As the extravagant pomp and circumstance of the United States presidential inauguration ceremony commenced Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, tens of thousands demonstrated in stiff opposition across the country. In Brooklyn, N.Y., a Day of Outrage march with placards stating “NOT OUR PRESIDENT,” took the streets in the Black community demanding “The Choice” of self-determination.
As the demonstrators marched along the Fulton Street corridor from Downtown Brooklyn to Bedford-Stuyvesant, people on the sidewalk and in cars joined the chants “Don’t be a chump for Donald Trump!” Many joined in the march as they engaged in intense discussion about what we can do to unite and fight against Trump’s overtly white supremacist policies.
“They are trying to make us the problem,” declared one middle-aged Black man. “Black, Latino and Muslim people will be abused. This is not good. Trump is not bringing any jobs here. His own companies are overseas.”
When marchers stopped at Restoration Plaza, Omowale Clay of the December 12th Movement said, “The United States political economy is in serious decay and has opened the door to the Trump presidency. We must move toward our own political and economic self-determination. It starts with a national discussion on Black liberation, reparations and a plebiscite [referendum] on our determining our own leaders and our own political and economic destiny. Trump has no interest in our human rights and is, in fact, a promoter of white supremacy and fascism. Our choice is the development of an independent Black political economy that meets our needs.”
Trump’s inaugural speech, was ripe with hard positions on the need for the intensification of “law and order” in U.S. urban [Black and Latino] communities and the stereotypical ‘mothers and children trapped in poverty’ and the crime, gangs and drugs.”
Clay concluded, “The U.S. economy’s unstoppable collapse and the rise of white supremacist policy is a direct threat to Black people and targets us as scapegoats. We will come together on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, at 7 p.m. for a ‘NOT OUR PRESIDENT’ citywide forum on Black liberation, reparations and plebiscite. The forum will be held at Sistas’ Place at 456 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.”
For more information contact, the December 12th Movement at HYPERLINK “tel:(718) 398-1766” n _blank718-398-1766.