by Cynthia Marzette, Special to the Birmingham Times
I wanted to go to take my grandchildren to the Protest March. I don’t feel they have yet understood just what they were a part of this weekend. Grandson Floyd is 10-years-old and Granddaughter Darion is 16. Both are smug, dissatisfied, choosy, and opinionated, have no idea what it was like not to able to go to an amusement park on your birthday, find a place on the road that will sell your something to eat or be denied the right to choose, as they attend their integrated schools.
Now the police are openly actually killing Black people on the street before everyone’s eyes without being punished. The most moving moment of the march was when the Marvin Gaye song, “What’s Going On” blasted over the loud speaker. Most of the protesters were not even born when I (a Baby Boomer) first heard that song. Marvin knew then. “Don’t punish me with brutality” is the same situation in the ‘60s as we are dealing with now in 2014.
These children don’t know. They have not yet lived it. While sitting on the wall listening to speeches waiting for the March to begin, I was lucky enough to have a very pretty young lady sit down beside me. As we chatted, we discovered that we both had attended the same college. She told me this about her 8-year-old niece. Her niece had heard the word ‘justice’ so much lately, she asked her, “What are they talking about, the store.” My college sister realized that she had work to do, as do we all, and was going back home to get started.
The children see, because of the protests, that we, the adults, are upset and concerned about something serious. And because the victims have been young, they also now can see a connect to themselves and how horrible the situation is.
How do you talk to them about this stuff without creating an attitude of defiance, and hopelessness in our children? I want to see that my grandchildren, and yours, have a chance to live to become creative, energetic, intelligent, inquisitive, lawful, proud, assertive, educated, productive, contributing citizens of the United States.
This March and these protests are going to make a difference. ‘White silence = white consent SPEAK UP’; ‘The Asians stand with the Blacks,’ were two of the more unusual signs I saw. The marchers were all ages, young and old, all nationalities, and in wheel chairs, too. The March was peaceful and reassuring that we all will stick together and get justice.
I have posted videos on the Birmingham Times’ website and Facebook page. Please take a look at them.
