Shit happens.
One time, I got pulled over for drag racing on a dangerously narrow back road, riding dirty with at least a quarter-ounce of aromatic pot in the backseat, nested under several blankets. On July 19 of this year, a 43-year-old Cliftonite and father of 13, Samuel DuBose, was pulled over by UCPD Officer Ray Tensing for a missing front license plate (x).
Shit happens, and then we get over it.
Neither of us had our licenses with us.
Except, after running my social security number through the cop’s computer (and admittedly sucking up harder than I ever have to any adult ever), I was released with an abrasive warning, but no search and no ticket. Except, after being accused of license suspension and requisitioned to step out of his vehicle (and turning on the engine instead), unarmed DuBose was shot in the face.
His last words were, “I didn’t even do nothing.” In life, he was a rapper.
Shit happens. Uproar. Rage fades to apathy.
As an unfortunate consequence of the times, I really don’t need to tell you that I’m white, and he was black. You could probably already assume.
Following the publication of an initial police report, along with the release of body-cam footage on July 29, the world’s eyes turned to the University of Cincinnati, beaming with anticipation. The Clifton area was engulfed in an over-presence of law enforcement, hoping to protect the “innocent white students” from the possibility of “monstrous black riots” (despite the fact that none ensued). Social media blasted itself into a knocked over chessboard - pseudo-salient statements of saturated self-serving sanctimony butting heads with the blasphemous bigotry of blowhard bastions.
Everything erupted, and this was predictable. Rage fades to apathy. You set something on fire, it burns a crispy red for a while, sure, but then it turns cold, old, and black. Charcoal black.
I knew that, in 6 months, if we hadn’t already moved onto the death of yet another unarmed brown person in yet another city, it’d be unlikely that a single person (other than his family, and the folks of color forced to think about this stuff daily) would give a single shit about Samuel DuBose.
Aside from a few colorfully worded “we’re working to make this right!” PR emails, nobody in power was going to do a goddamn thing.
And then The Irate 8 happened.
30 black UC student leaders gathered in one of their homes, frustrated, aggravated, tired of the same old cycle, and very much irate. Their red-hot fiery passion gave birth to a GroupMe messaging chat, originally titled “Samuel DuBose Movement.”
On August 31, an orchestrated assault took place. Except, when I say assault, I’m not referring to the traditional sense of the term where, let’s say, an alleged assailant puts an alleged bullet in the brain of an alleged victim for allegedly not having a front license plate. No, I’m speaking of a metaphorical assault. A civil, well-planned hijacking of the social media hashtag, #thehottestcollegeinamerica. One in which over 250 posts flood the newsfeed of our beloved President Ono himself.
To quote the unity statement:
"We, the black leadership at the University of Cincinnati, stand in solidarity with each other and the greater community in a demand for change on this campus effective immediately. To the family of Samuel Dubose, we offer our support, our prayers, and deepest condolences. To the black students here at UC, we offer empowerment and our commitment to ensure the inclusion of and safety of black students on this campus. To the community we offer our service, our resources, and a bridge into the University of Cincinnati. To UC, we do not offer, but we DEMAND reform. There are no interactive spaces, no ‘encouraged reflections’, no additions of appointed positions, or issued statements that could make us forget or forgive the July 19th shooting of Samuel DuBose, nor the previous killings of unarmed black individuals by the University of Cincinnati Police Department. UC, your efforts, while hopeful, are not enough. We demand your attention and we demand that you acknowledge publicly that #blacklivesmatter, because we black students are under fire here at the #hottestcollegeinamerica."
The strike elicited a series of mostly negative, but occasionally supportive, responses. Detractors did not hesitate to use racial slurs and belligerent attacks, much more disrespectful than the name-branding assigned to The Irate 8’s “impolite” approach. Such reactions aren't new to many of the students behind The Irate 8. During a 2013 incident, when racially slanderous cartoons depicting Dean Jackson went viral, one of the founders sent out an email that received a reply which quite overtly stated: “You are the dumbest motherfucker I’ve ever seen. How can you even disrespect President Ono? He has done more for this university than you can even imagine. Get your shit together, nigger.”
The movement wasn’t expected to last. Taking its name from the 8% black student population at UC (the majority of which isn’t at the main campus), #theIRATE8 kept breathing when it was supposed to suffocate. It thrived under the same suppression that silenced its predecessors.
It kept the fire alive, red, and Black as fuck. But not charcoal black.
Since the hijacking, The Irate 8 has created two educational videos, several Q&A sessions, Sam DuBose Week (a series of promotional community engagement events/programs ending with a student-let forum), and two Teach-Ins (discussion tables set up on McMicken Commons to spread racial awareness).
Leaving quite a name for themselves, the controversy and attention only escalated. The opposition magnified, unsurprisingly, but this came coupled with an explosion of support. Yik Yak was a basic indication of the battle ground growing under the influential waves they made. All this commotion met its climax upon the release of 10 demands on October 15, in the form of a 20+ page document detailing the evidential reasons and intentions behind the objectives of The Irate 8.
While UC administration has released a 2-page response to the demands, The Irate 8 has publically stated that it was too vague and, frankly, not enough.
When shit happens, sometimes it is best to just get over it and move on.
This is not one of those times.
SOURCES CITED
http://www.theirate8.com/
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