Black Lives Matter Protest in Antelope
Black Lives Matter Protest in Antelope
Reportage
10 August 2020
Black Lives Matter protest promotional poster, event hosted by Empact.org
ANTELOPE, Calif. – Revolutionary Black Lives Matter protests have erupted across the country and across the globe. It seems that nearly every corner of the country has been touched by the movement, and bubbling anger over police brutality directed at people of color has reached a breaking point, especially after the headline murders by police of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
I was not personally able to attend a large number of protests due to an unfortunately timed spinal injury, but I made it to the US just in time to attend at least one. Antelope is not my home town, but it is the place where I finished high school and where my own life made a turn for the better, so it felt good to attend and document this special moment of history here.
The protest was organized by Empact.org and included the group occupying the four corners of the town’s largest intersection at Elverta and Walerga Road. They staged a short road block for the length of one traffic light, and they were met with threats to be run over by people angered by the BLM protest. At least one vehicle, a red Toyota 4Runner SRS, repeatedly drove by protestors throughout the afternoon with a large “Trump 2020” flag covering the back of the vehicle and its license plate. The driver yelled hateful comments from their windows each time they drove by and confirmed the current view of Trump-supporting Americans towards black Americans.
On one side of the intersection a white man in a large lifted pickup truck attempted to hit the protestors with his vehicle. On the other side, where I was participating in the protest, another truck with two white men threatened to hit protestors and blared the vehicle’s horn directly in our faces for the entire duration of the road block.
It was a terrifying moment for some of us, although mild in comparison to what some BLM protestors have faced in other parts of the country from police and counter-protestors. During the threats the group held their ground and remained in place for the duration of the light.
There were volunteers passing out snacks and water to protestors, and the event ended with inspiring speeches by organizers and a moment of silence for victims of police brutality, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
At the conclusion of the demonstration I spoke with one demonstrator who told me about how his own son had been shot and killed by a police officer and how profoundly it had affected his life, it seems that everyone had an experience that inspired them to show up there that day.
Photographer based in Munich, Germany