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Leila Abdul-Malak has felt a combination of discontent and optimism recently.

Her feelings were represented in the poetry, music and speeches of “Funk the Police,” a musical speak-out and rally against police brutality and racism. Abdul-Malak traveled from Syracuse to Boston on Juneteenth to attend the event.

“It was really moving,” said Abdul-Malak, who is Black. “It was just a nice celebration of Black art and Black experiences.”

Abdul-Malak, a rising sophomore at Northeastern University from Manlius, New York, rediscovered her passion for activism after the alleged murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police. She’s since participated in local marches against police brutality and racism that have inspired her to bring the movement for racial equality to her hometown.

She assembled a team of activists June 7 for her first demonstration in Manlius. At first, she wasn’t sure the event would be as successful as similar ones held in large cities.

Manlius has a population of approximately 31,000 people, of which 90% are white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The movement resonated with more people than she expected, and the first demonstration included about 700 people.

“Going to a protest will give you a new level of empathy, and I think that’s something everyone needs to experience,” Abdul-Malak said. “It’s much easier to ignore and avoid going to a protest downtown, but it’s hard to have an excuse to not go to a protest happening right in your town.”

Abdul-Malak’s team has since held more gatherings to raise awareness of racial injustice. The group organized demonstrations in Chittenango on June 13 and in Fayetteville and Manlius on June 14.

She sees the protests as a chance to educate the people of Manlius about race and privilege. To her, it’s important to raise awareness and remind people that racism is a universal problem in need of a universal solution.
“White people don’t have to care about issues of race because they are not directly affected by racism,” she said. “The issue with that is that if white people continue to go through their lives blissfully ignorant, real change cannot be affected.”

Seeing the privilege that exists in Syracuse suburbs like Manilus motivates the activists, said Sarah Sharples, Abdul-Malak’s high school classmate who helped organize the Manlius protests. More people need to recognize that racism doesn’t disappear when the media stops talking about it, Sharples said.

Areas with a smaller Black or Hispanic population can more easily pretend that racism doesn’t exist, which is a dangerous and frustrating mindset, Abdul-Malak said. Some white people are quick to dismiss the experiences Black people have been trying to explain for centuries, she said.

White people must recognize that they can’t understand the Black experience, which is overwhelmed by frustration, fear and disappointment, Abdul-Malak said. Black people need to have the same voice and credibility as white people, she said.

“Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” she said. “It’s so frustrating to me that people are unable to acknowledge their privilege and accept the fact that this happens.”

Too many people are focused on certain incidents of racism instead of looking at the systemic racism the individual incidents represent, said Kelly Ward, who participated in one of the Manlius demonstrations. Society needs to have empathy to solve these problems, Ward said.

“We can’t remove ourselves from the systems we were raised in or that we are a part of,” she said. “But we need awareness of our biases and we need to constantly check them.”

The demonstrations will likely subside at one point, Sharples said, but that will not mean racism has come to an end. There is no quick fix to racism, and people need to remain active, educated and engaged in the battle against injustice, she said.

Abdul-Malak hopes that more white people will choose to become part of the solution to the racial injustices that face the country.

“Because the issue is systemic, you can’t dismantle the racism until everyone participates,” she said. “We, as a society, need to acknowledge that there is a nationwide, systemic problem and look at history and study the patterns and to pay attention to what is happening again.”

Published on June 26, 2020 at 2:40 pm

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