It was Monday morning on my summer break and I was relaxing on our patio.
My daughter joined me to eat her toast and catch up on her phone.
“Kehlani just posted that a Black woman and her sister were stabbed at MacArthur BART.”
“Damn!” I said. “That’s terrible.”
Given all the shit that’s in the news, I had a sinking feeling about it, but we were about to head out so we both figured we’d find more about what happened later.
I dropped my daughter at her job and went to a cafe to work on a project. As soon as I opened my computer, notifications started coming in about what happened to Nia Wilson.
On Sunday, July 22, 2018, Nia Wilson, an 18-year-old black woman, had exited a BART. She was traveling home from a family gathering with her two sisters. Seemingly out of nowhere, a 27-year-old white man named John Powell approached her and her sister Letifa on the platform and stabbed both of them in the neck with a knife. Nia passed away at the scene.
After hearing the news about Nia Wilson, I texted my daughter and told her that I wanted to go to the vigil. She was one step ahead of me and had already decided to go with some friends.
We all met at our friends’ place and walked to MacArthur BART to join the vigil which became a march to downtown. There were a mix of local activists plus a whole lot of people who may have been coming out to a protest for the first time.
The vigil was led by people from Black working class organizations. A key speaker on the podium was Cat Brooks who is running for mayor and Rebecca Kaplan from Oakland city council. The vigil became a march to downtown Oakland where a white nationalist group had threatened to gather and another protest rally had assembled.
We marched down Telegraph chanting, “Say her name! Nia Wilson!” It felt cathartic to chant and march and be together in community as a response to this horrific crime.
We didn’t know Nia Wilson personally, but people in my community did. And Nia was familiar to me since I work with teenagers in Oakland. Nia was also someone my own teenagers could have known. She was young, beautiful, bright, excited about life with her whole life ahead of her. So many could identify with her. And so many like her who are African, feel terrorized.
As white people who give a fuck about humanity, we naturally try to distance ourselves from white people who picked up the gun against African and indigenous peoples in order to maintain the system of slavery and genocide. Somehow these were other white people who did all this. And somehow we are different.
But a closer examination of the matter tells me that the murder of Nia Wilson by a white man fits into both the past and current narrative of white sanctioned police and vigilante in the U.S. As much as we want to distance ourselves, John Cowell is our problem. This is white American violence that has been carried out for centuries.
Think of Emmett Till, Black Wall Street, Rosewood, hundreds of years of lynchings, the white terror unleashed by the U.S. cavalry at Wounded Knee and regular white citizens picking up the gun against the Native American population.
Driving home from the march, my daughter told me how much she appreciated being raised with politically active parents. The white college students at her university seemed to have just woken up yesterday. Later that night, my daughter, who is a guitarist, dedicated her daily video practice to Nia Wilson. My heart burst with love.
Many celebrities have since spoken out and are honoring young Nia’s life, including singer Kehlani and Bruno Mars, Demont Pinder and other visual artists.
Actor Tracee Ellis Ross shared this rap by artist Jane Oranika.
White actor Anne Hathaway called for a self-examination and reflection on the part of white people. This is good! White people whose worldview embraces solidarity need to get out there and talk about this history of white terror, take a stand, march, pay reparations, join in solidarity by becoming members of groups like the Uhuru Solidarity Movement.
We will never forget that Oscar Grant was killed by BART police. This will help us counter the knee-jerk calls for more police with the litany of the killings by police officers in Oakland. Shaleem Tindle, DeMauria Hogg, Richard Linyard ( East Oakland rapper Afrikan Richie) Gary King Jr, Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jamil Muwaakil are just some of the names I’m familiar with.
If we understand that the police (whose role we thought was to serve and protect everyone) terrorize African and indigenous people, we might then begin to ask why and understand the role of the state, which exists when society is split between the haves and the have-nots.
The sooner we take responsibility for the legacy of white violence against peoples on the planet, the better. And for me, taking responsibility means supporting Black Power.
As African working class people regain their power, they will be able to harness the wealth of the coltan in the Congo, the oil in Nigeria, the bauxite in Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone. The genius, culture, and talents of the African diaspora as a whole will solve these problems of life for the people. And as a white person in solidarity. That’s what I want to be about too.
That is what the Black Power Blueprint is all about. It will house, clothe, and feed the community, by the community. It will bring forward a larger struggle for the resources of Africa and a different, more humane and just world.
I believe that the family of Nia Wilson is owed reparations from our sick society.
There is an outpouring of support for her family which should continue and also for another victim of this system, Jessica St. Louis. White people, we ought to be right there in support, wherever and whatever we are being asked to do.
When I was in my twenties, the acquittal in the Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King as what thrust me into political action. Seeing injustice and wanting a better world. It was that simple So that compliment from my daughter meant a lot. I let her know that her clarity, courage, and stance inspire me. So it’s a two-way street.
And as for you, perhaps there are no more excuses. You will take a stand for the love of your children, your community, our collective safety, and future on the planet. Do it, in whatever way you do.
This is the way I do it: #UnitythroughReparations #WhiteSolidaritywithBlackPower #BlackPowerBlueprint
For more details about the march and details from the speeches and organizers, see the article by Rasheed Shabazz.
Wendy Lea Writing 