“No nazi! No KKK! No racist USA!”: South students in youth activist coalition organize anti-white supremacist protest

On September 15th around two hundred protesters stood proudly before the Minneapolis Government Center. This protest was due to the “wake of the events in Charlottesville, VA along with the surge of white nationalism, white supremacy, neo-nazism/fascism, white terrorism and the systemic white supremacy” as stated by Young Peoples Action Coalition (YPAC), the organizers of the event. However, as the protest began it started to expand to an even wider variety of issues in the US, such as the importance of trans, black, and Native American lives.

The organization leading this event was Young Peoples Action Coalition, a relatively new group of youth from middle to high schoolers that openly discuss issues and create active change. Multiple students from South are in YPAC, like senior student Fiona Kelly explained the protest’s motive: “This [racism] has been happening… continuously, and so right now the media is really heightened about it. So, I feel like it’s a good time to get people’s attention.”

There was some fear of protesting due to the white terrorism that broke out in Charlottesville last August causing the death of Heather Heyner and injuring nineteen others.

Tiger Worku, a sophomore at South, attended the protest: “In Charlottesville it was hate. Today it is love. So love always wins.”  

The protesters marched down Hennepin Avenue, making their way towards Loring Park, while  occasionally stopping at intersections to gather the group. Music from speakers and a marching band flowed through the crowd of protesters. People from all different cultures, colors, sexualities, genders, religions, and different walks of life walked together chatting in unison: “Power to the people because the people got power!” and “The power goes down when the people rise up!”

When the protesters reached Loring Park they sat in front of the stage there to hear what some of the YPAC organisers had to say about the protest. One speaker, whose name remains unknown explained the importance of having youth activists: “You all are going to be the next leaders… You all are the change makers.” Some other YPAC organizers who took the stage explained the cultural and environmental impacts pipelines would have on the land they call home and the disappearance of Native women. Others rapped about difficulties of life at this time and the importance of staying “woke.”

There was also an appearance of Alexzander Clark, the brother of Jamar Clark, he stood talked about the Black Lives Matter organization. Clark asked the group of protesters if black lives matter everyone cheered in agreement he then responded with “F*** Black Lives Matter!” claiming that those organisations only want money. There was an uneasy silence in the crowd. Clark went on to further explain that “Black lives should have mattered years ago.” This conflict with the statement of “[blank] lives matter” occurred again when someone stood on stage and claimed that all lives do matter, another person disagreed. YPAC handled the situation by closing the open mic and wrapping up the protest.

At the end of it all Young Peoples Action Coalition member and junior student at Performing Institute of Minnesota, Cherokee Senevisa, thought the protest “went very well.” The purpose of this protest to him was that “This is our world we [the youth] are enharritaing…I think it’s important to stand up and fight for the world we live in… This is the end of the protest, but this isn’t the end of the movement.”