A MANY-SIDED COIN

"Under the Influence of Ben Shahn" by M. Slavin

Last Saturday was a beautiful day to be outside. The sun was brilliant,  and the wind didn't roll down the streets to whip around our faces. Even the weather seemed to be supporting us as we marched toward San Francisco's Civic Center. 

As Bill and I moved with the joyful, peaceful No Kings crowd, we decided to shift to the edge of the marchers so that we could find a place to sit for a while. A young Latino walked towards us, looking at the marchers, and muttered, "It's all White people."

If I had the wherewithal, I would have stopped to ask him about what he meant, but from an early age, I'd learned, as a small woman, not to stop to talk with strangers in any city. I'm still thinking about his comment. He was mostly right. The crowd was majority White, but other ethnicities filled the streets too. Or maybe he was expressing the same idea that the 92% Black women who voted in 2024 might be thinking, "We told you so!" or maybe he was a Trump supporter and didn't like the large crowd.  Or he could easily be resentful of our White privilege to be able to freely walk the streets in protest while people of color are being dragged from Home Depot parking lots, from their homes, and off the streets. I wish I had asked him what he meant.

As we walked home, we turned the corner onto the Embarcadero and merged with a large group of young people clustered at the corner of Mission and Embarcadero. They were not part of the march; instead, they all stared down at their phones, moved in unison down the Embarcadero, and stopped in front of the Google office just past Folsom. A virtual scavenger hunt was in progress. So focused on their screens, they barely looked up as we passed them to catch the streetcar.

At our stop, we looked back at the Bay Bridge and saw a long, slow line of cars coming into the City across the Bay Bridge, and wondered what else was going on that would bring so many people in. We watched as several sailboats came into the docks near Oracle Park. When we got home, we ran into a few residents carrying protest signs. We all expressed our enthusiasm for being part of something so huge and so peaceful as that day's march, and also wondered among ourselves what the next step would be.

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Ben Shahn is one of my favorite artists. He was alive and working on artwork from World War I to the end of the 1960s. His art contained images of Sacco and Vanzetti, union workers, and other protest figures. His calligraphy is a style that is popular now among calligraphers. The Jewish Museum in New York City has a retrospective of his work until this Sunday. If you can, go see it. You will see a different view of our history.

https://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/ben-shahn-on-nonconformity/ till October 26

Shirley Chisholm, Ophra, Ida B. Wells, and Ruby Bridges, all Black women who made their mark in history and fought for equality, voting rights, and inclusion. Find out more about them:

https://blackwomenvote.com/about 

https://www.today.com/popculture/celebrate-black-history-4/black-women-in-history-rcna12963