Social justice works for progress
Even Tuolumne County was not immune to the wave of activist protest that swept across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.
On June 3, hundreds rallied in downtown Sonora’s Courthouse Square to support the Black Lives Matter movement and declare that Tuolumne County would not be absent from the national conversation about race and social justice.
“We’ve achieved awareness,” said Viktoria Martinez, one of the organizers of the BLM protest in Sonora. “Our little stinkin’ town showed the world we do have dedicated people that will be out there every week.”
The June 3 protest was likely the apex of the BLM protest movement in Sonora, motivating roughly 250 BLM supporters and at least 100 opponents to chant, sloganeer and gather downtown.
Though the muchhyped event generated worried declarations about possible violence and looting, the event was largely peaceful. Organizers noted their appreciation that law enforcement monitored the protest and that Sonora Police Chief Turu Vanderwiel and Tuolumne County Sheriff Bill Pooley knelt in solidarity with protestors at the end.
“There’s been achievements here that I don’t see anywhere else, Martinez said. “That deserves that biggest notoriety.”
Since then, the conversation about racial justice in the county has turned inward, with local activ
ists and community members calling for a reckoning on our own racial and social politics.
Tristan Celayeta, of Sonora, has kept a weekly vigil in Courthouse Square every Sunday since the protests, sometimes alone, but often accompanied by a few other dedicated advocates for social justice.
In the past months, Celayeta said he’s been flipped off, mooned, threatened and harassed, but he plans to persist with the protests in order to raise consciousness for BLM.
“I did not start this. I stepped into it, and now I’m becoming more of a figurehead than I am I think,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s going to work, because there is a subculture here of ignorance and prejudice that’s considered an alternative society and it’s accepted here.”
Celayeta said he does not know if his recurring presence since the protests has been impactful on changing hearts and minds, though he believes many passersby have become used to him.
Though it has been months since the George Floyd protest, Celayeta said the conversation about race in the county is “barely birthing.”
Celayeta was present outside Courthouse Square with an 18-yearold woman named Trinity Patrick when a woman with a Trump/pence sign and denim fur-lined vest peppered them with racial slurs and other insults.
A video taken by Patrick went viral on social media, earning millions of views and renewing the attention to the widespread demonstrations from the months before. All of a sudden, and though the woman was almost universally condemned, an ugly and
“These are not easy conversations, so it should not be unexpected that progress, especially in the foundation stage, is slow. There’s a hunger in our community for this conversation and, of course, there’s resistance, too.”
- Collette Such, Sonora City Council
racist underbelly in the county appeared to have reared its head.
“I think there’s so much stuff that’s been hidden in our community for a long time,” said Carly Fox, a local activist and social justice advocate. “I’m inspired by the fact there is a conversation happening. There is major change occurring in Tuolumne County. I think we’ve all been inspired that we’re not alone.”
Fox is one of many in a youthful generation in the county who saw the BLM protests as an opportunity and a platform to speak more openly about racism. With more organization and a commitment to challenging social injustices, there could be an incremental upending of the public apathy toward the topic, she said.
“I think it’s really difficult in a moment of social change to assess how much change has been made,” she said. “How do we actually pull folks along, how do we help white people get real about our own internalized racism?”
The BLM protests inspired Sonora City Councilwoman Colette Such to spearhead the establishment of a social equity advisory committee tasked with addressing racism in the city. After five meetings, Such said she believes the committee remains on the right path to eventually draft an antiracism resolution which will be reviewed and voted on by the council.
“These are not easy conversations, so it should not be unexpected that progress, especially in the foundation stage, is slow,” she said. “There’s a hunger in our community for this conversation and, of course, there’s resistance, too.”
That resistance showed itself on the day of the June 3 protest, with a group of counter-protestors convening outside of the Veterans Memorial Hall and Military Museum to challenge the BLM group.
Many professed to be there to protect against looting, though some in the group notably led a recitation of The Pledge of Allegiance during an eight-minute moment of silence for George Floyd. The eight-minutes represented the amount of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died.
Community members on both sides of the discussion acknowledge that the conversation aroused by the June protest won’t end with the end of the year.
“The protest was a catalyst for me, that we did need to be having more conversations about this,” Such said. “We need to find some kind of common teamwork that can produce things like a resolution that needs to be thoughtful and meaningful and respectful.”