Amid citywide tension surrounding the rising cost of living, affordable housing and a scandal over racist and homophobic text messages between SFPD officers, a Black Lives Matter rally is planned for 12pm today (April 14th) on the front steps of City Hall.
The rally, which coincides with National Day of Action, is a collaboration between the Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community Committee of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and a group of college students native to San Francisco.
“The goal is to bring community people, especially black and brown community people, together, to talk about gentrification and the lack of jobs, poor education, poor housing, poor health, mass incarceration and violence in San Francisco among black people… we are the lowest of the lowest and highest of all incidents,” said Phelicia Jones, chair of the Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community Committee.
“It’s time for us to tell City Hall that they work for us. We don’t work for you, you work for us," she said. "There’s policy and legislation that needs to be changed in order to help poor working class and those who are in poverty who live in San Francisco."
Atecia Brown, a Hunters Point native studying public policy at New York University, is one the students organizing the rally and said that “city officials haven’t really stepped up in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in San Francisco.”
“We’re going to be presenting demands to the city and the goal of tomorrow [April 14th] is to put pressure on city officials to speak out on behalf of Black Lives Matter and to create policy change that affects the black community in a positive way,” she said.
A few of the students’ demands will include “safe opportunities for youth development both inside and outside of the classroom”, “a community council to have 51 percent voting power to determine the future of community redevelopment”, a mandate that requires businesses to have 25 percent of all employees from the community where the businesses reside and an end to the privatization of public housing.
“Everyone should show up and show support for Black Lives Matter. There’s been two lynchings this week of black males and it keeps happening," said Brown. "This work isn’t done. It’s not just a movement, it’s a lifestyle change,” she said. “It’s important that black people, white people, that everybody recognizes that black people’s humanity is being ignored, and so coming out will show that you support black lives having justice and safety and protection. That’s what we’re fighting for.”
Additional National Day of Action rallies will take place today in the Mission, Oakland, San Jose and cities across the country.
