The Genesis of a Crosswalk Movement
How does one become an actor in society, an organizer, a change maker? A local example is M.S., a Filipino American who had been previously involved in diversity campus protests in California and who recently came back to her Reno hometown. She says she was surprised by the number of people coming to protests in downtown Reno following George Floyd’s killing. She was closely following discussions on the Reno Sparks Black Lives Matter Facebook pages, but wondering what else she could do herself.
While taking a break at her work she said she overheard two older white women talking about police. “It was just a snippet of their little conversation,” she remembers, “but at that point I’d been lighting candles myself, trying to talk to people but something in that conversation really just made me angry for the rest of the day. I also saw that people kept asking, ‘Is anything happening? I see there are protests downtown.’ People kept sharing Black death, more news articles. I had the idea to call on people in South Reno. I had no idea how I was going to do it. This is the rich, white part of town,” she said of her thought process.
She says she spam posted on the Black Lives Matter Reno Sparks group, and despite lots of comments, just a few other people, including a dad and kids, and her own older sister showed up initially on a recent Tuesday night at 7 p.m for the first South Reno Crosswalking for Black Lives Matter protest.
On the first night of the ongoing protest, M.S. had a sign that read “Red Light. Na’kia Crawford” to honor a Black teenager who was killed at a red light in Ohio on June 14th. “My hope was that people would Google her name if they didn’t know who she was.”
Photo provided with permission to use by South Reno Crosswalking for Black Lives Matter. Another participant, Sarah Brabo, emailed us this message as to why she was taking part: “What is important are the facts. Black and Brown people are being killed for the color of their skin. Transgender people are being killed for who they are. The poor [are] being killed because of how the system displaced them. And the natives of our country, I don't even know where to begin with all of the oppression that they've had to deal with. I get off work and I go out to that crosswalk with my sign and my daughter and we do everything we can to get the message across. Enough is enough. Black lives matter and racism is real. I hate to say it [but] the people of Reno are so blind to it, because they don't have it in their face all the time. I spent 14 years in Jacksonville, Florida. Racism is real. The cops are not protecting people, they are protecting their best interests. Wake up Reno. I know you live in a bubble but that bubble has burst and you need to see what the world is like.”
A Combination of Support and Intimidation
As the first protest began, M.S. remembers there were honks of support as her small group walked through crosswalks at the busy South Meadows and Double R intersection. She said the group was nervous, but that it felt good.
There were also acts of intimidation. “People did rev their engines at us. People would look at us in the eyes, or they would completely look away. I usually stayed the longest in the road. ”
One driver she says sped up when the light turned green and almost hit her. Another time, when the group was in the middle of the crossing, a guy ran a red turn light in a black pickup truck “to try to hit us,” M.S. remembers.
“I wouldn’t underestimate the capacity for hate and violence out here either. The fact that people ignore it so much, is that if anything bad does happen in Reno, the first thing someone will say is ‘that’s my city’ instead of talking about what happened,” she said of local police killings of minorities.
“On day one, I witnessed a black pick-up truck that ran a red light while we were walking on the crosswalk in front of him,” another participant Jamie wrote to us in an email. “On day two, I interacted with the police officers who were sent to us. On day three, I was involved in two in-person confrontations (as in, the parties were on foot and not in their vehicles) with people who either rejected or questioned the movement. I look forward to seeing what the future days will bring.” Photo provided with permission to use by South Reno Crosswalking for Black Lives Matter.
Police Show Up and the Importance of Saying Names
On the second night, M.S. took a break, but said there were more people, with more kids. Protesters started yelling “Black Lives Matter”. There was more honking, fists inside and outside of windows, friendly nods and waves. There were also middle fingers. Someone also allegedly reported people “were throwing stuff at cars,” and police briefly showed up.
M.S. went back on the third night, with a megaphone, and safety vests for the kids, as about a dozen people protested. The group got yelled at from a parking lot by an angry man, and some kids seemed to be mocking them, but then eventually also joined the protest. Saying names over and over became a new hallmark.
“The names I specifically wanted to include were Miciah Lee [killed by Sparks police in January 2020], of course, he’s someone that was taken from us here, and still overlooked. [We also chanted] Camron Ramsey, who is currently missing from Sun Valley, since May 29th, and I think that information should circulate way more than it has been now.” They also chanted names of other Black men, women and trans women recently killed across the country. “Saying these names feels empowering. Personally, I feel it’s a way to uplift their spirits.”
Participants also chanted “South Reno, Pay attention. South Reno, End the Silence,” and got supportive honks and fists in the air.
Another black pick-up truck with an American flag on the back did circles, speeding through and did U-Turns to scare off the protesters. “I know gas is cheap right now, but he could have used it for something else,” M.S. said.
Some of the crosswalks participants have been crossing repeatedly are often empty at other times, in a car heavy traffic area. “There’s huge risk in just standing in front of a car. People get impatient. We want everyone to go home alive,” M.S. said of continually adapting protest strategies and staying as safe as possible.
Photo provided with permission to use by South Reno Crosswalking for Black Lives Matter.
The Importance of Being Involved and ReImagining
“We’re people that are open to dialoguing, and going into community spaces and having hard conversations with people,” she says when others call her “woke”, “revolutionary” or “a radical not willing to budge from positions,” jokingly or not. “We’re going to get your initial reaction by being loud, being upset, being angry. It’s especially important when you are a non-Black person to do it consistently,” M.S. said of her approach.
One of her favorite quotes is by activist, author and philosopher Angela Davis: “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
As someone who cares for others, M.S. says self-care is also important, while she consistently goes to work, checks headlines, protests, thinks of future actions and organizes. Letting go, she says, is also crucial.
“Decentralizing is really important in movements. Going forward the hope is that people translate this energy into their homes, into their workplaces. If we’ve got people talking, that was the goal. What people choose to do with that, that’s out of my hands now. It seems like this is bringing people together, with different backgrounds and motivations for doing this. We do have those connections now.”
She says there are differences on whether elections can have an impact. “Abolish and defund, that’s meant very literally, it’s to reimagine,” she says of her own vision for a much better future. On a personal note, she has felt threatened when she sought help from police in the past due to an abuser in Reno, and says she now avoids police whenever possible.