Protestors call for racial justice in Pittsburgh

Nearly 150 protesters gathered in the Allegheny County Courthouse courtyard today to vocalize their discontent with the city’s current race relations in the wake of George Zimmerman’s trial.

Central to the gathering were a set of demands protesters intended to deliver to the city’s government, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and, as they described them, “all agencies, institutions, [and] organizations complicit with systemic injustice and white supremacy in Pittsburgh.”

Pittsburgh’s overall livability was a common target for the protesters, whose 14th and final demand called for the city to “renounce ‘America’s Most Livable City’ title until [their] demands are met.”

Some of these other demands included for the city to denounce what it considered the “state-sanctioned Murder of Trayvon Martin” and the inequity that led to Zimmerman’s trial’s not guilty verdict, as well as calling for the creation of a Human Rights Bill to reaffirm the city’s commitment to “true physical and emotional justice for oppressed people.”

“We have to come together for a wide berth — a mosaic of different kinds of people — to address this because it’s a people issue,” said protester Ayanna Nugzi prior to moving from the courtyard to the City Council’s floor in the City-County Building. “This is the beginning of people realizing that this isn’t just happening in black communities, but across the board.”

The protest also demanded the city to decry Pennsylvania’s laws that are most similar to Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law, which was the cause of much debate in the lead-up to Zimmerman’s trial and verdict.

But according to Quinn Elliot, one of the event’s planners, the protests would have transpired regardless of the trial’s verdict, which ultimately found Zimmerman to be not guilty of the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin on Saturday.

“When the verdict came in, I wasn’t surprised at all,” she said, going on to quote W. E. B. DuBois in saying that “a system cannot fail those that it was not meant to protect.”

Quinn said although the protest’s goal was to come together to hold the city accountable and ensure that they address what she described as Pittsburgh’s “systemic white supremacy.”

She, too, took contention with the “Most Livable City” title, calling it a “slap in the face” and demanding it be renounced.

“White supremacy manifests itself culturally, socially [and] economically,” she said. “So one issue is never just one issue, and no fight is ever just one fight.”

Less than an hour into the rally, attendees made their way to the lobby of the City Council’s chambers to try to deliver these demands to both Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and members of City Council.

But although the protestors were able to hand their demands over to City Council President Darlene Harris, the Council’s reaction to receiving them is unclear.

Protesters heckled Harris and cut her off while she attempted to address the crowd, one individual interrupting her mid-sentence to shout, “It’s time we talk about skin privilege, Darlene.”

Harris responded that that conversation will take place, and indicated that she would “pass along” the demands. Her statement was met with dissatisfaction from the crowd, who yelled that the fate of the demands were “in her hands” and told her “not to let them die.”

City Councilman of Pittsburgh’s 3rd District Bruce Kraus exited the Council’s session — of which Harris had earlier excused herself to address the protesters — to express his dismay that the Council could not welcome to the protestors due to their prior obligations.

Members of the crowd shouted back that they would be back “every time someone is murdered in the city of Pittsburgh.”

 Mel Parker, one of the rally’s participants, downplayed Pittsburgh’s economic revival, labeling it as a merely a talking point of politicians.

“[Pittsburgh] is a city that says it’s in recovery and ‘Most Livable,’”  Parker said. “But only if you’re white.”