Music: We’ve Been Protesting

We’ve Been Protesting

When George Floyd was killed at the hands of four Minnesota police officers in the summer of 2020, protests ignited across the U.S. and around the world. Despair and outrage in Minneapolis set off protests in Atlanta, New York City, Buffalo, Washington D.C. and Portland to speak out against police brutality. In Paris, 20,000 people marched in protest; in Germany, 100,000 people in 40 cities came out to march and take a stand. Although George Floyd should still be alive today, his untimely death now must inspire social justice work around the world.

George Floyd’s death may have been the catalyst for domestic and international protests last summer, but it was not the first and sadly, not the last. His murder was preceded by the deaths of Maurice Gordon, age 28, on May 23, Rayshard Scales, age 30, on May 14, Joshua Johnson, age 35, on May 22, Joel Acevedo, age 25, on May 19, Daniel Prude, age 41, on March 23, Breonna Taylor, age 26, on March 13 and Ahmaud Arbrery, age 25, on February 23. Two days after George Floyd died, Tony McDade, age 48, was killed by police officers in Tallahassee, Florida.

In the weeks that followed, I took some time off work. George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbrery’s deaths in particular, weighed heavily on me. I was sad, angry, and frustrated; I found it hard to focus and concentrate on my work. I reflected on my own life and my own experiences with law enforcement. I reflected on law enforcement within my community back home in Oakland, California. The African American community in Oakland has a long, more than strained history with local law enforcement. I thought a lot about Oscar Grant, who in 2008, was shot and killed by a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer while handcuffed face down on a subway platform. Protests and riots followed but stayed relatively local and garnered very little attention beyond our Bay Area community. Watching the protests and riots unfold across the country last year reminded me of Latasha Harlins and Rodney King in 1991 and 1992. Latasha Harlins, age 15, was shot and killed by a store owner that suspected she was trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. Rodney King was beaten by four Los Angeles police officers. Despite video evidence in both cases, the store owner who killed Latasha Harlins had her sentence overturned by the presiding judge, who decided to give her 400 hours of community service. The four officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were all acquitted.

What struck me most during my reflections on the ongoing and constant police brutality against African Americans was hearing the surprise that the protests and riots were taking place in response. A sentiment that was often shared with me in conversation was though individuals felt empathetic to what happened to George Floyd and denounced Derek Chauvin’s actions, many didn’t think that what happened warranted escalation. Although the need for protests saddened me, I can’t say that I was surprised to see it.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I think that America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned, as vigorously as we condemn riots. In the final analysis, a riot is a language of the unheard. And what is it, that America has failed to hear?” He would go on to say, “It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of “white” society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so, in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

So, what is it that America has failed to hear? Repeatedly, African American people and people of color have peacefully told stories about the injustices and violence they’ve encountered. One way Black people have peacefully protested injustices for generations, has been through art, most notably, music. From old negro spirituals to jazz, rock ’n’ roll, blues, and hip-hop, one can find Black artists speaking on issues relevant to their time. In and through that music, you can hear the anger, frustration, sadness, despair and pain; but, you can also hear the optimism and hope.

To catalog African American and Black people’s history of protest, I helped found and launch the We’ve Been Protesting Project. The project features a website displaying a timeline and juxtaposes historical events with protest songs over a 100-year period. Viewers and listeners can scroll through the history of events and music and click on its links to two playlists on Spotify and YouTube Music. Users can listen and learn from each song featured on the project, think about the corresponding historical context surrounding the musicians’ work, and take in the protest messages, in a chronological order. One goal of We’ve Been Protesting is to provide visitors with a chance to engage with the music and the stories and to participate by contributing directly to the timeline. Though George Floyd’s death is a national tragedy, it inspired us to document protest messages in works of art across the history of the United States. The mission of We’ve Been Protesting is to help educate and create dialogue opportunities: a positive force for change among devastating circumstances.

To learn more about the We’ve Been Protesting Project and to beco me a part of the change, visit them at: http://www.wevebeenprotesting.com

Instagram: @wevebeenprotesting Facebook: www.facebook.com/wevebeenprotesting Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39MnMu5 YouTube Music: https://bit.ly/31NW4sz

-- Article by Brett Washington

“Getaway,” Acrylics on canvas, Jill C. Perla