Street roots., March 23, 2018, Page 4, Image 4

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Street Roots • March 23-29, 2018
News
‘It doesn't have to be this
BY EMILY GREEN
S E N IO R S T A F F R E P O R T E R
I Aour years ago, DeRay McKesson was
W virtually unknown.
JL. When he watched the protests that
C
followed the 2014 police shooting of Michael
Brown on television, he was working as the
human resources director at Minneapolis
Public Schools.
He thought the least he could do was
drive down to Ferguson, Mo., for the
weekend, but soon after, he decided to take
a leave of absence from work to organize
with protesters full time.
He tweeted videos of police clashing with
protesters and distributed a newsletter
describing on-the-ground events. He quickly
rose to prominence on social media,
becoming one of the most recognized voices
among activists decrying police brutality.
One year after he arrived in Ferguson,
McKesson co-founded “Campaign Zero,”
which advocates for policy changes aimed at
s h o o tin g s in th e U .S . to z e r o .
it may seem like a lofty goal, but as
McKesson told his audience during a recent
visit to Portland, “it doesn’t have to be this
way.” • /
U.S. police kill more people in a matter
of days than many countries kill over the
course of many years, according to “The
Counted,” a project of The Guardian that
compiles data on police shootings.
For example, in England and Wales, there
were 55 fatal police shootings between 1990
and 2014, while in the U.S., there were 59
fatal police shootings during the f i r s t s
days of 2015. Iceland has had only one fatal
police shooting since the country was
established as independent in 1944.
“For so many of us, we’ve forgotten how
to imagine and how to dream of a better
world,” McKesson said.
He was in town March 15 to raise funds
for Oregon Justice Resource Center, a
nonprofit that promotes justice system
reform and provides legal assistance to
immigrants, incarcerated women and those
who are wrongfully convicted.
The lower level of a large auditorium at
First Congregational United Church of
Christ was packed with several hundred
people who had purchased tickets to hear
McKesson speak.
McKesson sought to mobilize the
predominantly white audience that evening.
“An ally says ‘I love you’ from a distance,”
he told them. “An accomplice says, ‘I’m
implicated in this too, and I have to use my
awareness to do something different.’”
Since April 2017, McKesson has hosted
“Pod Save the People,” a weekly podcast
focused on social justice issues, and he
recently co-founded OurStates.org, a
platform for resisting the Republican agenda
through state policy advocacy.
Before Portlanders greeted McKesson
with a standing ovation, he sat down with
Street Roots and one of its vendors, “Netty”
Johnson, to take questions about the Black .
Lives Matter movement.
N e tty J o h n s o n : I ’m honored to g et the
opportunity to meet you. Street Roots asked
me, w ould I like to interview you regarding the
B la ck Lives M atter movement. I wasn't really
fa m ilia r with the whole movement, so I asked
quite a few questions a n d talked to a few
people because when I fir s t saw the B la ck Lives
M atter sign - i t started com ing up in the
neighborhood I live in, which is
predom inantly white - 1 was offended,
because I know every h u m a n matters.
When young children see the
O
Matter” and hear that police
are com in g fo r them, a n d they
need to be ready because
violence m igh t happen, they
may be m isjudged by any
movement. D o you believe
that’s sen d in g the right
message to o u r kids? When I
tell my nephew, “Hey, police
p u ll you over, d o n ’t move,
follow the ru les.” D o you
believe that “B la ck Lives
Matter, ” that statem ent only,
is confusing to a young
child, maybe 1 2 an d under?
DeRay McKesson: I am
mindful that we are saying
out loud and in public what
was already true. The police
have been killing people in
neighborhoods way longer
than we’ve been saying
see M c K esson
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P H O T O B Y C ELESTE N O C H E