportunity we have each
fall to host exceptional speakers who
are at the forefront of their respective
fields. And I also want to offer thanks
to the Nelson series committee members
for planning this year's series and
bringing tonight's speaker to campus.
Faculty and staff members Sharon Gerbode,
Dagan Karp, Colleen Lewis, Sumi
Pendekar, and Beth Kruchkowski all, as
well as students Ramonda Giddings and
Lisa Geller. It's now my pleasure to
welcome Sumi Pendekar to the podium to
introduce Milena.
Hi everyone. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown,
Tanisha Anderson, Freddie Gray, Oscar
Grant, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Alesia
Thomas, Giselle Ford, Tamir Rice, Rekia
Boyd, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Tarika
Wilson. This is why we're here. To center
the experiences of those we have lost
through the gravest forms of injustice
in search of a new way of doing things, a
new way of building society. Our Harvey
Mudd College mission exhorts us to
understand the impact of our work on
society, but this year's Nelson Series
ensures that we are deeply cognizant of
society's impact on our work. On behalf
of the Nelson Lecture series committee,
I'm thrilled to introduce our speaker
for the evening, Dr. Melina Abdullah. So
before I continue fangirling, let's go
forward. Melina's Professor and Chair of
Pan-African Studies at California State
University Los Angeles. She earned her
PhD from the University of Southern
California--fight on--in political science
and her BA from Howard University in
African-American Studies. She was
appointed to the Los Angeles County
Human Relations Commission in 2014 and
is a recognized expert on race relations.
Abdullah is the author of numerous
articles and book chapters with subjects
ranging from political coalition
building to womanist mothering. What
binds her research together is a focus
on power allocation and societal
transformation. She's currently writing a
book manuscript that examines hip hop
and political mobilization. Abdullah is
also a leader in the fight for ethnic
studies in k-12 and university systems
and was a part of the historic victory
that made ethnic studies a requirement
in the Los Angeles Unified School
District. Professor Abdullah is a
womanist scholar activist recognizing
that the role that she plays in the
Academy is intrinsically linked to
broader struggles for the liberation of
oppressed people. Melina serves on the
leadership team for Black Lives Matter
and has commit
to ending state-sponsored and police
violence towards all people and
especially black people. Melina is also a
soccer mama of three children and
resides in mid-city Los Angeles. Please
join me in giving a huge welcome to Dr.
Melina Abdullah.
so thank you so much for having me it's
been really great getting to know some
of the faculty and staff and students I
had a chance to get to know some folks
over dinner and I was just wonderfully
hosted so thank you for making this a
great experience so far I'm going to
talk a little bit about black lives
matter and about why we're in a movement
in the midst of a movement not simply a
moment and that said I want you to think
about what it is you want me to address
okay so I'm going to walk through but if
at any time you need me to stop and
pause and go back and engage we can flow
okay so however we need to flow will
flow does that work for y'all okay um so
thank you again sue me um I was hoping
that black lives matter Inland Empire
would be here but they ran into a little
bit of an emergency tonight so I will
lift them up in some actions it's really
important for me and what I'm learning
as an organizer is that when we have a
room full of people we need to ask you
all to do something right because the
movement that we're in isn't about any
single person it isn't about any small
group of people it's about recognizing
that the movement is about all of our
freedom it's about all of us working to
build a more peaceful in just world and
recognizing that piece only comes when
we have justice yes yes okay so I want
us to lift up these names and
everybody's familiar with what's
happening in tulsa and the murder of
Terrence Crutcher in tulsa and
everybody's familiar with what's
happening in charlotte right now we're
in a period of uprising in Charlotte
people in Charlotte never thought they'd
see this kind of level of uprising
around the killing of Keith Lamont Scots
and then I also want us to lift up the
name Tyree King and somehow in this last
couple of weeks his name has been lost
the 13 year old boy in Columbus Ohio who
was playing with a BB gun and
old by the police and then they justify
it by saying he shouldn't have had the
toy right and so we need to think about
the space that we're in and what it
means I don't know how many of you have
seen the tapes or heard the tapes of
Keith Lamont Scott's wife witnessing her
husband being murdered have you all
heard or seeing that yeah so this is
somebody's father right he's somebody's
father he's somebody's husband you know
Terrance Crutcher is somebody's brother
right we've heard his sister's speak so
beautifully about the person that he is
and was to her and what it means that he
can be walking with his hands up and
then be but still be perceived as a
threat to the police yes right what must
it mean to a mother to lose her son at
13 years old that is a baby 13 years old
because he's viewed as a threat already
and so we absolutely have to lift up
those names and remember what the loss
feels like and looks like right to the
people who are most affected by it but
also think about what these losses mean
for all of us right that nobody's child
is safe right nobody's father is safe
nobody's mother is safe right that black
people are being gunned down as if it's
a sport right and we like to in Southern
California especially pretend like this
is some national phenomenon that exists
in places that are far away like
Charlotte right with a history you know
of racial oppression of course that's
the south we say right but we like to
close our eyes to the fact that LAPD
kills more people than any other law
enforcement unit in the country by far
and my brother Matt right here we were
talking about you're from New York right
sometimes we talk about New York even
and the murder of Eric garner and you
know those names akai gurley have gone
viral and all of us know those names but
we don't know brother africa's name we
don't know Radel jones name
we don't know Jesse Romero's name and
Kenny Watkins name it's really important
that we understand that right here we
have a fight to fight yes ok so this is
my favorite France 49 quote and I know
that you all are at a science
institution that you all emphasize stem
but I think that it's also important
that we emphasize philosophy right that
we think about why we do what we do and
what frantz fanon says is each
generation must out of relatively
obscure out of relative obscurity
discover its mission fulfill it or
betray it those last two pieces fulfill
it our betray it our heavy right because
sometimes we think that there's a third
option you can just sleep on it right
you can just do what you do and be
neutral but you can't you either fulfill
or betray your mission not your
individual mission to you know discover
something important not your individual
mission to you know do well for you and
your family right we were talking about
that right but you are generational
mission what kind of world are you
building what kind of legacy are you
leaving collectively for the collective
we either fulfill that mission or betray
it so I want to talk a little bit about
how I see black lives matter and I'm
going to tell my personal story if
that's okay with you and I promise not
to talk too long about it if you're good
with that y'all good with that ok so I'm
from Oakland and we talked about being
from Oakland how many y'all from Oakland
oh just me and you and I was sitting
next to you that was meant to be it was
fate it was fate right so on your
parents generation though right so I am
the panther cub generation i was born in
the 70s right that still makes me 29 and
in Oakland in the 70s all of us you know
most of our parent
in fact I don't know anyone's parent who
wasn't in the Black Panther Party or
around the Black Panthers right and so
there's this kind of air of
consciousness um that you just breathe
in right so you're born into the world
kind of engaging in a particular way so
a lot of times my students I teach
pan-african studies um we'll talk about
what was your first protest and they'll
go what was your first protest I don't
know because i was almost literally born
at a protest right like that's what
that's what we did every single weekend
right we were protesting something um we
learned anytime there's any injustice
you protest it right even down to like
the corner store and letting only a few
black kids in at a time but letting
everybody else come in all at once right
we staged our own protest and junior
high right so we would protest
constantly so there was this
understanding that you stand up against
injustice wherever you find it right and
so I was born with that so I was engaged
in what Brenda Stephenson calls episodic
organizing right all my life every time
I saw an injustice we dries up we resist
and then we'd go home and wait for the
next injustice and rise up resist go
home and that became the cycle and so
the thing that moved me just like the
thing that moved my parents generation
was police brutality and police abuse
right and even though I dries up resist
and go home on other things ethnic
studies profiling something about the
state something about the state using
our dollars to fund the police to
brutalize us and sometimes even kill us
with something I just couldn't stay home
for I couldn't sit it out I don't care
how tired I was I was resisting right so
I was involved in a struggle for justice
for lots of names right for Margaret
Mitchell when I first moved to Los
Angeles for devin brown when i first
moved to los angeles
for oscar grant because I'm from Oakland
and the trial was in Los Angeles right
for sean bell for Amadou Diallo I
remember rising up and being at protests
for every single one of those names and
many more who I can't remember right now
right but something happened that was
different for me with Trayvon Martin and
I don't know if you all remember what
happened with Trayvon um but for those
of us in my age group who were used to
rising up resisting and going home we
knew that the state often got away with
the murder of our people but something
about Trayvon and those of you who were
with me in kind of age can tell me if
I'm wrong we had a level of hope that we
didn't have with everyone else right so
I know Johannes Messerly wasn't really
gonna serve no time even though I was
shocked he got convicted you all know
Johannes Messerly killed Oscar Grant on
the bart platform right I was shocked he
got time but I knew he wasn't going to
get any serious time right with George
Zimmerman now remember it took us a
while to catch on to the Trayvon Martin
case right that Trayvon Martin entered
into our living rooms late right we
didn't start getting news of this story
until weeks after Trayvon had been
killed right and so as we start to hear
details we understand one he's a child
17 years old right doing nothing wrong
absolutely nothing wrong killed by
someone so i often kind of try and
process well why was i more hopeful
about the outcome with Trayvon Martin
and I was about previous outcomes I
think part of it is because he was
killed by someone who wasn't really a
cup right remember Zimmerman was like a
cop and his
online he wanted to be kept applying and
kept getting rejected right they didn't
even want him to be an old neighborhood
watchman right he made up the fact that
he was neighborhood watch right they
didn't even want him on that right so I
was like he might not get off then I
also started thinking he's also so he's
a cop in his own mind and he's also
white in his own mind because we're his
mama was Peruvian right and many of us
saw him and went like he's not really
white right and so the justice system
isn't going to work for him in the same
way that it works for real white people
right so I was expecting a conviction
for our I was hopeful that there would
be a conviction of George Zimmerman and
how many of you were in on the west
coast when the verdict came out yeah so
do you all remember it with a Saturday
and that it become evening and if it's
evening in Los Angeles it's night time
in Florida so a lot of us thought that
the verdict wasn't going to come out
until monday right in fact even news
outlets started saying oh the vertical
probably come out monday so my family
had grown I needed a bigger car so I
said all right I'm gonna go to carmax
and buy me a bigger car verdict ain't
coming out today right I have been glued
to the TV all day right so I'm at carmax
with my three kids and we're looking for
an SUV and my brother calls and he goes
where you at and I said carmax he goes
all right sit down cuz you ain't gonna
like it and he says he got off and
they're giving him his gun back and this
fog just kind of overtook me and I
gather my children and I go home and I
don't I know this is the inland empire
but do you all know anything about Los
Angeles yes do you know anything about
black Los Angeles okay so i'ma let you
in on a secret where do black people
maybe somebody else knows where do black
people go when we get upset in Los
Angeles
arena of course you know so this is my
comrade from black lives matter in Los
Angeles arena anybody else know all
right we'll let them in on it where we
go the mark park right so if you're
looking for black people when there's a
time that we're angry we're in leimert
park all of us like this we don't need
no memo we all there okay um so I have
my kids at home I feed them i'm feeling
like i don't know how many of you know
the story of Jo Ann Robinson the one who
called the Montgomery bus boycott do you
all know her story no because it's a
science college you haven't studied this
yet right so you all should know this so
this is your ethnic studies lesson okay
Jo Ann Robinson is the sister who calls
the Montgomery bus boycott basically
what happens is she's grocery shopping
in the Piggly Wiggly and somebody goes
professor Robinson she's a professor
professor Robinson Rosa Parks got
arrested okay so she gets all the
details finishes grocery shopping goes
home cooks and then goes back to the
University with and gets all the women
she knows and they mimeograph y'all
don't know nothing about a mimeograph
but before there were copy machines like
in a lot of our lifetimes there were
these things called mimeograph machines
where you had to do this to make copies
of stuff right and she they mimeograph
all this stuff and go out overnight and
post these signs at every bus stop don't
take the bus right so not saying I'm Jo
Ann Robinson but I felt like her because
I went home I cooked I put my bathed my
kids put them to bed found someone to
babysit them call three other mamas we
came and met on my couch and went to
where we knew all the angry black people
would be which is where leimert park
right so that night when we get to the
park there's like hundreds of people
there and they're kind of
ling around everybody's milling around
and crying and yelling and consoling
each other and I remember there was this
one young sister who said it was her
first time being out she was 19 and she
said I don't want to be in this park no
more I said well what you want to do
anybody want to be a organizer community
organizer activists or see themselves
that way okay so the first investment
you need to make is in a bullhorn right
they're not that expensive so I had a I
had the power of the bullhorn right so
the sister said I don't want to be in
this park I want to march so I get on
the bull horn all right y'all we gon
march right and so everybody floods the
street and there was this internal
bickering but I had the bullhorn some
people wanted to go south down Crenshaw
Lamar Lamar sits right on Crenshaw
everybody knows crunch y'all seen Boyz
in the hood right so so it sits right on
Crenshaw some people wanted to go south
down Crenshaw if you go south what does
the population look like what do you
think South LA what do you think it
looks like it's black right it gets
black or the further south you go right
so we know that if you want to make them
nervous if you want to make a statement
don't go south they don't care what we
do south right they care what we do
North some of the communities in South
LA are still burnt out from the 1992
uprising y'all right so we ain't going
south and repeating that mistake so I
remember being on the bullhorn and all I
kept yelling is go north I felt like I
was telling people to escape slavery go
north right right so we start marching
north of Crenshaw and as we get to
Crenshaw and King which is you know just
a couple of blocks from the park there's
hundreds of police in riot gear and
they're blocking King and I remember
there was so many
of us by this time the crowd had grown
to thousands of people that we can just
kind of rush past them so we're dodging
they had bean bag guns they had tear gas
rifles they had yellow tape blocking off
the parking lots and so we're jumping
over I felt like a track star jumping
over this yellow tape right and we
finally get up to the exposition line
and we shut down the exposition line
right go home sleep a couple hours come
back out the next day we're out in the
streets all day long this time we have
our children with us right so we were
the mama Brigade with our kids marching
with our kids that next night we march
all the way to Hollywood and Highland
which has to be I don't know what would
you say like eight miles arena yeah like
eight miles so we march up in the middle
of the night shut down Hollywood inhale
in the tourist center right the third
day of marching we march and we shut
down the 10 freeway you all know the 10
freeway because it comes here we shut
down the 10 freeway and as the 10
freeway is being shut down my children
are begging to one get on the 10 freeway
my nine-year-old tundi way or then she
was 9 was gone come on mama let's get on
the freeway I'm like that's what we
won't be doing right but I'll take the
pictures right so I'm standing on the
overpass taking pictures of folks
shutting down the 10 freeway and some of
you may have seen those photos in fact
um there's a now kind of infamous photo
of that 10 freeway being shut down that
I actually took from the overpass and
tweeted out and then it went viral right
because it was the first time a freeway
had been shut down in to our knowledge
right in this particular movement right
um and so as I'm standing on the
overpass I get a text message and I
always beat myself up for this because I
should have I should have her name on
this slide I get a text message
and I neglecting to mention by the third
day um most of my students from
pan-african studies at Cal State LA were
out and part of this March right so I
get a text message by one of the most
phenomenal independent black journalists
in the world time to seize away
chimurenga and so I think it's really
important that we think about where we
get our news from right that many of us
rely on corporate media to give us our
news and they're only giving us the news
they want us to have right so if we
think about even outlets that are
thought of as liberal like MSNBC right
they're controlled by corporations you
all looked at each other why you say
okay so it's important that when we
think about commercial media who pays
for it right yeah large corporations
they're owned by large corporations and
funded by large corporations so if you
want the truth you're not going to get
it from them you're going to get their
version of the truth right so it's
really important that we support
independent media here in Los Angeles we
have kpfk is everybody listening to kpfk
it comes out this way yeah yes no
doesn't know do people know what I'm
talking about who does not know what I'm
talking about oh wow okay so kpfk is on
90.7 FM 90.7 FM and it's listener
sponsored radio and so what that means
it's even better than NPR because the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
can't take away its funds its funds come
because you gave ten dollars you gave
ten dollars you gave twenty dollars and
if you don't like what said and you take
back your twenty dollars you will like
what it's what's it and you'll give
twenty dollars right so it's independent
media it's a different version of the
truth it's really people's media does
that make sense so it's important that
we both support and listen to
independent media so time to seize way
chimurenga actually has a show on kpfk
drivetime morning show on kpfk but she
also is a print journalist and writes
for a sources like truth out lots of
other places lots of other independent
media outlets so she and I have become
friends around the oscar grant
organizing work she won't throw the book
on that trial called no doubt so we're
standing me and my children are standing
on this overpass and I get a text
message from time to seize way who's
actually forwarding a text from a friend
of ours a mutual friend of ours named
patrisse cullors and I always imagine
that if the text talked it would read as
a whisper it would have said he'd at 9pm
in st. Elmo's village right so st. st.
Elmo's village is a black artist
community in Mid City Los Angeles and
this call to meet at 9pm had happened
because the three women who were
pictured here patrisse cullors opal
tonetti and alicia garza had been
talking as we were in the streets
engaged in what i'll call intuitive
organizing they were engaged in
conversations about how to make this a
movement not a moment how do we build
the kind of resistance movement and can
that can topple the structure that we
live under because it's more than
individual instances it's more than you
know a single rogue officer a bad apple
who killed Eric garner or who killed
trayvon martin or who killed mike brown
or who killed Ezell Ford or Adele Jones
or we could go on and on it's a system
so the top of that system doesn't take
just individual uprisings it takes a
movement and so we need to build a
movement not a moment a movement not a
moment and so this is actually our first
organized action so that night we met at
st. Elmo's village and we pledge to be a
part of a movement not a moment and then
within two days we pulled together this
first March our first organized marches
black lives matter and i'm not talking
about black lives matter Los Angeles I'm
talking about what is
now a global movement with more than 50
chapters around the globe black lives
matter this was our first demonstration
that's one of my former students you
remember Charlie oh right so char leah
was a track star so you'll notice we
were marching down that's Wilshire
Boulevard and that cross street is real
day I'll Drive have you all seen the
movie pretty woman that's the mall that
she was shopping at right on Wilshire
and rodeo so we decided early on that we
want to disrupt spaces of white
supremacist patriarchal heteronormative
capitalism because that's the system it
rolls off your tongue right and we felt
like there is no better symbol of white
supremacist patriarchal heteronormative
capitalism then this mall on Wilshire
and rodeo right so we marched down
Wilshire in Beverly Hills it was we're
hearing the first kind of march of its
kind in Beverly Hills and we decided to
take over the small so there's a lot of
people behind that are coming but
charlie is a track star so she's already
at the top of the steps right and so
that was our first action our first
organized action not intuitive action
and that's the birth of black lives
matter and so we began to conceive of
well what is black lives matter oh and
I'll just go back real quick so we also
were grappling with what does it mean to
be a movement not a moment so you'll see
a picture of Trayvon Martin and that big
hashtag which is what we called
ourselves initially j40 MLA justice for
Trayvon Martin Los Angeles and then you
see real tiny there black lives matter
right that's how Alicia had closed a
love letter to black people that she
wrote I'm following the acquittal of
George Zimmerman and so we still didn't
get that it was black lives matter that
should be the big hashtag right so we
had to evolve into that so what is black
lives matter can someone read that
black lives matter is working for a
world where black lives are no longer
systematically and intentionally
targeted for demise we affirm our
contributions to this society our
humanity and our resilience in the face
of deadly oppression we have put our
sweat at we have put our sweat equity
and love for black people into creating
a political project taking the hashtag
off of social media and into the streets
we call for black lives to matter is a
rallying cry for all black lives
striving for liberation so I just want
to lift up I should probably underline
this part that we are systematically and
intentionally targeted for demise so one
of the things that we need to think
about is that the system that we live
under didn't just we didn't stumble into
it right and Manning Marable writes
about this in his book how capitalism
underdeveloped black America right and
he talks about the intention of the
system the system was built by people
who profit from it and it's not
accidental that black people are killed
by the state right and so it's really
important that we understand that that
there the police who kill people are
doing what they're designed to do
there's a reason we're not getting
convictions right there's a reason why
in Los Angeles they're not even being
charged right because it was built to be
this way so the system is not broken how
many of you listen to the debate last
night right and what are they lifting up
even Hillary Clinton is lifting up this
idea that the system is flawed that the
police the good police want to reform it
as much as everybody else as much as
black people no they don't no they don't
right because the system was built to
have this outcome does that make sense
there's no way that now the new data is
starting to show that black people you
all know that every 28 hours report
right that shows that black people are
killed every 28 hours by police
vigilantes or security right so some of
the new data is revealing that it's
actually more like every 23 hours now
right so when you have a system that
kills black people more than once a day
right that's not accidental that's
intentional right so how do we then
change that one if we think about who
we're talking to why we speak in the we
the change for the system has to come
from us right the system is not going to
change itself no matter if we try to get
them to see the our humanity no matter
how much we play no matter how much we
ask for reform it has to be us power
concedes nothing without demand power
concedes nothing without demand yes yeah
and so that's what we're really trying
to build a movement that creates demands
of the system so there's an approach
that we have and how long do I have like
I didn't mean to talk this long I'm good
so like 20 minutes would we have okay
all right so I'll take about 20 more
minutes well stop earlier if we need to
so what is the black lives matter
approach how do we operationalize what
we say we are the first thing that we
need to do that we're not we don't
always talk about is love black people
fiercely right so oftentimes black lives
matter is criticized because they say
well you don't address black on black
crime one there ain't no such thing as
black-on-black crime that's all white
structural racism and violence that is
implemented and imposed in our
communities right and is meted out
through maybe black bodies but it's not
black on black crime right so how do we
love black people fiercely right we have
to change the way in which we engage
with each other right we have to be
affirming to one another right and so
when you come to a black lives matter
meeting or event our demonstration
you'll find a different energy in
that space right and so loving black
people fiercely is hugely important to
who we are I'm going to just kind of go
over some others quickly and then we can
talk about them more in the QA so the
second thing we want to do is raise
awareness third thing is mobilized the
masses that means that it can't just be
a few of us all of us have to be engaged
and take ownership and that's connected
with number four we engage in group
centered leadership you will never find
someone saying I'm the president of
black lives matter because we don't
believe in that right we believe in what
mama ella baker talks about that all of
us ver the responsibility for a
leadership and we lead in different ways
right our contribution to leadership can
look different but all of us on the
movement yes we want to construct a
black lead ally supported network and we
have been constructing a black LED Ally
supported network sometimes it's
uncomfortable for white people who see
themselves as progressives to be
challenged around their own white
privilege right and so we say that if
we're talking about black liberation and
the reason why we say black lives matter
and I know people out this way try to
counter it with a retort that's
problematic for me right that all lives
thing we ain't saying it right we saying
black lives matter because black people
are at the bottom of every possible
social economic and political measure
and so when black people get free we all
get free right and so it is in your
interest whether you are black are not
to be invested in the black liberation
movement but it also means and it also
means that you have to step back as
black people take lead yes we are
capable of envisioning and moving
ourselves towards freedom yes developing
our own visions of freedom number six we
want to disrupt the system so that means
wherever we see white supremacist
patriarchal heteronormative capitalism
we gonna tear it up right so it can be
in a faculty meeting hey
it can be in a supermarket or at a
restaurant or on a freeway right or in
an airport right we're going to disrupt
those systems because as long as
oppression remains confined to black
communities things will not change but
when you don't know if you gonna be able
to eat you little dinner in peace right
then things are going to start to shift
yeah so we want to disrupt those spaces
and then finally we want a vision and
build a free in just world and so that
means constantly asking what does
freedom look like right and are we
really building within our own spaces
that we have power in right are we
constructing a free and just space right
so there's a couple of guiding
principles and for all of the guiding
principles you can go to black lives
matter com there's 19 guiding principles
but I just want to lift up three of them
the first is that all black lives matter
all black lives matter right and so I
want to lift up shailene graves because
we're in the Inland Empire how many of
you know her story okay so sister
shailene was just killed a couple months
ago in um woman's institution um here in
corona i believe it is Corona and so she
had been serving an eight-year sentence
shailene was accused of being in a car
with two male friends who went on a
crime spree by robbing stores for a
total of four hundred dollars right she
was 19 years old so three of them
together she was driving she didn't Rob
anybody she was driving stole a total of
four hundred dollars nobody was hurt but
stole a total of four hundred dollars
and got cut she does eight years 19
years old gets sentenced to eight years
for this crime spree right she's a
mother she's a daughter
seven and a half years and no seven
years 10 months into her 8-year sentence
she was scheduled to be released six
weeks before she was killed she's found
hanging in a jail cell who commits
suicide six weeks before their release
right and so everyone every member of
her family is very committed to the idea
that there is foul play they have not
been forthcoming with evidence video
evidence log book evidence and so we
know that shailene graves was probably
killed in the way that more and more of
our black women have been killed
recently so we can think about Sandra
bland shailene graves in Los Angeles the
button i'm wearing is for wacky she
wilson who was killed on easter sunday
in LAPD Metro detention center right
that they're dying in their cells and
it's confirmed if you go to the open
justice desktop which was created by the
State Attorney General Kamala Harris
shows that a huge number of black women
are being found dead in their cells and
they're not being reported as deaths at
the hands of the state they're being
reported as suicides so um dignity and
power now actually collects some of this
data and what they find is one of the
lowest rates of suicide is black people
on the outside but the highest rate of
suicide is black people who are
incarcerated right so we have to begin
to question whether or not those are
actually suicides right so shailene
graves the reason I'm saying all black
lives matter is because shailene is a
black woman oftentimes when we talk
about black lives matter people who are
not actually in black lives matter frame
the fight is a fight for unarmed black
men right we need to remember that that
is not the truth of what's happening
that black women are also being killed
by the police and in fact in places like
Los
lyst black women constitute a huge
number of those who were killed right um
but the second thing is Shailene was
where was she a good negro you know they
like to paint good Negroes and bad
Negroes you her Hillary Clinton doing
that last night right there's some
beautiful places in the black community
the black church is one of them right
right you know what you know what there
are no good Negroes and bad Negroes we
all just black folks right and Shay
leans life means something whether she's
incarcerated or not so all black lives
matter black lives matter whether you
were a man or a woman whether you were
straight or queer whether you are cysts
or trans whether you are a middle class
our poor right your black life matters
whether you have never committed a crime
or whether you're incarcerated your
black life matters so we need to lift up
that all black lives matter and reject
this idea that some black lives matter
more than others the second guiding
principle I want to lift up is connect
it with what I just said which is that
we reject respectability politics right
and so that applies to who's killed but
it also applies to how we get down okay
so this idea that you have to conform to
their rules is hugely problematic it's
part of how they keep us oppressed right
by saying you can't say that in the
classroom yes you can right by saying
that you gotta pull up your pants right
you can't shout no church will you know
what you shouldn't be hiding the police
in the church right police in the church
we don't tear it up in the church right
police in the schools we don't tear it
up in the school's right so rejecting
respectability politics means rejecting
it in terms of who's killed but also in
terms of how we get down right and then
we have to enter the movement as our
whole selves and so I think that can be
I'm going to just show a short clip this
is about what Keisha program
Keisha Wilson was released I'm standing
with the mother of Y Keisha will sit
down and flees the Hinds the cousin of
wacky she loves him
this is the woman who died in LAPD
custody baby daughter black newspaper
game they have in Hawaii me a heavy
smell her first name I'd actually the
president of the Commission
I will be a criminal cornfield it ain't
30 do they grow and they do
keisha Wilson had everything a little
for get her song los angeles police
department has not been transparent we
still don't have any answer where's the
videotape a silence just as to the the
suspicion we don't want this to drag out
drag out year after year we want some
closure that was my only time my idea
why Keisha Wilson is not resting the
reason I'm showing or I showed that
video was one absolutely to lift up the
name why Keisha Wilson but 22 also lift
up what it means to enter the movement
as your whole in complete self right
that we have to embrace all of who we
are in the movement for the movement to
have an effect and so the mothers have
an extremely active role in the movement
so we're not as black lives matter
organizers there's a difference between
activism I want you all to wake up and
be active but it's also important that
we become organizers that we help people
to the difference between organizing and
activism is an organizer gets people to
act on their own behalf and in their own
interest right so the mothers of the
movement have to be able to bring their
pain into the movement they have to be
able to tell their stories in the
movement right and we have to allow that
to happen for the movement to have the
effect we needed to have for it to be a
transformational movement I'm just going
to kind of quickly go through a few of
our recent actions not that recent so
our first occupation is black lives
matter was occupied LAPD and some of you
all know the name is l4 yes yeah so easy
sell for it was killed
August 2050 2014 by LAPD and when the
autopsy report came out it confirmed
what everyone in the neighborhood said
that he had been shot at point-blank
range in the back by LAPD and so as soon
as that report came out we came and we
took over LAPD at the front of LAPD
headquarters for 18 days and so that's
that action this is we were waiting for
the outcome and we weren't having as
much of an effect as we would like in
front of LAPD headquarters so when I say
take it over that it was an occupation
it means that we were there
twenty-four/seven for 18 days we decided
and June to shift it from LAPD
headquarters I mean we had stopped LAPD
headquarters but we're restarting we
weren't going to start again an LAPD we
started at the mayor's house instead
right so for three days we were in front
of the mayor's house this is an action
that we like to call black work matters
right because a lot of times they try to
separate folks based on their issue
areas this was a fight for 15 campaign
and we wanted to say well you know what
the fight for black lives is a workers
fight ezel would have wanted a living
wage this is our freedom ride that we
did last summer we took a bus from Los
Angeles to Cleveland and spent a week
stopping in different places this is our
last stop in Albuquerque where our
indigenous family hosted us and did a
cleansing a spiritual cleansing for us
black xmas some of you all will remember
that in seven cities they allegedly
coordinated because there are still
pending charges on this but the freeway
exits just before the airports in seven
major cities were shut down on the
second busiest travel day of the year
and then lastly we just finished 54 days
in front of City Hall I'm not going to
show the video but I will send the link
that was prompted by the LA Police
mission finding that the murderer of
Radel Jones was in policy so they killed
30 year-old Radel Jones who was accused
of stealing eighty dollars using a
kitchen knife from a local pharmacy the
pharmacist is on record saying that he
wasn't scared of her that he just wanted
her to go away so he gave her the eighty
dollars an hour and a half after he
reported it at one thirty in the
afternoon Radel Jones was spotted in an
alley in a very residential neighborhood
of los angeles with children looking on
the police came and shot Radel in the
back leaving her body on the ground in
the plate there's an alley that also
doubles as a play area for the children
left her body on the ground uncovered
for about 12 hours and not only
dehumanizing her but also dehumanizing
the black residents and children of that
area who will be forever traumatized by
that action Radel jones left two
children a seven year old and a 13 year
old who don't know what happened to
their mother the family of Radel jones
wasn't notified for four weeks of her
death and so when the police commission
ruled that that killing was in policy
meaning that that officer brett Ramirez
will not only not be charged he keeps
his job he also keeps his job and we
continue to pay him so we erupted and we
decided that we were going to demand the
firing of the police chief in Los
Angeles who continues to justify the
killings that his officers are engaged
in and so we marched the black and a
half two blacks from LAPD headquarters
to City Hall we tried to gain entry into
City Hall and the youngest among us had
guns pulled on them some of us a couple
of the women including me were wrestled
to the ground and handcuffed as we try
to get into a public building during
business hours right and so when we were
finally released from police custody
some of us said things that we've been
had to back up which was we ain't going
nowhere right and so we didn't go
anywhere for 54 days we stayed in front
of City Hall which is the longest black
occupation in history we transitioned
from calling it an occupation to
recognizing that they are the occupiers
we are the D colonizers right so we
called it decolonize LA City Hall I just
want to lift up this is the gathering
and Cleveland that I mentioned last
summer when we took the Freedom Ride I'm
going to skip this part just recognizing
time I want to talk about the role of
allies quickly and we talked about black
lives matter being a black lead ally
supported organization what does it mean
to be an ally and so you know we
absolutely want everybody to be a part
of this black lives matter movement and
what it means to be an ally is to really
examine the system of white supremacy
the system of racism that privileges
those who are not black at the expense
of those who are and be willing to give
up some of your privilege all of your
privilege be willing to do something
that on its face it seems illogical why
would you want to disrupt a system that
privileges you well we're all freer when
we live in a free world right and so
this is an action that some of our white
allies did it's CicLAvia some of you all
know what CicLAvia is like there's all
these white people on bikes who take
over the city right so they disrupted
CicLAvia these yellow shirts or they say
white people for black lives right and
what they did is basically say that
white silence is violence right white
people have to be engaged they have to
be willing to they actually hashtag John
Brown 2016 right so just as we summon
our ancestors they're talking about
summoning you know who they see is their
most revolutionary and
this action here is up in Oakland and
this is Asians for black lives and some
of you will remember that for 18 hours
they shut down Oakland Police Department
they actually chained themselves to the
front and those tubes prevent them from
being able to get cut out right and so
there are whole ideas that you know we
are not going to revel in the notion of
a model minority because we know that
white supremacy oppresses us too and so
who our allies are a black folks not
white supremacy right and so we see this
kind of willingness of allies to step up
and see how black lives matter and then
the struggle for black freedom is part
of their own freedom I want to just lift
up this action because my mama said
never get a whole bunch of people in a
room and don't ask them for something
right so shailene graves was killed in
the California Institution for Women
which isn't that far from here black
lives matter Inland Empire is doing an
action that's coordinated with the
California Coalition for women prisoners
on Saturday it's not far it's in Chino I
said Corona Oh corona road that's where
I got that from if you all can get there
you should get there it's not far and
it's worth the trip right if you believe
that black freedom needs to happen if
you believe that shailene graves life
matters we need you to get there and
then this is how you plug in so we need
you to do three things we need three
things from you we need your voice so
every time people say why is it black
lives matter and not you know whatever
crap they don't talk right all lives
blue lives that's the craziest thing
I've ever heard in my life right you now
know how to say well this is why black
lives matter this one is what no it's
not okay to say all lives we are saying
black lives matter and of course we're
not saying only black lives matter but
we lifting from the bottom right so we
need you to say it in your voice to your
parents right we need you to be willing
to do
that right we need your body we need you
to be on the front lines the more people
we have the stronger we are one of the
things they try to say is it's just a
few of us one of the times um about a
year ago patrisse cullors one of the
co-founders and I went and disrupted
Eric Garcetti at this international
meeting of Mayors and he sent his chief
of staff out to first try to arrest us
but then try to shut us up and then he
goes well who is black lives matter is
it just the two of you and we're going
wait what like what moments are you in
what have you not been watching no black
lives matter is not just the two of us
but we don't want anybody to ever say
it's five people or 10 people or 20
people this is a mass movement and to be
a mass movement we need all of us to
take ownership of it so we need your
body and then finally we need your
resources so we need your resources in
terms of dollars for sure right so skip
Starbucks and give us a five dollars
right because we're not a nonprofit
organization we don't get grant money
right i know there's stuff on the
internet oh they get george soros money
y'all heard those rumors right yeah no
we don't have any George Soros money
right the biggest money we ever got was
jay-z and Beyonce who gave us two
hundred fifty thousand dollars for 50
chapters and about 20,000 organizers
every chapter got two thousand dollars
from that right and then we were
thankfully able to hire a couple of
staff people temporarily right to help
us coordinate the work so nobody's
getting paid so we need your money but
we also need what else you bring so I
know you all are sciency folks right you
tech folks we need yah we need more than
signal as a communications platform
right you all know signal like the
encrypted text yeah so we need that but
we need other stuff we need you to help
us figure out how do we communicate
securely right we need you to help us
with like just basic text stuff that
some of us don't know right we need you
to think about what it is you bring and
bring it right and so this is
how you plug in literally you can go to
black lives matter calm the Inland
Empire chapter this is their contact
information you all can write that down
and don't wait for a personal invitation
any time something comes up they mean
you please come if you come to LA we are
BLM la black lives matter Los Angeles
and I'll stop there and thank you for
having me
thank you hi so first I wanted to thank
you for coming this is actually the
third time I've seen you in person not
that I'm following you one time at pull
it one time a politican over the summer
at the panel with Melissa harris-perry
and then at the meeting turned march in
inglewood over the summer which was
great also the numbers were under
reported just like a side note because
you were just talking about like the
number of black labs Matt etc but so
like I'm a first year at pomona across
the way and I was coming into the school
year thinking that I would have a lot of
time to dedicate myself to activism into
supporting the movement and what I've
noticed is that i don't have as much
time as i thought i don't have as much
energy and I've also been questioning
like what it means that I can't do this
or haven't done it like haven't shown my
support so far since I've been back and
I wanted to know if you had any insight
on what myself and probably many people
in the room to face is a struggle
between not knowing like how much we
should focus on our education because we
are very privileged to have this
education and these resources but also
to be actual bodies for these very
important events what's your name Samia
Samia okay so I'm going to say something
that you're going to hate which is that
this is the most time and energy you
will ever have in your life so I know
you feel like you don't have any time
but you do right so think about how much
time you're spending chopping it up with
your friends and maybe you're talking
about ideas but you can talk about ideas
at the encampment right um so be honest
with yourself about what you have right
maybe you don't need that you know me
time that you
you need right maybe that mean time
needs to be us time us get free time
right and so use that right so you do
have more time than you think that you
have and we need you to give it up not
everything we want you to finish school
right we want you to do that but think
about how you can merge some of what
you're already doing with the movement
right and everything doesn't mean we're
not at protest 24-7 and sometimes you
have to say no right so people wanted me
to get out on saturday to do this
protest police we're having something in
leimert park main taking our damn part
right um they had something in leimert
park and they hit me up in some urgency
the police are in leimert park well you
know what my nine-year-old was turning
ten that day right I'm sorry somebody
else gonna have to go out to the Mart
park that's that's not happening today
right and so you can be honest and say
when you can't do something but there's
a lot that you can do so you don't have
to come all the way out to Los Angeles
we would love to have you there but
there's a chapter right here in the IE
that you know if you go out to see I w
that's a couple of hours right take
those couple of hours and and do what
you can and then do a little more than
you think you can okay I thank you so
much for coming today um my name is
Johnny I'm a junior at Pomona there's a
lot of pomona people here um but um I
actually just wanted to ask you a
question because i'm nearing I guess
real life quote unquote um as you know
school ends and things like that and
I've had like experiences interning at
like nonprofits and like in the federal
government in DC and I found that it was
a lot of respectability politics like a
lot um and as someone who comes from a
low-income background and still has to
worry about things like financial
stability when it comes to my future
career I was wondering what your insight
is as to how to pursue a career that
still falls in line with your values but
can still like help you survive and
sustain yourself because I am interested
in policy work but at the same time
that's like
working like in the system still instead
of dismantling it like you mentioned so
yeah I mean like I'm not able to say
things like white supremacist hetero
patriarchy in DC um so how do you talk
you're allowed to see I eat you to say
that yeah but yeah I guess what is your
advice like if we're trying to like is
it just hopeless to work within the
system like doing just not or what do we
do don't lose yourself to the system
right so you can't believe what they
tell you that you can't say white
supremacist patriarchal heteronormative
capitalism yes you can say that say that
and shake it up right so you know figure
it out for yourself you have to figure
out what your lines are and recognize
too that everybody sells out a little
bit right you know we don't live in a
space of complete freedom right now so
you're gonna have to sell out a little
bit but you have to figure out what
you're willing to give up to right so
what are you willing to give up maybe
you don't get to work for you know some
particular governmental agency right
maybe you're not going to do that you I
can't answer the question for you you
have to figure it out you have to figure
out what you believe and what you're not
willing to waver on what you're not
willing to be silent about and then also
figure out like how much you're willing
to sell out right so I'm at a point now
where I feel like and I was sharing with
the group the only my only line is I'm
not giving up my kids right if I get
fired I get fired right I'm not that tie
two things and that's the other thing
you have to free yourself from all the
stuff that they say that you need you
don't really need that stuff right there
trying to tie you to it so they tie you
to material objects so that you think
that if I give it up you know my whole
life is going to collapse it's not going
to collapse figure out what it is you
really want to do with yourself move
with your passion and I'm also going to
say something that I don't know if you
all do here when you are
figuring out what your lines are i
believe it's really important to come
from a meditative space so one of the
things that helps me to keep relatively
sane and answer deep questions for
myself as i meditate every single day
right meditate and then write down the
answers to the questions that come for
you because then it comes from a space
of truth does that make sense hi I'm
Elijah I'm a third-year pitzer and I
question I had is as a Latino how do i
balance a lie ship with kind of
contributing to like the Latino struggle
here in the United States and abroad and
like because like that it seems like
there's like a large in the like
mainstream media like the narrative is
like a black and white dichotomy but as
like an ally that is also not to the
same extent obviously but has some
marginalized identity how do i balance
contributing to the Latino struggle and
the black struggle yes so you have two
things you have to do for yourself which
is absolutely work within your own
community and struggle for freedom
within your own community in a way that
doesn't rely on the oppression of other
groups right so we get down let me tell
you what's scaring the hell out of
people right now we're we had a recent
action called black and brown shut it
down and that scared them to death
because they killed three teenagers in
the span of three weeks Richard richer
who was african-american Jesse Romero
who was Latino but looks black to me
right and Kenny Watkins who was also
african-american and so we had black
folks and brown folks organizing
together and we're seeing like this
level of solidarity that I've never seen
in my entire time in Southern California
that's really important work for you to
work on liberation within Latino
communities in allied ship with
happening in black communities but the
second piece of it is to also disrupt
anti blackness in Latino communities so
I think you have to do both at the same
time hi I'm Carla I'm a junior at mud
and my question is black lives matter
eventually wants to enact change and
that change being removal systemic
oppression from our government systems
and I guess I'm wondering specifically
how do you envision that change taking
place and maybe specifically with reform
to our Police Department's I'm so just
very quickly I don't believe in police
reform I believe in the transformation
of Public Safety cysts that this public
safety system which means ending
policing as we know it I understand that
policing as we know it evolves from
slave catching there's no reforming that
it has to go right and so we need to
invest in the things that actually make
communities safe livable wage jobs
mental health resources after school
programs arts programs all of the things
that actually make communities safe
is this okay so hi my name is lynn i
graduated from harvey mudd last year and
so now i'm teaching and something that I
see like in my classrooms is that you
know different students are treated
differently and students from like
lower-income neighborhoods are treated
by teachers like oh I'm sorry that you
have to deal with these kids behavior
whereas with you know white students
from privileged neighborhoods are
treated like oh like they're just
talking in your classes are so excited
so it's really frustrating to see that
even with like elementary school
students and then so as a teacher you
know from the classroom I want to be
able to be like no like don't do that
but without turning my class into like I
don't know like a like a statement is
this early like I'm having trouble
articulating this but basically like
when you're an educator in front of a
classroom like how can you like move the
classroom from being a part of the
system to like overturning it but
without like getting fired um I'm not
very good at telling you how to keep
your job huh but I'm gonna say just
short and sweet just decide just decide
and do it right just decide into it and
you know read right I'm sure you've read
Paulo Friday right Paulo fade a pedagogy
of the oppressed okay so start with that
that'll answer a lot of your questions
really pedagogy of the oppressed and
then a lot of your questions will be
answered okay all right and I think
there's one more Matthew arm of a junior
Harvey Mudd College um the question I
guess this is a little different
question than I had before and this is a
little scary I guess but in trying to
dismantle systems of white supremacist
the federal I don't normally patriarchal
capitalism continue down the list right
it's very consecrated it's very likely
historically done it was sitting like in
place through violence right it was in
place through like killing people
through disenfranchising people and
making sure that they stay in a place
and then so in your opinion what place
as from resistant what place does
violence have in the movement right
because like there's one thing to say
we're like to like move forward as
togetherness or the people but then it
kind of a kind of stopped when military
gets involved when guns get involved
right they kill dependence in their
sleep right like what place does violent
have in the construction movement one I
think that we have to be very clear on
where violence comes from so they've
done a phenomenal PR job of painting us
as the violent ones right what's more
violent than killing seven year old
ayana stanley Jones while she's sleeping
on her grandmother's couch what's more
violent than killing 12 year old Tamir
rice for playing in a park with a gun
with a toy that you said was a gun right
was more violent than that so they are
the purveyors of violence we're not
right saying we want an end to violence
makes us a peace movement right not a
violent movement and so it's really
important that we understand and the its
strategic as well right so there's a
phenomenal book called we will shoot
back by i can--yeah moja that talks
about the role of self-defense in black
freedom struggles right we're in a space
now though where I even question that we
will shoot back ideal right because
they've outgunned us we hang on win that
way right there are other things that
have to happen for us to win and even if
we think about the history of black
liberation struggle because this moment
didn't come out of nowhere right this
black lives matter movement moment is
part of a continuum of black liberation
struggle so when we think about what got
us free from uh
enslavement right chattel slavery what
won us the first wave or what beat the
first lynching era right but one of
civil rights but one is voting rights
what one is black power right it was
actually the spiritual component of the
movement and the willingness for people
to come together and rise up and use our
bodies and put our bodies on the line so
when you talk about violence one I want
to say that there the violent ones not
us but to that we have weapons that are
much more effective than guns and I
think it's important that we think about
all of the weapons that we have the
weapon of our labor shutting down things
in terms of Labor right the weapon of
mass opinion how do we use that how do
we use spirituality and so I don't have
all the answers but I think that one we
have to remember the primary source of
violence we have to envision ourselves
as a peace movement we're building peace
with justice recognizing that
sustainable peace only comes with
justice right and then figure out what
it is where our power derives from I
don't think we're going to ever have a
moment like the 1960s when Huey P Newton
and the Black Panthers were able to take
the Statehouse right try marching up in
this Sacramento with some guns now and
see what happens right if they'll kill a
little boy with a toy right us marching
with some guns ain't gonna win nothing
right okay all right I think that's it
thank you so much I really enjoyed you
you
