Driving through town recently, he said he couldn’t believe what he saw. There they were, dozens of western residents holding a Black Lives Matter protest.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh,'” she said, almost dizzy. “I had to stop and stop because I was crying, because my little town was protesting. And I said, ‘Well, look at that. That’s new. It is new for me “.
“Frankly,” he said, “I didn’t expect much from my city.”
For years, mainly black people have been at the forefront of problems affecting black people, said 30-year-old Adilka Pimentel, one of the main organizers of Make the Road New York who identifies herself as black Dominican.
Ms. Pimentel has been involved in activism for a long time, since she was 14 years old. She noted that with Floyd’s protests, more white people have the advantages of reliable health care, higher incomes, and savings to take to the streets at a time when black people have been especially affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
“In the same way that essential workers are mostly black and brown and represent the majority of Covid’s deaths, they cannot be out there because they have to feed their families,” he said.
He said he realized that social justice movements were coming and going and hoped that new protesters would continue to be part of the movement.
“I am concerned that all the support is turning off mainly because it is what happens. Eric Garner. He calmed down. Mike Brown calmed down. Ferguson calmed down, ”said Mrs. Pimentel. “The hope is that she stays. Those of us who have been doing the work are going to continue to do it. If we feel it starting to slip, we can be here to pick it up. ”
