Sunday Sept. 6 - "A Continuing Talk On Race," also known as A.C.T.O.R., presented by Black Lives Matter, or B.L.M., to the public at a local Washington, D.C., Busboys and Poets restaurant. The purpose of the event was to address the state of the movement and to assess the reaction to recent violence in the District of Columbia while addressing other related topics.
This event was facilitated by a local professor, by the name of Fahima Patricia, and featured local Black Lives Matter leaders who spoke noted below in bold.
Those who attended the over-capacity event got to ask questions directly to the local leaders, addressing their worries and concerns surrounding the movement, like the attack from the mass media that has already began and will undoubtedly continue on to the lives of the leaders and members of the group, and how other races can become allies to B.L.M., while also addressing the goals and plans for B.L.M. going into the near future.
Emotions were riled during the over crowded gathering, but everyone remained respectful and left with a better understanding of the direction of the movement that has taken the real world and social media hubs by storm. I had no where to sit, and barely enough room to move around with my nikon while getting the footage. Upon entering into the room where the meeting was being held you could literally feel the eyes in the crowd gazing at the panel on the stage. I was surprised to see so many different people from so many different walks of life attending the event, though it was mostly black, there was a fair share of other ethnicities in attendance. One man in the audience that was standing directly next to me criticized B.L.M. for not being bolder in their pursuit for a better quality of life for black people. I was surprised to hear the local statistics for Anacostia High School's black male children not graduating. He explained that 33 percent do not and will not graduate this year and how attention needs to be brought to the crisis of the local school system and education as a whole.
Of those leaders in attendance was DeRay Mckesson, an American civil rights activist. He is also a member of the organization "We The Protesters", which organizes protests that center on African American issues. Mckesson is known for his activism via social media outlets and has been active in the Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, protests. Mckesson sitting farthest to the left on the panel spoke with great vigor on a multitude of subjects but was praised for his comments in the video about the status of people of Caucasian descent being allies to the movement.
Panelist Omolara Williams McCallister ,a textile artist, arts educator, activist, and community organizer, gave her point of views and experiences from being a B.L.M. organizer in the field. One particular comment stuck out to me about how she has been faced with obstacles while protesting with people of other nationalities trying to show their elegance to the movement and how sometimes their actions endanger the movement itself.
As i stood there recording the event and listening, the part that stuck out to me the most was the question from a woman in the crowd asking, "how were they preparing for the attack on their lives for being a part of the movement?" Aaron Goggans, an organizer, artist, and facilitator originally from Falcon, Colorado made a valid point of the history of movements like this in the past and what happened to their leaders. Goggans for example, began organizing around housing and labor on the South Side of Chicago as a college student and remained on the South Side for six years. Aaron moved to D.C. to be closer to his family and quickly continued organizing around labor and housing in the District. After the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, Aaron began spending all of his free time writing and organizing around #BlackLivesMatter.
He pointed out how organizing for justice is a dangerous line of work, and the past has shown us that. Mr. Goggans was by far one of the most vocal at the event; he is at the beginning of the clip shown having a disagreement with an apparent investor in B.L.M. who is unhappy with Black Lives Matter as a whole not being as he called it "radical" enough.
The irony of what Goggans had said about the lives of leaders who wanted black freedom was felt throughout as organizers of B.L.M. sat on stage representing, whether they realized it or not, the same idea that has brought a tragic end to so many leaders before them; a better life for black people.
