Whose Streets?

Really shows the perspective of some local activists living in Ferguson of what the Mike Brown protests were all about. There is not huge detail into the Mike Brown shooting. It's more about raw footage of street protests, police reactions, some town halls, and so on. It really shows how the protesters were not armed and were faced with a much more weaponized police response. The police clearly are not a part of the community and one wonders why the officers appear so alien from the people they are policing. The police are portrayed as a failed institution. There are some brief news clips interspersed in. Most of it is just amateur video on the streets. There is a glimpse into the personal life of some of the activists.

At one point, one of the activists said that you can burn down a convenience store yet it can be rebuilt, however all the magicians in the world can't bring back a dead person. Therefore, the real question of violence should be: was anyone hurt? This encapsulates the overall theme of the documentary which is that people come before everything. Clearly the Mike Brown killing became a rallying point but he was also a symbol for much deeper grievances, which is the community didn't feel the police force treated them as people. You won't hear much from the other side in this documentary but it doesn't pretend to be that.

With the recent #blackout tuesday taking social media by storm, I too feel the need to reflect and revisit crucial moments of unrest in recent history.

I grew up in suburban Missouri. I had a few good friends who were half-black, but I largely lived in an insulated, middle class environment where racial tensions were out of sight and mind.

My appreciation for hip hop, Jazz, James Baldwin, Dave Chapelle, and Ta-Nehisi Coates has brought me baby steps closer to appreciating black culture over the years. But there is still a lot of fetishization on my part.

Overall, my laziness has kept race on the outskirts of understanding. And perhaps it should always be at the outskirts of understanding - me being a white man who will never truly understand the struggle of the African American in a America that doesn't give our black neighbors the time of day.

I have learned to treat racial understanding like Zen. The impossibility of understanding means the process is both the journey and the endpoint. The moment I begin to think that I "understand" is the moment I get lazy again.

Rewatching this movie, and being reminded of what happened right down the street from me in Ferguson, has given me a momentary respite from laziness. And I hope watching Whose Streets will give you the same chance for reflection.

This film will of course hurt many people who think they're not racist but. I have seen it a few years ago in Sheffield doc fest and learned a lot about BLM from it. I am here today because of what happened to George Floyd and to urge people to watch it and share it and do their part in educating others, feel empathy for the oppressed and be aware of the privilege not to be one.

This film entirely changed the way I saw Ferguson and how the death of Mike Brown impacted the local community. Please watch this film.

The footage is so valuable. There is no story there. Still, the footage is powerful. I have no idea if the images were carefully edited to show the people in the streets all of African descent and the police all of European descent.

The sad part comes later. Poor people exploited.

Exploited by the thieves and robbers who make use of the revolt to destroy property. Not only they disgrace the manifestation, but they will make the lives of the people living there even worse without shops and restaurants nearby.

Exploited by the police. The police who does not care or interfere with the problems of the people living there only to ask for more money, more wages, more equipment and bigger pensions.

Exploited by the speakers. Young men and women taking about "our kids". Even if the "kid" was quite an adult. Progressive speakers who care about their possible speaking engagements and TV shows. Speakers who put salt on the wounds in the names of "being united". History shows these people usually move beyond the racial lines, in low crime towns and keep talking about the suffering while sending their kids to private schools.

Exploited by the film makers who get to travel and walk the documentary.

And the people are left there. With less police. Less places to shop. Less employments opportunities nearby.