Why we are going to Ferguson this weekend

Many people have asked why a group of Harvard students are headed to Ferguson over fall break. We ourselves each spent a significant amount of time thinking through this decision—thinking through why we, Harvard students and many of us not students of color, should decide to drive 18 hours to a community we are not from. We all worried about seeming like we were coopting someone else’s struggle, or that a weekend trip just wasn't enough to effectively support change. To articulate our decision, and share our initial reflections, here is our attempt at a collective response.

In some ways, our decision to go to Ferguson was very simple: it was about solidarity.

A few weeks ago, local organizers put out a call for people from across the country to come show their support for a local community that has been mobilizing and organizing for two months through a “Weekend of Resistance.” In the words of the local protesters “… Ferguson is a movement led by people who live here. We need you to simply be here, peacefully standing shoulder to shoulder with us, respecting the trauma we have faced but determined to fight for freedom along with us …”

In the most fundamental sense, we are here because local activists asked us to come.

Our response to this call is rooted in a belief we all share – a belief in the transformative power of organized communities. A belief in the power that resonates from formerly and still marginalized and structurally oppressed people standing up and refusing the realities they are faced with.

But why do we need a movement that spans communities to address issues affecting the community in Ferguson – and why do we need action now?

For some of us, our commitment to the movement is grounded in our belief that addressing the issues affecting communities in St. Louis and Ferguson is not about an indictment, or even a finding of Darren Wilson’s guilt. An indictment and a trial attempt an individualized solution to a communal problem. Because Michael Brown and Vonderret Myers Jr. were shot not only because of racially discriminatory policing, but also because of broader problems including the militarization of police and the criminalization and silencing of Black and Brown communities.

And in recognizing that problems affecting the Black community in Ferguson – just like Black and Brown communities across urban America – involve bundled and self-perpetuating levels of oppression and inequality, we recognize the magnitude of change required to improve the situation in Ferguson.

Although we deeply believe that this change should be, in fact must be, locally led, we also believe just as deeply that these movements will not be effective unless they involve broad coalitions of committed communities, each recognizing that their struggles are connected to the other, that only in coming together will their power match the power of the destructive forces oppressing and marginalizing the poor in this country. And in this broader fight – we believe all people have roles to play.

For many of us, coming to St. Louis was partly a decision that came down to community. Ferguson has engaged in sustained, local organizing for months. Their work shows that communities can form themselves around their own agenda, on the basis of trust. In this way, they challenge the oppression of a police state not only in their overt goals, but in their very premise: that a community can run—and run well—not because of the police state, but despite one. They are a community in the deepest sense of the word, and what they asked for this weekend was presence, a reminder that their community was linked to other communities, who heard them and stood with them in solidarity. Their community empowered everyone to decide to come to Ferguson because they opened their churches, their community centers, and their homes to host all who needed a place to sleep.

And in the end, we decided that the best way to stand with this community, was to stand with them—with our bodies, and our voices. This weekend will not be about bearing witness, or even about taking this community’s fire back to Harvard, although we hope we can support this effort. At a more fundamental level, it is about answering the community’s call, and respecting their community through communion.

Finally – at the broadest level – the decision for some of us to travel to Ferguson was a decision to take action now. Many of us say that we’ll do the right thing when the time comes, but frequently, we deliberately avoid knowing when and if that time has arrived. Unfortunately this avoidance is a privilege not afforded to Vonderret Myers Jr who was gunned down by a police in St. Louis the same day we had planned to depart from Harvard. Every day we wait is another potential black life wasted.  

Its not the easiest decision to get in a car and drive 18 hours over our break, but we were in a position where the decision was a lot easier than it could have been. We aren’t missing (much) class, a local church opened its doors to give us a place to sleep, and we were able to get our trip partially subsidized. We were able to come, so we did. This isn’t a point meant to impart any sort of moral superiority, but empowerment to everyone who is wondering if they are able to do what is asked.

This weekend, we’ll be Legal Observing, offering legal research support, and often we’ll just be standing in solidarity, and often just learning and showing our support a community that has been mobilizing and suffering for months. We hope you can find a way to play a role as well – by learning more about what is happening here and perhaps choosing to support a bail fund.  

From Ferguson,

Sima Atri (JD’15), Aaron Bray (JD’16), Ian Campbell (JD’16), Rebecca Chapman (JD’15), Hannah Flamm (HKS’15), Christian Harris (HKS), and Salome Viljoen (JD’16)