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5 young Chicago activists answer 5 questions about the movement

RedEye asked five young activists their thoughts on the movement, recent protests and the impact they have had on Chicago.

1. In three words, how would you characterize this movement?

Page May, 27, an organizer of Assata’s Daughters and member of Black Youth Project 100: Unapologetically Black.

Ja’Mal Green, 20, co-founder of Sky-Rocketing Teens Corp: Revolutionary, youthful, unparalleled.

Damon Williams, 23, co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective and co-chair of BYP 100 Chicago chapter: Black liberation struggle.

Todd St. Hill, 31, BYP100 Chicago organizing co-chair: Powerful, young, love.

Lamon Reccord, 17, Chatham: Powerful, positive & productive.

2. What was the most memorable response you got from bystanders and passersby during the protests?

May: People running out of their houses to join us.

Green: When we were at [Mayor] Rahm’s [Emanuel] house, a neighbor came by and said that he tries to get his dog to poop on his lawn every day. It showed how displeased his own neighbors are by his leadership.

Williams: On a positive note, I’ve seen people come out of their homes and join us on the street without knowing where we were going. I’ve also seen people get out and start dancing on the roof and hoods of their cars in solidarity with us. There have been disheartening moments as well. Witnessing men, particularly Black men, becoming violent with women, specifically Black women, in a way that seemed intentionally targeted has been difficult. People can often become annoyed or upset when demonstrations block traffic, but I was shaken to my core when I saw men become violent with women I care about.

St. Hill: “Y’all are doing the right thing.”

Reccord: One time when a bystander around Rahm’s house [said] us protesters will make Rahm move away back to Cuba.

3. What does stopping traffic, blocking store doors and going to brunch spots do for the cause?

May: It disrupts business as usual, helping to raise consciousness and putting pressure on our target decision makers.

Green: When we say “No Justice, No Peace,” it means that everyone’s life should be disrupted until things change. So it raises the awareness but also stops money from corporations who are funding Rahm’s campaign and not caring about what’s going on in black communities.

Williams: Disrupting traffic and other movement stops people and forces them to engage with the issues at hand, whether they be sympathetic or not. Blocking traffic as political action halts business as usual, because it becomes problematic how our society continues functioning normally without processing the phenomenon [of] racialized state violence. Blocking stores and disrupting commerce is slightly different because capitalism, consumerism and unchecked materialism play a specific role in this system and often operate to support the interests that police and the state protect and are responsive to, often with a disregard to the struggles imposed on Black communities. Nothing forces power structures into action quite like the circulation of dollars and cents.

St. Hill: In a very real way, it interrupts the status quo and forces the discussion [of] structural racism in America by interrupting the business that benefit from the labor of [workers] (many of whom are Black, 38 percent Black women) but refuse to pay them a livable wage. By interrupting conferences, we force the discussion of the mockery of Black life globally by the existence of a conference where police chiefs and security companies from around [the] world can descend on a city (or any city for that matter) with a rich history of police corruption, brutality, corruption and torture and share tactics, strategies and equipment used to harm and kill Black people. We shut down business to expose the flow of city and federal funds to police and police organizations like the FOP that go to creating policies that place a barrier between accountability and the police creating the impunity that Black people know all too well.

Reccord: It raises awareness and shows citizens that us people can come together and unify with each other.

4. What real changes have you seen as a result of the public outcry?

May: We are holding people accountable. After months of pressure, we finally got [the recommendation to have police officer] Dante Servin fired. We also got [Police Superintendent Garry] McCarthy fired. The masses finally recognize how awful Rahm Emanuel really is. U. of C. is building a trauma center on its campus. Stop and Frisk will now be tracked for the first time in the history of the CPD. Reparations were won by survivors of Jon Burge’s torture.

Green: The superintendent of police has been fired, the head of IPRA [Independent Police Review Authority] has resigned, Rahm has tried to do everything we asked and people are finally waking up to what’s been going on for so long.

Williams: I have seen a shift in the public discourse and conversation as a result of an increased willingness to critique power. Throughout my lifetime I’ve rarely observed any popular movement to oppose the state and our most powerful institutions. However in recent months there has been an active willingness to hold those in power accountable for their inconsistencies and the harm caused by those contradictions.

St. Hill: There has been a broader awareness of the state of racism in this country, and in Chicago it was the outcry that was able to get McCarthy and [IPRA chief administrator Scott] Ando to resign, as well as exposed what many Chicagoans know to be a corrupt mayor and state’s attorney.

Reccord: That the people refuse to stop [pushing for a change until they get the things they need, as in justice and resources], that they want to keep the movement alive and seeing more young people [protesting and getting involved in community meetings].

5. What advice would you give to encourage other residents to get involved?

May: Start a book club with your friends (check out the Black Lives Matter Syllabus for reading ideas) and join an organization (Assata’s Daughters, Black Lives Matter Chicago, BYP 100, Chicago League of Abolitionist Whites, ChiStops, FLY [Fearless Leading by the Youth], Let Us Breathe Collective, etc.).

Green: Don’t wait until a family member is killed before [joining] the fight. This affects everyone, and we need everyone to contribute in some type of way for us to be successful.

Williams: People interested in getting involved with the movement should do their best to learn more about how oppression operates, specifically in their day-to-day lives. Then use that knowledge to take a new look at the institutions they engage, whether that be their job, school, church, nonprofit or certain social services in order to see how that institution is either oppressive or where it has the ability to resist and combat oppression. Then take a personal look at how their position within those institutions can possibly promote change. Everyone doesn’t have to come to a protest to get involved (although they are welcome); the fight begins internally and in the spaces where we are already engaged. And if you can’t find answers to these questions, then seek out the organizations already doing the work.

St. Hill: I think that this movement fueled by a radical love for all Black people has the potential to transform this world into one that is equal and accountable to us all, and most importantly to those who are furthest [from] society’s margins.

Reccord: Advice is that you cannot play games with real-life situations and if you want to see a change, you have to go out and make that change because it starts with us people!