00:00Hello, my name is Cliff McKinney, Ferguson protester, Black Lives Matter activist, and
00:05today we're going to talk about how police violence is gun violence.
00:10No one in my community but Ferguson and St. Louis chose to be activist or pro-activist.
00:17It was necessary for us to fight for our survival.
00:19So I started organizing at the age of 17 in Ferguson, Missouri, a month before Michael
00:25Brown had been killed and I had lost my mother to stage 4 breast cancer.
00:28She had got a stage 4 breast cancer for about 10 years.
00:32I come from a family of eight.
00:34We were impoverished.
00:35My father was an alcoholic.
00:37He was abusive towards my mother.
00:40So I struggled through a lot.
00:42On August 9th when I had seen Michael Brown's body lying on the street on Instagram, I didn't
00:47think it was real.
00:49I couldn't believe that something like that could happen in today's America.
00:53I couldn't believe that my community or I could be titibans.
00:58And that angered me.
00:59So I chose to organize all of the high school students across the St. Louis area.
01:03And we built a coalition called Our Destiny St. Louis.
01:06And we engaged in massive demonstrations, massive walkouts.
01:09We did the first national walkouts.
01:11We were labeled thugs and looters and terrorists just because we were black.
01:17Because we understand that black youth have been protesting for gun reform now for many
01:23years.
01:24Because we understand that police violence is also gun violence.
01:27This is the March for Our Lives.
01:28I felt like the march itself, the organizers and speeches, they were trying to be inclusive.
01:35They were trying to be inclusive.
01:37And they had a broad range of speakers.
01:39But as an organizer, as an activist, I understand that you just can't organize organizers.
01:44You have to build mass mobilization.
01:47So I paid more attention and I studied and I observed the crowd.
01:50And I was disappointed in what I saw.
01:53Especially when, you know, black youth were speaking and talking about the gun violence
01:59in their communities in Chicago and Baltimore.
02:02I'm not criticizing the young people right now who are standing up across the country
02:07to literally fight for our own lives.
02:09You know, we're just born into a world that's separated by race, religion, class, and violence.
02:15You know, but I am critiquing the media.
02:19Instead of being supported, we were labeled thugs and criminals.
02:23I think our government calls us black identity extremists right now.
02:27So I'm so thankful for social media and other outlets I have right now.
02:33And to be able to tell my own story the way it needs to be told.
02:37We have the resources to transform our society and make sure everybody's basic needs are men.
02:42We have the resources to make sure that AR-15s are taken off the streets.
02:46We have the resources to make sure that police no longer have military weapons to use on black citizens.
02:52There's no political will.
02:54But one thing about my generation, Generation Z, we have the will.
02:59We have the power.
03:01We're going to get something done.
03:03Which is what?
03:03Which is what?
03:04That's it?
03:05Which is what?
03:06The ADM's savior.
03:06So that's why we have the power.
03:06And it's a power.
