Interview with Oscar Grant Muralist Desi
Posted Jan 16 2009
There’s a lot of emotion around the situation. I feel like the things that people say are unproductive are actually productive. I feel like crying is productive, to let the emotion out, to let the anger out. We’ve been carrying it around for so long. We’re not protesting because this is unique, this is common, to kill fathers and mothers and children. It’s a larger pattern of the prison industrial complex. The system uses the resources on the land under our feet. It uses the people to get these resources. They don’t really want the land, they want to subjugate it. It’s been going on for so long. Anything could happen. I just try to give a voice through the murals and art.It’s hard to trace when the police have become a burden to the community. It’s been happening so long, as long as imperialism has existed, with police representing the system and those in charge. The system itself is so flawed. So much needs to change. A positive first step is that the cop’s getting charged with murder. The District Attorney is being required by the people to call it what it is. We know it could happen again tomorrow, but with no cameras. It’s only murder because of the cameras. He’s only one person. Other cops were gathering phones to cover this up. Something needs to happen, in terms of how police deal with the community. I feel like we need force behind our demands, by any means necessary. Who’s the authority to see that justice is done? Who’s truly administering justice? This is a government by force, not by choice. The police maintain that system. I don’t think we need BART police. I’m not so ignorant to say there isn’t a lot of crime, but I’m not convinced that more armed police are the answer. The system needs to be broken down and reconfigured.
But about the march, it was beautiful. It was led by the scraper bikes and to see the youth of Oakland playing such a huge role…so many people were taking pictures. It moved so fast for me. I knew people in the crowd so I took some pictures but for the most part I wasn’t trying to be all up in the pics and put my mask back on. One of Oscar’s cousins came up and took a picture and gave me dap. That touched me to know that has family approved and saw the impact of his life. I’m not really in marches, but this one attracted so many people from all walks of life. I saw people out who’ve never seen at a political event.
So towards the end of the march, there were all these cops and I saw my boy with his hands behind his back. He had just written “jail the police” up, which they obviously didn’t like. I ran over there, screaming that we had permission and they needed to call their supervisor. The security for the protest came out and made some calls and he was let go. They just wanted to harass us. This was the second time so they knew we had permission.
We want to have peace, but they treat us with total disrespect. We’re not trying to escalate the situations. We’re trying to fix the problem, but sometimes you just get those thoughts in your head. I don’t want to be melodramatic, but they’re lucky people are trying to solve this peacefully. People in Oakland are packing. The police don’t want to match up with the community, in terms of violence. There are more of us. We’ll lose many brothers and sisters, but they rule by fear. I’ve been listening to a lot of the speakers and they’re right, we shouldn’t have to ask for justice, we deserve justice. The government is supposed to work for us. The D.A. thinks he’ll pacify us with the murder charges, but that’s just the start. All those cops were conspirators. People are still pissed, but I feel like the anger is subsiding a bit as people have been able to vent.
O.G. Shakka (sp?) was the final speaker and he was supposed to be given a final prayer. It didn’t sound like a prayer to me, but whatever it was, it was very powerful. He was basically like, the system is designed to hold us down. It’s an everyday struggle for us to make change. It may take 20 surgeries to repair a limb, but maybe that’s what’s needed to fix it. This is a long-term fight. This is something that’s always happening at Unity (High School). There’s a purpose to the work, to train the youth and give them powerful tools. We voice things that other people can’t say. It’s so powerful that I don’t usually paint violent themes unless it’s directly addressing a solution
I recently did a mural in North Oakland (42nd and Broadway) called “Chaos Without Peace Within.” It has two warriors about to fight with a woman in the middle stopping it. We need peace within ourselves, but the system brings chaos, making it hard for people to feel settled. This mural’s already been tagged. It shows that it ignites something in people. It wasn’t the response we wanted, but it sparked something!
Even with the Earth, that’s a whole other issue. This shouldn’t have happened on a warm, sunny day. This is our rainy season. Where’s our water going to come from? Many streams and rivers are going dry. It’s a big deal with Oscar getting shot, but what about what the Earth’s going through? Our human divisions keep us from addressing these larger issues that impact our survival as a race.
Unfortunate, the whole BART situation. I don't even know what to say on that - the struggle continues I guess. A nice interview though, inspiring in its own way. I esp. liked when he touched on the women. Props.
this is a very good article because I was there when DESI was getting down and you can tell that the cops wanted to mess with us sense every time a cop car would pass they would stop and they would try to mean mug us but my guess of why they didn't do nothing to us at that moment was because allot of people were there to see the art and to support us but either way we are finally revealing against the system and maybe one day will make a new revolution
Thanks for the comment. People need to hear from people like you, who are involved directly on the front lines. Murals like this are part of the change, as is you graduating!
Galley, I agree 100% with DESI addressing some gender issues. It's always good when men own up to some of our baggage in this arena!