Though the fierce protests in Ferguson, Missouri seemed to have died down in the last week or so, the outrage continues across the country — specifically with young people — with its focus on a single point: black lives matter.
A four-person roundtable — Max Rameau, co-found of Take Back The Land, Alisha Sonnier, leader of Tribe X, activist and journalist Rosa Clemente, and New York City council member Robert Cornegy — joined HuffPost Live on Tuesday to discuss that point. In doing so, they also talked about the future of these protests and what they may be able to accomplish in the long haul.
"We have to have control over our community," Rameau told host Marc Lamont Hill. "That's the only way we're going to solve this problem."
He means control over the community in the form of reforming America's police into more of a community partner rather than a militarized rule-enforcer. Protests also took aim at Black Friday, urging Americans to boycott the national shopping day. Maybe not coincidentally, stores saw an overall 11 percent sales drop on Friday from last year.
"These young people are saying, too, 'If these black and brown bodies don't matter, then your green money matters,'" Clemente said. "I think this is part of a slight victory we have to take at a time of such hyper-consumerism that young people, and all people who are out there, could kind of halt the economy for that moment and make it very uncomfortable for capitalism."
The protests have continued this week at high schools and colleges across the country, encouraging many, including Tuesday's panel members.
"I just want to say that the work the young people are doing is just amazing. It's incredible. And it shows courage, it shows determination, it shows an extreme willingness," Max Rameau, co-found of Take Back The Land, said. "It also, however, going to the second point, it shows really a lack of organization and a lack of political ideology."
For more on the youth's impact in the Ferguson protests, watch the video below. For the rest of the above conversation, click here.
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