Oscar Juliuss Grant III was a 22-year old African American man from Hayward, California. He grew up with a single mother because his father was serving a life sentence in jail for murder. He later dropped out of high school which led him to surrounding himself with wrong activities, such as drug dealing. Along with his mother, Wanda, he had a sister and he had a daughter, Tatiana with his girlfriend, Sofina. Oscar Grant was wrongfully murdered by a police officer in 2009. And still today, we are still reeling, recovering and healing from the fact that tragedies like this have continued to occur.
On New Year’s Day of 2009, Oscar Grant III was fatally shot in the back by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California. Grant and some of his friends, including his girlfriend, were returning from the New Year’s firework celebration in San Francisco, California. As the train pulled up to Fruitvale Station, they were forced off of the train by the BART police at around 2:00 am (CNN.com). One of the officer’s claimed that Grant and his friends were not following her orders. Two officer’s Mehserle and Pirone forced Grant to lie down on his stomach on the ground with his hands behind his back. As Pirone was kneeling on Grant’s neck, Mehserle was allegedly meant to grab handcuffs, but instead reached for his gun and then continued to shoot Grant in the back. Grant died seven hours later on New Year’s Day. (CNN.com)
Videos and pictures that were taken by passengers and witnesses proved to be very influential in how time has gone by since Oscar Grant III was murdered. Thousands of people saw the videos online and on the news in the immediate days following the incident. These visuals were a major reason as to why rallies and protests broke out nationwide. It was one of the first times that an incident like this had been captured on camera by so many witnesses and then released to the public. Although most of the rallies and protests were peaceful, the level of heightened emotions led to rioting which resulted in arrests being made by dispatched riot police. The days and nights sometimes descended into chaos that included rubber bullets, tear gas, smashing police cruisers, and arrests (SFgate.com).
The circumstances surrounding Grant’s death, and tragedies similar to his that would continue to occur, influenced and later led to the formal creation of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The official website of The Black Lives Matter Movement states “ We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise” (Blacklivesmatter.com). The main goal of the movement is to raise awareness and put an end to violence against black people, especially at the hands of law enforcement. The official movement was not mobilized immediately after the death of Oscar Grant. It began as a reaction to the treatment of Trayvon Martin’s murder, and then right after that, the treatment of Mike Brown’s murder. The creation of Black Lives Matter was an opportunity for voices of black people to be heard.
The novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was originally written as a short story following the shooting of Oscar Grant. Now, having read the book, I can see the themes and intentions of the BLMM and today’s fight against anti-blackness intertwined in a (mostly) fictional setting. One thing that stood out to me was the connection back to class when talking about social change requiring personal change. In order for us to address the problem of “state sanctioned violence”, we first have to accept the fact that it does exist. Before the murder of Starr’s friend Khalil, she was able to keep her “double life” separate. But in order for her to move forward in her activism, she had to come to terms with her identity. Before Starr could make a difference outside in the world, and before we can make differences outside in our world, we have to look within and figure out if we are accepting and understanding of our own identities. The book also mirrors the BLMM because the connection of thinking and doing. If we are going to talk about the wrongful deaths of unarmed black men and women, boys and girls, then we have to act on these thoughts. No change will occur if we leave our frustrations and passions in our heads and do nothing to mobilize our beliefs. Starr did that by, in the end, stepping forward and fighting for Khalil’s memory and justice.
I do agree with the strategies of the BLMM. And I do believe it is an effective tool for combating “state sanctioned violence.” My only concern is that our beliefs and fears are falling on deaf ears. The Movement wants justice for Black people in a society that has historically erased us as people and tried to eliminate us. But we want justice. And the BLMM is giving a voice to the anti-colonial epistemology. The BLMM believes in change for the future of our country and the world, but it takes action and knowledge from the people claiming to fight for it. These are the same people who are carrying on the story and the legacy of victims such as Oscar Grant.
The most challenging disjuncture to reconcile with has been presented so far in the semester is the disjuncture that “Who I (we) claim to be in relation to who others claim that I am”. The voices of the primary narrative have always, and will continue to be the loudest voices heard. It is hard to live one’s own personal life to its fullest potential if the main story being told in school and the majority population of the politics in your country speak against you. Who I claim to be most likely is not how others see me because of stereotypes and stories that have been around since the days of slavery. If that is where my population of people stem from in the country that I live in, it is clear that those beliefs have found a semi-permanent spot in our institutions. That includes our schools, law enforcement, and political system.
One of the goals is to find ways of reconciliation. I mainly relate to people of color, but if
I was going to give advice to anyone of a marginalized group, I would say to use anti-colonial epistemology. It is really important to make sure your personal story and perspectives are being recognized and acknowledged. If we are able to fight for our voices to be heard, then others cannot claim who I am. My view of myself is the view that matters and is the view that is true. And that will lead to me living a life to its full potential, instead of living a life that has been placed upon me by the social forces that have always had control. And if we understand and accept that, and get rid of the “master narrative” being the one and only story, then we will be more accepting of other stories that come from those who are different than us.
W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of Double Consciousness is also an advantage as a result of disjunctures. Double Consciousness leads to looking at the world with two epistemologies. This is an advantage over those who only see the world through one lens because now you have more perspectives and more understanding of where people are coming from. With this, you can recognize what someone says is home, or what stories they choose to share, while also seeing the “second sight” of the world one is surrounded with. Someone’s “primary sight” and “second sight” might be flipped depending on what environment they grew up in, but they will still have two ways of looking at the world.
We want to be able to transform ourselves into the “truest sense of ourselves.” I grew up recognizing that the “powers” controlling who I was and my identity were not telling my “narrative”. And that in turn, I thought that completely damaged my sense of identity. But I have also realized that it gave me a Double Consciousness. But, along with that it is still crucial to be in environments that are representative of multiple perspectives. The world we live in is not made up of just one “master narrative.” It’s not black and white, even if people really want it to be. Our identities should not be compromised by that. We should create spaces that include, reflect and encourage our true identities to flourish and allows are stories, that we choose ourselves, to be told. It is an important skill to have to be able to claim your own stories and not have to hear someone else from the outside write your story for you.