NORTHAMPTON — Jessica Wheeler of Easthampton stood in front of Thornes Marketplace on Saturday holding two things, her white son born one year ago and a sign bearing the name Miriam Carey, a black woman killed three years ago.
Wheeler, who is white and 33, joined dozens of mostly-white activists who came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement by holding signs with the names of victims of police violence.
Underneath each was a note that said “ask me about their story.”
“Something I’ve thought about a lot since becoming a parent of a white child is what it would feel like to have a baby and know what was in store for him was to be treated the way our society treats black children and Latino children,” she said. “Thinking about it from that perspective, I feel like I have to do something.”
The event, organized by the Western Massachusetts chapter of Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ), was a way to mobilize mostly white people to show their frustration with white supremacy in society, according to the organizers.
The event comes on the heels of a rally in support of black lives earlier in the week.
Participants held signs with names including Alton Serling, Aiyana Jones, Shante Isaac, Freddie Gray, Mercedes Successful and Sandra Bland, all victims of police violence.
Sharae Eason, 17, from New York City is participating in a summer program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She paused after leaving Thornes to take a picture of a group of activists holding signs that read “WHITE INACTION = BLACK DEATHS.”
For her, those words sum up an important component of the Black Lives Matter movement. Eason said she was glad to see people speaking out against police brutality.
“This is a wonderful step and it’s not just from the black community,” she said. “It’s from every race, every community that they are seeing this.”
Eason said she liked seeing the signs with the names of victims because it makes those who see them more aware of specific stories and incidents of violence.
Ray Devaughn, a 39-year-old UMass grad who lives in Raleigh, Missouri, said he thought having the names on the signs helps spark conversation.
“Most of the victims’ stories really don’t get much attention in the media,” he said.
At the same time, Devaughn said he was struck that the activists were largely white.
“There’s no color out here,” he said. “It’s breathtaking that non-minorities are getting involved in the Black Lives Matter struggle, but I don’t see any black folks or Hispanics or any black or brown people out here with signs.”
Devaughn said he has not participated in Black Lives Matter rallies himself, but he said he is supportive. He hopes institutional changes take place as a result of them.
He said he would like to see changes at both the top levels of law enforcement and government as well as in local law enforcement.
Any death in police custody should be investigated by the FBI as a standard, he said.
Ollie Schwartz, 25, of Northampton is a member of SURJ and one of the organizers of the rally.
Schwartz said he joined SURJ because he was excited to see a group talk about racism in white communities.
“This is the first time I’ve seen white people step up and say ‘Hey, we need to break the silence around white supremacy together,’” he said. “I was really drawn to that.”
Schwartz said there has been a call from the movement for black lives for white people to step up and speak out against racism.
“We know from our experience that in white communities a lot of the time people see it on the news and are confused or might even be heartbroken but don’t have all the information,” he said. “We wanted to come in the streets today and talk with other white people and show them stories and some of the ways that police violence and police brutality comes out because that is a symptom of white supremacy.”
He said her group tried on their signs to highlight men, women and transgender individuals who have been victims, as there has been a deeper emphasis on men.
“It’s been nice to see people looking at the signs and really looking at us and I see some conversations happening which is really our point here today,” he said.
Schwartz said that white people have an important role to play in the movement for black lives in having conversations with family members, friends and coworkers when they hear instances of white supremacy, racism or ignorance of the issue. Also, they are the ones who need to change ingrained ways of thinking to stop white supremacy, he said.
For Wheeler, Saturday’s event was a way to do something rather than nothing and to show those passing by that she cares about racial justice.
As for whether she is making a difference, Wheeler said she’s not sure.
“I like that there are people walking by who might otherwise not know anybody cared about these things, so it’s nice to show that, but whether this type of event is the most helpful, I really don’t know,” she said.
Wheeler said she wants to live in a society where people of color are not subject to institutional racism and police violence, but said she believes the country is a far way from that.
As for the story of the woman named on her sign, Miriam Carey drove through a White House checkpoint in 2013 and was shot to death. In the car was her daughter, who survived the attack.
The daughter was 13 months old, about the same age as Wheeler’s son.
For more information on the organization, find Western Mass SURJ on Facebook.
Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at deisen@gazettenet.com.