PHOTO/SILICON VALLEY DE-BUG
SAN JOSE, CA — This weekend marked the release of Fruitvale Station, a film created to share the story of Oscar Grant. The maker of the film, Ryan Coogler, comments on CNN.com that he would be the same age as Oscar Grant if he were alive today. He is 27. Oscar Grant would have been 27. Trayvon Martin would have been 18. In an interview with CNN, Ryan reflected, “What gets glossed over is that we’re human beings too, like everybody else, young African-American males. Our humanity can often be found in our relationships with the people who are closest to us, and those relations aren’t often shown in headlines and whatever types of media you see us portrayed in. I hope the people can see a little bit of themselves in the character if they sit down and watch the film, and have a little bit of insight.”
Hip Hop said “Fuck the Police,” during a period and in an area of the country where history has shown time and time again that the “law enforcement” agencies, far from being the servants and protectors of Black and Brown communities, are another force of repression, destruction and death. When songs like “Batteram,” which depicted military occupation tactics in an American urban city, long before a drone program was even being considered in the public arena, they spoke to a reality that virtually every person of color knows, the same reality that Black mothers and fathers now struggle sharing with their kids. The reality is that they must look their child in the eyes and somehow get them to understand, “They will kill you and there will be nothing we can do about it.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. On the very same day that the verdict arrived, the family of Steve Salinas found some justice when the San Jose Police Department was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution for his death by taser some years ago. They were assisted by the support and leadership of the organization Silicon Valley De-Bug (www.siliconvalleydebug.com). Other organizations like the Women’s Economic Agenda Project in Oakland (weap.org) are working to tie together the struggles of workers, mothers, youth, unions, educators and all of us who are impacted by the ideology of the 1 percent, to form solutions that leave nobody behind. And there is still the unfortunate reality of Marissa Alexander, a woman who gave the got 20 years in prison for firing warning shots against her abusive husband. This, as 30,000 prisoners in California, and thousands of other prisoners, strike against the inhumane conditions that Michelle Alexander refers to as “The New Jim Crow.”
There are many collectives and individuals working towards a different vision right as we speak. Will we successfully grapple with the demons of the past and rise to the challenges of the present quickly enough to secure a brighter future for generations to come?
For a complete version of this article visit http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2013/07/20/trayvon-martin-oscar-grant-and-value-human-life-america/
