Over two hundred students are lying in front of the Mary Graydon Center at American University. Their limbs are entangled and their heads rest on their friends’ chests and shoulders as they spill over the rain-soaked steps and onto the grass. In the cold, they are bundled up in puffy winter jackets and wrapped in scarves, clutching signs to their chests as they lay. Some have their eyes closed, others stare straight ahead, unapologetically. The sky is gray and overcast, threatening rain, and the minutes tick by in silence.
They will lie for four and a half minutes, breathing in the cool fall air and reminiscing, to represent the four and a half hours Michael Brown’s body lay in the middle of the street after being shot.
The Most Politically Active School
In 2012, the Princeton Review rated American University as the school with the most politically active students. Two years later, the title still, for the most part, stands. However on Monday, Dec. 1st, a week after the decision by the Ferguson grand jury not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting of Michael Brown was handed down, senior Fito Akinrinade had yet to see much action on AU’s campus in response to this highly controversial decision. At a dinner hosted by President Kerwin on Monday for service and community-based learning participants, Akinrinade addressed Provost Scott Bass on this disparity. For a politically active school where was the action, she wondered? In a broader context, she asked for the school to bridge the gap between social justice and education. To drive her point home, she questioned the lack of Ferguson protests on campus that she’d seen and mentioned a protest she and her friends were thinking of organizing.
Two days later, on Wednesday, that idea became a reality.
There were 338 people, of the 1,400 invited, who joined the event on Facebook entitled The Darkening. Akinrinade says the idea for the protest began in a group chat with her friends. On Monday, there was a scheduled walkout in honor of Michael Brown, but in a picture sent to her by a friend, Akinrinade said there were only ten AU students who took part, only two of them black and all of them women. That’s when Fito suggested that they host their own event and was met with enthusiastic support by her friends, including Shannon Trudge, who said that she felt tired of sitting and watching other universities take part in protests while AU, one of the most politically active schools in the country, did nothing. One of their most important goals was to put a face to the black community on campus, especially black men.
Black Lives Matter
On August 9th of this year, eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson, immediately sparking a response across the country concerning police brutality and racism in the U.S. There are many different accounts of the event and contradicting information, and it was this information that a Ferguson grand jury examined before deciding not to indict Darren Wilson in the killing of the unarmed teen. This sparked another onslaught of responses including the one at AU last Wednesday. Trudge and Akinrinade both mention that although they were devastated and angered, they felt little surprise. However, one question sticks: Why wasn’t he brought to trial? At the end of the day, a young man was dead—wasn’t anyone going to answer for it? Didn’t Michael Brown deserve a trial?
One of the most prominent ideas being promoted by protesters is that black lives matter (#BlackLivesMatter). Michael Brown’s name will join the ranks of black men, women and children killed by police in world where, according to a ProPublica report, black males are twenty one times more likely than white males to be killed by the police. The lives of black males, or all people of color, in America are far different from the lives of white people. AU student David Joshua Curtiss, in an interview over Facebook, confided that he’s had to live by a set of rules, such as looking away when he sees a police officer and was “taught in the second grade and then again in the fifth grade and then again in the tenth grade when I got my license what to do when you get pulled over by a cop.”
On Wednesday the campus rang with chants of “black lives matter” and “hands up, don’t shoot” as protesters marched around campus making their voice heard. While the event was originally organized by five women, they were able to involve black men on campus including Charles Walker and Daniel Braxton-Marks which, according to Trudge, “took The Darkening to a whole new level [and] tied faces of our community to the larger issue.” Akinrinade says that it was fairly easy to get the word out about the protest as she and her friends are well-connected. “I work at the University Center so I was able to get the ads onto the television and the message in Today@AU,” she says, with friends who work “in CCESS, another with AUCC, one with SG and another with the NAACP.” However, as Trudge said, time was of the essence and, for five upperclassmen, Tatiana Laing, Fito Akinrinade, Shannon Trudge, Chante Harris and Marie Pagan, around finals time, organizing the large event was no small feat.
The protesters were joined by Provost Scott Bass who, at the dinner on Monday night, pledged to bridge the gap between education and social justice.
Minstrel Show Outside MGC
The protesters were not met, however, with full support. On the day of the protest, Akinrinade spoke of a Yak, on the popular app, Yik Yak, that read “Minstrel show today on the steps of MGC at 3” which scared her friends and prompted others to warn her to stay safe.
In an Op-Ed to The Eagle, senior student Sydney Gore wrote about the racist comments posted Yik Yak, speaking about how these hurtful comments divide AU’s campus, driving her point home with examples of such comments. Many of the comments belittled the protesters and criticized the use of “black lives matter,” asserting that it should be “all lives matter.” In response, Gore writes, “while this is true because we are all one race of human beings, we cannot deny that some lives matter more than others based on our nation’s history. We are out on the streets protesting because our voices need to be heard, our faces need to be seen, and our stories have to be told. We have remained silent for far too long in the faces of our ancestors that risked their lives to give us the rights that were never intended to belong to us.” Her article reveals the divisions among the majority and minority populations on campus and calls for action to be made by the school to prevent these kinds of anonymous comments and ensure that all members of the student body feel safe, a sentiment that has largely been echoed by other students. A document has even been created to chronicle these comments.
“I Wasn’t Alone”
There are many things to be taken from Wednesday’s protest. Curtiss says that he was in awe upon seeing how many people, of all different races, showed up to express their support and solidarity. He states that he realized that he, as a black male, wasn’t alone.
Akinrinade hopes that people will see that this is what activism looks like and Trudge hopes that this activism will continue so that incoming classes to American will never experience injustice on campus. Akinrinade also hopes that the white students on campus will now recognize their privilege as well as see that “there is a community on AU’s campus that is being affected by what is going on across the nation”—that is, the black community. Trudge, similarly, hopes that this protest will cause people to step up. She cites a quote from AU’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion that says, “Speak up. Support those who rise up. Injustice should not go unnoticed. Your voice matters.” She hopes that students of all colors and identities on campus will step up to be allies and help make a chance. To do nothing is just as hurtful and counterproductive.
The fight is never over. On the same day as the protest, a grand jury in New York chose not to indict anyone in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died in a chokehold during an arrest by the police. He, like Michael Brown, was unarmed. Protests have already erupted in major cities, including Washington D.C., where the cries of “black lives matter” are coupled with “I can’t breathe,” the words spoken by Garner as he died. Thus, for many, The Darkening is just the beginning.
However, Trudge and Akinrinade both emphasize the importance of every student getting involved and making a difference. They encourage their fellow students to embody activism as more than just words, but by acting, through protests and bringing up topics that make some people uncomfortable, such as race.
As freshman student Kennedy Smith put it, upon witnessing the power of the protest as action, “it isn’t hard to help or have your voice be heard. Just by raising your voice you can make a difference.”
Photo Credit: Matthew Stebenne/AU Photo Collective