On Tuesday morning, several community members gathered at the Oleai/Beach Road intersection to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and protest police brutality toward African-Americans.
Led by community member Zoe Travis, the protest action was “impromptu,” but a more organized protest will be held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. this Friday.
Demonstrators lined Beach Road on Tuesday morning to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Photo by K-Andrea Evarose S. Limol
“There has been a lot of pushback against the Black Lives Matter movement by saying that all lives matter and all lives matter equally. In response to that, I just want to say that all lives can’t matter until black lives matter,” Travis said.
“The Black Lives Matter movement was started because black people are so much more likely to be killed by police for very normal interactions. I mean, George Floyd was killed because [law enforcement officers] thought that he might have forged a check. Tamir Rice was killed for no reason, and so was Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. There are just so many people who have been killed unjustly, and so we need to draw attention to the fact that being black in America can be a death sentence if you interact with the police in any way.”
The All Lives Matter movement, Travis added, is a pushback against the Black Lives Matter movement.
“White people like myself don’t have to worry when we get pulled over by a cop that we’re going to be shot in front of our girlfriend and our child, like Philando Castile was. We don’t have to worry about those things in the same way, and so, as white people, we need to stand up and protest the fact that this injustice happens every single day in the U.S., and it doesn’t happen to us. It happens to black people, people of color, anyone who is marginalized, Latinos, LGBTQ people, especially black trans women of color,” Travis said.
Asked about police brutality, Travis said it is “an issue in every single place in the entire world. The police aren’t set up to serve and protect in the United States. They’re set up to police marginalized communities and protect the status quo. So while I don’t think that Black Lives Matter is specifically an issue in the CNMI, just because we have a low population of black people, we do still need to show that we’re there for them and will step in and protect them from discrimination and harm.”
Thousands across the globe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and Canada, have shown solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. through demonstrations condemning racism and demanding justice.
