VIDEO: Black Lives Matter Speech by Jovan Richards, EVP of the NY State Young Democrats
About 1,000 of your neighbors participated in a Black Lives Matter protest and march on Saturday, June 13th.
The peaceful group gathered at Rye High School at 2pm and then marched to the village green for speeches from local officials and activists. The group then resumed its march, winding around Rye before ending back at the high school.
Here is the speech of Jovan Richards, EVP of the NY State Young Democrats. He also serves as the government and media relations manager at The New York State Society of CPAs.
“Not too many years ago, roughly 2010, almost a decade, I was in a nice car, a rather nice car. I like to pride myself on buying nice things. And I was stopped. Right here in Rye,” said Richards. “Right here by a Rye officer. And I wasn’t alone in the car. There was a woman in the car who was my significant other who does not share the same melanin as I do. AKA she lacks melanin…”
He continued “And I won’t forget this because I tell this story unfortunately far too much especially in environment we are currently living in. And I was stopped, pulled over. I had my window down because as a black man no matter how old I was before I turned 16, before I got my permit, my mother had to have one of the most uncomfortable conversations with me about being not a black man but a black driver because black drivers are notoriously pulled over in communities they don’t belong in… driving in Rye, pulled over, window down, ID out, registration out hands on wheel…. ‘stay right there’ easy enough. He goes across the car, knocks on the window on the passenger side. Requests my passenger – significant other – ‘please roll down your window mam’ – easy enough reply. Now if my next part of the story does not anger you , I need you to leave. Because you are not really about the movement that we are trying to accomplish. She rolled down the window. He leaned over in the car ‘are you ok? are you safe'”
We’ll be posting more photos and videos of the march and various speeches here on MyRye.com through Monday, please check back.
Watch the video (run time 14:14):
