This week we had our Weekly Wednesday blog post all ready to go about delayed-by-Covid-19 Constanza & Justin’s May Spring Engagement Session with the photos & writing all ready to share… and then something happened. The Black Lives Matter protests kept continuing through this a second week. Though couple Coty & Justin have been waiting 3 months for their Engagement Session (especially the past 2 to 5 weeks when we had to Pandemic reschedule the shoot in Michigan due to Stay at Home laws up there) AND we’ve been anxiously awaiting getting to capture and share it, we decided to also make THIS blog post because it just felt right. (We’ll be sharing their Engagement Session with you NEXT Weekly Wednesday even though the blog on that is already finished).
<<WARNING: Black Lives Matter is NOT about us white people. We’d like to share stories as well as photos from Black Lives Matters protests from the past 6 years from our perspective as participants. We’ve tried to be allies to all communities during our lives and do not think that sitting back in silence when there’s injustice happening is the best option.>>
This first week of June 2020 marks the middle of the 2nd week of this year’s HUGE Black Lives Matter protests across the NATION and WORLD. This was spurred by the murders George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We’ve been participating in Black Lives Matters marches, protests, vigils, and more since 2014. Black Lives Matter started in 2013- when Jenny was a few semesters in to her MFA in Fine Art Photography program having been creating anti-racism fine art for a year for her eventual thesis. In 2012 Trayvon Martin had just been murdered (for wearing a hoodie) and was murdered by civilian George Zimmerman. When we’d started our newest degrees at school 6 months later in 2012, Trayvon was starting to be discussed more- likely because down the line Zimmerman had been acquitted of all charges which spurred folks to start the hashtag BlackLivesMatter (causing the start of the Black Lives Matter organization in the summer of 2013). At that time of Trayvon Martin press Jenny engaged in a heated conversation with one of her 6 white classmates (her best friend at the time) in class about it all- frustratingly with the former best friend coming at the case painting the young boy Trayvon as potentially having bad intentions when walking in his dad’s fiance’s neighborhood in a hoodie (she had no knowledge of the case). Starting then we realized that people will automatically side with the aggressor if the case is framed as “suspicious young (black) person.” Black Lives Matter was created to stand for truth and it helps contribute to its predecessors the NAACP and more.
One & a half years into the creation of Black Lives Matter we joined in a march in Santa Barbara, California blocks from Jason’s home in November of 2014 to protest the 2 separate unjust murders: Michael Brown & Eric Garner. Following those murders there were also protests in Ferguson, Missouri- a suburb of St. Louis, MO. (Last year we captured Germans Kyla & Walt’s Engagement Session in St. Louis and we ourselves got an AirBnB in Ferguson for us and our dog Coco. The city was safe & there were many black owned businesses, but there were also deeply saddening markers and plaques placed where 28 year old Michael Brown had been murdered just 4.5 years earlier).
The following images are some photos that we captured while participating in that peaceful November 2014 Black Lives Matter March/ Protest in Santa Barbara, California that started just a block from Jason’s apartment:
The 2014 Black Lives Matter protest in Santa Barbara was clearly massive and peaceful, though that’s NOT to say that Protests HAVE to be peaceful always. Property-destructive riots are sometimes what some individuals resort to when they’re justifiably angry, distraught, sad, etc. OR when their peaceful protests are met with MORE police violence. Sometimes violence can cause more violence- i.e. violence by police can spur folks to be violent back. This is natural - something we see with even children who get pushed on the playground. Some cry and walk away, while others fight BACK.
DESTRUCTIVE PROTESTS BY WOMEN ARE SOME REASONS WHY WOMEN WERE FINALLY LEGALLY GIVEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE (not until 1920- the 19th amendment// after the 1870 15th amendment giving black MEN the right to vote- though we all know that these sweeping amendments did not fully go into practice everywhere all at once OR mean that we all suddenly had equal rights). The Suffragettes sometimes abandoned their peaceful protests that were getting them NO WHERE and they instead turned to bombing mailboxes & buildings. WOMEN WERE LITERALLY KILLED FOR THEIR CAUSE. “The organization began to embrace violence, hurling rocks through windows, throwing axes at cars carrying politicians, blowing up mailboxes, burning slogans into the turf at stadiums, cutting phone lines, and smashing the greenhouses.” “Pankhurst’s argument was that violence was the only tool left to her movement, and that it was the only thing that men actually respect…”
The next Black Lives Matter Protests we went to were a couple years later in July 2016 here in South Bend, Indiana- again blocks from our house and just 3 years after Black Lives Matter was originally formed. There were suddenly 112 Protests across the nation in 88 cities. This event here in our city was actually called a “Peace Vigil” to light candles for and march for the victim Philando Castile (with the title “Peace Vigil” most likely because people INCORRECTLY associated BLM with violence). Everyone gathered together to light candles for black lives lost- children even joining in the vigil & march.
Leaders spoke, the mayor attended with his boyfriend (now husband), and then leaders lead us through the streets for a march. A Womens March had just happened in our city and there were disturbing differences that we noticed between how the two were treated by outsiders:
1) Leaders of our city were VERY quick to jump on a speaker and call for JUSTICE for women, but did NOT speak up when attending the BLM Peace Vigil/ March even when there was a period of time for speeches. (So men can speak for women AND encourage justice for women, but you don’t feel comfortable speaking out about justice for the black community…? At LEAST the leaders attended the march, though).
2) There were SNIPERS camped out on the top of the Double Tree Hotel for the Black Lives Matter PEACE VIGIL as well as WHITE GUN TOTING THREATENING CITIZENS armed on the corners for NO reason (non-cop CITIZENS seemingly there to shoot black folks if things became “non-peaceful.)”
With years of Black Lives Matter protests, it came as no real surprise that just 1 month into these mid-2016 protests Colin Kaepernick in California started to kneel in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter issues during the national anthem before his NFL games. This caused outrage of White Supremacists who knew nothing of the history of Professional Sports- that the national anthem was really not even done for the majority of the history of sports AND that racism issues are more important than a symbolic nationalist anthem. Again, his kneeling in no way slanders the army, navy, etc., rather pleads for “Black Lives to Matter” to U.S. citizens/ our nation. After all, we did STEAL HUMANS to use them as abused machines i.e. unpaid SLAVES in our nation for HUNDREDS OF YEARS of abuse, rape, sales of their human bodies, murder, etc. (We fully recommend studying the history of the abuse of black persons in this nation).
Through the past 15 years of choosing to study and fight Racism & Sexism within ourselves and others (during educational degrees, friendships of all colors, work with diverse clientele, etc) AND joining in protests over the past 6 years it’s become increasingly frustrating to see NO change in how black, nonthreatening, unarmed citizens are treated- murdered like animals by police and/ or citizens. We KNOW that our black citizens, friends, etc are MUCH MORE angry, sad, depressed, frustrated, etc. than we could ever be, but after a long week, we each found ourselves crying more than a few times out of frustration and sadness.
Here in South Bend, Indiana (a liberal stronghold of a republican state) we have one of the only 13 chapters of Black Lives Matter in the entire United States. We are the ONLY non-major city to have a chapter and that is likely because of the consistent history of police abuse of black people, segregation (blacks, hispanics, and whites all occupying different areas of the city), and refusal of authorities to make any REAL, lasting changes. (Building a bronze MLK Jr statue and renaming the main street Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd doesn’t erase the racism that our citizens have to face). BLM marches here have been consistent and non-violent. Residents (especially minorities) are used to being cast aside while local government COVERS UP EVIDENCE INCRIMINATING THE POLICE IN UNJUST MURDER.
With Jenny’s Thesis and body of work from her MFA in Fine Art Photography being titled “The Visual Indoctrination of the Bigot,” it’s clear that we’re not quite impartial on racism issues. One things that was always haunting in one of Jenny’s degrees (Psychology) was a study that had participants of all walks of life (all races, genders, etc) who were asked people to view photos of faces and ASAP click one word within a second’s time that best describes the faces. Time and time again by ALL participants REGARDLESS of race or gender, folks quickly auto clicked descriptions of black men’s faces as “violent” or “aggressive.” (All men’s faces in general were found to be associated with “power.”) Another study looked at reaction time and shooting. People were told to “shoot” a criminal on the computer screen. Time and time again participants in their required quick reaction time would accidentally shoot an innocent black character on the screen RATHER than the REAL criminal that had markers showing that they were the actual criminal. These studies from at least 10 to 15 years ago are STILL very telling of our current society.
Injustices We’ve Noticed in Our Hometowns/ Places We’ve Lived
Jenny’s university out of state was one of the least diverse in the nation and having grown up in the “white third” of South Bend, she had seen increasing racism since she was a kid. Here in South Bend where she’s from it’s 1/3 black, 1/3 white, and 1/3 hispanic- all FULLY segregated to different areas of town. There has been an awful history of the police murdering of unarmed or non-life-threatening black citizens here. One of Jenny’s police uncles was one of two white cops who got fired (almost without pension) due to standing up for the new wonderful black police chief who was fired when he was unjustly fired when he tried to fight against racism (allegations of recording fellow cops who’d spewed extremely racist words about him- the Police Chief). Citizens here in South Bend had just marched for Treyvon Martin that March 2012 right after. The city has withheld the tapes of white South Bend cops spewing racist slurs about the former Police Chief for 8 years as South Bend citizens have fought to have the tapes RELEASED.
Jason is from a desert area an hour & a half from Los Angeles. He remembers the Rodney King Riots in L.A. and their legacy. Sadly, though, areas where his grandma, mom, & uncle live were selling KKK paraphernalia, Nazi pins, Confederate flags, and Don’t Tread on Me flags many times that we’ve been there over the past 6 years. Jason’s high school IN CALIFORNIA had its school colors as the confederate solders’ uniforms and their mascot was “Johnny Rebel” - a mascot dressed as a literal confederate soldier. His city was a republican stronghold in a liberal state, while Jenny’s city was a liberal stronghold in a republican state. Our black friends there have been great activists and many have been very vocal of their struggles in such an area. The city is now 34% white, 20% black, & 16% hispanic.
We’ve talked with our own friends & clients over the years about their home states & life experiences. Some of our black clients have told us of their experiences of racism here in South Bend, Indiana. One believed from experience that it’s even more racist than states that they’ve lived in in the South. She explained to us that the racism in the South is very straight forward, whereas here in South Bend the racism is veiled and shocking (apparently even deeper/ worse).
In Conclusion
This week many businesses are closed, boarded up, or have chosen to put their business sales on hold from Tuesday through Friday to respect the protests. We felt like it would be better for this week if we shared Black Lives Matters marches from 6 and 4 years ago rather than show our regularly scheduled Spring May Engagement Session of our couple (whose *now 2022 wedding is set for Constanza’s home country of Chile). We hope that this shows a bit of how the past 6 and 7 years of Black Lives Matter marches, Vigils, etc have led to this moment in time. Of course we’ve all been cooped up at home for almost 3 months as well, so allll of the frustrations have hit an all-time high especially by the Essential Workers (especially those not paid a doctor’s wages), the black community who had its citizens die of Covid-19 in disproportionately larger numbers than any other racial group in our country, and those of us who’ve had to temporarily put our businesses on hold for months. We hope for justice- TRUE justice and POLICE REFORM. If you’d like to learn more about the GOALS of the Protests, please check out the NAACP Facebook, website, Instagram, and more pages AS WELL AS the Black Lives Matter pages. Again, there are 13 chapters throughout the nation including ours here in South Bend, Indiana.