The speaker of Story #1. If this is you, and you want to identify yourself here, please let us know and we will add your name.

This speaker is sharing during the 3rd protest march on Beacon that happened on June 6, 2020. The march started at Pohill Park, wound all the way down Wolcott, taking a right toward the river, over the bridge above the train track, and ending at the land stage at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park.

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Story #1

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If I go down, we both go down.

(Applause)

And I just want that to be heard here in my home town. Because I know that we are a beautiful and diverse community here. And I know when I walk down these streets I could look people in the eye and that is a privilege I have here, in this town, in Beacon. And it’s not a privilege that many other towns, not even in the Hudson Valley, get to share. And I know this only because I’ve lived in other places in the Hudson valley. I’ve lived in Poughkeepsie. I’ve lived in Newburgh. I now live in Ulster County, and it’s not the same, y’all. It is not.

And I just also…I want to speak towards the traumatization that we feel right now in this moment, the universal feelings that we’re all struggling with. And those feelings are really important to try to understand why. Even as a colored person, or Black person, or an indigenous person, or a white person. Why do I feel…”answer the blank.” Why do I feel sad? Why do I feel ashamed? Why do I feel guilt? Why do I feel anger? And we need to find a better way to challenge those feelings to talk to one another. Because I also realize that even as a brown person, I’m fucking angry. But that does not give me the right to scream at somebody else who’s trying to be a part of this movement who might not share my skin.

I also lastly want to speak to white people. I’m in an interracial relationship. I know how tough it is. I know it’s tough when you don’t know what to do. I’ve heard it. I know it’s tough when you didn’t put those thoughts in (her/your) head. I know it’s tough walking into someplace unfamiliar and you have no idea what you’re doing. But you go towards it because you know it’s probably the right thing, because it’s what your friends told you to do and you just want to show up.

“You do not look at the faces of our beautiful black men and women. You do not recognize them as a whole society. So when you’re walking down the street, instead of thinking, “let me avoid this person’s face,” why not humanize them? Look them in the eye. You’ll realize that sometimes you might get a smile. Sometimes you might get a “hey, hello.” ”

But I want to speak towards the feeling of not looking us in the eye, because even in the Hudson Valley, New York City, wherever you go - I’ve experienced this a lot in Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. You do NOT look at the faces of our beautiful black men and women. You do not recognize them as a whole society. So when you’re walking down the street, instead of thinking, “let me avoid this person’s face,” why not humanize them? Look them in the eye. You’ll realize that sometimes you might get a smile. Sometimes you might get a “hey, hello.”

Black people are not criminals. So stop avoiding their faces, their emotions, their eyes when they walk past you. They’re not there to jump you, to be a criminal towards you, to harass you. None of that. I’m not taking that no more.

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