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Perspectives
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WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE CITY
PERSPECTIVES ‘COME UP WITH A BETTER WAY’
During a May protest in Charlotte, Curtis Hayes Jr. passionately instructed a 16-year-old on the pain of generations of Black men. It was captured on video—and captured the minds of millions
ON SATURDAY, May 30,a demonstration that began in uptown reached Interstate 277, where protesters brie y occupied the elevated highway. On the concrete, 31-year-old Curtis Hayes Jr., a Black man, encountered two other Black men, a furious 45-year-old and a 16-year-old. A two-and-a-half-minute video of their exchange went viral. Hayes’ impassioned plea to the younger man, Vance High School* student Raymon Curry, to “come up with a better way” won him a global platform that, over the next few days, included interviews with Good Morning America and the BBC and a feature story in The Washington Post.
Charlotte magazine spoke with Hayes the day a er the protest and Curry two nights later. Below are excerpts from our conversations.
CURTIS HAYES JR.: I WAS OUT THERE PROTESTING and trying to make sure that peace was kept on both ends and that neither party from either side was hurt. And I looked over, and I saw a young man, and I asked him, “How old are you?” And he said, “I’m 16.” And then I look behind me and I see this older guy who is just, you know, angry and upset, and he’s a little irate because he’s been dealing with it for years. And then you have myself, who’s 31, who’s right in the middle of both of them, and I look at my elder and I see that he is angry. I look at the young brother who is under me, and I see that he is angry. And it just created that moment that was needed, that dialogue that was needed between every generation to talk, and for everybody to see it together so that they can understand: How many years and how many generations do we have to put up with this? How many individuals will continue to be angry and hurt behind the injustice that happens in America?
WE HAVE TO SET A BETTER EXAMPLE. (The older man is) my elder, and I have a mother and a father who are close to his age. And, again, I understand that he is angry. But the message that I wanted to get to him was, us in con ict with each other, or feeling like one of our brothers is betraying us because they’re trying to keep the peace, that is not what’s happening. And as an elder, I need you to lead our community to where it needs to be led. And I need you to be an example for not only myself as a 31-year-old Black man but for this 16-year-old Black man who is behind us, and he’s watching our actions, and he’s watching how we take movements in this—he’s watching us—so that we know that we are instilling a movement in him that he will go with his generation, and they will move strong and erce, and they will move peacefully, but they will move with a purpose so that people understand them. And the way we were moving was not the way.
I NEED EVERYBODY to understand there’s not a ght to take, but only one side, and that is to ght for equality of people everywhere in the world. I think people think that it was something against them. It’s not even against CMPD. The movement and the message is much bigger than that.
What I think we are facing is a repetitive situation where action is taken— but not enough to sustain it. Does that make sense? It’s not to discredit anybody before me or anybody a er me. It’s the simple fact that everybody should understand that action has been taken, right? Little changes have occurred, awareness has occurred. But the action that was taken to get that little bit of ground is never enough, constantly or repetitively, to sustain the change. We always resort back to what we know …
MY MESSAGE is for a lot of people, and I pray that it reaches everyone, right? But at the end of the day, the message that I really want to resonate in people’s hearts is, what can you do as a Black man, white man, Asian man, Hispanic, Latino, it doesn’t matter: What can you do in your community? So I challenge my white counterparts who I don’t know, who I do know, who I know and who I love dearly. I have friends who I give the same message to, because it starts in our communities as Black people, but it also starts with change in the white community. That’s what we’ve been missing for so many years, is that our counterparts do not have enough people who support the movement for not just Black Lives Matter, but everyone, because if everyone can come together in solidarity and as a unit, then we will move forward so much better as a people.
*On June 17, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education Chairman Elyse Dashew announced via Facebook: “It is time for a new name for Zebulon B. Vance High School. Beyond time, in fact.” At press time, the school board planned to start the renaming process at its June 23 meeting. Zebulon Vance was a Confederate officer during the Civil War and an N.C. governor and U.S. senator.
RAYMON CURRY: MY MOM, she didn’t know that I went … The way she found out—it was crazy, because she got woken up from her sleep early Sunday morning because her phone kept buzzing, buzzing. She was like, “Oh, my God,” and she came into my room, and she was like, “Son, you’re going viral?” And I was like, “What? What’s going on?” And my Instagram is, DeMar DeRozan, 50 Cent, D.L. Hughley, multiple celebrities reposting the video … The crazy thing about it was, when she sat down and had a conversation with me, the rst thing she said was, “What happens in the dark always comes to the light.” And I was like, “Man, that is so true.” Because I felt like I wasn’t necessarily doing something bad in the dark. But I did kind of let her know where I was at that moment and what I was doing, and she understood that I was there for a cause and a reason. I was there to have my voice heard.
THE WAY IT STARTED OFF, we all started marching around downtown, the square, and the police kept trying to block us from going to the highway, and we were trying to nd a way to get to the highway. Once we got to the highway … the man you see in the video, not Mr. Hayes, but the older guy, the guy who said he was 45, he was next to me. And we’re in the front of the police car. And we’re sitting there. We’re like, we’re having a protest. We’re being peaceful. I don’t know if he was touching the car or not … and Mr. Hayes, he’s right by me. Because he’s trying to stop the 45-year-old man. He was, like, very close to the cop car. He rushed through. And as (Hayes) rushed to stop him, I guess through his peripheral vision, he saw me. And he turned around, I was like, “Why are you stopping him?” He’s like, “How old are you?” And I let him know I’m 16. He was like, “Sixteen, man? Stay right here.” So while he went to go stop the man again, (Hayes) stopped him, and that’s how the whole video started.
AT THAT MOMENT, I was still angry. I was feeling that rage that Malcolm X felt, to come back with the same aggression (police) came to us with. And Mr. Hayes came up to me, and he showed me a better way. There’s a better way of dealing with that pain that these o cers have given us. Find a better way to cope with your anger. Find a better way to communicate with them. Let them know that you don’t like what they’re doing and that what they’re doing is hurting you to the point where you, at 16, had to come out here, and I’m in my head going, “Dang, there’s so many ways to go about this.” It was kind of like that point where you have the angel and the devil on your shoulder, and Mr. Hayes represents that angel. And I’ve got all this anger and built-up aggression towards almost every cop, because I don’t know if you’re racist or not … So I’m sitting there like, “Mr. Hayes is really speaking to me. He’s right.” I want him to be my mentor. I want him to be somebody I can come to and let them know that I need guidance from them.
MY MINDSET is beyond most people my age. I snuck out to go to a protest to have my voice heard. Most kids my age would have snuck out to go to a party, go meet up with friends, do drugs, or anything else. But me, my whole plan was to go downtown, let the police hear what I have to say, how I feel, and let them know, “What you’re doing is wrong.” Me, at the age of 16, I’ve got so many things to worry about. I’ve got college, I’ve got life—my dream school is Duke University, and I’m sitting here, I’m at home, and I see police killing people of my skin color for absolutely no reason. And I’m sitting there at home going, “Dang, will I make it to even go to college? Will I make it to even walk across the stage to have that moment when I get my diploma? Or will I be pro led and killed in the middle of the street by a police o cer all because of my skin color?”
For longer versions of these interviews, see the News + Opinion section of charlottemagazine.com.
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