The Black folk of Oakland descended on Lake Merritt Park in numbers on Saturday to throw a cookout—a pointed response after a white woman called the cops on a Black family that tried to do the same thing in April.
A white woman called the police on the family last month, complaining to the cops that the family was using a charcoal grill, instead of a “non-charcoal” grill as per the park’s rules.
Though the family was not arrested, they were questioned for an hour by the police. The incident became another example of white people calling the cops on Black people just trying to live their lives.
In response to that incident, as well as a general protest of the impact of gentrification on the area, hundreds of Black locals showed up at the same park this weekend to fire up their grills and throw their own party.
The displacement of low-income communities of color has become a cycle of life in the Bay Area in recent years amid a booming tech industry and rising income inequality.
Videos of the event show beautiful Black folk eating, celebrating, and dancing the good ol’ electric slide!
Amazing!
