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Black Lives Matter and Oakland
by Doniphan Blair
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This George Floyd march through downtown Oakland in early June was titled 'Support People of Color' but was almost entirely white. photo: D. BlairOAKLAND HAS HELPED PRODUCE YET
another massive social change, nothing less then the political miracle now sweeping the United States, the world and, perhaps, the American presidency.
While only one of Black Lives Matter’s three founders, Alicia Garza—they are all women, incidentally—is from Oakland, the city’s Black Panther history, its large activist community and its take-it-to-the-streets politics obviously influenced the group. Oakland, in turn, readily adopted BLM.
It has been just over a month since the public execution by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Wisconsin, on May 25th, and what a month it has been—unique in the annals of American history.
Although Floyd’s killing ignited demonstrations and riots in Minneapolis and to a lesser degree in Oakland and other cities, there have now been largely peaceful protests in all fifty states and almost six hundred communities. Some of those towns, like Bend, Oregon, have no Black residents.
The demonstrations seized the headlines from the Covid-19 pandemic, which had killed over 100,000 America by then, and held our attention for a month, until the failure to address the former brought it crashing back.
Regardless, there has been a fantastic flurry of change and related developments, a true revolution. Confederate flags and monuments have been banned, toppled or taken down across the South, but also the North. Racist names and logos are being removed, like for Aunt Jamima’s pancakes and the Washington Redskins football team.
This June 14th march through Oakland was almost entirely Black, featured singing gospel hymns and ended at the Oakland Police headquarters, where there was a speech by a Black cop. photo: D. BlairThere are efforts to switch funding from the police to social services and help social justice groups and Black-owned banks, although that may be limited by the impending big recession.
Corporate America has done an about face, with hundreds endorsing Black Lives Matter, dozens providing funding, and most realizing they are going to have to diversify not just rank and file but leadership.
Meanwhile the demonstration are showing no sign of abating. Over a dozen transpired in or near Oakland on the weekend of June 27th, over a dozen around the Bay on Sunday, July 5th and hundreds nation-wide, with plenty being planned for the entire month of July.
This is truly a miracle, especially considering there has been only around thirty related deaths, self-inflicted by protesters or by counter-protesters but only a few by police, although they have caused many injuries. This is minimal compared to the Rodney King riots in 1992, when 49 were killed.
Yes, there have been some frightening confrontations, like when a heavily armed group of Oregonians, inflamed by false rumors about the anti-fascist group Antifa, faced off against a handful of peaceful protestors. But it was resolved without violence.
Indeed, this is purely a people-powered revolution, save for some organizing by Black Lives Matter and other groups. While such a show of activist force harkens back to 1968 in the US, the speed of developments parallels the 1989 toppling of the Romanian dictator Ceausescu.
Three days after an audience turned on Ceausescu in the middle of a speech, he and his wife were tried and executed, and the Romanian communist experiment was over.
Ending racism in America will not be so easy, of course, considering complex questions like reparations for 400 years of chattel slavery or creating a multicultural society through a unicultural movement.
Then there is the issue of limiting violence while defunding police, some of whom may get demoralized and start holding off protective duties.
This George Floyd mural was one of many to spring up within days of the demos, although its notably quality on a fancy downtown office building suggests official sanction. photo: D. BlairAs we all know, Americans are armed to the teeth. While the greatest arsenals are held by white conservatives, some of whom are white supremacists (see cineSOURCE article), there is ample weaponry among people of color, whose number does include some violent gang members, criminals and political radicals—a lethal competition without an umpire.
Fortunately, the George Floyd protests evinced yet another miracle. They dodged the bullet of destructive riots—except on the first night in many places or in Minneapolis, where a combined eight miles of two business streets were looted for almost a week and hundreds of buildings burned.
While the Black Panthers—who were extremely influential in Oakland, even running a mayoral candidate in 1971—saved the city from riots in the 1960s, Black Lives Matter was unable do the same when Oakland’s demonstrations started on Friday, May 29th.
“A few hours after the peaceful march passed by my store,” the Palestinian-American owner of The Twilight Zone, a smoke shop downtown, told me, “it was looted by what looked like suburban young men.” Evidently opportunists, they may have been Black Blok aficionados, who often commute into Oakland for its well-known riots, Elsewhere, however, young men of color were involved.
He estimates his damages at over $75,000; city-wide, it will be in the tens of millions.
Not only did the demonstrators not participate, they returned Saturday morning to help him clean up the dozen cases filled with glass ware, which were tipped over, The Twilight Zone's manager told me. City workers only arrived two days later.
In many cities, there were reports of protestors pleading with looters, standing in front of stores and otherwise trying to restrain destructive proclivities.
The James A. Watson Wellness Center, at 5709 Market Street in Oakland (not far from an early Panther office), was vandalized by young men of color, according to The Oakland Post (6/3/20). The Center is a front-line provider of Corona testing as well as standard medical services, according to Dr. Watson, who is Black.
Because Black-owned businesses are near Black neighborhoods they inevitably bear the brunt of riot culture.
Happily working away one Sunday, this Asian mural artist titled her piece 'Yellow Peril for Black Power'. photo: D. BlairWhile some people consider such acts an unfortunate side effect of unleashing people power, others see it as necessary to prove a movement’s resolve and to inflict enough pain on the establishment to inspire change. Indeed, a good riot renders some radicals almost giddy.
One female friend of mine, who was overjoyed to be in attendance when the new Target in Oakland was destroyed, told me that the people were only looting big corporations and repairing the damage will, in fact, create much needed jobs.
I suppose it was for women like her that a graffitier—undoubtedly a young man—inscribed on Telegraph Avenue: “I will burn cities for you.”
As romantic as it may seem, however, wanton destruction can discredit a movement and destroy neighborhoods. Harlem didn’t recover from its 1960s’ riots for thirty years and Minneapolis may suffer a similar fate.
Nevertheless, the under-three-dozen deaths associated with the demonstrations is nothing less than a miracle, given the thousands of marches and enumerable confrontations with police, counter-demonstrators or rogue thugs. That casualty figure includes two shot by civilians in Seattle’s so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, which prompted the clearing by police, after one month, on July 1st.
Indeed, the vast majority of Americans—many of whom, admittedly, live a long way from the inner cities where the looting happened—accepted it as part of the process and moved on, while the vast majority of demonstrations were completely peaceful.
In Oakland, as in most places experiencing looting, not only did the demonstrators help clean up the next day but they brought arts supplies. With in days, in fact, the entire downtown, as well as some outlying locations, had been transformed into a gallery of great, inspirational and occasionally visionary murals, with work ongoing.
Hence, the Black Lives Matter movement, despite a slight stumble at its start, has raced across America and produced what can be technically called a miraculous awakening, a stupendous reevaluation and change.
Oakland many marches varied from long, snaking around town, to down and dirty from City Hall to the police headquarters eight blocks away. photo: D. BlairIndeed, the NY Times recently accessed it as the largest movement in US history (see story here).
Even more incredibly, it has travelled around the world, inspiring similar protests against racism and extrajudicial police killings in England, France and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Canada, Australia and now even Africa.
One notable achievement was the jumpstarting of pride and activism in India, where the caste system was outlawed almost 80 years ago but lives on. Colorism, somewhat associated with caste, is explicit. Indeed, India has an enormous skin-whiting business; color is coded into matchmaking; and there is lots of privilege, racism and outright abuse.
Why did the BLM movement happen in reaction to George Floyd’s execution, as opposed to any number of other cop killings or during the Obama Administration? Although that will be parsed endlessly by historians, it appears to have been a perfect storm.
The overt or covert racism of Trump and his administration demanded a schooling. The Covid-19 pandemic provided frustration, free time and a longing for community. And, in addition to the decades of unabated police brutality and impunity, there is the growing empowerment of a large cohort of educated and middleclass people of color.
What this movement will be called has not yet been decided, but a good candidate is the Black Lives Matter movement, named after the group, which, in a fascinating new development, has restyled itself a global network, see their site.
BLM began in 2013, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who murdered Trayvon Martin in Florida, and is dedicated to using only non-violent civil disobedience to protest police brutality.
One cofounder, Patrisse Cullors, an artist and organizer, is from LA. Another, Opal Tometi, is a community organizer and writer of Nigerian parentage who grew up in Phoenix, Arizona,
(lf-rt) Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi co-found Black Lives Matter in 2013. photo: courtesy BLMAlthough the third, writer and activist Alicia Garza, grew up in middleclass Marin County, in a mixed race family (her stepfather is Jewish), and attended the University of California in San Diego, she was born and now lives in Oakland.
Indeed, the Black Lives Matter movement was readily adopted in Oakland, given the protests of the killing of Oscar Grant in 2009 by a BART policeman. Although Oakland has also had other police abuses, notably “The Riders” group which terrorized West Oakland in the 1990s, the police has been notably benevolent of late.
There have been very few dubious police killings and a group of officers took a knee with protesters on June 1st, early in the protests.
Oakland has had some concerning incidents, notably what seemed to be nooses hanging off a tree near Lake Merritt on June 16th, and, a day later, what definitely was a fake body found hanging from a noose. Classified as a hate crimes, many Oaklanders objected to the police handling of the matter, although there has been little mention since, and it is apparently not part of wider trend.
In the end, it is truly the miracle that many of us have been waiting for, both as a national protest against police violence but also the presidency of Donald Trump.
He began his presidential campaign with a racist diatribe against immigrants; he sided with white supremacists in Charlotte in 2017; and his only real political program is to dismantle the many achievements of the first Black president.
Fortunately, his attempt to throw out the undocumented immigrant children’s “Dreamer Act” was rejected by the Supreme Court on June 18th, one of many indicators the Americans are turning away from his malignant administration and towards the people in the streets.
In a truly beautiful manner, the BLM-George Floyd protests have channeled the pent up rage from the constant racial profiling and prejudiced police as well as outright violence from bad cops, but also of the frustration of sheltering in place or losing ones job. Hopefully it will continue to evolve and innovative and redeem a truly tragic period in American history.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached . Posted on Jul 06, 2020 - 08:20 PM
by Doniphan Blair
Please support our stories by liking articles—thanks!
This George Floyd march through downtown Oakland in early June was titled 'Support People of Color' but was almost entirely white. photo: D. Blairanother massive social change, nothing less then the political miracle now sweeping the United States, the world and, perhaps, the American presidency.
While only one of Black Lives Matter’s three founders, Alicia Garza—they are all women, incidentally—is from Oakland, the city’s Black Panther history, its large activist community and its take-it-to-the-streets politics obviously influenced the group. Oakland, in turn, readily adopted BLM.
It has been just over a month since the public execution by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Wisconsin, on May 25th, and what a month it has been—unique in the annals of American history.
Although Floyd’s killing ignited demonstrations and riots in Minneapolis and to a lesser degree in Oakland and other cities, there have now been largely peaceful protests in all fifty states and almost six hundred communities. Some of those towns, like Bend, Oregon, have no Black residents.
The demonstrations seized the headlines from the Covid-19 pandemic, which had killed over 100,000 America by then, and held our attention for a month, until the failure to address the former brought it crashing back.
Regardless, there has been a fantastic flurry of change and related developments, a true revolution. Confederate flags and monuments have been banned, toppled or taken down across the South, but also the North. Racist names and logos are being removed, like for Aunt Jamima’s pancakes and the Washington Redskins football team.
This June 14th march through Oakland was almost entirely Black, featured singing gospel hymns and ended at the Oakland Police headquarters, where there was a speech by a Black cop. photo: D. BlairCorporate America has done an about face, with hundreds endorsing Black Lives Matter, dozens providing funding, and most realizing they are going to have to diversify not just rank and file but leadership.
Meanwhile the demonstration are showing no sign of abating. Over a dozen transpired in or near Oakland on the weekend of June 27th, over a dozen around the Bay on Sunday, July 5th and hundreds nation-wide, with plenty being planned for the entire month of July.
This is truly a miracle, especially considering there has been only around thirty related deaths, self-inflicted by protesters or by counter-protesters but only a few by police, although they have caused many injuries. This is minimal compared to the Rodney King riots in 1992, when 49 were killed.
Yes, there have been some frightening confrontations, like when a heavily armed group of Oregonians, inflamed by false rumors about the anti-fascist group Antifa, faced off against a handful of peaceful protestors. But it was resolved without violence.
Indeed, this is purely a people-powered revolution, save for some organizing by Black Lives Matter and other groups. While such a show of activist force harkens back to 1968 in the US, the speed of developments parallels the 1989 toppling of the Romanian dictator Ceausescu.
Three days after an audience turned on Ceausescu in the middle of a speech, he and his wife were tried and executed, and the Romanian communist experiment was over.
Ending racism in America will not be so easy, of course, considering complex questions like reparations for 400 years of chattel slavery or creating a multicultural society through a unicultural movement.
Then there is the issue of limiting violence while defunding police, some of whom may get demoralized and start holding off protective duties.
This George Floyd mural was one of many to spring up within days of the demos, although its notably quality on a fancy downtown office building suggests official sanction. photo: D. BlairFortunately, the George Floyd protests evinced yet another miracle. They dodged the bullet of destructive riots—except on the first night in many places or in Minneapolis, where a combined eight miles of two business streets were looted for almost a week and hundreds of buildings burned.
While the Black Panthers—who were extremely influential in Oakland, even running a mayoral candidate in 1971—saved the city from riots in the 1960s, Black Lives Matter was unable do the same when Oakland’s demonstrations started on Friday, May 29th.
“A few hours after the peaceful march passed by my store,” the Palestinian-American owner of The Twilight Zone, a smoke shop downtown, told me, “it was looted by what looked like suburban young men.” Evidently opportunists, they may have been Black Blok aficionados, who often commute into Oakland for its well-known riots, Elsewhere, however, young men of color were involved.
He estimates his damages at over $75,000; city-wide, it will be in the tens of millions.
Not only did the demonstrators not participate, they returned Saturday morning to help him clean up the dozen cases filled with glass ware, which were tipped over, The Twilight Zone's manager told me. City workers only arrived two days later.
In many cities, there were reports of protestors pleading with looters, standing in front of stores and otherwise trying to restrain destructive proclivities.
The James A. Watson Wellness Center, at 5709 Market Street in Oakland (not far from an early Panther office), was vandalized by young men of color, according to The Oakland Post (6/3/20). The Center is a front-line provider of Corona testing as well as standard medical services, according to Dr. Watson, who is Black.
Because Black-owned businesses are near Black neighborhoods they inevitably bear the brunt of riot culture.
Happily working away one Sunday, this Asian mural artist titled her piece 'Yellow Peril for Black Power'. photo: D. BlairOne female friend of mine, who was overjoyed to be in attendance when the new Target in Oakland was destroyed, told me that the people were only looting big corporations and repairing the damage will, in fact, create much needed jobs.
I suppose it was for women like her that a graffitier—undoubtedly a young man—inscribed on Telegraph Avenue: “I will burn cities for you.”
As romantic as it may seem, however, wanton destruction can discredit a movement and destroy neighborhoods. Harlem didn’t recover from its 1960s’ riots for thirty years and Minneapolis may suffer a similar fate.
Nevertheless, the under-three-dozen deaths associated with the demonstrations is nothing less than a miracle, given the thousands of marches and enumerable confrontations with police, counter-demonstrators or rogue thugs. That casualty figure includes two shot by civilians in Seattle’s so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, which prompted the clearing by police, after one month, on July 1st.
Indeed, the vast majority of Americans—many of whom, admittedly, live a long way from the inner cities where the looting happened—accepted it as part of the process and moved on, while the vast majority of demonstrations were completely peaceful.
In Oakland, as in most places experiencing looting, not only did the demonstrators help clean up the next day but they brought arts supplies. With in days, in fact, the entire downtown, as well as some outlying locations, had been transformed into a gallery of great, inspirational and occasionally visionary murals, with work ongoing.
Hence, the Black Lives Matter movement, despite a slight stumble at its start, has raced across America and produced what can be technically called a miraculous awakening, a stupendous reevaluation and change.
Oakland many marches varied from long, snaking around town, to down and dirty from City Hall to the police headquarters eight blocks away. photo: D. BlairEven more incredibly, it has travelled around the world, inspiring similar protests against racism and extrajudicial police killings in England, France and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Canada, Australia and now even Africa.
One notable achievement was the jumpstarting of pride and activism in India, where the caste system was outlawed almost 80 years ago but lives on. Colorism, somewhat associated with caste, is explicit. Indeed, India has an enormous skin-whiting business; color is coded into matchmaking; and there is lots of privilege, racism and outright abuse.
Why did the BLM movement happen in reaction to George Floyd’s execution, as opposed to any number of other cop killings or during the Obama Administration? Although that will be parsed endlessly by historians, it appears to have been a perfect storm.
The overt or covert racism of Trump and his administration demanded a schooling. The Covid-19 pandemic provided frustration, free time and a longing for community. And, in addition to the decades of unabated police brutality and impunity, there is the growing empowerment of a large cohort of educated and middleclass people of color.
What this movement will be called has not yet been decided, but a good candidate is the Black Lives Matter movement, named after the group, which, in a fascinating new development, has restyled itself a global network, see their site.
BLM began in 2013, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who murdered Trayvon Martin in Florida, and is dedicated to using only non-violent civil disobedience to protest police brutality.
One cofounder, Patrisse Cullors, an artist and organizer, is from LA. Another, Opal Tometi, is a community organizer and writer of Nigerian parentage who grew up in Phoenix, Arizona,
(lf-rt) Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi co-found Black Lives Matter in 2013. photo: courtesy BLMIndeed, the Black Lives Matter movement was readily adopted in Oakland, given the protests of the killing of Oscar Grant in 2009 by a BART policeman. Although Oakland has also had other police abuses, notably “The Riders” group which terrorized West Oakland in the 1990s, the police has been notably benevolent of late.
There have been very few dubious police killings and a group of officers took a knee with protesters on June 1st, early in the protests.
Oakland has had some concerning incidents, notably what seemed to be nooses hanging off a tree near Lake Merritt on June 16th, and, a day later, what definitely was a fake body found hanging from a noose. Classified as a hate crimes, many Oaklanders objected to the police handling of the matter, although there has been little mention since, and it is apparently not part of wider trend.
In the end, it is truly the miracle that many of us have been waiting for, both as a national protest against police violence but also the presidency of Donald Trump.
He began his presidential campaign with a racist diatribe against immigrants; he sided with white supremacists in Charlotte in 2017; and his only real political program is to dismantle the many achievements of the first Black president.
Fortunately, his attempt to throw out the undocumented immigrant children’s “Dreamer Act” was rejected by the Supreme Court on June 18th, one of many indicators the Americans are turning away from his malignant administration and towards the people in the streets.
In a truly beautiful manner, the BLM-George Floyd protests have channeled the pent up rage from the constant racial profiling and prejudiced police as well as outright violence from bad cops, but also of the frustration of sheltering in place or losing ones job. Hopefully it will continue to evolve and innovative and redeem a truly tragic period in American history.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached . Posted on Jul 06, 2020 - 08:20 PM
