Ayana Williams

Demanding Justice

Before the official interview begins, the camera starts recording. The lens is focused on 14-year-old Ayana Williams, an African American high school student. I, the interviewer, sum up the directions and reassure her of the easiness of the interview.  With bright eyes and a firm grip on her phone, Ayana flashes a smile and double nods. She replies with a quick “Ok”. A breeze blows through and a poster in the background shifts and slightly catches her attention. It says, 8 Can’t Wait. The homeowner, a trusted ally, has several posters adorning his yard in support of the Black Lives Matter/8 Can’t Wait movement. I test the recording device and begin. Ayana silently listens to the official directions and agrees to being recorded.

Ayana begins by explaining how she heard about the protest and her initial reaction to it. “Well there’s protests going (on) around the world and my auntie was going to host one...I was nervous, I didn’t want anybody to get hurt. When you said it was a peaceful protest, I was like, Oh, nothings going to happen, so I was feeling confident about it — and then we got there and it was fun, it was cool.” I wondered what was cool about the protest, and asked Ayana to explain more. “I didn’t expect a lot of people to be there, but there (were) a lot of people there.” With a smile she says, “ We were LOUD, which is GOOD, so people can hear us...People were honking in good ways, I saw some people (in) negative ways...Everybody has a different opinion about things.” Curious about how the negativity made her feel, I invited her to share more. “It kinda made me sad…, sad for them, not sad for me because they were raised liked that. I feel like no one should be raised to discriminate against a person...I feel like we shouldn’t judge anybody that is a different skin tone…” Wondering about the conversations she’s had at home concerning racism I ask, “Have your parents talked to you about racism?” Ayana responds, “my whole life.” “My parents told me that there are people that are out there that don’t like your skin tone color. They will bully you for your skin tone color and like your hair type and all that stuff.” Bullying? I’m surprised by the use of this word in relation to racism; however, for 14-year-old Ayana, bullying may be the most age-appropriate way of understanding racial injustice.

Circling back to the protest, I ask Ayana to share her most memorable moment. She slowly shakes her head and responds, “Probably the moment of silence for George Floyd.” At the protest, protesters memorialized Mr. Floyd by kneeling for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. “That really spoke to me...because that’s a long time to be hurting someone — for 8 minutes straight...no one should be treated that way.” I urge Ayana to elaborate on her thoughts and I quickly ask, “What do you mean by “treated that way?” With fervor in her voice she replies, “George Floyd, he was on the ground with a police officer on his neck, we shouldn’t be treated that way, nobody should be treated that way. Other people have been in their houses, not doing anything, sitting on their couch, watching tv, police officers bust into their house and their safe place and shooting people up for no reason. So I just don’t think that people should be treated that way.” Her words linger in the air and we stare into each other's eyes momentarily, no words. An unspoken understanding of Black lives and police brutality passes between us. 

I break the silence and ask her about the chant, Black Lives Matter, and what it means to her. “Black Lives Matter means to me is that every time a Black person gets shot or hurt in any way that involves the police, they should do something about it.” The “they” meaning law enforcement. Ayana wants law enforcement to hold police officers accountable for their actions. Approaching the end of our interview I ask if she has any final statements. She nods her head, purses her lips and replies, “Find the killers of Breonna Taylor.” Curious about her understanding of the murder of Breonna Taylor I ask, “Who is she?” Ayana responds, “Breonna Taylor is a Black woman who was shot in her house for no reason...by white police officers...and they still haven’t caught them which is very sad.” 

As I sit with Ayana’s final words I think to myself, ‘Is transparency and accountability possible for law enforcement?’ The answer is yes, because ‘We the People of the United States’ demand it! Let us never forget what holds our nation together — Democracy.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

—U.S Preamble

References

Library of Congress. (2022, June 27). Constitution of the United States: The Preamble

https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/preamble/

Copyright © 2022 Aisha Scott. All Rights Reserved.