#Black Brunch: Disrupting White Spaces
Black Brunch NYC (Photo courtesy of Black Brunch NYC)
From Oakland to New York, young protesters are taking it to brunch.
Over the weekend, protesters entered popular eateries in New York and Oakland and called out the names of those killed by police violence.
According to the Washington Post, more than thirty participants filled the restaurants. The disruptions lasted for four-and-a-half minutes to represent the four-and-a-half hours that Michael Brown was left in the street after being killed by former Ferguson, Missouri officer, Darren Wilson.
RT @Zxmurray last time black folks was this black n proud on Park Ave= when the Jeffersons moved in #blackbrunch #NYC pic.twitter.com/5ho0pYHySs
— BlackBrunchNYC (@BlackBrunchNYC) January 4, 2015
We’re approaching our last brunch spot! #blackbrunchnyc interrupting white supremacy one brunch at a time. pic.twitter.com/IJndvWHb1W
— Sharmin Ultra (@sharminultraa) January 4, 2015
The demonstrators got push back from restaurant staff and patrons, who felt that the protests were an inconvenience.
It is an inconvenience to us to be shot in the street. We respectfully demand that people demand that people take five minutes of their time to look at what life is like for us every day,” Carrie Leila Love, a Black Brunch NYC media liaison, told the Washington Post.
Detractors lashed out in the #BlackBrunchNYC hashtag — their lack of empathy reinforced the point of the demonstrations.
Imagine what #BlackBrunchNYC could accomplish by spending Sundays helping fatherless youth in their communities become responsible adults.
— Leslie (@LADowd) January 4, 2015