Tulsa Protest
Honoring The Past;
Protesting The Present
As Tulsans gathered this past week to mark the 99th occasion of the massacre that destroyed Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street” in 1921, protesters of every hue, ethnicity, age, religious faith and social-economic demographic united as one to march for yet another set tragic crimes against African Americans: the murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; and Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia.
Say It Loud
The writer provides a first-person account why he marched, and how the recent event in Tulsa and nationally have impacted him.
The 21st century America has hit the poor, marginalized and minority communities hard. With the rush to robotic labor, combined with the complete depletion of local farmer producer ecosystems, leading to gross depletion of healthy resources for the majority of communities across the United States. This degradation has led to a host of frictions and inequities amongst the people.
Say It Loud
Dominic ‘Duke’ Durant, Contributor
The writer provides a first-person account why he marched, and how the recent event in Tulsa and nationally have impacted him.
Saturday, 30 May at 1:04 PM
Fast forward to now, June 2020, as we near 2021, we’re witnessing a powerful tide rolling in, created from the many storms that are out there. A global coronavirus pandemic. Racism. Continued government apathy, and negligence toward the murder of black men and women that is triggering protests here, nationwide and globally.
With the weight of all of these externalities combined with personal traumas in my own life, on Saturday, May 30, I walked up to a sea of concerned protesters near Tulsa’s Brookside District. A few thoughts and emotions struck me.
Saturday, 30 May at 1:04 PM
Fast forward to now, June 2020, as we near 2021, we’re witnessing a powerful tide rolling in, created from the many storms that are out there. A global coronavirus pandemic. Racism. Continued government apathy, and negligence toward the murder of black men and women that is triggering protests here, nationwide and globally.
With the weight of all of these externalities combined with personal traumas in my own life, on Saturday, May 30, I walked up to a sea of concerned protesters near Tulsa’s Brookside District. A few thoughts and emotions struck me.
Saturday, 30 May at 1:06 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:06 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:08 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:08 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:58 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:58 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 1:58 PM
“Why are there so many different people here for a black people problem?”
Then, that thought immediately left as soon as it came. My next thought was, “This wasn’t caused by black people solely being black!” This is America’s long history of disdain to care for one race, turning our stomachs so much that we’re moved to leave our homes during a pandemic, and risk it all for the vision of change.
When will our lives matter?
Something I noticed over three days of protests is that there is almost an equal number, if not more, white people protesting on the behalf of blacks. This was a surprise to me, as I didn’t think this many white people cared about our lives.
Saturday, 30 May at 1:58 PM
“Why are there so many different people here for a black people problem?”
Then, that thought immediately left as soon as it came. My next thought was, “This wasn’t caused by black people solely being black!” This is America’s long history of disdain to care for one race, turning our stomachs so much that we’re moved to leave our homes during a pandemic, and risk it all for the vision of change.
When will our lives matter?
Something I noticed over three days of protests is that there is almost an equal number, if not more, white people protesting on the behalf of blacks. This was a surprise to me, as I didn’t think this many white people cared about our lives.
Saturday, 30 May at 2:26 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 2:26 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 2:44 PM
Whose fault is this? Standing on Brookside, I would expect whites to be there, but not to be over-speaking our black voices. Chants and chatter of, “No justice! No Peace!” “Black lives matter!” Two different chants going at the same time, nearly in opposition to each other.
Much of our disturbed disposition in America is due to a known lack of equal opportunity to education, opportunity and dignity. I had to do something. So, I moved into the middle of the crowd and decided I would be the bridge to getting discordant halves of protestors unified on the same chant.
We listened to the person with the megaphone in the front and echoed the words to the people in the back. Now, we were cohesive.
Now, we were saying the same thing.
On the other side of town Monday night, youth descended on the Woodland Hills area. I went only to get my young cousins to go home before they ended up getting into trouble.
Saturday, 30 May at 2:44 PM
Whose fault is this? Standing on Brookside, I would expect whites to be there, but not to be over-speaking our black voices. Chants and chatter of, “No justice! No Peace!” “Black lives matter!” Two different chants going at the same time, nearly in opposition to each other.
Much of our disturbed disposition in America is due to a known lack of equal opportunity to education, opportunity and dignity. I had to do something. So, I moved into the middle of the crowd and decided I would be the bridge to getting discordant halves of protestors unified on the same chant.
We listened to the person with the megaphone in the front and echoed the words to the people in the back. Now, we were cohesive.
Now, we were saying the same thing.
On the other side of town Monday night, youth descended on the Woodland Hills area. I went only to get my young cousins to go home before they ended up getting into trouble.
Saturday, 30 May at 2:50 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 2:50 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 4:18 PM
These kids are upset, angry.
And in the bigger scheme of things, I was thinking in retrospect that this tear gas or pepper balls will burn their eyes. But when you know it’s going to come, and you keep going back and keep going back just to get peppered sprayed, these kids are angry, and obviously the tear gas doesn’t hurt as much as their anger does.
This could be due to racial issues, social economic issues, feeling like they are not being heard.
A protest is a perfect thing for people not being heard, however it needs to be organized. When I asked them what they wanted, they said “justice.”
I said there are four items we demanded from the mayor’s office, and we got leverage on them today. It’s time to go home. They still wanted to stay. It could have been a lot worse.
I’m glad I stopped it.
I’m human.
Dominic ‘Duke’ Durant was born and raised in North Tulsa, is a 2008 Booker T. Washington High School, graduate, a Navy veteran and owner of Esquire’s Court.
Saturday, 30 May at 4:18 PM
These kids are upset, angry.
And in the bigger scheme of things, I was thinking in retrospect that this tear gas or pepper balls will burn their eyes. But when you know it’s going to come, and you keep going back and keep going back just to get peppered sprayed, these kids are angry, and obviously the tear gas doesn’t hurt as much as their anger does.
This could be due to racial issues, social economic issues, feeling like they are not being heard.
A protest is a perfect thing for people not being heard, however it needs to be organized. When I asked them what they wanted, they said “justice.”
I said there are four items we demanded from the mayor’s office, and we got leverage on them today. It’s time to go home. They still wanted to stay. It could have been a lot worse.
I’m glad I stopped it.
I’m human.
Dominic ‘Duke’ Durant was born and raised in North Tulsa, is a 2008 Booker T. Washington High School, graduate, a Navy veteran and owner of Esquire’s Court.
Saturday, 30 May at 4:19 PM
Saturday, 30 May at 4:19 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 4:52 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 4:52 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 5:41 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 5:41 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:01 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:01 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:12 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:12 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:36 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 6:36 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 7:30 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 7:30 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 9:37 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 9:37 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 10:09 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 10:09 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 10:54 PM
Sunday, 31 May at 10:54 PM