DeRay Mckesson -- BlackLivesMatter founder
Posted on 09/23/2015 9:51:32 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
BRUNSWICK, Maine — Civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson was welcomed back to Bowdoin College on Tuesday with the sound of hundreds of fingers snapping. This form of applause is reserved only for certain speakers with whom students feel a special kinship, according to Ashley Bomboka, president of the college’s African-American Society.
Mckesson, a 2007 graduate of Bowdoin, returned to visit classes, meet with new college President Clayton Rose and speak about his experiences as perhaps the most visible face of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Tuesday afternoon’s conversation, “The Intersection Between Education and Justice,” was moderated by Bomboka and Bowdoin Student Government President Danny Mejia-Cruz.
Clad in his trademark bright blue down vest, jeans and bright orange Nike shoes, Mckesson spoke about the civil rights movement in 2015, “white privilege” and social justice. He encouraged students to “step into the world and do the work” required to make the change he believes is necessary to correct race-based injustice throughout the United States.
Mckesson noted to much snapping from the crowd that when he arrived at Bowdoin, his class included “probably 15 to 20 black people,” and he added, “I see way more black and brown faces than when I was here. I’m like, ‘Look at y’all.”
A native of Baltimore, Mckesson was twice president of Bowdoin Student Government. He then worked for schools in New York City, West Baltimore and Minneapolis.
Spurred to action
In August 2014, after then-Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson, a white man, shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, Mckesson took a leave of absence and went to St. Louis to protest. He has since traveled the country to document via Twitter protests of police violence, including in his home city this April after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died after his spinal cord was severely injured while Gray was in the custody of Baltimore police.
Mckesson and other activists formed the protest movement “Black Lives Matter.” There are 229,000 people who follow Mckesson on Twitter.
Mckesson co-founded the online newsletter titled “This is the Movement,” as well as the websites WeTheProtestors.org and MappingPoliceViolence.org, which tracks the number of black people killed by police. He also co-founded Campaign Zero, which outlines a 10-point plan to work toward “a world where the police don’t kill people by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions and ensuring accountability.”
In April, after Gray’s death in Baltimore, Mckesson spoke to the Bangor Daily News by phone about the violent protests that had prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
“This unrest is the condition of the pain manifesting,” Mckesson said at the time. “What would you do if the people who were supposed to protect you not only got you killed but got away with it?”
He said Tuesday that the movement gained momentum after Brown’s death in Ferguson in 2014.
“There was something about Mike’s body lying in the street … for three-and-a-half hours that changed people,” he said. Mckesson spoke of different protests, using Twitter to “amplify” the message and help protesters and leaders keep track of the movement.
‘I’m not the movement’
While Mckesson is the most visible face of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, he insists he is not its leader.
“I’m not the movement, I didn’t start the movement, and I can’t stop the movement,” he said. “One of the things we learned about the civil rights movement is that if you make one leader, and that leader falls, it’s all over. If I fall, it will go on.”
Named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine, Mckesson met earlier this month with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, and he recently met with members of President Barack Obama’s administration at the White House. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton responded to Mckesson’s request for a meeting, tweeting, “Let’s meet; we want to hear from anyone ready to address this urgent problem and work toward solutions.”
On Tuesday, Mckesson challenged Bowdoin students to talk about racial issues in ways that do not inspire fear, defensiveness or a retreat to stereotypes.
“I can name white privilege, I can see white privilege, and I can see its impact,” he said. “[But] somebody who has it has to use it to disrupt it.”
Asked about the toll activism has taken on his personal life, Mckesson said he’s become used to receiving death threats on Twitter, but he still only tweets about his travels after he’s arrived.
“I don’t think I’m angry anymore,” he said. “I don’t think I’m afraid anymore. I’m trying to be focused … on ending the crisis.”
But he said he’s still angered when protesters are met with teargas and smoke bombs, as well as by lies about “Black Lives Matter” and the modern movement against racial injustice.
“In Baltimore, the police shot smoke bombs,” he said. “The smoke bombs set off a trash can, and the trash can catches on fire. Then the Baltimore Police Department tweeted that protesters set the trash can on fire.”
At Bowdoin
Mckesson described Bowdoin as “a magical place” and recalled reading the first page of Plato’s “The Republic” while he was a student.
“I fell in love with my mind here,” he said. “It made me believe in people differently.”
But by attending a liberal arts college in one of the whitest states in the nation, Bowdoin students of color — especially those from more racially diverse urban centers with high percentages of nonwhite residents — are often exposed to a new, sometimes hostile culture.
Earlier this month, the college’s president sent a letter to students and staff, warning of racial epithets directed at students and staff. Another well-known Bowdoin alumnus, Hari Kondabulo, recently explained how attending Bowdoin after growing up in Queens exposed him to white privilege and hostility based on his skin color.
Mckesson addressed that issue Tuesday. Acknowledging that Bowdoin is “imperfect,” he said, “Did I have my moments of, ‘Get me out of here?’ Definitely,” but he added that his role as a class leader perhaps offered him a different experience than other students of color.
The greatest challenge facing students at Bowdoin and everywhere, Mckesson said, is that they underestimate their power.
“You have four-year tenure here,” he said. “The best Dean [Tim] Foster can do is, like, wait you out.”
Asked by a student his opinion of a planned “Teach In” on Oct. 1, Mckesson encouraged the student to “see what they do. Make people show up differently to you. [Former Bowdoin president] Barry [Mills] and I fought all the time. I’d say, ‘You’re mad, I get it, we’re just going to have to figure it out.’”
But he said the “comfort” of the college lulls students into thinking the world is better than it is.
“Change requires work,” he said.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s alma mater, too.
It was once a very good college.
My thought too. This Doofus has profaned the campus where Joshua Chamberlain once lived!
This situation is the result of “diversity”, EEOC, and just plain foolishness. My grandson’s tuition is $43,600 per year (and that is an average cost) Bowdoin is probably more and you can bet that the “new privileged class” members are not paying a dime. Our country is so screwed....
The BLM clown is a disgrace to the memory of the “Hero of Gettysburg.” Two years ago, on the 150th anniversary of the battle, I visited the battlefield and recommend it to all.
Regards,
Bat
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I am sure those activists all smoke big doobies, convinced of their own cleverness. If the Marxists get their revolution, those activists will be mere cannon fodder. Then they will see how much black lives matter to their Marxist overlords.
Awesome! I am always amazed at how feminazis ans militant atheist never seem to have a problem with muzzies. Not to mention the LGQT club or whatever they call themselves.
OK. Right. And up is down.
Two questions: Without the crisis, who are you? Absent you, what crisis?
All effective propaganda is logical nonsense.
Interesting how he refers to Michael Brown’s body lying in the street for three hours but says nothing about him being shot in the back. This seems like a telling shift. Has it finally sunk in that everyone knows the “hands up don’t shoot” thing is a bunch of BS?
If only the GOP pandered to its Conservative base like dems pander to the blm agitators.
Btw, notice no negative adjectives? No mention of the murderous chants towards cops??
This keeps getting raised and I have not seen it squarely addressed. I've always assumed that the length of time a body is left in place is up to the forensic investigators, who don't want the scene disturbed until they have finished their work. This will vary with the complexity of the case, but does anyone have experience in this area?
Were there any unusual delays in the Michael Brown case? (I would be surprised if there were, but the question is worth asking.) Was it handled with extra caution because it was a police shooting? Were special investigators called in -- e.g., did the State Police get involved and send someone over from Springfield? Or is three hours typical? It is really not that long a time if one is doing a careful investigation, and it's not as if Michael Brown had an important appointment and was being unduly delayed.
The left is using three and a half hours in the street as a sign of disrespect and indifference. It could in fact be just the opposite. There is no reason ordinary beat cops would want to linger on site for any longer than it took the ambulance to show up and haul the body away, unless they were on overtime and a donut shop was across the street.
Until I see some written material, I don’t assume any blacks in college can even read; they are window dressing to simulate “diversity”, but in my college most were relegated to a specific building where they took high school-level (”remedial”) classes for a semester or two before dropping out. White & Asian guys wouldn’t even be admitted with their background.
Next generation of Jesse Jackson shakedown goons. Is this another illegitimate child of Jackson?
It took that long because the mob wouldn’t let the Medical Examiners team through to do their thing. They were held back for their own safety.
If it wasn’t for blacks lying about what happened and causing a near riot at the scene, the Gentle Giant wouldn’t have beeen laying there that long.
“What would you do if the people who were supposed to protect you not only got you killed but got away with it?”
If you are dead I would presume nothing.
voice There are black people in Maine? Who knew?
Love to hear from some Mainers on this.
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