“What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!” 

This was the cry of the hundreds of young protesters led by the local chapter of Fridays for Future who marched from City Hall Park to Battery Park.

Protesters push bikes at climate change protest  in Lower Manhattan.  September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

They held signs  that read, “Protect our home,” or “If you breathe air, you should care!!” 

The New York City Friday for Future movement summed all the various banners  and chants into  four specific demands. They want clean energy, no funding for projects polluting the environment, t environmental justice education in public schools and environmental protection for 30 percent of the country’s  land and sea. 

“We need to completely cut our carbon emissions and fracked gas,” Brooklyn Darling, a SUNY New Palz University student said. 

Brooklyn Darling, 19, a SUNY New Palz College student, voicing her disagreement with climate inaction in front of the City Hall, where the strike started. September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

She also believes it is crucial to follow the  United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, and sign the Green New Deal.

“Those in power should listen to youth. We are the ones who are inheriting this earth after they leave,” Yasmin Bhan, one of the strike’s organizers said.  

That is why organizers led the crowd with the slogan: “Uproot the system.” The same message also led more than 1,400 Friday’s climate strikes around the world. 

“Especially in Congress, there are a lot of people getting paid by the fossil industry,” protestor, Gerome Foster II said. At 18 he is the youngest member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory and the executive director of youth voting advocacy group OneMilionOfUS. “We need to vote out the people who are continuing to perpetuate the system and are putting us at risk.” 

Climate change protestor Gerome Foster II, 18, has been very active in the fight to save the environment.  September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

Foster was inspired by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist who launched the Fridays for Future movement and a close friend. 

This global strike happened just a few weeks before November’s UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow and during New York Climate Week. 

As a response to Climate Week, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced several new climate policies including a 15-Year $191 million plan for reaching the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2040 and carbon neutrality by 2050. 

But this is not ambitious enough for the protestors  since youth climate activists rallied for clean energy by 2030 and not 2040.

Youth activists sitting in Battery Park and listening to speakers at New York City’s Global Climate Strike. September 24, 2021. Photo by Nikol Mudrová

And a lack of ambition and will is what Foster noticed on Biden’s Environmental Advisory Council.

“The hardest is reaching the scale of the plans,” he said.“Often, we’re fighting over how we scale up and what we can do, for instance, 10  percent increase over the next 10  years and we say: ‘No, based on the science, we need to make an 80 or 90 percent decrease.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, we can’t do that,’” he said.

According to Foster, the political climate is simply not changing fast enough. 

“They don’t understand the urgency or the scale of it,” he said. 

And that is why the organizers voiced from the stage of Battery Park the need for tackling climate change globally.

“No matter your race, gender, identity, sexual orientation, religion or social economic status, this is a fight for all,”he said.

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Madeleine Greene, a resident of Illinois and an active participant of the protests in Chicago yesterday, said that the verdict represents a broken system that protects the white, wealthy class. 

Protesters gather in Chicago, Illinois to peacefully rally about the verdict on the Breonna Taylor case. September 23, 2020. Photo courtesy of Madeleine Greene

“White officers killed Breonna Taylor, and only one is being charged with a Class D felony that is akin to property damage. The verdict here is a joke, and this is not justice,” said Greene. “…2020 needs to be a watershed moment for our country to reckon with its racist foundation. Slavery did not end in 1865, it was simply morphed into the prison industrial complex.”

Kentucky Attorney General  Daniel Cameron said that the decision was reached by examining the actions of Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Brett Hankison, and Detective. Myles Cosgrove — the three officers who fired  weapons in the early morning hours of March 13.

The grand jury decided that the officers were  justified in firing into her home because they needed to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her boyfriend. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against  Hankison for shooting into a  neighbor’s home. He is the only officer who has been removed from the force.

As the public continues to express outrage and demand justice for Breonna Taylor, the justice system’s role has also come under the microscope.

“We will not know justice until we defund the police, and defund the private prison industrial complex,” said Greene. 

Black people are not the only ones protesting at this time of explicit racial unrest. 

“I am protesting because I am a teacher, and I am a white woman,” said Greene. “As a white woman, I was afforded a multitude of opportunities and privileges that got me to where I am today. I am protesting to fight for that equality for my Black and brown students.”

A barrage of tweets permeated cyberspace as the hashtag #BreonnaTaylor went viral.

Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram), a number-one New York Times Bestselling Author, Professor, and Director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, tweeted in support of the cause. He also spoke on the precariousness of being a Black person in America.

To not indict the officers for murder is to claim #BreonnaTaylor killed herself. Racist America constantly kills Black people and then tells Black people we killed ourselves. Racism extends past death. But we’ll never stop declaring that our lives matter, that our deaths matter.

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) September 23, 2020

People expressed anger across the country, and thousands also publicly denounced Kentucky’s Attorney General, Daniel Cameron.

This is who @DanielCameronAG is. They elevated him to speak at the RNC before the “investigation” had concluded. They tossed his name around as a future Supreme Court Justice. And now there is no justice for #breonataylor This man is a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/iToI8R6bJf

— ArcticMother (@arcticmother) September 23, 2020

Cameron held a press conference  to detail the investigation findings, which led to  Hankison’s indictment announcement.

“The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life was a tragedy — the answer to that question is unequivocally, yes,” said Cameron. “…My job as the special prosecutor in this case was to put emotions aside and investigate the facts to determine if criminal violations of state law resulted in the loss of Miss Taylor’s life.” 

Keshia Morris, a resident of Foley, Alabama, said that Cameron’s actions regarding Taylor’s death showed carelessness and a lack of empathy. 

“What happened today was disheartening, and I have no respect for the attorney general,” said Morris. “He wouldn’t even address her death as a murder; instead, he referred to it as a tragedy, as though she was killed in a car accident. No, she was murdered.”

 Many concluded that he was incompetent and unable to carry out the civic and humane duty of honoring Taylor’s untimely death with ample justice after he announced that no murder charges would be brought against the three officers in question.

“Cameron needs to be out of a job. Everyone involved in determining this case needs to be out of a job,” said Morris. “Breonna could have been my sister or my cousin, and I think that today, the bare minimum was done.”

The verdict also sparked a peaceful rally in the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Taylor was a native before moving to Louisville, Kentucky. Hundreds gathered at the Rosa Parks Circle in Downtown Grand Rapids for a peaceful solidarity rally, and the City of Grand Rapid’s official Twitter page sent out a thread of tweets in support of the movement.

Our hearts are with Breonna Taylor’s loved ones and all those who feel her loss. We see you, we hear you and we support you. We feel her loss, too. This is her hometown. She is one of us, and we are grieving with her family and our community. We are in this together.

— City of Grand Rapids (@CityGrandRapids) September 23, 2020

Taylor’s extended family led the protests in downtown Grand Rapids. In an interview with WOODTV, Taylor’s cousin, Tawanna Gordon, referred to Taylor’s death as a “wound that never heals.”

“I am upset. I am over it, and I am going to march today to the police department,” said Gordon to a crowd of protesters.

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Vince Vance, 26, a humanities teacher in Manhattan, finds it difficult to be inundated with images and stories of men that look like him dying at the hands of police. 

Vince Vance, 26, identifies as a progressive socialist and sees capitalism as a major barrier to achieving racial justice. Photo credit: Vince Vance.

“There are times where I’ll see something has happened and I will have to scroll past it at first because I am not in the headspace to just completely derail my day,” he said. 

Vance, who identifies as Black, Queer, and as a progressive socialist, sees America’s emphasis on capitalism as the biggest barrier to eliminating racism. 

“Capitalism is the root of a lot of evil,” said Vance. “The policing that happens is protecting the interest of the rich.” 

His activism this year has included protesting with Black Lives Matter, donating money to protect individuals from evictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, and practicing self-care. 

“Taking care of myself is in itself an act of resistance,” said Vance. 

He hopes that after the next presidential election, America can start putting systems in place that better protect people of color, such as universal healthcare and prison reform. 

Sitting right of Vance on the political spectrum is Jerime Mason, 29, a training and quality specialist in healthcare from Chicago, Illinois.

“I am definitely more conservative than I am progressive at this point,” said Mason. 

For Mason, a devout Christian, it is the politicization of racial issues in the United States that he finds taxing. 

“For me, to actually address racism, it can no longer be politicized,” he said” It is a matter of truth and fact. If we are going to say all people are equal then we have to live that out, and with that I think ‘judging a book by its color’ is the one thing I see present in almost all mainstream media’s framing of the issue — like prejudging and pre-biases.” 

Mason is not convinced that the recent acts of police brutality against Black individuals are explicitly racist. 

With regard to the muder of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer, Mason said, “ I am confused at how it is even perceived as racism. You definitely see an obvious abuse of authority, but after watching it several times, there’s nothing about it that tells you he did it only because he was Black.” 

Jerime Mason, 29, a devout Christian, views the politicization of race as the most frustrating element of political tension in America today. Photo by Jhaylen Cherry

He knows that his views are not the norm in the Black community, but that doesn’t hold him back from participating in conversations on race.

“I think it is healthy to listen and to desire truth in the conversation, even if I am wrong, and also to love the other person regardless of what conclusion they come to,” he said. 

Mason has spent a lot of time reading and researching to develop his political and social beliefs. But his real hope for a more just future comes from his Christian faith. 

“I don’t think I have seen or read the words of another man [i.e. Jesus] that has brought me more hope,” he said.  

Evan Traylor, 26, a full-time rabbinical student in Washington, D.C., finds his Jewish faith intertwined with his views on racial justice. 

“From as long as I can remember, what I learned at my Temple is that Judaism is about helping others and making the world a better place,” said Traylor. 

Being Biracial, both Black and white,Traylor has encountered racism within predominantly white Jewish spaces, pushing him to work on issues for Jews of Color. 

“It has been five to six years of exploring and investing around this idea of Jews of Color,” he said.  “How do we support JOCs and how do we eliminate the racism that exists within the Jewish community?” 

This summer, some of Traylor’s activism included speaking at Central Synagogue and teaching a workshop for the Jewish organization, Hillel International.  

He sees the tie between systems of oppression and the power of the wealthiest citizens. 

“Until we are able to refute the ideas that center white wealthy men, racism will continue to be here,” he said. 

 Traylor maintains hope despite the deep-seated inequality in this country and all of the work that must be done to dismantle it.

“It is hard to have ancestors that were enslaved and eventually gained their freedom, and started a family and set off this long chain of events that led to me and not have hope,” he said.

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“I’ve been very nervously monitoring Trump’s popularity and chance of winning the election,” said Chris Ahn, a Korean-American man living in Brooklyn. “ I think right now we’re at 75-25 split going towards Biden.”

Hope for many Asian Americans is connected to a Biden victory in November. Many of them had experienced anti-Asian remarks or microaggressions.

Eunice Paik, a Korean-American leasing agent experienced anti-Asian sentiment. Photo Courtesy of Eunice Paik

“I remember I opened the door for a family, two older ladies and their two children and they just gave me the dirtiest look,” said Eunice Paik, a Korean American woman and 13-year New York resident. I was giving a kind gesture, and they sneered at me.”

When the murder of George Floyd inspired nationwide protests over the summer Asian Americans felt a call to action that overrode cultural norms that discourage complaining and speaking out. 

“I definitely was concerned about African-Americans being treated badly and many of my AfricanAmerican friends telling me they were afraid of the police,” said Dr. Alex Pothen, an Indian-American man living in West Lafayette, Indiana. “This cannot go on. This is indicative of a much deeper systemic racial problem in our country that we need to address.”

But addressing the problem proved to be challenging. For some, it was a struggle to know where their own identity fit in a conflict defined by blackness and whiteness.

“There’s kind of this tendency to say, ‘Well, Asians are really kind of white, aren’t they’,” said Chang Kim, a Korean-American man living in Brooklyn. “Kind of carving out Asians as a special kind of person of color, as in like. ‘Well you’re like, kind of a person of color, but you’re also kinda…so I wasn’t sure where I fit in.”

Others wanted to attend protests, but stayed home out of health concerns. Some have found more behind-the-scenes methods to promote racial justice. For families with means, that meant keeping their kids at home this fall so that parents who needed to work would be able to send their kids to school.

Bonita Price, a Canadian citizen of Filipino ancestry struggles to explain racism to her children. Photo Courtesy of Bonita Price

“As a family, we’ve had to make a choice,” said Bonita Price, a mother of four children who has Filipino heritage and Canadian citizenship living in Brooklyn. “…we’re going to try to online school as much as possible and enjoy it so that other kids can actually go to school in your place.”

For some there is a sense that the shine had come off the American dream. The hope of a prosperous life based on equal opportunity had been removed. Underneath was an ugly truth of racism and oppression.

“I think we’re in an apocalyptic moment,” said Kim. “As we all know from Sunday School apocalypse means an unveiling. I think that this unveiling has really made clear to me that there’s something really broken about America.”

The prospect of a Trump victory in November creates anxiety. For Price, it was grounds for moving her family to Canada. Even though her experience was that Canadians were more racist than New Yorkers, she noted that the Canadian government treated people of Asian descent better.

“They were sending televised messages: ‘do not discriminate against Asians because of the virus,’” Price said. “But it’s the opposite in the U.S. We might feel safe in New York, but if your government is sending messages of hate [and] discrimination it’s hostile.”

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Richard Battle-Baxter, a 38-year-old black male of New Jersey, said he finally feels like white people are starting to show they care. And while he appreciates these gestures, it’s not enough. He wants them to truly flip the script and understand how they benefit from systematic racism.

“It’s not our problem to fix, because we didn’t create the system,” Baxter said. “What is my participation in it now?” “How did I benefit from the system as it is now? “And how did my ancestors benefit from it?” Understanding that from a white person’s perspective will give them more insight into why there is a disconnect in our system.”

And while Baxter is somewhat hopeful for the future, he’s doing his best at the moment to manage his stress.

“Think about the opportunity cost of the productivity loss of the entire black population because we are dealing with what’s going on now,” Baxter said. “We know that these murder have been happening. It’s been a conversation for us but we’ve had to suppress it. It’s the suppression of these feelings that has been stressful.”

Meka Seymour, a 26- year-old black woman living in Harlem, is finding her own way to navigate her feelings. She is doing what she can to volunteer, organize, and educate herself.

“I feel extremely heavy and burdened some days by what is happening right now,” Seymour said. “Peers see this education as an academic exercise. This isn’t an exercise for me. I feel stressed out and it’s scary to think you still have to argue for your humanity in society”.

Growing up as a light skin African American woman, living in a predominantly low income black neighborhood, Seymour does not recall experiencing a lot of racial transgressions. She does recall facing colorism, and feeling caught in the middle.

“I’m what people refer to as light skin. People would tell me I have good hair,” Seymour said. “It has been communicated to me since I was a little kid that I am a more acceptable brand of black. I thought that was just how society worked. And that’s a problem.”

Haroon Saleem, a 42-year -old Pakistani living in Los Angeles, said he’s not surprised at all by what is happening. Saleem faced routine discrimination as child, being called racial slurs and getting beat up on the playground for being Muslim. It led to depression issues he still battles with today.

“When you come from the amount of s–t we have, this is not as shocking as it might be for other folks,” Saleem said. “We have to fight for normalcy, have conversations and be diplomatic. What our country is going through is a much needed reckoning.”

Just a few days after the election of Donald Trump, Saleem was at a gas station when a couple nearby said, “Y’all need to get ready to go back.”

“That was a gut punch for sure,” Saleem said. “I’m an American citizen.”

Despite the racism he has endured, Saleem does his best to remain positive.

“There has been a lot more of a reaction and people acknowledging that this is an issue. And you want to remain positive because what’s the inverse?,” Saleem said. “I would much rather focus on doing everything possible to better this situation than throwing in the towel.”

And despite the protests and attention on race and police brutality, Baxter still fears for his life walking out of his front door, a fear he’s carried with him since childhood. A fear that, he said, is rooted in knowing things can start small but end up deadly.

“You turn on the TV and you see, stop killing black men. I think, wait a second, I’m a black man, stop killing me,” Baxter said. ”We’re not asking for much. We just want to be equal.”

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The proposal for a national security law in Hong Kong was passed in Beijing less than a month ago creating uncertainty for what is to come in the autonomous region.

After being returned to China from the United Kingdom in 1997, Hong Kong was supposed to be ruled under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle.

The law comes after a series of pro-democracy protests which started in March last year. Although the law is still being drafted, it is almost certain that it will give Beijing greater control over its special administrative region.

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Protestors kneel at Union Square. Photo by Bessie Liu

Man shares his story with NYPD. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

Protestors raise their signs and fists to stand in solidarity with George Floyd. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

Demonstrators gather at Bryant Park to stand in solidarity with George Floyd. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

Protestors get ready to march around Manhattan. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

NYPD prepare for wave of protestors in front of Trump Tower. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

Moments before protestors arrive at Trump Tower. June 2, 2020. Photo by Bessie Liu

 

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