A passionate group of people who had long called Ferguson a home were ready to use the tragic moment of Brown’s death to change their city for the better. In 2014, Darren Siles, a longtime resident and community leader (who was tragically murdered in 2016), said Mailam Besam The media’s non-profit Youth Radio (YR) says: “Because of this system, we lose people every day.”
In the first few weeks after Brown’s death, my social media feeds were flooded with images and videos of the protests.
The songs echoed in the night sky, full of raw emotion; many people from other cities were moved to travel and see for themselves. Citizens were encouraged by continued support and continued to seek justice and systemic change, even as firefighters continued to hide. The radical stance of Ferguson’s tired population was applauded by national activists, celebrities and many others who offered their support to the protesters.
“We have nothing to lose. We are shot, we are shot, we return the next day as if nothing had happened. And you know why? Because we have nothing to lose. We don’t care,” Seals said in an interview with YR.
Although Ferguson protesters sparked a mass movement, more experienced activists and community leaders criticized the methods used by the new organizers to mobilize the masses. Almost five months after the shooting, Opra Winfrey told it Human beings magazine movies during the press race Selma, “I think it’s wonderful to go and protest, and it’s wonderful to see people all over the country doing it … but that’s not enough to make the march.” She continued, hoping to watch Selmapeople “take into account the strategic, peaceful intentions needed if you want real change.”
Winfrey’s comments sparked some outrage, with new organizers pointing to the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fred Hampton and Medgar Evers as the reason the current movement had no face. The idea of a decentralized movement was encouraged throughout the organization of the premises in order to reduce the possibility of one person being targeted against those who are in conflict with their demands.
Cheyenne Green, who was a member of The Lost Voices and is now a policy consultant, once told a crowd that had gathered to protest police violence: “The occupiers will have talks that you can return home to your family.”
Green’s way of governing has influenced me and others in all areas of the movement across the country. Political education and negotiation have played a role in better organizing communities, making change possible and bringing freedom a little closer. This is one of the ways in which community movements are formed. So why do some insist that we need a charismatic leader at the forefront of the popular movement?
Short answer: we shouldn’t, and we shouldn’t. There are people who try to improve the daily conditions in their communities every day. They may not be the center of attention or household names, but they do exist. The decentralized movement gives more people the confidence to combine local support. The decentralized movement is how I started to organize. And when people feel empowered, they can empower others.
Organizers at places like Hong Kong, France, Egypt and Palestine have taken advantage of decentralization.
After gaining experience, you have to meet them where they are. In this regard, social media has become an invaluable tool for organizers. The tweet can reach hundreds of people in one area, so the social media campaign #ItsBiggerThanYou mobilized a thousand people in Atlanta on a march of solidarity with protesters in Ferguson.
Apps like Signal, which use end-to-end encryption to keep messages confidential, have helped organizers secure places for risky demonstrations. Taking a moment is an effective way to allow people to come together to process their emotions for a specific reason. In Hong Kong, organizers now use digital tools LIHKG (similar to Reddit) and Telegram to prevent arrests of leaders, as has happened in the past. The need for charismatic leaders is no longer undeniable, as the idea of a decentralized movement has become popular around the world in recent years.
As Winfrey’s critique of the decentralized movement became more popular, social media activists such as Sean Kings, Tamika Mallory, BLM co-founder Patrise Cullors, and others took a moment and focused. Appointing themselves as fighting leaders, they began looking for “donations” to continue their work. They were known in activist circles as “ambulance pursuers” or “grifters”.
The people of Ferguson whistled, especially with the Seals inviting the founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network for a good life while organizers known to the Ferguson community struggled to make ends meet.
Ferguson’s live actor Basem Masri, who has since died, also criticized the management of the BLM on the accumulation of resources in 2016. “We all felt as if we were making other people rich and making others famous by our oppression. We were left here to suffer from systemic police abuse. And, for example, I don’t care about loans unless the work is done. But the thing is, the work is not done.
Tory Russell, community organizer in Ferguson, said:[Black Lives Matter founders] one should not walk around without black people or black communities. They should be ashamed somewhere. In 2021, about seven years after Brown was killed, Russell and Michael Brown, senior. demanded that the BLM distribute the funds Ferguson community leaders so they can finish the job.
Although the impetus for the people of Ferguson was kidnapped by grifters, the city has made some progress in its efforts to bring about local change. In 2020, Ferguson elected Ella Jones, the first black mayor of the city. Just a few years before his historic victory, Wesley Bela, who protested during the uprising, was elected prosecutor, removing Bob McCulloh, who had served seven terms before the vote. Protester Cory Bush went down in history when she was elected Missouri District 1 in 2020. Bush entered the headlines In late 2021, just before the acquittal of Kail Ritenhaus, a white superior teenage, who shot three protesters in Wisconsin, killing two of them. She tweeter that white supremacist vigilants also shot at protesters in Ferguson and nothing was done at the time to try to emphasize how the system selects and chooses what to punish.
Critics of decentralized movements still underestimate the power to take responsibility for mobilizing the masses from one organization. However, movements tend to perish with fallen drivers.
Consider Fred Hampton, who was chairman of the Black Panther Party in Illinois and co-founder of the Rainbow Coalition. He was assassinated during a 1969 police raid on his home in Chicago.
Hampton was a passionate leader and was which the FBI intended to prevent him from organizing at national level, which would put more blacks into action and strengthen inter-racial alliances.
Excited participants [Rainbow] The coalition disintegrated unofficially, and few leaders went underground after Hampton’s murder for fear of safety. Thousands stood in line to see the scene of the crime, while lawyers for the People’s Rights Office challenged the official police account, which was later refuted, claiming that there were heavy shootings on both sides. By killing its loudest leader, the Feds had effectively thwarted the most promising efforts of a united, cohesive social resistance in Chicago in the 1960s.
In Ferguson, Seals and Masri were two of many leaders; although their deaths severely affected their wider society, the movement did not end in their untimely deaths. Therefore, refusing to give the role of “leader” to one person is more appropriate if the goal is liberation.
Despite the mismanagement of the movement by the self-appointed leaders, the organizers continue to move forward on the ground. Inside January 2022 New York Weather interviewAsked about raising funds for the BLM Global Network, Huntington Beach activist and organizer Tory Johnson replied: “I’m not telling people I’m actually living through. I’m not telling people how tense I really am. But, you know, I actually have to go through it all.
Now more than ever, people need to try to organize. Between the rapidly rising cost of living, the constant low wages, the ongoing pandemic, the war on reproductive rights and the housing crisis, we owe it to ourselves to get our boots on the ground.
This story was created through the Daily Kos Emerging Fellows (DKEF) program. Read more about DKEF (and get to know other prospective fellows) here.