"ABOUT THEIR DAILY EXISTENCE..."

Transcript of a segment from today’s PBS NewsHour (Judith Browne-Dianis is a civil rights attorney and Co-Director of  the Advancement Project):

GWEN IFILL: And, yet, Judith Browne-Dianis, when we look at the faces protesting not only in Ferguson, but around the country in the last couple of nights, not only is it an interesting and diverse crowd. It’s also a very young crowd.

JUDITH BROWNE-DIANIS: Very young.

GWEN IFILL: Does that mean that they are more — less optimistic, more pessimistic?

JUDITH BROWNE-DIANIS: Well, I think that they are experiencing the overcriminalization at levels that older folks aren’t and they really have — they’re bringing energy to this movement.

They see this not only as the fight of their lives, but the fight for their lives. And so, across the country, when you looked at all of those rallies yesterday, you saw young people — you know, this is — they are the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of our time.

GWEN IFILL: Who were very young.

JUDITH BROWNE-DIANIS: That’s right. Exactly.

And so we’re seeing the same kind of action of young people bringing energy to a movement and also having clarity of purpose around what they’re doing.

GWEN IFILL: Does it feel different to you?

JUDITH BROWNE-DIANIS: It feels different in that, first of all, this is the end of status quo for them, that they understand that they have to be disruptive, that nonviolent civil disobedience will be used like it was before. But I think that there’s a level at which they feel like this is much — this is about their daily existence, whether or not they can survive, whether or not they can breathe, whether or not they can walk down the street without being harassed. And so there’s a very personal thing about trying to survive and be Black or be Latino. And so, in that way, it is different.

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Also: 
FURY AFTER FERGUSON   Charles M. Blow
TELLING MY SON ABOUT FERGUSON   Michelle Alexander