Telling The Story Of Police Brutality And Justice Toward Black People

Raising voices and telling stories - two things that are vital in communities which are underrepresented. Raising voices and telling stories are things that happened in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown at the hands of police. Black voices were raised to tell of injustice and of law enforcement efforts directed, frequently brutally, towards their minority community. Raised voices and stories truthfully told helped in healing by bringing institutional violence back, at least a little bit, into the national conversation.

Through a project, THE TRUTH TELLING PROJECT, there is this possibility, this voicing of stories, the sharing of truth, educating beyond the black community, by raising voices. The truth will be told of the systemic racism that holds all of us back, because in holding back one group of people, we hold ourselves back.



The truth of owning the past and the present is that we can change our future; we can heal. But we must let the voices of those oppressed be heard, especially when it comes to solutions, to reconciling, to bringing ourselves together. The Truth-Telling Project has provided venues for these discussions to take place, discussing particular aspects of the issues, bringing bright and experienced African-American individuals into the discussion. Another consideration has been discussing alternative forms of justice that do not involve incarceration, such as restorative justice.

Besides face-to-face discussions, other forms of truth-telling have been considered. Utilizing media, as occurred over one month during the summer, chronicled the story of Ferguson and Mike Brown from the perspective of five youth protesters. That turned into the documentary, Youth Speak Truth. Media is also incorporated onto the project's website and continues to document the stories of those subjected to police brutality, along with an alternative justice archive.

The latest podcast was published last month. A discussion of the phrase "Ferguson is Everywhere" not only talked about the building frustration in one area, but also widened the concept into a pervasive Black experience around this country. In a similar fashion, the chants of "Whose street?" that were heard in the Ferguson protests were picked up around the country, as black people voiced the oppression they felt everywhere.

Sabaah Folayan, an activist from New York, who had traveled to Ferguson to participate in that protest, made the cry of protest into a film, Whose Street?, which tells the story of the protests, along with the media distortions of those protests. Ms. Folayan's intent was to portray the love and fellowship, the courage and the beauty among the protesters on the front lines. It is planned that the movie will premiere at this year's Sundance.

Correcting the media is a way of conveying truth.

Taylor Payne, the second guest, has been holding knitting meet-ups on the East Coast, teaching people to knit for black liberation. An advantage of knitting, actually takes those who knit out of depending upon the capitalist system for clothing items, since they can be designed and made. Knitting groups can also serve as places to carry on discussion of issues pertaining to the black community and its relationship to other parts of society.

Thanks for information from this page on Truth-Telling Project: http://thetruthtellingproject.org/about-us; this page from the same site: http://thetruthtellingproject.org/#youth-speaks-truth; this page from We Stay Woke: http://westaywoke.blogspot.com/2017/01/episode-31-political-climate-happy.html; and the above link.

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