The Rise of Black Lives Matter | VPRO documentary | 2016

over the past few years smartphones have captured brutal images of police violence against black civilians these go viral on social media fueling debate and making the violence but also the resistance to it more visible than ever under the hashtag black lives matter the protest has grown into one of the biggest civil rights movements in the u.s. the black spring is is everywhere a conversation with the co-founder of black lives matter patrisse cullors about the need to resist this is back light welcome to a theater where words become weapons everybody follow behind Katie please I don't really want to be getting upset yeah it's just kind of embarrassing especially when there's 200 people in the audience yeah so let me just remind folks that our team has your back right and this story is less for them yes it's gonna impact people on the audience and much more for yourself it's your opportunity to claim space and you could feel as angry as hurt as sad as upset as pissed as you want to it's your story it's shit that happened to you and you get to feel every single feeling yeah on the space it's y'all space patrisse cullors is an activist and theatre maker from Los Angeles where I'll put your hat sign like I see her face she's working on a play that will give black Seattle residents of voice in the summer of 2013 colors hashtag the words black lives matter the hashtag went viral changing the conversation around state violence and police brutality the earliest memories with law enforcement I can remember is when I was 12 years old along with alicia garza and opal tometi she founded the black lives matter movement black lives matter now has 30 local chapters not just in the United States but all over the world emotions are running high across parts of the US tonight after the controversial acquittal of George Zimmerman he was charged with second degree murder after fatally shooting 17 year old Trayvon Martin it was a case that sparked debate about racial profiling we the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty but for crowds gathered outside the reaction was one of disbelief I was sitting in a hotel in a small prison town visiting a little brother of mine and I wanted to see the verdict of George Zimmerman to see if he was gonna get any time or get convicted of anything and as I sat in that motel room on Facebook and as the verdict came out I was completely floored completely jaw dropped that he yeah that he that he got away with murder he literally got away with murder and was scouring the internet for some reprieve honestly and and I I came across that Lisi as opposed that when she when she says matter and that that's the important importance of something going viral right like that's the magic of virility is once up a thing goes viral everybody does see it and I can go into any any place around the world I can sit in any cab I can talk to any person to coffee shop and say you know black lives matter and they'll say yeah I know black lives matter so your voice sounds really good no matter what you do with it but it would be good to hear a different fluctuate fluctuation so at age 15 I was in Maple Lane juvenile prison and the staff there were abusing me and making me to be out to these to be this monster that I was not Thurston County was trying to remind me you know like that you know what I mean so you want to be you want your voice to feel like it has different layers to it okay okay so put emphasis on a certain thing is it yeah at age 15 I was in Maple Lane juvenile prison and the staff there were abusing me they were trying to make me out to be this muster that I was not exactly evolved technically I'm developing at her peace with black Seattle lights that's they call themselves and the art piece is really bringing black people's stories of criminalization and state violence to stage I think the like what I'm really doing is trying to challenge the narrative that black people can't tell their stories that our stories are shameful and saying this was unacceptable this should not have happened to me and in fact this should not be happening to many people and you're gonna listen and you're gonna sit and you're gonna be a part of this are you're gonna be a part of helping me figure out what we do next the white prosecutor decided to make the example out of my black ass and try me as an adult at age 15 the remand hearing was held in Centralia Washington in all-white town and there were no other black people there except for me and my mother I swear it felt like I was in some type of circus as I was on display before all these evil and wicked people I was very nervous and I was trying to concentrate while listening to the rummage of paper and hushed voices of white folks talking and whispering about me I heard the rhythm of all these false allegations about how incorrigible I was and how I was a bully and a troublemaker the only thing they forgot to call me was a ****** when it came time for me to speak after my mom had already pleaded with them for mercy I really did not know what to say and they were all waiting for me to begin talking but all I could do was bust out laughing at the crazy look on my mother's face she seemed to be making a face at me and I laughed so hard I almost fell out the chair boy were those white folks pissed their faces all red like lobsters on down to the neck which only made it much funnier for me they were all bug-eyed and well I never and looking dead at my black ass as I was trying to stop laughing because my mom was shaking her head in this leisure and I knew I had to stop but I couldn't I don't want nobody else to go through that yeah at age 15 you'd be laughing just because you'd be laughing not because you meant no harm this piece is a tool inside of our movement and it's important when we come into each city and we're building out the performance piece that we recognize and build with other black leadership so it's not just like sort of taking these folks into a vacuum and then releasing them after we're done that would be exploitative rather we're trying to build an entire community around the piece so it's not just the performers the audience also feel like they're a part of this piece and they're accountable and the community feels accountable to the to that to the performers and to this piece so what do you expect the audience to feel what do you hope they're gonna feel I want the audience to be reminded of their humanity what anti black racism does is it disconnects us from our humanity and so I want the audience to show up and feel deeply expressed deeply and then if they haven't been called to action yet after everything that has happened in this country that this is a moment for them to be called action I called a meeting with their teachers to find out what was going on and at this meeting it was the first time that I was informed about all the negative behaviors my child was then tackled by a bike cop it felt like I've been hit by kam chancellor climate for the seniors after Starbucks we went to our respective cars but on our way to our cars we were interrupted by the sight of an officer pepper spraying a young man in the face without just cause shocked I doubt 9-1-1 and then I realized that the 911 operator didn't give a fuck at all to my horror I turned around and realized that I was being excessively pepper-sprayed after which the bike cop tackled me with the force of what felt like a linebacker hitting a helpless Y receiver I begged and I pleaded what did i do what did I do to wish this white male officer replied stop resisting his unlawful arrest but last first lady's cutest Nick for no reason Mike Brown was murdered on the streets of Ferguson by an officer named Darren Wilson when Darren Wilson went to trial to the grand jury Darren Wilson said he was scared for his life although he had the gun and we see this so much law enforcement officers being scared for their lives but they have the gun and as the world watched and waited waited to see if Darren Wilson was going to be indicted by the prosecutor Bob McCullough we knew he wasn't going to but but we hoped that he would and when he was in the whole world up rose and that was when you saw black lives matter go viral the second time the first time was during Trayvon and this is the second time where internationally and globally people were using black lives matter as they hit the streets to protest against the non indictment of Darren Wilson you had people that were shutting down freeways we had people who were showing up in the thousands many of us gathered and drove down to Ferguson and we stood in solidarity with the community this was that time where I could tell that this movement was really it was completely blossoming what makes Ferguson important is that there was an uprising Mike Brown dies the community comes out and they really big do a vigil that night but their police response with tanks and tear gas the night of the vigil and then the community says we're not going home and these weren't organizers these were nonprofit leaders these were black people who are fed up with the consistent level of harassment that was happening previous to my friend was killing and the police keep responding and keeping reactionary if they just allowed people to protest imagine how different the outcome would be but instead they were pressed instead they violated people's civil and human rights and then the rest of the world was watching in shock I witnessed the first SWAT team which is a military as unit of LAPD was developed in Los Angeles it was developed because it was in response to the Panther Party but what you start to see in the 90s as the rise of smaller towns having access to military weaponry because there was too much for the US military so there's a program called 1033 that allowed for law enforcement agencies to say we we want that those you know those bombs literally we want those hand grenades we want those assault rifles we want that take for our city and you see the rise of militarization when you're using tear gas when you're bringing in tanks into a community you're saying you are the enemy we must shut you down by any means necessary that's not the escalating violence that's actually causing violence don't see my name no just straight into the start I was trapped TPD and DLC led by Officer Stephen deploy stir had ganged up on me they had me blocked in Tacoma Police Department and Department of Corrections after dropping off a friend on felony probation after a two year incarceration I had already served my time for yesteryears crime the cop car spotlight was far too bright they threw me in the back of a cage that night anxiously I watched as they rifled through my belongings all up in my vehicle with reckless abandon and they did not read me Miranda rights I couldn't put up much of a fight as it was turning out to be a fucked up night I was just dropping off a friend trying to get back home trying to get back home take your time babe but I knew I was in trouble by the sound of their tone where do you think you're going mr. cotton the convicted felon has very few rights and that's what I learned in the terror of that night y'all exit we are a generation that have been totally consumed by the police in prison state most of our family members were addicted to crack we watched the complete decimation of our communities we watched the continuous defunding of the social welfare state and then you have a generation of black folks who don't have access to jobs unions have been completely destroyed the jobs we have access to our low-paying jobs no paying jobs we don't have access to health care and the list goes on and so when someone dies in our community after the 15th time something snaps some of us will show up peacefully some of us won't but what's the better question the better question is why what made us end up in these conditions in the first place we don't have that conversation often because the media is obsessed with making it a sensation so we focus on the rioting we focus on the looting well can we actually talk about how Mike Brown was slaughtered in the streets and forced to be in his own blood for four to five hours while his family witnessed it how traumatic we're not talking about that the whole community this was broad daylight the whole community witnessed the slaughtering of a teenage boy his mom is there she can't she can't go past the yellow tape and we are being questioned on being violent it is the most abusive response to someone who's being abused she felt around under my hair looking for the threat she wanted to find my eyes started to feel watery and I just closed my eyes as she was still patting down my hair I heard what are you doing can't you see she's just a kid why did you make her take her clothes off it was Kevin he finally realized he was one short and I could feel everything change in that moment the TSA agent looked at him smiled and said we're almost done we have to be we had to be careful when I was writing my story it was very hard to talk about state violence in the context of Seattle because people mostly think state violence means like a black person gets killed and black people do get killed here but if there's a lot more often for the police to harass people till I pull you over for no reason to like if you're hanging out with more than three black people at a time to come and say you're loitering or you're selling drugs those are the little stories that don't get amplified that makes the essence of state violence for black people so do you feel safe not really no there's no such thing as complete safety because there's always somebody that's gonna be more afraid of you than they are Veni thing else and we don't know what's gonna happen there was another time that I thought about telling this story but I felt like I had more agency in that incidents but I wasn't I was going to Washington DC in 2012 for a school project and at this point I was in college I already learned about like racial and justices and all this of the things and I could textbook define it and I was just I went through the security line and then one it was a psych it was a weird moment wish the TSA agent was like ma'am can you hand stick your hands out and I didn't even think anything of it so I just went like this and then she like put some powder on it and then put some other things and I was like what are you doing and then she was like oh I'm just scanning you for explosives and I was like excuse me and she's like yeah you know it's just protocol and I was like you didn't scare that guy and he was like really tall blond hair blue eye and I was like he looks like Timothy McVeigh Timothy McVeigh is this guy who blew up but you know he was doing great why didn't you scan him and this was like it's we're supposed to you and then she said you fit a description are you an extra-small I have the urge to like narrate your what you're saying that narrate like have jokes yeah to make the audience feel better but like I can't so I just it's real intense and it's also it's a way that it's a protect it's the way you protect yourself from being vulnerable onstage since Ferguson we've had the uprising in Baltimore and we have a we've had a uprising in Charlotte we've had uprisings really across the country it's not because people just started killing black people it's not just it's not because law enforcement just started beating up black people these are issues we have been facing since we came to this country so what changed now why do we hear about them social media social media has changed the game social media has allowed for black people to actually be the storytellers if we had social media during the 1992 uprisings we would have had a different conversation come out of the uprisings if we had social media during Hurricane Katrina we would have had a different conversation coming out of New Orleans but Ferguson and Trenton and and Mike Brown's killing Trayvon Martin and his killing we have seen a new generation of people utilize social media to tell the story on the ground we got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back and the police just he's he's covered he killed my boyfriend he's right since he's carried so he's licensed to carry he was trying to get out his ID in his wallet out his pocket and you let the officer know that he was read he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just shot him in his arm hole to get his hand out he have you told him get his ID sir his driver's license get the female passenger out keep a look where's my daughter you got my daughter face away from me and walk keep walking keep walking get on your knees get on your knees my phone is about to die I'm a larva Tara fry this the Roseville Police Department just shot my boyfriend there are some days where I'm just numb there some days where it's just too much to bear it's it's the days when you've read several articles that tell you about black people dying at the hands of the state talk about another black woman being killed this show in Seattle I think really does give space to the types of violence and stories we've heard from black people throughout the country I think about you know falando Castillo's girlfriend filming him on Facebook live and us all having to witness her grief the numbness I think has been most present for me lately it's in this these moments where I create an art piece where I can't be numb to people's stories I have to show up where my rage and my deep deep sadness surface I began my day with my daily routine tending to my hygiene breakfast etc at this point in my life I was heavy into the arts I was trying to figure out how to process what just happened to me I wanted to cry for crying at 17 in public not cool I think I got suspended I don't really remember since I was so young they tease me about my hair and after a while I started believing the things that they said but I was stupid and ugly I remember going home trying begging my mom to flat iron my hair every time she told me no I wouldn't the bike cop barricade civilians curling them in different directions how do you make this institutional you amplify the stories beyond just the killings our work is to amplify and to have a broader conversation about why law enforcement is being forced to deal with all our social ills why aren't we investing into black poor communities why is it that this why is it that black people in a routine stop which is about a back taillight that was out why does that turn into a deadly experience that's that's the that's the question right the question isn't why he reached for his ID in his back pocket didn't he know he'd be suspicious why he had his gun in his car and an open carry state no the question is why do we have we deployed and why have we put so much resources into policing and prisons let me ask everybody to please be single file single file that these arms down here started the show please get your bodies ready stop resisting his unlawful arrest as he called over two other officers who proceeded to put their knees and their elbows into my neck in my back the chemicals and the pressure cut off my air supply all I could think about in that moment was Eric Gardner as I screamed and I squealed I can't breathe I can't breathe what kind of restraint is that you choke him in the head a lot I'm gonna get and then bang his head on the flock at the ocean on camera boy he is a wreck late this afternoon the New York City medical examiner said Eric garner did in fact die after police put him in a chokehold his death now being called a homicide in Seattle I'm just just a black man considered a threat like most other black bodies in the city I think there's a real disconnect right and the progressive ideal versus the black reality here and it does disorient you when you know you see police officers like for instance on my way to rehearsal yesterday you see a couple of police officers maybe responding to a call but just the sight of those cars and their stance and posture when they look at you even though you have nothing to do with the crime scene I think that that powerlessness that helplessness in that that fear of being a suspect or being criminalized by someone that has ultimate power out here when you see them is beyond frightening I think you have the progressive mores and you have the progressive beating of the drum that is Seattle but what you don't have is follow-through in a consistent way with training and policies and practices it wasn't about Bernie it was about the Democratic Party and it was about living in a moment where black people are being killed every 28 hours and reminding people that were in a state of emergency and if we don't see and if we don't act upon that state of emergency you will continue to be interrupted elected officials appointed officials spaces that don't honor black people will be interrupted until we finally see changes we knew the Republican Party wasn't gonna have a black agenda but you wanted to hear the Democratic Party talk about black lives matter one of the biggest movements in our generation and at first none of them are talking about it didn't you feel at any moment we have to endorse one of the viable parties in order to turn our voice into political power that's not the only way to turn we don't believe that the presidency is the way to turn our voice into political power in fact local politics changed as the National we see that in Ferguson right Tainan liberal town tiny town no one knew who Ferguson was what Ferguson was it was not about Ferguson so much as it was about this larger national issue around law enforcement violence Ferguson changed the conversation so we don't need to rely on a US president to change the conversation we have to rely on the people on the movement to push that president who will eventually or not have to be a part of that conversation if there is a predominantly white population doesn't matter how progressive you are racism still lives racism still exists and if you do something that's too radical and that progressive City you will see the same type of vitriol that you will see and the white Southern South come out in these white progressive communities and that's exactly what we saw here in Seattle when Mara and Marissa shut down Bernie Sanders okay so you're sounding great still want a little bit more life in your voice and and I'll encourage you to move your hands you see me or I'm like yeah so you don't have to keep with the same two-step you could totally move your arms you could sing in the audience you can get down low you can think up high I totally do that totally totally do that and if she's gonna sort of take that sort of like the high like you can totally you know yeah and gifted and black play with it right exactly there's a wall waiting for you yours is a quest that's just begun there's a greater truth you should know we didn't but your souls intact exactly so much better like even with that just a little bit of character it's so much better and I go totally organically laughs like it's playful okay it's queer black women we've developed and really curated a movement that is not about us it is our vision that our movement is leader full decentralized but we are not focusing our movement on our own ideologies or what we think is necessary and possible what we do is Center why we think that we should have all black lives mattering right we Center that this fight for black lives isn't just about young sis hetero black boys this fight is for the black trans woman who is transitioning and needs the support of her community this fight is for the black person who's disabled and needs us to fight for their rights this is a fight for all black lives and I don't think our movement would have that as the central focus if it wasn't for black queer women shaping it and it's ideology and it's in its practice I came out when I was 15 years old I was at this high school there was a lot of queer out queer people and and them being out I also was able to get take the space in being out we had a lot of mentorship from adults that helped us but a lot of us also experienced harm and violence when we came out for our own families many of us were kicked out were pushed out and we're homeless you know when you're when you're a teenager anything is possible and you're just sort of like fearless so it was it was scary but it was also like I was being politicized and I was you know a really stopped feminist and I was burning my bra and I was cutting my hair and so there was also power at agency and like moments of feeling absolutely helplessness and hopelessness and I had a lot of a lot of other people and my peer group who were queer so it was a bunch of queer women of color and we were holding it down for each other tell us you know this day was hashtag black lives matter at school but we need to know from you all what that would means what we would have to do to transform our school system to make that a reality right young leaders pose what's the young leaders pose we're going to publicly wear on our bodies that we believe the black lives matter and that no life fully matters until all lives matter which means black lads must matter well I think you set something in motion and I know that we're all here greatly indebted to somebody who who's with us tonight and I think what it serves and what it allows for is a broader narrative if we don't talk about all of those black people if we only focus on one set of black folks we aren't actually getting to the root of the issue right when we really push for our communities the whole of our communities right all of us are none of us it gives us more space to actually win the things we want to win oh there's no like what the old civil rights movement was not able to accomplish in a lot of ways it wasn't able to rid itself the shackles of patriarchy it was heavily invested and the narrative of this individual black man that was gonna save black people from poverty when in fact we know that one person can't save anybody and we also know that it's a myth because if you really sit down and talk to people and ask who was doing most of the labor during the time with the civil rights movement it was black women and I'm not just talking about the labor of being a secretary the labor of cooking the meals for the community meetings black women were at the table strategizing they were the architects of the civil rights movement and they knew better they knew not to put themselves in the center of the movement because it wasn't about them there's a lot of focus in our movement a lot of black people who really feel upset about three women being seen as cofounders you know some people reject the idea that we're even the co-founders some people say we co-opted the Ferguson movement some people say we gay people you know co-opted the black movement to have a gay agenda and sometimes it makes me want to scream actually I'm like this is what you're focusing on look like actually this is what you want to focus on but it shows you how insidious patriarchy is that people are willing to loop to to risk winning because women and queer people and trans people are at the forefront that's pretty deep right it's like the the white man who's drowning in a pool but won't grab the hand of a black man who's trying to save him cuz he's so fucking racist the black spring is everywhere Charlotte Ferguson LA Chicago Detroit Flint South Africa Nigeria Brazil these aren't these aren't issues happening in a vacuum these are connected we have connected struggles their specificities in our struggles right there's there's differences but there's such a connectivity that feels most important to me the collectivizing black spring is not collectivizing collectivizing to keep expanding to keep bringing about new depth and breadth when the decentralization is so important because we have different vantage points of anti-black racism a different perspective but what we can do is connect the dots Hey it's our opening night you do freedom is precious to me it's more precious to me now than when I was younger you know but anytime your freedom is taken away from you and especially you don't feel like you've done anything wrong that's where the rage comes from in my face it's a new experience for me to be in a play I get the chance to tell my story but I've had this story in me for a long time but I'm just hopeful you know I want to have lived my people and especially young people I don't want them to have to go through the system you know like I did because I was very angry yet at America and at the way the way the world was for me as an ex-felon just feeling like outcomes tonight you're excited you're nervous what's gonna happen tonight I feel a lot better because I got my piece pretty much memorized tonight we're gonna let our voice be heard it's amazing how so many of us have similar experience physical weapons aren't the only weapons words are a wonderful weapons of course we are resisting of course we are uprising but at the end of the day when the dust settles there has to be a place where we're able to go back to that we're able to develop that we're able to build our work isn't just about tearing down it's about rebuilding the act of tearing down means you have to imagine what else you want there black building black leadership and and and what I do in a form of building black artist spaces is about leadership development is about reminding someone their worth there's nothing greater than asking someone to come onto a stage to tell their story to three hundred people for three nights right people are paying to come to listen to some of these performers who spent time and cages and jail cells here in the US and then someone coming in and saying actually you're really valuable we need you Akilah Franklin lose be Minda loser e carpenter javi cotton CO he said Karen Taylor african and native african-american I don't do this because I'm angry necessarily I am I have a lot of rage towards the state I have a lot of rage towards white supremacy but it's because I love black people so much I love us so much that I do this work that I show up for this work it's because I love my child so much my black child right so much that I have invested my time to to hope for and to see through the conditions changing for black people you are young gifted and black we must begin to tell you yours is the thank you for watching for more on this subject take a look at the playlist you can also watch this recommended video don't forget to subscribe to our Channel and we'll keep you updated on our documentaries

Channel: vpro documentary

Views: 143,502

Keywords: #BlackLivesMatter, Black lives Matter, Blacklivesmatter, Black Lives Matter movement, civil rights movement, Patrisse Cullors, police violence, state violence, anti black racism, racism, racism problems, black man shot, US police, seattle police, black man, Politics, Backlight Politics, Politics documentary, documentary, vpro documentary, vpro documentaries, vpro backlight, Free documentary, subtitled documentary, documentary subtitles, docu

Id: tgFI0phqRIY

Length: 47min 45sec (2865 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 04 2016