Today as I sat outside the 4th precinct I felt discouraged. Last night's snow collapsed tents. Firewood is dwindling while temperatures are dropping. While delicious hot food is still plentiful, the hot drinks aren't as much. People are tired... from the sleep depravation, the need to constantly stay alert to attacks on the #4thPrecinctShutdown occupation, from hearing all that's being said in mainstream media and knowing it tends to paint a very one-sided picture, from crying and singing and laughing and shouting and silence, from the years and decades and centuries that have led up to this, from the developments and reality of other similar situations (i.e. Tamir Rice, Laquan McDonald) where white police are murdering black people... and while progress has been made, it isn't happening to the extent nor at the rate that is needed. This all is still just so huge- systemic racial oppression is a hard beast to slay.
And then a school bus slows down as it drives by the barricade and I hear all these tiny little voices yelling "BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!!" out the windows, and we all raise our fists in the air in solidarity with the kids... and my heart melts and tears form and I am reminded that no matter how discouraged, no matter how tired, no matter how hopeless it seems... this may be the most meaningful thing I have ever been a part of in my 30+ of life. What we are doing here, the fight we are a part of with countless who have gone before and are fighting now- including Rosa Parks who refused to get up 60 years ago yesterday- it is a REALLY big deal. It matters, a lot. And people are putting their lives on the line in a whole myriad of ways in Minneapolis to change the course of history.
When I came home tonight I saw this, and it encouraged my soul DEEPLY. The youth here have represented in HUGE ways, and they no doubt are taking risks (like when a couple hundred students did walkouts last week). They are on the front lines and are leading us all. To read/watch this affirmation of the power and influence that youth have is so beautiful. And, when most of what is being thrown around is criticism, it is refreshing to hear such affirmation.
MPS Board of Education Director's open letter to Minneapolis youth.
Dear Students of Minneapolis Public Schools,
This letter has been on my heart for quite some time and I want to finally have it reach your ears with the purpose of expressing my gratitude and respect – along with a promise – following last year’s student walkouts after the Michael Brown verdict and, more recently, your participation in the peaceful protest advocating #Justice4Jamar.
I am deeply stirred by the leadership and solidarity so many of you have shown in standing up to say Black Lives Matter.
I can’t tell you how heavy it weighs on me that you - like me, like my parents, and like my grandparents before them - still need to convince people that Black Lives Matter, in the 21st century.
"I'm tired of marching for something that should have been mine at birth" was one of the most powerful statements from Dr. Martin Luther King (1967). Nearly 50 years later, still you march and protest and we as adults hear you loud and clearly.
Like you, I am tired. Like you, I’m in pain. And like you, “I ain’t going nowhere." We have power. And as the chant goes, "the people united will never be defeated."
Because this is about our nation’s moral compass. This is about what it means to be a Beloved Community. It’s about the right to live fully for so many of us.
I hope you have felt supported in your choice to speak out. I have seen families, teachers, business and faith leaders, community leaders, elected officials, and many, many regular folks leading the way and standing beside you. But I want to take things a step further and acknowledge our complicity. As adults, leaders, and elected officials we have shaped and allowed the conditions that led to this point. We can’t celebrate your activism without acknowledging our complicity – and our own power to change things – directly in our schools and our communities for a start.
Adults can have the best intentions, but if we don’t change our behaviors and policies and really measure the impact our choices will have, change will never come.
THANK YOU for waking us up. Thank you for calling us out. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to do better. Whether you protest or not, we see you. Whether you chanted or not, we hear you. Most movements for justice around the world have been led by young people. So I want to celebrate your courage in upholding this tradition. And yet you shouldn’t have to. So today I want to promise you this and I invite adults in our community to join me:
I will put you at the center and make it a practice to share how I’m doing so every time. You need to see us fighting like hell for you and feel us protecting, nurturing, learning from, and uplifting you. If you don’t see that... If you don’t feel that... it's on us. But we can change and do what it takes so the reality of your life, your family, your neighborhood, your streets and your schools show you that Black Lives Matter.
Onward Together,
Tracine Asberry
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