Violin Vigil for
Elijah McClain
Washington Square Park, New York City. Saturday June 27th, 2020 at 8.30pm
A 23 year-old man, Elijah McClain, was murdered by police while walking home from the store, unarmed. He hadn’t trespassed, hadn’t acted aggressively. He’d bought carrots at the store and was on his way home to eat his dinner. He didn’t struggle when he was pushed face-down onto the ground by armed police, and he politely let them know that he couldn’t breathe. After which, they injected him with a tranquilizer, ketamine, with a dose that is appropriate for a much bigger man. A bigger man who needed to be tranquilized, as opposed to Elijah, who didn’t.
The police then lied to Elijah’s mother, Sheneen, about the exact facts of what had happened, and continue to fudge facts to the media. They remain on full pay today, ‘reassigned’ but nonetheless, policing Aurora.
They have not been fired, arrested, charged or prosecuted.
Their colleagues at the Aurora Police Department are now under investigation by the FBI for re-enacting the incident and taking pictures, which they distributed to other police officers in their department.
Re-enactment. Let that sink in.
Elijah McClain was an artist, he was hoping to go to art school, and so he worked as a massage therapist to earn the money to fuel his dreams. He also taught himself to play violin, specifically because he wanted to play music for the cats at his local cat shelter. He thought it would soothe them, and found that it worked.
What you can DO
Here are three practical steps for everyone to take:
Call Governor Jared Polis +1 303 866 2471 / Mayor Mike Coffman + 1 303 739 7025 / A.G. Phil Weiser +1 720 508 6000 and say: “I’m calling about Elijah McClain. I demand D.A. Dave Young resign for somehow finding the officers did not violate any criminal laws, and more recently, wrongly stating on national TV that Elijah wasn’t injured from the incident. I demand a timely investigation of this case as it’s nearly a YEAR since Elijah’s death at the hands of the Aurora police. Elijah McClain was a 23 year-old man with limitless potential. I demand justice, and ask you to fire the police officers who were involved in this incident, arrest them, charge them, and then put them on trial for murder. While the police officers have been reassigned, they are still on the payroll and active on the streets of Aurora. The names of the police officers are: Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt, and Randy Roedema.”
Contribute to Sheneen McClain’s GoFundMe, so she has the funds ready for legal costs when justice is served.
Text ‘Elijah’ to 55156 to sign the petition.
Join Campaign Zero here.
Tweet this moving video to District Attorney Weiser to let him know we still demand justice, despite the delay.
Click this LINK for more tasks and petitions.
And, there will be more Violin Vigils, across the USA, and perhaps internationally also. Because wherever there are violinists, there will be people mourning this gentle young man, and Black violinists ready to lead the movement. A truly grassroots movement, motivated by empathy, gentleness, and music.
What I realised i could do
As someone who arranges and plays strings, I decided to organize a Violin Vigil specifically as a way for us to mourn and bless Elijah McClain’s soul. Inspired by the original Violin Vigil, in Aurora, CO, I chose the same date and time, to amplify the message of their event, and give New Yorkers a way to express our solidarity with Elijah’s community.
It was crucially important - in addition to this core reason - that media attention generated from the vigil in NYC was as bright as possible, to share this awful story far and wide, to fuel the movement and get JUSTICE for ELIJAH.
Because we must be committed to raising awareness about an injustice - a very specific injustice -
We are obviously deeply outraged at the police brutality that occurred at the Violin Vigil in Aurora, CO on the night of the first vigil. Shame on Aurora, CO’s police department, who continue to insult the memory of Elijah McClain. The snipers who took aim at Sheneen McClain during the vigil on Saturday, talking about her son. Police in riot gear sent in to dismantle a Violin Vigil with children in the park. Tear gas a pepper spray being used on teens.
Here’s a video from the original Aurora, CO Violin Vigil, it’s emotional to watch the teens playing, and then the police spraying tear gas and pepper spray. Watch the whole 10 minutes if you have time.
We were fortunate in New York City, to have a low-key police presence.
I organized this vigil, and invited Sean Bennett to lead it, a young and gifted Black violinist. He then invited a second young Black violinist to co-lead with him, a man called Mylez (who I’d mistakenly misheard as ‘Mouse’).
You can see Sean invite and introduce this second violinist in this video (which is the only time I heard his name). It edits out some stuff I said later about the orchestra being able to mimic Sean and Mylez in their physical movements if they both exaggerate them, so it’s easier for the orchestra to see and respond, inspired by Butch Morris. The video footage does exist, and the Instagram account that hosts this video sent the original footage to me, if that’s of interest to anyone for any reason. Please reach out if you have a reason to request this original footage.
Thanks to Buzzfeed, Town & Country Magazine, and SiriusXM for their coverage of the New York Violin Vigil, I do wonder if their lenses helped keep violence away, and all of the Violin Vigils that happened on June 27th and June 29th, 2020, in Denver CO, New York, and LA. Thanks also to High Snobiety, and Buzzfeed News. Media attention is essential to get justice for Elijah, and to help keep things peaceful as a side-benefit. Not that this worked in Aurora.
For our NYC vigil, a video was shot, but it needs to be edited. When it’s ready, I’ll share it with the leader of the NYC vigil, Sean Bennett, so he can share it with the world. I’ll focus on this extraordinary young Black queer violinist in the next paragraph, and hope to shine a light on his talent for the years to come, and support his progress in any way I’m able, as an older strings musician, and an ally.
I had hoped to leverage my influence and experience to the fullest, and am saddened that I couldn’t. It’s complicated, but involved online bullying, and offline intimidation. I wish I’d been stronger for Elijah, it does feel like the vigil was perfect in every way on the ground, but should have drawn more attention from the media, to address the injustice.
I regret allowing cancel culture to get to me, but I’m learning from the experience in so many ways, and becoming a better ally from this process. I regret my communications may have been hurried on the day of the Vigil, and could have been lacking in clarity for this reason. I know for a fact that my intentions were misunderstood regarding how I wanted to support Sean, and were experienced as over-bearing, which I truly regret. There’s a lot of trauma around at the moment for Black people, and the last thing I wanted to do was to add to this, or to create a distraction from the cause we are all committed to.
The intentions in my heart for this movement, as the organizer of the first NYC Violin Vigil, which was led by two Black violinists, Sean Bennett and Mylez, were pure. I wish we’d have been able to clarify what I hoped for in a call or a conversation, but the time pressure meant Sean was unable to pick up when I tried to call him on Saturday at 4pm, and he was preparing to lead the orchestra when we were physically present together at Washington Square Park, both of which is of course totally understandable. He was preparing to lead the orchestra, which was a big deal emotionally and in every way. The last thing he had space for was a white-passing woman with some good ideas. I get it.
The Violin Vigils will undoubtedly continue to grow, laying a foundation for justice for Elijah. But - I have so much to learn, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s that life is a work in progress. And that I needed to step away from this area of activism now that it’s become complicated, and to refocus my attention on other activities I’m able to do that won’t distract anyone, and will benefit BIPOC people, and support this community.
I made some mistakes, for sure. I acknowledge this, and assure you that I am listening and learning.
I am committed to continuing this process of learning for the totality of the rest of my life.
What Motivated Me
As a violinist, Elijah McClain’s murder at the hands of the police moved me on a visceral level. I can’t explain, but every musician knows we feel like family. Kindred spirits, connected by spiritual stuff that’s unseen. Music. Often a dysfunctional family, for sure, but family nonetheless.
We share it with all musicians, whatever their genre or identities, and then, we have more specific resonance with each of the instrument groups we have in common, and with the genres, and yes - for a Black violinist, I have no doubt the feeling of kindred spirit runs deeper when it comes to Elijah.
And still, as a non-Black violinist, I know what I felt, and the immediacy of the grief that moved me to write about it whenever I could (see my BIPOC statement from June 8 2020), and to organize this Violin Vigil for Elijah McClain.
As a conductor, string arranger, and violinist, and someone who has spent a lifetime organizing, I knew that if I made a start, people would come, and Black musicians would lead this orchestra. Sometimes you have to start with HOPE so the journey can begin. I’m deeply grateful that, as things came together, an incredible Black violinist appeared.
Unbeknownst to me, a 23 year-old Black, queer violinist, Sean Bennett, had started to organize another Violin Vigil for that same day, inspired by the same Violin Vigil as me, which was the very first Violin Vigil, which was in Aurora, CO - Elijah’s hometown.
My friend Patrice Johnson, a Black actress here in NY, had tagged me on an Instagram post about the original Aurora, CO Violin Vigil, and I’d immediately commented on her post that I felt called to do the same thing here in New York, on the same night, and at the same time.
Because, New York. We have SO MANY VIOLINISTS. And so many BLACK violinists. And, so much media attention, which has the power to motivate people across the nation, and internationally, to put the pressure on the police.
Who are still being paid - those specific cops - and have not been fired, or arrested, or charged, or prosecuted.
While Elijah McClain is dead at their hands.
His mother, Sheneen McClain, is left to lead this movement, and we join her to demand justice for her son.
I’d not seen Sean’s callout for a Violin Vigil, and by the time someone alerted me to the fact that it was out there, he had decided to reschedule his event for Monday June 29th. It did take place on that date, and was incredible.
As it is, the Violin Vigil that I organized on Saturday June 27th was a very different kind of event, and a great way to prepare the ground for Sean’s next Violin Vigil a few days later, which he organized and led, and which I was not in any way a part of, out of respect and because, I was absolutely not needed.
For the Saturday vigil, my intention was clear - it was to mourn the loss of this gentle, kind, beautiful, peaceful man with the most gentle, kind, beautiful and peaceful music. A silent audience. An orchestra of pure improvisation, and based on a foundation laid by a Black conductor named Butch Morris. That was what I was hoping to achieve before Sean and his friend, Mylez, appeared in my feed, initially via they friend @dirtydances, and then from a few more of his circle. Of course - as someone who has been attending Black Lives Matter protests regularly over the past month, including two where I stood at the back playing my viola in support of Jon Batiste and his band - of course I wanted this Violin Vigil to be led by Black violinists.
One mistake I made - I’d only heard Sean say Mylez one time, it was when Sean had grouped the musicians together for a pre-vigil talk, and he introduced Mylez to everyone at the same time. I’d unfortunately misheard his name as ‘Mouse’ by pure mistake, with no ill-intention, and had called him Mouse subsequently until I learned via a Facebook post that I was using the wrong name for him. No ill-intention meant, everyone gets my name wrong too, so I know it can be annoying when that happens. Mylez is a truly great violinist and musician, and I wish I knew his full name so I can do whatever I can to support his musical path, putting him forward for paid work and anything else that comes.
I did privately message Sean to clearly do this for both of them, inviting them both to be on the SiriusXM radio show, so they could be interviewed, which they unfortunately couldn’t make happen. Ideally, it would have been great if Sean had the time to correct me about Mylez’ name in response to that written message, but he’s busy and it’s not his responsibility to correct my mistakes. Without this info though, I didn’t know that I had made a mistake with Mylez’ name, and had no way of tracking him down on Instagram myself. I privately messaged Sean to ask for his Instagram, but again, he was busy and didn’t respond other than to ‘heart’ the messages. Also, Sean’s Instagram account today is no longer there, so I no longer have any way to connect with him. I respect his wishes, and hope he reaches out to me if he ever wants anything, whether that’s organizational support, or video footage, or media attention. If he doesn’t, it makes sense - I’m no longer needed, and that’s okay. I get it, and don’t want to cause any distraction.
But back to Saturday, and the circle of violinists preparing for play.
Sean laid the ground for the vigil, and I was humbly able to support his creative vision with a small tip that probably was helpful, which I’d learnt from another Black New York musician, Butch Morris. This is what I’d hoped to share in our communications before, and what I so badly worded in written messages.
Butch Morris invented something called ‘conduction’ - it’s a way improvising musicians can play together.
Butch shared his technique and philosophy with me in London in the 90s, when we both worked with the London Improvisers Orchestra. He’s a native New Yorker, and was most active in the 80s. This lineage blessed our orchestra with the ability to listen together, and co-create incredibly beautiful music with zero rehearsal, zero sheet music, and zero instructions. A diverse group of mixed skill levels, and disparate influences.
The chance of this working without a road map of any kind, and without a shared vision, was minimal.
But by ear, and by sight, led by Sean Bennett, on a smallest scrap of information relayed to him about Butch, we were guided by those who came before us.
Because, conduction.
A touching of hands, conveyed over time and space via this vessel, from one Black man to another.
And it worked. It felt sacred, and truly a blessing for Elijah.
Sean’s original concept for the music was that everyone would improvise on a C drone, and I’d expressed to him in a private message that I thought that drawing inspiration from Butch’s conduction method could improve this idea. I’d worded it hastily and clumsily, but that was what I offered, for him to accept or not.
I’m learning now that this comment was seen as undermining, coming from a white-passing woman to a Black man.
Sean did accept this gift, though, and it did allow the mixed-ability musicians with zero rehearsal to play beautifully. The Violin Vigil was probably the most beautiful performance I’ve ever been involved with, to be honest. That’s big. That was Sean Bennett. He is extraordinary, and I’ll do everything I can to elevate his career.
He led them with a C drone, and additionally, led them with the visual of his body movements, playing with slightly exaggerated gestures, and bow techniques, like rocking his bow across all four strings to create ab arpeggiated effect, or playing tremolo at the tip of the bow - and showing the orchestra what he was doing, so we could mimic him and play together in this way.
The visual helped form the glue for the music. It was incredibly beautiful, and I’m grateful to Sean that he accepted this tip from Butch, via me, and improved his musical result accordingly.
He created such an incredibly beautiful moment, and I am glowing in the small supporting role I was able to play for this extraordinary Black man at the beginning of his no-doubt exceptional career.
Because, 400 years of systemic racism has created trauma, division, and biases. Black people have been oppressed, dismissed, and silenced for 400 years. It isn’t easy, at this peak moment of an uprising, for BIPOC people to see me as anything other than a white woman, a white savior, or a Karen.
I get that. It hurts, and I get it.
I’m learning that my British accent probably intensifies this also, and my lack of skill at navigating the more sensitive, polite nature of American culture and pride, than my own original culture, which I’m more adept at navigating.
This is nothing new. I have stumbled a few times in the past 16 years that I’ve been based in the USA. In terms of not handling group dynamics well in America. This is a very different patchwork of cultures to the one I was raised in. I don’t remember getting it wrong when I was still living in the culture I was raised in. It started happening when I left.
I’m from somewhere else. I speak English as my first language, like Americans, and London is similar to New York in many, many ways, but don’t be fooled - American culture is 360 different to UK culture.
Things like being raised with the total knowledge that American society was beaten in racism only by South Africa. I mean, everyone in the 1980s in the UK knew and spoke openly about that, it wasn’t an underground thing. The whole rest of the world, in fact, knew that America is deeply racist. So on the good side, this isn’t news to me, this current moment of understanding, which I’m sensing isn’t the case for many people in this movement. I didn’t learn the lies that pass for history lessons in American schools. Not even the Thanksgiving story. I didn’t learn American history as a child, I learned it as an adult, from my own research, and avoiding colonial versions. I heard about systemic racism from Michelle Alexander in 2010, for example, as my first take on American jails. So I skipped the official version, and learned directly from people who know the truth.
For so many, it’s new and shocking to turn their lens onto the double founding horrors of Native American genocide, and African slavery. For me, as a newcomer, it’s simply stating the obvious, that everyone has always known around the rest of the world. In fact, one of the many reasons I decided to stay (although the primary reason was absolutely driven by music, and the incredible nature as a second) - but, one of the reasons was to assist America with finding its moral compass. I arrived in the Gulf War, and had spent previous weeks marching in London against it.
I’ll never be able to perfectly navigate the sensitivities of this culture, as an immigrant who arrived in my 30s. But, I’m learning as best I can, and I’m committed to improving, in general, and specifically becoming a better ally, and going beyond allyship and into accompliceship if it’s possible for me to learn from where I’m at now.
Walking in the footsteps of the non-Black allies of yesteryear, from the non-Black organizers of the civil rights movement to the non-Black allies of every movement in every state working for BIPOC justice, including justice for indigenous land rights, and justice for DACA dreamers, and reparations for American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS). People like Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, who was a white, privileged woman recognized for being in the civil rights movement.
It’s confusing now, her contribution seen through the lens of 2020. Can a white woman be categorized like her now? I’m hearing about white fragility, and white violence, and whiteness itself being systemic. All within a body that isn’t at the far end of the spectrum, despite appearances. I may pass as white, but I don’t feel it, sitting here in my LES tenement building, hair wild with humidity, belly rounded with moon beams that started the day of the Vigil, these eyes almond, skin an olive shade that’s not quite white.
I am a Jew, and that is not a white person. That’s why it enraged me to have a white person screaming at me after the Vigil wrapped, shouting that I’m a Becky, and a Karen, and an Amy. But especially, the word Becky - because as a Jew in London in the 1980s, the word Becky was the equivalent of the antisemitic epithet ‘Jewish American Preincess’ or ‘JAP’ for short. ‘Becky’ is a racist trope against Jews, and while I doubt the young white woman shouting it at me had any idea that it was, or indeed that I’m Jewish, the effect it had on me is the same.
It shook me to my core in the context of a public shaming after an exhausting 48 hours organizing this Vigil while we all were experiencing grief for Elijah and overwhelm from weeks of daily marches and uprisings and being shot at by the cops here in NYC, with rubber bullets, and seeing police cars aflame outside stores in Lower Manhattan that had their windows smashed and were being looted.
If fragility includes tears, I can’t help but claim it. But if those tears are for the pain of others, with the pain of your own brokenness mixed in, is that white fragility, or is it trauma? A triggering of previous times judgement came down or racist tropes were flung, whether as part of an unsafe childhood, or at the hands of abusive men, layered on top of pure, selfless grief for the specific lives we mourn together, and the systemic brutality that murdered them.
It’s beyond confusing - solitary, painful, and relentless.
And where’s redemption?
You’re probably not ready to think about this, but here are some things I had to think about to stop me from deleting.
Due process. Proportionality of rage. Consequences of cancel culture for the Black Lives Matter movement, and other social justice movements. (And everything else).
We are nothing but social animals, even those of us with introvert traits.
When primates in a group are shunned and humiliated by the rest of the primates, their reaction is to leave the tribe, go out into the jungle on their own, and die.
Gentle reader, we are all primates…
It can’t simply be cancel, and delete, although if I’m honest (which I am), delete did come to mind yesterday, under fire from 100 strangers, my DMs burgeoning with calls for an impossible reckoning. It’s not stopped, but the flow is easing, and the messaging is becoming gentler. This post is for the gentle ones, so I don’t delete myself, but change the parts that need adjusting, and grow from this, which is surely the point. It’s for them, and for me too, as I process everything through journaling, as well as continuing the work of learning.
There are a lot of layers to unlearn and then relearn from scratch. I’m doing the work, because we have to dismantle systemic oppression together. It has to involve non-BIPOC people doing the work, and I cannot do anything other than do that work alongside everyone else. And do it as someone who is older than many people in this movement. Because we all have to show up exactly as we are.
This is what motivated me to do what I did, and motivates me still, despite getting it wrong, which I am hearing I did.
I was so grateful to be able to share some of the opportunities I have with this specific case of injustice - from one violinist to another. From my benefits as a white-passing woman in the racist sector of the music industry that is the classical and related strings music genre.
And so disappointed that I got it wrong.
Still, you don’t fix a thing with the thing you are fighting against. The ferocity of attack this week has been extreme, and who knows, I’ll probably stoke it again with this, or with the video interview that’s about to drop on Tuesday.
A wiser, more cautious person would shut up - as I’ve been told on multiple occasions this week (to be specific, “shut up, white woman” is the phrase that’s been shouted my way, verbally or in written CAPS).
Another insult slung my way from a stranger on the internet who have never met me is that I’m Amy Cooper.
They are wrong about that.
While there’s always room for improvement, I’m not Amy, and I am patently NOT a racist.
I am anti-racist.
I know this to be true, and I know that people who have never met me are the people who hurled the abuse my way this week. Interesting that my friends rallied, and that’s how I survived, and that my friends who rallied are diverse, whereas the majority of the critics were white. Including the Amy-slinger.
A side-benefit (really, the only benefit) of this horrible, destructive experience is increased empathy for my toolkit, in that anyone in public life these days will receive this treatment at some point.
It was astonishing how all of the high-profile people I communicated with this week were experienced at this. Cancel culture is brutal, whether it’s slung from the left, or the right.
One friend was in the middle of a storm from the right due to her suggesting (as a music journalist) that the National Anthem be ditched because of the slavery references. She was getting death threats this week, to bring perspective on this contemporary phenomenon. Anyone in the public eye is fair game, and it’s not going to be balanced research or deeply considered when the internet comes for you. It’s going to be swift, reactionary, and brutally judgmental.
And - none of this is anything but centering Black voices, as Black voices are silenced when allies are taken out. They have even more of the exhausting work to do, the heavy lifting, the organizing and the admin of justice. So while I’d not planned on writing about any of this - remember, I was brought into this by the group - well, I do think it’s part of the job of being an accomplice to talk about accomplice-ship, so BIPOC people don’t have to.
Finally, by the way, to state the obvious - the fact that Elijah McClain was a gentle, peaceful man has nothing at all to do with his right to LIVE. If he had been an aggressive man, with no beauty or violin or sweetness or cats, it wouldn’t have justified his death at police hands. If he’d have been guilty of breaking and entering on the way home from the store, if he’d have been rude to the police - none of this would have justified his murder.
Systemic racism is the enemy, and everyone benefits when BIPOC people are able to leave the house without fearing what might happen to them. When equality evades anyone, it’s absent for everyone. Anyone.
And that’s all I got for today.
Other than to say, I am deeply committed to the bedrock principle that Black Lives Matter, and that I am committed to a life-long journey to do what I can to support BIPOC people, and correct systemic racism, and to learning from my own mistakes, and becoming better at listening to BIPOC voices.
Thank you for reading, and I welcome your thoughts here.
Because as James Baldwin said: “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”
And the same is true in reverse - please make me conscious of the things I don’t see, too.
I’m listening, and learning…
Meena Ysanne
July 1, 2020 - New York City
Updated July 3, July 4, and again, on July 5th, 2020, and November 21, 2021.
Update - posted July 14, 2020
On July 13th, 2020 The New York Times ran an article about the Violin Vigils stating:
“Mr. Floyd and Mr. England hadn’t expected similar vigils elsewhere — but now one was scheduled in New York, two days later. Then there was one in Boston the following day, and another in Portland, Ore. — a dozen in two weeks.”
This is factually incorrect - Buzzfeed reported about the first Violin Vigil in New York which was scheduled on THE SAME DAY as the one Mr Floyd and Mr England created in Aurora, CO.
It’s disappointing that the New York Times didn’t fact-check their sources, or verify if the understanding they were told about this subject is factually correct. It’s false -
History is malleable, it seems. Saddened that The New York Times lacked a rigorous traditional journalistic ethic in their presentation of this story, which later goes on to highlight another vigil in New Jersey that was organized and led by a white male violinist, Zach Brock, who is in Snarky Puppy.
The NY Times quotes Zach Brock, saying:
“While many musicians are joyful at getting any chance to perform after months without concerts, they noted that this occasion is somber. “I’m really conflicted,” Zach Brock, a violinist for the band Snarky Puppy, said about his experience helping organize the vigil in Maplewood, N.J. “It felt horrible that the first time I got to perform since the pandemic was because a Black man was killed by the police. I missed playing for people, because it’s been so long. But I was really just there because I wanted to help.”
So strange that the one I organized has been cancelled, despite being much bigger vigil, in the center of NYC, on the same day as the original one, led by two Black violinists, and therefore more impactful and arguably more relevant to readers of the New York Times, as an NYC news story - And yet, this quote from a white man appears for the NJ vigil, and the NYC vigil gets zero.
Not to be petty, but to illustrate how this story continues to roll out, poisoned and cancelled from public discourse.
I salute Zach Brock, and I salute every person who is called to support Sheneen McClain in her quest for JUSTICE for ELIJAH MCCLAIN. I salute The New York Times for running this feature, and for shining a light on this subject.
That’s one of the reasons I was called to work so hard to organize the vigil on June 27th, because I am committed to a beautiful young Black man in Aurora, CO, and his extraordinary mother’s loss, and to bringing attention to this cause.
And simultaneously, we can hold the idea that truth is important, and facts matter, and history needs to be reported and preserved as it is, and journalistic values are essential to our democracy.
And that as a woman in the music industry, a touring violinist in a male-dominated space, and an older woman who is NOT white, btw, but white-passing - well, it’s not ideal that the humble contribution of this older female musician trying to navigate this challenging landscape is being eradicated.
After having a misogynist and frankly antisemitic trope screamed into her face in a public shaming after the Vigil in the city that the NY Times is based in - New York.
I humbly invite you to question everything, to check facts, and to cherish truth, journalism, and integrity beyond the violence of over-simplification, or the convenience of historical re-invention to fit a narrative.
And to call out double standards - one Vigil being erase, while another Vigil is commemorated in print. The former being the first, the best attended, the one in the major location, the one that’s Black-led, and organized by a woman, and the latter being - well, none of these things.
UPDATE - posted November 21, 2021
Elijah McClain’s beloved parents were compensated $15M last week for the loss of their son.
In September, Aurora Police officers Randy Roedema, Nathan Woodyard and Jason Rosenblatt and fire department paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec were indicted for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Roedema and Rosenblatt also each were charged with second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and one count of a crime of violence related to the assault charge. Cooper and Cichuniec also each face three counts of second-degree assault.
The sentences haven’t been decided yet, but the $15M compensation being granted seems like a milestone in Elijah’s family seeing some kind of justice, as it’s the largest payout for any civil rights issue in US history.
In other news, I’ve spent the past year and a half deep diving into antisemitism, having been pushed away from the cause of Black justice, and simultaneously realizing that having the epithet “Becky” shouted at me the day of Elijah’s vigil that I’d organized for him in Washington Square Park - that Becky is a racial, antisemitic epithet.
Whether it was intended as such or not - whether it was ‘unconscious bias’ or not - is irrelevant for how it landed.
In that context, even more so - the misogyny and antisemitism of “Becky” sent me spinning for a year and a half.
If you can’t understand why that is, or what’s wrong with Becky, you need my book.
Coming probably not very soon, as I’m still writing it and figuring out how to get it published, but it will come out, it must come out with a decent strategy so YOU can read it. It’s not all antisemitism, by any means - it’s a whole swath of things about Jews and activism and food and culture and being a better accomplice.
Tools for resilience, useful for EVERYONE.
But the root of this, the foundation came out of the wish to help people pursue a more just world, and to answer my detractors with a deep dive into why I’m not white, and why this being a Jew gives me tools that might be useful to all activists, and also address the issues with the world of activism and stuff like Israel.
Okay, I’ve remained in contact with Sheneen McClain, who is Elijah’s mother, and always had a good connection with her that was NEVER sullied by the pack cancelling me online, so I don’t care what you think about the injustices of all that’s occurred, and my own tiny part in the story of Justice for Elijah’s murder.
You can find me if you want to apologize, or to show you care, or anything.
Just don’t be an a**hole, and all will be fine.