‘People forget how much power we have.’ A Seattle protester moves further left
Nate is a 29-year-old Seattle local and a Black woman, now on the front lines of the Seattle protests. Before the start of the pandemic, they worked as a server and a bartender. But since the protests started in May, they have participated and organized actions against police brutality.
Reporter Esmy Jimenez met them at a protest on July 25 where five construction trailers near the King County Youth Jail were set on fire. Nate declined to share their full name because of concerns about retaliation against protesters. Jimenez followed up with Nate and this essay is from that conversation. It has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
I myself was a peaceful protester. But at what point do you stop being peaceful? What point do you escalate because you are not getting the response that you want? That's the question everyone has asked themselves on a personal level. That's where I'm at now. I consider myself more of a patriot than other Americans who are white and alt-right. I'm not doing anything different than what the same people that started a revolution against Britain did, and made America in the first place.
I think it's very hypocritical for this country and the people in it to claim to be patriots and about preserving the roots and the ideals of this country and what it was founded on, but are against protesting and rioting, when that's literally what they did to make America independent.
Before May, there weren't those spontaneous marches that didn't have permits, and police escorts. I've been really big about keeping it [this protest group] decentralized so that there are no targets, there's no head to cut off. This bureaucracy tells you "yes" [to closing the youth jail] and then tells you to wait five years. And almost always, waiting means never.
A lot of the white people, they didn't even know these things were happening to Black people, until these last couple of months. They had no idea -- that's what we're dealing with, this new awareness that people have and then not knowing what to do with it. There are people there that are on day 50 of protesting, so they've seen and been through a lot of shit. There are people who have finally recovered from their injuries after the first time being tear gassed and beaten by the police. And they're pissed because they ended up with a hospital bill and those cops ended up with overtime.
What I learned from the whole experience was people want to do something.
People forgot how much power we actually have. We outnumber this little group, this oligarchy that runs our world. And that's what I'm trying to get people to open their eyes to.
What motivated you to protest? Esmy Jimenez wants to hear your story. Contact her at esmy@kuow.org or 206-565-7902 (Signal & Whatsapp)
