Black Lives Matter: Why we Protested at Alameda's Tree Lighting Ceremony

The recent grand jury decisions in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY not to indict white police officers responsible for the deaths of two Black men have further revealed the flaws in our justice system and fueled widespread protests in hundreds of cities throughout the country.

I led a peaceful protest during the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at Alameda City Hall on Dec. 6. Holding signs declaring, “Justice for Mike Brown,” a multigenerational, racially diverse group of 35 people demonstrated and later marched down Park Street in solidarity with the families of police brutality victims.

With non-stop media fixation on “riots” and “looting” at recent Bay Area protests, it was not surprise that many island residents expressed utter fear that a protest would be coming to Alameda. The protest flier with a cartoonish image of a fir tree in flames surely further ignited fear that “violent” protesters would cross the bridges and invade.

I grew up in Alameda and attended schools here from elementary through college. I still live here and have no desire to initiate the vandalism that could justify a violent police response or distort our central purpose and message: Black Lives Matter.

Too often, the lives of Black Americans or Black Alamedans have not mattered.

Alameda has a long history of racial intolerance. Racial residential segregation still haunts our community and housing discrimination continues to this day. Ten years ago, over 400 predominantly Black families–including my own–were forced from the Harbor Island (Buena Vista) Apartments. Racial disparities continue in Alameda schools with Black students overrepresented among those suspended.

Although I have not been stopped by Alameda Police in over six years, I was often racially profiled as a teen and young adult. I’ve never heard of any officer-involved shootings by the police, fortunately, but I witnessed excessive force. To this day, many of my friends are afraid to come to Alameda because of not so distant discriminatory treatment.

This is a reality for Black bodies here and across the U.S. We teach our children to fear the po-lice for our own safety. I wore a Santa Claus outfit during the protest, partially, for my own safety. A Black Santa protesting police brutality might be less likely to be attacked in front of children than a Black male adult.

That fear of police is not the reality for many other Alamedans–as evidenced by the calls to police warning warn them of the protest.

Our protest was a wake-up call, an urgent plea to join this march for justice. Any inconvenience briefly felt at the tree lighting pales in comparison to what the families of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice must live with this holiday season. Mike and Tamir’s parents lost their sons. Eric Garner’s widow lost her husband and his six children lost their father. The three individuals responsible for extinguishing these Black lives have not been held accountable yet.

These and the killings of hundreds of Black men, women and children are not isolated incidents. Thus the protests nationwide have continued and will continue in the streets and malls, and on freeways and bridges of America until there is justice. There can be no more business as usual anywhere.

Alameda is an island, but we are not isolated from the injustices taking place across this country.

Island parents and schools must use this moment to have age-appropriate conversations with their children about race, stereotypes, and violence.

Many Americans have segregated social circles and few if any Black friends. This lack of interracial friendships fuels anti-Blackness. Racial divisions have also influenced perceptions of the Ferguson protests and the police response. Where else in Alameda but the tree lighting could we have sparked this conversation?

Those who truly desire a just, fair and inclusive future must speak out in spaces that exclude Black bodies and minds. Silence is complicity. We need your voices and action.

This article originally appeared in the Alameda Sun, but it's sentiment was slightly modified.

Photos by Daniella Kantorova.