I’m a young African-American male college student, as well as a rapper in the beginning stages of a career. Being an artist, I have always wanted to make music that speaks to the people about real issues, not just the typical subjects of guns, drugs and violence.
In the last few months I have watch the Occupy Movement grow from local news, to national news, and on to world news. This movement about giving the 99 percent a fair chance and a bigger piece of the pie is moving and uplifting.
I haven’t seen so many different signs of unity among different races since I attended President Obama’s Inauguration.
To have such protests on a large scale from cities such as New York, Denver and Oakland, shows the unity of this movement.
These different events stay in contact with each other and have led to many more cities and small towns being included.
All around the United States there are protests with thousands upon thousands of people standing up for what is right.
What is remarkable and a sign of unity, all of these movements have been virtually completely peaceful…at least on our side.
In the weeks that have followed, you have probably seen YouTube videos capturing unwarranted police brutality all around the country.
From a 70-year-old woman being pepper sprayed in Seattle, to women being outright punched and dragged by the NYPD, to not one but two Iraq war vets sustaining serious injuries, all because of a voice.
The police want us to keep quiet. They want to tear us down. Some media outlets even spread false facts about the movement in hopes that it will die down.
Yet, the more they try to bring us down, the more we lift up. We rise against the adversity.
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We rise for the 99 percent that wants a fair share. The college students such as me who want the tuition costs to lower.
In an economy where jobs are few and far between, we have grown tired of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
In a system that is almost entirely built for minorities to fail, and I’m not just talking about minorities as in race, but also minorities such as teachers who lose their jobs because the school had to cut back on their budget.
The Republicans don’t want to pay more taxes even though their tax rate is pretty damn good considering the massive amounts of money they receive.
Why are we being physically attacked? Why are two Iraq War veterans slowly recovering from devastating injuries for standing up for what is right?
Why did it take the news of veterans from the army being injured to start grasping the attention of more media outlets? These are questions I ask on a daily basis, and the police have no answer.
The U.S Government has swept up enough dirt under the rug, and they ran out of space centuries ago.
Seeing those students at UC Davis being pepper sprayed in their eyes and mouth because of protesting the brutality at other nearby campuses, is that much more disturbing. I was angry.
I wanted to book the next ticket out of Ohio and Riot. With a lot of thoughts going through my head, I quickly realized this is NOT what it’s about.
If I were to riot, that wouldn’t make me any more of a man than that officer who casually sprayed those students as if he was watering a lawn. I too, would be apart of the problem.
The thoughts are natural to go through your head when you see something infuriating like that. It took a few hours, but I calmed down and watched the video again.
I saw something remarkable. Even as the officers attempted to break the students up whose arms were linked together, I saw solidarity. I saw strength. I saw Courage.
The surrounding students chanted shame, asking the officers questions such as “what if that was your child?” and “Do you have children?” I watched those students who were pepper sprayed covering up their faces with whatever they could, and yet they stayed strong.
Some vomited after the heartless attack, and some were even treated by the hospital, but they stayed strong with their message.
As the officers began to slowly retreat, I heard a familiar chant that was once again ringing loud in their ears. “Who’s University, OUR University!” louder and even stronger than before.
I applaud those students at UC Davis, as they reminded me that this fight isn’t over. We will continue to protest peacefully.
The more they try to break us, we only get stronger. Dr. King had a dream, and it is still slowly but surely coming to light this very day.
