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Indybay Feature

"Black youth too stupid to be angry", says mayor, local nonprofits

by Alfonso
OAKLAND, California, - "Don't get used by these protesters" says a man who was paid to drop his 'old-black-dude-who-went-to-prison' wisdom on a group of Oakland youth. "Don't get pimped. You kids are too stupid to analyze the system, you don't need to get angry. It's just the agitators who want to use you to legitimize themselves," he continues, in the city-funded nonprofit's main room, while a police negotiator sits quietly in the corner.
OAKLAND, California, -
"Don't get used by these protesters" says a man who was paid to drop his 'old-black-dude-who-went-to-prison' wisdom on a group of Oakland youth. "Don't get pimped. You kids are too stupid to analyze the system, you don't need to get angry. It's just the agitators who want to use you to legitimize themselves," he continues, in the city-funded nonprofit's main room, while a police negotiator sits quietly in the corner.
"I'm hitting you kids with some real wisdom here. I'm an older black man so don't question me about this."
He pauses, looks at the officer, then at the nonprofit's director.
"Any questions?"

This is a part of a campaign between local Oakland community nonprofits, Mayor Ron Dellums, and the Oakland Police Department to keep the peace after Mehserle's verdict is announced.

Their strategy?

Tell the youth of Oakland that they actually are too stupid to be angry over the killing of Oscar Grant III on the Fruitvale Bart platform last January.
"The real blame falls on the political groups," says a local nonprofit director. "They want to use these naive, stupid little children for their 'revolution', but they're not from Oakland." When asked about the fact that most of the OPD are not from Oakland, he brushed it off.
"I don't care if the police are murdering kids," he says. "The outside agitators are the real threat here. Oscar Grant's family wants peace, so that makes the police OK in my book."

Police officials have assured the public that a quiet, orderly demonstration will be tolerated, but any property damage will be met with swift, Mehserle-style execution.
"We like freedom of speech," says an OPD spokesman. "But we have a job, and that job is to keep Oakland's stupid youth from revolting. Since we can't openly treat them like the animals we know they are, we have to shift the blame to someone. So why not the groups that advocate revolution? So we thought, 'There's white people in those groups. We can just call them outsiders, and the brutal reality of our police state will fade to the back of peoples' minds.' Brilliant!"

It seems, on the day of the verdict, that tensions will be high. But will Oakland's youth prove to be as stupid as City officials say? Only time will tell.
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