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| Protesters march at the “Justice for George Rally” on Thursday in Saskatoon. |
I wish I
could say I thought that up.
That is a
message I’ve seen on a handful of social media accounts of young friends
usually aged 18 to 24 over the last handful of days as protests against racism
continue across North America and dare I say the world.
The
demonstrations were triggered due to the death of African-American George Floyd
on May 25 after he was arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minn.
Video of the arrest showed Floyd being pinned on the ground
with a police officer identified as Derek Chauvin driving his knee into the
back of Floyd’s neck.
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| Young adults made up most of the crowd at the “Justice for George Rally.” |
The three other officers - Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou
Thao – were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Being a middle aged person who can get jaded from time to
time due to seeing my share of bad happening to good people in this world, I
thought this would be another one of those things that would blow over, which
is awful to admit. I didn’t think it would get the momentum that it did.
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| Some of the protesters who took a knee at Kiwanis Park - North. |
Her post was a blacked our screen with the hashtag phrase
#blackouttuesday.
The next thing that crossed my mind was, “Wow, I didn’t know
she was engaged with that.”
Right after seeing that posts, I saw similar posts from
Parker Kelly, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and forward
with the AHL’s Belleville Senators, and Tristen Robins, who is a star centre
with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.
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| A protester with a bike takes a knee at Kiwanis Park - North. |
At that point, I decided to follow the lead of my young
friends on my social media accounts hoping to be a show of support that they
were doing the right thing.
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| Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” in Saskatoon had a massive turnout. |
One of the best social media posts came from Jadyn Pingue,
who finished up his five-year career playing linebacker for the Hilltops being
named the CJFL’s most outstanding defensive player. On Thursday, Pingue, who is
African-American, put together a well written post about black men building up
other black men.
The post included a strong portrait type picture of Pingue.
I found out later on Thursday the care and passion for this
issue wasn’t limited to young athletes on my social media feed.
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| The crowd at the “Justice for George Rally” begins to march again. |
When I got to downtown, I met up with the rally as it had
moved to the Saskatoon Police Station. I was floored by how many people I saw.
A couple of reports said the gathering included about 2,000
people, but it seemed larger than that. The next thing I noticed was how young
the crowd seemed to be.
I estimate that at least 95 per cent of the people at the
rally were aged 18 to 24, and it seemed like a lot of those were U of
Saskatchewan students and students from out of town universities, who were home
for the summer.
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| Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” contained a diverse cultural crowd. |
I later found out the rally was organized by Braydon Page,
who is an African-America young man, and the rally was called the “Justice for
George Rally.”
On a Facebook page, Page invited people from all cultural
backgrounds to attend. Canada has had challenges to say the least with racism
issues with First Nations, and there were a number of signs in the crowd that
referenced that fact too.
The crowd that gathered was as culturally mixed as I’ve seen
from any gathering in Saskatoon.
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| The protesters at the “Justice for George Rally” near Saskatoon City Hall. |
They had a Kevin Garnett “Anything is possible!” feeling to
them.
It was a feeling I could relate to thinking back to my
university days at the University of Regina from 1995 to 2001.
Most in the crowd were wearing protective masks due to the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has engulfed the world and certainly North
America since around March 11.
The crowd knelt at the police station for eight minutes and
46 seconds, which was the time Floyd was pinned on the ground before he died.
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| The crowd at Saskatoon City Hall shouts a number of chants. |
At
the park, the crowd once again took a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
After that knee, the march returned to city hall, where the
people took another knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
The rally continued for a bit with speeches and chants
including “black lives matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “no justice, no peace.”
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| At least 2,000 turned out for Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally.” |
A few police officers took a knee with the protesters at the
police station. I think they came away being impressed with the youngsters too.
When it comes to the issue of racism, it felt like the young
adults and the teenagers that took part in the “Justice for George Rally” were
the adults in the room.
All of us in the older generations bluntly haven’t got the
job done on this front, if the past two weeks have shown us anything.
For myself, I am ill-equipped if I tried to put together a column regarding racial issues.
For myself, I am ill-equipped if I tried to put together a column regarding racial issues.
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| In Saskatoon, the young generation leads in the protests against racism. |
The protest that took place on Thursday night in Saskatoon
was ultimately a civil rights type rally. In my lifetime, that was the first
time I saw one of those live and in person.
It was cool to see the young people take the initiative to
lead the way. The rest of us would be wise to follow.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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