On June 5th, 100 days after the modern American lynching of Trayvon Martin, Harlem youth and others declare “We Are All Trayvon Martin” and respond to the message of BAsics 1:13. They added their names and messages to a poster bearing this quote:
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”
— Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13
In May 2012 the BAsics Bus Tour set off from Atlanta, GA to Sanford, FL to bring a message. Sanford is where 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered in a modern American lynching. This was printed on a banner in Spanish and English and taken throughout the region. Hundreds of people added their names and words of support. This was also done in cities throughout the country… as part of building the movement for revolution. This message is:
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”
— Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13
BAsics Bus Tour volunteers speakout at the Sanford Police Station with a banner signed by hundreds throughout the region:
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” - Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13
In Sanford and talking with the people
by Alice Woodward
We’ve arrived in Sanford, Florida where it truly feels like ground zero. I did not have to look, it did not take investigation or research or really any effort at all to connect with and learn about the very raw very traumatic reality of what it means to be Black in the deep south in the United States in 2012. On the porch in a Black community on a stifling hot Florida afternoon the very first person I talked to opened up about growing up in Sanford, going to an all Black high school in the Jim Crow South, about the white only and Black only bathrooms, about a movie theater where Black people had to go downstairs to a separate theater. Then they talked about more recent history, how the Black kids get chased out of the parking lots when they gather and socialize at night like at a fast food place, while the white kids do the same all the time. One time a group of white and Black people went into a store together and they came out and the white kids had stolen all this stuff and didn’t get caught. When the Black youth asked the white kids how they could do this, the answer was, “it’s easy when you’re around because they always go after you all.” A young woman maybe 12 years old explained how in school the dress code doesn’t get enforced for the white kids, but for Black students if you’re shorts are too high or your shirt is too short, you’ll get an in-school suspension because its much more strictly enforced.
