From a 12th grade Government Teacher:
"We are ALL Michael Brown"—Building Resistance at a Bay Area High School
August 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The start to this school year has not been like others. There is something in the air. On the first day of school, while we didn't have a chance to discuss the police shooting of Michael Brown in its own right, I put on the board an extra credit opportunity that pushed kids to find out more about what is happening in Ferguson, Missouri. I encouraged them to watch a few livestreams of the protests, follow Twitter feeds about it, and write a reflection. I specifically prompted them to think about the role being played by police, media, and protesters, and to reflect on how they think these events are impacting the protesters, society, and themselves.
A Latina woman wrote: "This impact is rising concerns and anger throughout the country making citizens wonder their own safety and the wellbeing of their children's futures. As for me this rises frustration! I wish I could be apart of this movement." A Latino male wrote: "The impact that these protesters have on me is to open my eyes and realize that not everything is as it seems."
The second day of class, I introduced kids to the metaphor of "pulling the telescope back" to see the "big picture" and to go deeper than a superficial understanding of historical and current events. We watched videos of mainstream coverage of Ferguson protesters, and tried to apply this metaphor. With their help, I diagrammed out a picture of the mainstream coverage on the board within a circle: Protesters vs. Police. "Good" vs. "Bad" protesters. Questions about "What did Michael Brown do?" and "How did the shooting actually occur?" We then "pulled the telescope back," added a larger circle around the drawing, and I wrote down some deeper issues and questions—some that they came up with, some that I posed—that were not being addressed in the "inner circle" of news coverage: Systemic Racism; History of Slavery; Jim Crow; New Jim Crow; Poverty in community; What is the ROLE of police—to protect people or to oppress people?
Off of this, I told students that a few of their peers had voiced interest to me in doing something around this, and that I'd be holding an informal meeting in my room at lunch to talk through this—and that anyone can/should come to learn more and brainstorm about what we could do.
About 10 students—mostly women, Black and Latino—came at lunch, and what was so inspiring, was how much energy and passion they were bringing to this. I added ideas and facilitated, but did not need to "run the show." This has struck a chord, and for different reasons—one talked about how police murder has impacted her own family, another about how scared she was for her little brother growing up in this society with the cops acting like they do—they really want to throw down around this. One young man raised concerns about people who "threw things and got violent" at the protests, while another young woman spoke about the slogan "It's Right to Rebel!" that I had showed them... "it IS our right to rebel!" when these injustices keep happening, she argued.
I suggested we make a banner that kids in the school can sign and we can send to Ferguson, and they then wrestled with what should be on the banner. What they decided on was: "We are ALL Michael Brown! No More Stolen Lives!" At one point in this discussion, when a young woman who had taken some real leadership made a suggestion and no one really responded, she sharply challenged the rest: "Look, if you're here to do this, you need to throw in, you need to contribute your thinking!" That got others back in the discussion and the level of seriousness really went to another level. It was beautiful to watch—and one of them even said, "Wow, I just got the chills, this is so important."
We now have a solid core of five students working to bring others into this, and that group, along with myself, got up on stage at a full school assembly to make an announcement about getting more involved in this. We started by each going to the microphone and saying "I AM Michael Brown!" (this was an idea one of the young women thought up and proposed to the group the day before), and then two young women briefly explained what we were going to be doing and how others can plug in. The students and teachers in the audience—the school demographic is mainly Latino and about 25 percent African-American, most qualifying for free/reduced lunch—were very supportive.
A young woman who is emerging as a real leader in this brought a quote to one of our lunch meetings that she had found and really liked, and wanted us to read. It was from Vladimir Lenin: "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Everyone really liked it, and we decided she should read this at the all-school assembly, and when she did, she added, "This IS a moment. What we do really does matter."
There are ideas for a public protest, joining with and taking this to other schools, and creating videos about the issue, and there is an energy with this bunch that I have not seen in recent years. They were also excited to know that there is a Stop Mass Incarceration Network with plans for a month of resistance in October against police brutality and criminalization of a generation. Something is in the air.
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