This article originally appeared on The Raw Story.
During the first city council meeting in Ferguson, Missouri since Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, black residents powerfully responded to how the city dealt with the shooting.
A young man in a “Peace Keeper” t-shirt who introduced himself as “Mike Brown from Ground Zero” said that the problem with the white people at the meeting who claim to speak for the entire city “do not represent us.” Although whites only make up 29 percent of Ferguson’s population, five of the six sitting city council members are white, as is Mayor James Knowles.
“It is time for us to get suited and booted and kick their you-know-whats out of office,” he said. “We’ve got the power — they don’t. We’re trying to figure out how this man, that man, the old man — the Man, the Man, the Man up there on his iPad who don’t care what we have to say. How do we get him out? We vote him out! We recall him out!”
“A month ago, a young man was shot down several times, and that’s a fact,” the man said, alluding to a comment by an older, white male who earlier had yelled, “You want facts? I’ll give you facts!”
“His body laid on that pavement for hours, and that’s a fact,” the young man continued. “All the videos, all the nonsense they try to put out there, but the facts are out there — and they’re still hiding behind one white officer. They are letting all this go on for one white officer.”
“But do you know what? We ought to thank them,” he said, “because it’s time for us to kick them out. They don’t care about us, that’s been proven. And they won’t care until we show them that we have the power to vote them out.”
The young man added that the white community has “been thinking for too long, that black people don’t love each other — that me and this brother,” he said, pointing to a fellow attendee, “can’t go out there and peacefully protest for our rights. But guess what? It happened, and it’s not going to stop. If we don’t get justice, young people are going to continue to stand up.”
“We’re not fighting each other anymore, that stuff is dead,” he said. “We’re fighting them, because they’ve been fighting us. And we won’t take it. We’re fired up! We’re fed up! We’re young! We’re strong!”
“So mayor,” he concluded, “you better enjoy that seat, because November is coming up, and you are out!”
Watch the young man’s entire speech below via YouTube.
This article originally appeared on The Raw Story.