Alicia Stone and Brennen Cullins: Tough conversations prompt action in Marshall
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Protests large and small have emerged across Minnesota since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
MPR News is talking to some of the people behind rallies, marches and demonstrations happening beyond the Twin Cities metro area โ about their experiences with race in Minnesota, why they march and what they hope for the future. See and hear all of the conversations here.
Posted: Feb. 16, 2021 | Aired: June 29, 2020
Early this summer, Alicia Stone had to sit her children down, and explain to them how George Floyd died โ and what that meant for them.
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It was a conversation, Stone said, she wished she didnโt have to have.
โI had to bring back a lot of attention to my 12-year-old,โ she said. โHeโs growing up. It was kind of hard for me to talk to him about it, because I have never experienced certain things that Black people have had to go through.โ
This summer, she said, she had to have The Talk with her 12-year-old, Brennen Cullins.
โI had to just tell him that โฆ weโre all the same,โ she said. โAnd whatever the police officers or anyone who has authority tells you to do, you just do it. That was a hard pill for him to swallow.โ
Floydโs death resonated deeply for Stone, 35, who is white. Her children, including her three biracial sons, have been subjected to microaggressions and prejudice โ even from friends and family.
It wasnโt long after seeing the protests in the Twin Cities after George Floydโs death that she realized she should organize a demonstration, Stone said. She had to speak up for them regardless of how her community would react.
โI have to be their voice,โ she said. โThey canโt stand up for themselves right now, and we need to make change. We all do. We all bleed the same. We are the same. โฆ We just need to be the change, and if we donโt have a voice to speak up, then whoโs going to speak up for our children and our future?โ
Through Facebook, Stone connected with Jess Dressen, 36, who lives in nearby Canby. Dressen, originally from the St. Cloud area, was searching for people in her area to help organize a demonstration after seeing protests unfold in the Twin Cities.
The two organized a solidarity march and protest in Marshall on June 3, less than a week after Floyd was killed. They estimate about 200 people showed up. They had only anticipated about 100.
Dressen and Stone hadnโt been sure what to expect, but what they saw, they said, was beautiful. Theyโd contacted the cityโs police department ahead of time, and said they were โsupportedโ in their effort. The local Speedway gas station offered cold water to demonstrators.
โWe saw all age groups there,โ Stone said. โTheyโre young, from little ones all the way up to, Iโd say, a lady had to be close to her 70โs, if not 80โs sitting in a wheelchair with her sign. It was great to see that.โ
The crowd marched down College Drive, down Main Street to Bruce Street and back twice. They spoke out against racism and police brutality and demanded justice in Floydโs death. People knelt down at the corner near Memorial Park, where attendees spoke.
One of the speakers was Stoneโs 12-year-old son.
Brennen said, as a biracial kid in Marshall, heโs struggled with his identity, feeling targeted by the prejudice of others. It made him feel less worthy of being loved, he said.
โIn school, itโs kind of different, because thereโs a lot of white kids and sometimes I tell my mom, if I was white, Iโd have a whole bunch of more friends,โ he said.
Itโs a stark contrast to what he experiences when he visits family near the Twin Cities, he said.
โWhen I go there, I see a lot of people my color and then I kind of feel comfortable,โ he said. โAnd so, I put my head high and I just walk around normally.โ
But during the days of protest in Marshall, he said, he found himself feeling โnormal,โ surrounded by diverse groups of people. For once, he didnโt feel alienated and felt at ease with the people around him, standing up for the cityโs Black community.
Cullins found his voice that day, in front of the demonstrators, he said. He read aloud from a speech he had written.
โAre you black, white, Mexican or Asian?โ He read. โWhere are you from? What are you? Is your dad in the picture? No matter what your answer is, itโs always wrong. The questions are offensive. Iโm proud of being a biracial child. I have a black dad and a white mom. Iโm proud of that. Embrace yourself. Love yourself. And always hold your head up high. Only God can judge us.โ
The next evening, about 50 people gathered to kneel and remember George Floyd.
Marshallโs demonstrations happened within the first few days of protests unfolding across Minnesota and nationwide. Residents came together and created a public collection of art that was on display in a parking lot near East College Drive. But in mid-June, the display was defaced with blue spray paint, according to local news reports.
And while they saw a lot of community support, Stone and Dressen said they met some resistance, too. Some downtown businesses closed early one night when a demonstration was planned โ equating the cityโs peaceful protests with the unrest that had been occurring in Minneapolis that month.
โWe had a lot of people starting rumors about that and then saying, โWhy is someone having a protest in small town Marshall?โโ Stone said. โIt kind of caught us off guard a little bit, because we tried to make this as peaceful as we could.โ
Dressen said the demonstrations, popping up in small towns here in western Minnesota and across the state, made it apparent: Silence meant complicity.
โI canโt sit back and let that happen to somebody, regardless if I know them or not and be OK with it,โ Dressen said. โThis has to be something that we do to change and whether that was doing a march and getting the word out there or doing something to make people aware. ...this is something that we need to change.โ
Editorโs note (Feb. 16, 2021): This story originally aired in June 2020 as part of MPR Newsโ Voices of Minnesota: Calls for Change series.