In 2008 I returned to St. Louis along with my then wife after a stint in D.C. working for Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation. One of the first places we went was to the massive Barack Obama speech and rally near the Gateway Arch. The crowd was so large people were parking on the highway.
The months leading up to the election featured a groundswell of support and excitement for the Obama campaign throughout St. Louis. I attended a viewing of the Obama convention speech (which itself was given at a stadium) at a jam-packed Moolah Theatre. Hustlers were selling Obama gear on the street, stores were dedicating aisles of their stores to Obama merchandise, and one store in North County dedicated their entire store to Obama merchandise.
Of course, this all led up to election day. I witnessed hundreds of African-American voters lined up early in the morning at the Wohl Center in North St Louis eager to cast their ballot for Obama. At a senior building near Fountain Park I watched an African band play to entertain and inspire voters. That night I hosted a small party, and when I left my place late at night I saw crowds in the street celebrating and celebratory gun fire lighting up the night sky.
Obama ran on hope and change. In some areas he delivered and in other areas, for a multitude of reasons (many out of his control), he did not. The excitement over electing Obama remained a source of pride for many, while others became even more aware of how deep-seated and institutional many American problems are.
When protests arose in Ferguson and throughout the St. Louis region beginning in August of 2014 during the Obama Administration, for many it was a recognition that the hope and change they’d voted for would be a long fight not decided by merely electing a president. There was a sense among many protestors that Obama was on the side of the protestors, but his hands were cuffed by the system. There was also a sense of relief when Attorney General Eric Holder sent observers to monitor the police response to protestors and visited Ferguson himself.
If 2008 was inspired by hope, then the 2016 candidacy of Donald Trump was inspired by fear –
fear of America changing racially, culturally, religiously, and sexually. When protests emerged in St. Louis and the surrounding suburbs after the acquittal of former St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley for the murder of Anthony Lamar Smith, a new dynamic was in place.
With Donald Trump as president, protestors know they have a foe in the White House. They know they have someone who praises the police and vilifies protestors at every turn. The police know they have a friend and someone who has said he will overlook – even encourage – their excesses in the use of force. They act accordingly. Those St. Louisans rising up in the streets are representative of much of what Trump voters rose up in fear against.
When St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson promises she will have the U.S. Department of Justice investigate police violence, all we can do is laugh. The DOJ is no longer led by someone with a commitment to civil rights such as Eric Holder- it is led by a lifelong opponent of civil rights in Jeff Sessions. All the while, we have Republican Missouri Governor Eric Greitens in the background constantly seeking ways to exploit the situation politically in order to gain national exposure as a tough former Navy SEAL governor.
With Trump in the White House, Greitens in the Governors Mansion, and a hapless Krewson at City Hall, I have to believe state Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. when he says “expect us.” This will be a very long struggle – a struggle pitting the white Christian nationalism of the Trump base in places such as St. Charles County and Jefferson County against a diverse, changing America based in cities. It’s the struggle of a glorified and falsified past against the hope for change and a more just future.
Umar Lee is a writer and political activist from St. Louis.
