As she marched through Franklin Park on Tuesday evening, fist in the air, Sharifah Mulrain, 33, pointedly told white people with Black Lives Matter signs what she thought of their presence.
“White people have been our oppressors for 400 years. A lot of them are here fronting. A lot of them know we see the racist in them,” Mulrain yelled, making eye contact with white protesters in face masks as they passed by. “All cops have to stop racially profiling my people.”
Allies or not, her question was candid: where had they been? And what will they do to keep the momentum going following the tragic death of George Floyd, the Minnesota man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes?