By Charles W. Kim, Packet Media Group
”No justice! No peace!” chanted around 150 people as they walked along Nassau Street from Tiger Park to Hinds Plaza in front of the Princeton Public Library for a rally Saturday supporting slain Missouri teenager Michael Brown.
The 18-year-old, unarmed black man, was shot to death by white Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson after a confrontation on a street in the St. Louis suburb Aug. 9.
The killing sparked demonstrations and some rioting in that community for more than 10 consecutive days, causing Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon to call out the National Guard.
Nationally, it has also led to a debate on race relations and the use of force by police against African Americans and others.
The demonstration march and rally was organized by an “ad-hoc” group of local citizens and organizations concerned about racism in America, according to organizer Daniel Harris, a professor emeritus of English and Jewish studies at Princeton University.
”We are here to express grief and outrage at the continued killings of young black men,” Mr. Harris said in welcoming the group. “Mike Brown, Treyvon Martin, Ramarley Graham, Eric Garner. All unarmed, killed by police — from Missouri to Florida to New York City. That means: anywhere in the United States. Kajeime Powell, three miles away from where Mike Brown was shot, was himself shot dead Aug. 19 — armed with a knife but yards away from the police, and taunting them to kill him, which they did. The problem is systemic.”
Mr. Harris said that for centuries, the fatal flaws of racial inequality and injustice have corrupted the nation.
”Education, communal inventiveness, political will, and serious money is necessary to change what none of us can tolerate: the slaughter of the innocents,” he said.
The peaceful march then made its way on the sidewalk of Nassau Street to the intersection with Witherspoon Street before moving along that sidewalk and across the street to Hinds Plaza in front of the library for about an hour’s worth of speeches by representatives of local groups and members of the local clergy.
The litany of speakers cited many reasons for the tragedy in Ferguson and other places where people have lost their lives in similar situations.
Some blamed the police and recent acquisitions of military-type equipment and weapons, to the political parties’ inaction in Washington, D.C., including how Republicans have blocked progress by the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.
First Baptist Church in Princeton senior pastor, the Rev. Carlton Branscomb, said that, as an African American, he has experienced discrimination first-hand.
”There is a sickness in this country. There is a cancer in this body called America, a cancer that will destroy this body that we love,” he said. “It is real, it is rampant and it is relentless in its goal of devaluing black life in America.”
He said that the hundreds of years of institutionalized racism have not simply disappeared and will not go away without “thoughtful and peaceful unified resistance.”
”I want to challenge everyone, police around the world and everyone to consider the value of black life, consider the value of all life,” he said. “Seek out better ways to diffuse dangerous and potentially dangerous situations.”
The rally ended with the crowd joining hands and singing “We Shall Overcome.”
After the rally, Princeton resident and masseuse Max Shane, 51, said that he was acutely aware of racism in the country and had experienced it many times throughout his life.
”I have been experiencing racial profiling my whole life,” he said. “You are conscious of being African-American all the time.”
In one example, he stopped in a store in New Hampshire to buy a yoga mat for his daughter while on vacation in a rural area of that state.
He said he entered the store a few feet before his wife and daughter, causing the white store clerk to show alarm at a black man walking into her shop.
”You feel reminded and saddened by the situation,” he said. “You feel less than human.”
He said that he felt the reaction was triggered by the color of his skin, rather than who he was as a man.
”It’s everywhere, It’s a sad fact,” he said.
