Celebrate the 818 | Patrisse Cullors [Video]

by admin

 

By Patrisse Cullors

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Welcome back to my channel! I know it’s been a minute, but I’m back and so excited to celebrate the one and only 818 Day!

 

Transcript provided by YouTube:

00:01
[Music]
00:06
hey everybody and welcome back to my
00:10
channel it has been months
00:12
i did what
00:14
real millennials do i took a break
00:16
i listened to trisha hersey of the nap
00:18
ministry and i
00:20
sat my ass down for a month and it was
00:22
glorious but now i’m back to celebrate
00:26
the one
00:27
and only
00:29
818 day yes y’all
00:31
818 as in the san fernando valley the
00:34
place i grew up one of my favorite
00:36
favorite places in the whole wide world
00:39
and we are here and the city of san
00:42
fernando where my grandmother my
00:45
great-grandmother used to go to church
00:48
right there
00:50
what’s the church called so my
00:52
great-grandmother jenny ensley was my
00:54
favorite favorite human being she
00:56
actually fled
00:57
oklahoma to come to california she was
01:00
fleeing oklahoma because of the clan my
01:03
grandmother was
01:05
one of my favorite singers she was a
01:07
part of this choir i remember getting in
01:09
her car and her singing all the time and
01:12
it was just it was just amazing she was
01:14
glorious
01:18
ame churches so
01:20
african methodist episcopal really were
01:23
created because of segregation and black
01:25
folks not being able to
01:27
be
01:28
in a church setting and not experience
01:30
racism and so a bunch of black folks got
01:32
together and started amy churches while
01:34
i didn’t grow up in
01:36
the church i grew up jehovah’s witness
01:39
it was still really beautiful to know
01:40
that my grandmother’s faith
01:42
was so tied to her blackness as well
01:50
so we are at our next location i thought
01:52
that it was really important if we were
01:53
going to come to the san fernando valley
01:55
and talk about the 818 and celebrate 818
01:58
day that we have to talk about some [ __ ]
02:00
that’s gone down in the san fernando
02:02
valley and the best person to do that
02:05
with is my homeboy richie recita
02:09
valley we just want to show how proud we
02:11
are to be from the valley i have my 818
02:13
tattoo right on here i got the valley
02:16
here i got 818 in here
02:18
i got 818 right here
02:21
i think i got northridge baby right here
02:24
all i got is valley tattoos the 152 was
02:26
my bus
02:28
up and down roscoe
02:29
you know the 240 and the 740 downer ceda
02:33
that’s that’s me and now i make music
02:36
and try to abolish [ __ ] up [ __ ]
02:39
what lake view terrace is also known for
02:42
is the beating of rodney king may he
02:45
rest in peace he wasn’t killed during
02:46
that beating but that was the beating
02:48
that literally led to the 1992 uprisings
02:51
that happened mostly in south central
02:54
where i live now we are at the exact
02:56
location this man named george holliday
02:59
was right over here and he filmed
03:02
the beating right over here
03:05
when rodney king was brutalized by lapd
03:09
i was only nine years old
03:11
and i remember
03:13
not
03:14
i remember not being surprised by the
03:17
lapd beating him up because i grew up
03:20
hearing about
03:21
all of what lapd did to black people and
03:24
did to my family
03:26
but i also remember feeling
03:29
scared during the uprisings but also
03:32
this strange sense of well maybe
03:34
something’s gonna change
03:36
and so this
03:38
moment in the valley that rodney king
03:40
unfortunately was a victim of really did
03:44
spark a conversation again
03:46
not just here in los angeles but across
03:49
the country there are people in new york
03:51
that were protesting on behalf of rodney
03:53
king and challenging their police
03:55
departments and so there’s a long long
03:57
history y’all and the valley has
03:59
everything to do with that history a lot
04:02
of times when people think about la they
04:03
don’t think about the valley when they
04:05
think about black la they don’t think
04:06
about the valley
04:08
and the story of rodney king just goes
04:10
to show that
04:13
lapd is lapd no matter where in la you
04:15
are
04:16
um
04:17
and there’s a i think there’s a specific
04:19
experience that comes with being black
04:20
from the valley though sometimes when
04:21
i’m in all black communities i feel more
04:23
comfortable because i do not stick out
04:25
that’s right as opposed to when i was
04:26
here
04:27
when i first started getting in trouble
04:29
was not when i was going to school in
04:30
pacoima it’s when i started going to
04:32
school in granada hills and the white
04:33
neighborhoods and all of a sudden i was
04:35
just a target in class first by teachers
04:37
and then by police some of the first
04:39
gang injunctions happened in the san
04:40
fernando valley black and brown kids
04:43
were experimented on first
04:45
and then they they took it across los
04:47
angeles county and most black people if
04:49
you grew up in the valley you know
04:51
exactly what time it is when we talk
04:53
about pocoyma also known as pact town
04:57
it is such an important
04:59
place in the valley it’s also where my
05:01
grandmother moved from
05:04
108th and broadway in south central her
05:06
first place in the valley was in pocoyma
05:08
and that’s because of redlining yeah so
05:10
redlining is when people of color are
05:13
forced out of white neighborhoods
05:16
it banks do it but also white
05:18
supremacist mobs do it there’s various
05:20
ways that people of color are forced out
05:21
of white neighborhoods and that’s
05:22
essentially what hap that’s what created
05:24
the valley in the first place white
05:25
people running from the cities as uh
05:27
black and brown folks were moving in and
05:29
then that’s what happened with pacoima
05:30
when they tried to keep all black
05:32
movement in the valley into one area
05:34
after world war ii
05:36
there were a track of homes built in the
05:38
san fernando valley specifically for
05:39
black buyers
05:41
and that was in pacoima so pacoima at
05:44
one point was where 90 of all black
05:47
people in the valley lived pokemon was
05:49
75 black and from the 60s and 70s we’re
05:53
still getting people coming from the
05:54
great migration
05:57
moving directly from the south to los
06:00
angeles but specifically a lot of people
06:01
move directly from the south to pacoima
06:04
like my family did when we were
06:05
researching for 818 day
06:07
we found out that it was a home owners
06:10
loan corporation created by the federal
06:14
authorities
06:15
that created redlining literally a map
06:18
that shows where some communities are
06:20
allowed to live and other communities
06:22
aren’t allowed to live and they broke it
06:24
down in four different categories around
06:27
like who’s desirable what’s desirable
06:30
and
06:32
that [ __ ] is racist
06:34
and so i just feel like
06:36
we have to know the lies so we can
06:39
change the lies expose expose the lies
06:42
and then change the conditions for our
06:43
communities and family so much of what
06:45
our families were doing when they were
06:47
leaving the south was leaving white
06:49
supremacy was fleeing from the kkk was
06:52
fleeing from racist laws and they came
06:54
to california they came to los angeles
06:56
in the valley thinking it’s better here
06:58
there’s no jim crow here and instead of
07:01
jim crow
07:02
like white people can drink at this
07:04
water fountain black people colored
07:06
people can drink at this water fountain
07:07
they got insidious laws and i think it’s
07:10
important that we always follow that and
07:13
through those insidious laws around
07:14
housing is how we end up with laws
07:16
around gangs and gang injunction while
07:19
we’re talking about gangs we’re really
07:20
talking about black and brown kids all
07:22
the praise to rodney king and the
07:24
uprisings and to his family we know how
07:27
much folks sacrificed and we’re gonna
07:29
keep the fight up and going
07:36
okay everybody we’re back and we’re
07:39
actually in the west valley now hey
07:43
we were in the north valley before the
07:45
northeast valley before so we had to
07:47
drive like 25 minutes yes in the valley
07:50
still
07:51
to get to this place and i’m gonna kick
07:53
it over to richie reseta
07:55
[Applause]
07:56
so
07:57
we are now in receda the place where we
07:59
met
08:00
um at cleveland high school which is
08:02
where i was a student organizer who was
08:04
trained by patrice who was a student
08:06
organizer at that same school and i also
08:08
was a student there came back as alumni
08:10
and then met rich yeah
08:12
and i think i just wanted to come to
08:14
reseda because i feel like receda is
08:16
really where you can feel
08:18
all the sides of the valley come
08:19
together as organizers the way i was
08:21
trained the way you trained me there was
08:23
never organizing that was not black and
08:25
brown solidarity organizing i didn’t
08:28
know of any other kind of organizing tie
08:30
left this place but the valley is a
08:31
deeply deeply latine place over 75
08:35
percent yes so all of our our struggle
08:38
has always been locked in with latina
08:40
struggle freedom struggle in the valley
08:41
this
08:42
the resida bus
08:44
i didn’t live probably on five different
08:46
in five different apartments all off
08:48
this street in my life i’ve i probably
08:49
spent more time on that bus than i have
08:52
anywhere else in this valley black and
08:54
brown solidarity really does start here
08:57
in the valley and there’s you know
08:58
there’s always going to be tensions
09:00
between communities but the way we were
09:02
organizing here in resida was about
09:04
coming together and being in solidarity
09:06
with one another
09:18
[Music]
09:29
so this was the last place in the valley
09:32
um
09:33
that i remember before leaving
09:36
for the next
09:37
six years after that i got sentenced in
09:40
that courthouse
09:41
which
09:42
i
09:43
didn’t go into from the front
09:46
at least for not not for my case we
09:48
would come in from underground
09:50
but yeah this is the last place i was
09:51
and after they sentenced me
09:53
to 10 years we got on the bus
09:57
and i remember driving down van nuys
09:59
boulevard in the county jail bus
10:01
shackled looking out at van nuys
10:03
boulevard and just thinking um
10:05
it’ll be a long time before i come back
10:07
to this place i spent a lot of
10:09
my honestly like
10:12
teenage to
10:14
pretty much all of my 20s coming in from
10:17
the front
10:18
supporting people like richie my brother
10:20
my dad both my dad my uncle i’ve been in
10:23
this courthouse
10:24
i can’t even name how many times i’ve
10:26
been here
10:28
and how triggering it is
10:30
to be here because you know like
10:33
look at the it’s like so serene like
10:35
this the valley really it’s like the
10:36
serene place but for black people and
10:39
for black people who are poor working
10:40
class like
10:42
this courthouse in particular i just saw
10:44
so many black and brown
10:46
people end up
10:48
cycling through this courthouse and
10:50
rich and i were just reflecting like
10:52
this is a trip because there’s a
10:53
sheriff’s department here because that’s
10:55
who’s in charge that’s who police is
10:56
inside the courts then there’s lapd here
10:59
because they’re literally across the
11:00
street and then there’s the actual like
11:02
a precinct here so i just remember like
11:05
you know when my brother monty would get
11:07
arrested and he’d be at that precinct
11:09
and going there first and then having to
11:11
go to the courthouse and just spending
11:14
so much time and energy
11:17
in this area
11:18
and it’s a bail bond
11:20
yes right around the corner just like
11:22
you know trying to bail people
11:24
being like hustling essentially to get
11:26
people out on bail and i’m just
11:30
yeah it’s a i’m glad i didn’t pick this
11:33
and i didn’t even think about this place
11:34
but i’m glad i’m glad you picked it you
11:36
know for for those of you
11:39
just a reminder this is 818 day and you
11:41
know there’s so many
11:43
movies like clueless or that talk about
11:46
the valley or something
11:48
the karate kid where it’s like e.t yes
11:51
where it’s so it’s so white valley and
11:54
that’s the perception
11:56
but there’s a whole nother part of the
11:58
valley
11:59
and
12:00
this is like the
12:02
yeah this is like the the i’ve seen so
12:04
many mothers like crying moms crying
12:07
sisters coming here to support their
12:09
partners their kids
12:12
and just feeling like this is like one
12:15
of the places where i felt
12:16
the most helpless
12:18
because
12:20
because it felt like that like richie
12:22
your bell his bell was a million dollars
12:25
2.5 million dollars i remember one of
12:28
monty’s first case is my brother a
12:30
million dollar bell like no way we were
12:32
gonna
12:33
i knew in those moments i don’t know
12:34
when i’m gonna see my family again like
12:36
there’s no way i can get my family
12:38
member out
12:39
we don’t have that kind of money so it’s
12:41
just uh like
12:43
it’s very important that people
12:45
understand as we’re like celebrating
12:48
eight one eight we just had our mango
12:49
nada like there’s also this other part
12:52
of the valley that has really impacted
12:54
the both of us and so many other black
12:56
and brown people who are from here yeah
12:58
it’s intense
13:00
yeah i feel like
13:01
honestly i also just like this is this
13:03
is where my roots are like this is where
13:05
i’m from this is
13:07
um yeah this is the barrio i’m from
13:09
legit and
13:11
it’s um
13:13
yeah van nuys is a very very interesting
13:15
place
13:16
very interesting place and it’s like
13:19
getting gentrified
13:20
they’ve been trying to push
13:22
us out for years my family was
13:23
definitely pushed out out of van nuys
13:25
and by the police like
13:27
tons of police harassment like
13:30
every single day and as i reflect on
13:32
that harassment i can’t help but just
13:36
keep remembering that we were children
13:38
they were harassing
13:40
abusing and terrorizing children
13:43
and
13:45
yeah it’s why it’s why i do the work
13:47
that i do
13:49
that’s why rich does the work you know
13:51
like
13:52
because you can’t get this experience
13:54
like you can’t get it off of your body
13:56
you can’t get it off of your brain you
13:58
have to like do something about it it’s
14:01
like it’s just why i believe in
14:02
abolition that’s why i believe in like
14:04
art as a way forward i’ve never just
14:06
been here to just be here either here
14:08
because i was fighting for myself or
14:10
someone else or
14:13
yeah it’s to just be here and just see
14:15
it it just looks like little office
14:16
buildings and people walking around but
14:18
people are walking around having some of
14:19
the hardest times of their lives and you
14:21
said earlier you remember feeling
14:23
powerless here here i remember that too
14:25
i remember having to show up for
14:26
juvenile
14:27
camp here where we would get like locked
14:29
up for the weekend per se
14:31
um
14:33
yeah and just feeling utterly powerless
14:36
as a child
14:37
getting
14:40
like corralled in and out of these
14:42
spaces by adults
14:45
and it’s it’s it’s also wild to see it
14:47
all in one place because then i think
14:49
about abolition
14:50
um
14:52
and think about all these little like
14:54
all these things that the colonizers set
14:56
up to like control people and for to
14:57
make their society work like when
14:59
they’re
15:00
when we have done away with these things
15:02
or when we have built up our own
15:04
communities to the point where we are we
15:06
can fully ignore these things i wonder
15:08
what places like this are going to be
15:10
yeah this whole thing the sheriff’s the
15:12
sheriffs are there like you said lapd
15:14
family court
15:15
because those got to go to and like this
15:17
the the criminal courts like what would
15:19
what could this place be there’s a
15:21
library
15:23
just make this whole [ __ ] the library
15:25
we’ll keep that it’ll be a museum we’ll
15:27
have a community garden
15:30
yeah it’s a very
15:32
trippy thing to be here again on 818 day
15:35
[Music]
15:44
right down the street from the
15:46
courthouse
15:48
right down the street from the police
15:51
right on the street from
15:55
the vortex the prison industrial complex
15:57
that’s where i grew up
16:03
[Music]
16:08
rich is gone we gotta go do work
16:11
but we’re at our last and final
16:13
destination which i picked
16:15
it’s a bds spot but it wasn’t that when
16:17
i was growing up
16:19
but it’s the same
16:20
like it’s still a mexican restaurant and
16:22
i literally remember coming here
16:25
as a teenager like middle school
16:28
teenager and this is when like you can
16:30
walk in and i would get
16:33
no lie
16:34
a slice of cheesecake every single day
16:38
of seventh grade hello hi what’s the
16:40
difference between the quesabilia and
16:43
the burrito so the quesadillas like the
16:45
cheese quesadilla it’s the big flour
16:47
tortilla with meat and cheese okay
16:51
i just ordered some food from the bds
16:53
spot we’re waiting for it and i thought
16:55
hell
16:56
were right around the corner from where
16:59
i
16:59
grew up after i left delano which is on
17:02
hazeltine 5860 hazelton avenue that’s
17:06
literally where i live that that window
17:08
right there is where my brother’s room
17:10
was the window to the left is where my
17:12
room was and if you walk through that
17:14
gate my mom’s window is right there this
17:17
place brings back so many memories it is
17:20
like the best of memories and honestly
17:22
the worst of memories i am
17:25
so proud to be from van nuys and also
17:28
like so pissed off of what we
17:30
experienced as young black and brown
17:32
kids here the feeling of like no cares
17:35
in the world but also knowing that our
17:36
parents were trying so hard to make sure
17:39
that we had a better life make sure that
17:42
we had everything that we needed so this
17:44
like this block really like represents
17:47
like
17:48
healing struggle
17:49
it represents like a lot of pain and
17:51
love and joy
17:55
i needed to make sure
17:57
that we stopped by this block to close
18:00
out our 818 days so yeah y’all welcome
18:03
to my town welcome to my city welcome to
18:06
my neighborhood
18:08
it’s media and
18:10
cheese
18:12
castle
18:13
you dip it like so it’s hot as [ __ ]
18:24
yeah that’s bomb as [ __ ]
18:26
y’all thank you so much for spending
18:29
your time with me
18:30
and richie on this 818 day
18:33
san fernando valley van nuys pacoima
18:36
lakeview terrace panorama city
18:39
northridge north hills
18:42
that’s the valley y’all and this was so
18:44
fun so incredible
18:47
i just want to tell y’all to stay safe
18:50
stay connected
18:51
stay grounded
18:53
we need you
18:57
you

—

This post was previously published on YouTube.

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The post Celebrate the 818 | Patrisse Cullors [Video] appeared first on The Good Men Project.

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