Black Lives Matter OKC protest slideshow and call for cleanup

May 31st, Black Lives Matter OKC held a peaceful protest at the Oklahoma State Capitol. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, communities across the country put their lives at risk in many ways and gathered to protest violence against black people after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while in police custody.

An Oklahoma Gazette staff member was at the OKC protest May 31st and said it was peaceful but took a turn when more people arrived around sundown.

Oklahoma City rapper Jabee Williams condemned the antagonistic behavior on Twitter.


"The BLM protest was on the Eastside today. We can’t be followin these white kids into these pointless situations. We cant protest the way they do they leading with a privilege we dont have and it effects us not them, and we are the ones who get blamed for the destruction not them," Jabee wrote in two Tweets on Sunday. "I’m not trying to follow a group of white kids who have privilege on a protest at the county! I been in the county before I don’t want to go back! We protested peacefully on the Eastside today, I even went to the capital. The end."

Monday morning, Black Lives Matter OKC posted "Be Community" on its Facebook page, talked to people at the State Capitol about how to help clean up and dispatched volunteers across the city to help clean up vandalism and damage.

Be Community

Posted by Black Lives Matter OKC - Oklahoma City on Monday, June 1, 2020

"Part of our responsibility as community leaders, community organizers, community influencers is part of making sure that we do not damage. This is the people's house. I certainly agree with the message, but we do not want to cause damage to the structure. Damage to these structures is not going to help continue bringing positive change," Black Lives Matter OKC leader T. Sheri Dickerson said Monday morning in a video posted to Facebook from the State Capitol. "I watched a lot of these gentlemen who are still having to change out and fix the damage that was done, and so if you're with me and you have your chemical supplies, in about an hour, I am going to start dispatching people around the northeast community and places that were damaged to start doing cleanup. This is on us, Oklahoma. This is on us, northeast Oklahoma City. This is on us. So as one of the community organizers, I am personally asking for you to come out and begin to change and help clean up and fix up a lot of the areas that were hit last night, one of them being the State Capitol."

"I don't want this to be a reflection on our community, and that is generally how it's always spun. We saw the negative things that the media said when they tried to blame a lot of the vandalism and the actions that were taken, that were destructive on Black Lives Matter OKC and those that are standing with our movement. I want to say to our white allies that we saw that were escalating the situations that that is counterproductive to our movement, and you do harm to black and brown persons. We know that there are also outside agitators that come and do these types of things, but we have to show them that this, this ain't us. ... Let's restore. ... If you love your community like I love my community, like all of us love our community, and certainly I want to let all of our legislators know and the governor know that the people's house is in northeast Oklahoma City. I want them to know that. I want them to know that our community, that we care about our community. And so I'm not worried about disparaging remarks. Our work speaks for itself, but what we will not do is continue to allow those that are going to attempt to disparage to be reflective of what we do."

Visit facebook.com/blacklivesmatterokc and blacklivesmatter.com.

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