With a strong willpower to “be the change I want to see in the world,” a youth of Guyanese parentage, spearheaded a massive clean-up exercise in Minneapolis, USA following rioting and looting during protests over George Floyd’s killing.
Pierre Paul, 21, did not just lead the cleaning up of the neighbourhood and the Target store, but he salvaged food and distributed it to the underprivileged.
He had broken down in tears after watching the video of how Floyd was killed and felt the urge to give hope to the community and to fight for justice.
He is currently reading for an early master’s degree in nonprofit leadership at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and will graduate next year. He graduated last December with an early bachelor’s degree in political science.
Determined to make a difference, Paul literally went the extra mile when he drove alone for 10 hours from Illinois to Minneapolis on May 29 to clean up the affected community. He was pleasantly surprised when hundreds of other volunteers joined in his effort.
His remarkable work did not go unnoticed and he was featured by Fox 9 News, The Daily Record and other media entities.
Floyd, an African American, died on May 25 after a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes. At the time Floyd was handcuffed and lying face-down on the street and was repeating, “I can’t breathe,” “mama” and “please.”
Paul stayed with a friend and around 9 am on May 30 they started to clean graffiti off a school for adults with disabilities. They kept moving down the street and finding new locations to clean.
They then reached the Target store that was badly hit a few days prior. The protesters had set fire to the store and the sprinkler system was activated. The store was still flooded with ankle-deep water and the alarm was also going off.
He sat on one of the shelves staring at the destruction in the store and “got the same hopeless feeling that made me decide to go to Minneapolis in the first place.”
He quickly sprung into action, together with his friend, and started cleaning the shelves. After that “about 10 other people joined in. And before I knew it there were hundreds of people following my lead to clean up the Target.”
He said that “… there was still so much food in there that needed to be salvaged.”
Main goal
His main goal, he said, was getting the food to non-profits, churches and to people in the community who needed it.
While all of this was happening, the owners were at home. “They had decided to leave the place for now because it was dangerous. They did not make their employees go in, which made sense to an extent.”
Paul met a lot of “great people” during the two-day exercise that lasted for about nine hours on each day.
He could not reach the city of Minneapolis to send garbage trucks but a Sudanese company offered to send four on the second day when the volunteers swelled even more.
“… We were throwing trash on the back of the trucks when the armed guards (military officers) approached us. It was a terrifying moment for everyone on the team,” he recalled.
“They looked at me and they had their AKs (guns) around their chests and asked who’s in charge.’ And I’m like ‘hey, I’m in charge. Can I help you’?”
It turned out that they only wanted to help and he was happy that they joined in the effort.
Paul also organises peaceful protests in Illinois. His message is: “Black lives are a part of all lives. So, until Black Lives Matter, all lives can’t matter.”
People from different states and ethnicities are also protesting against the police use of excessive force while repeating the slogans: “we can’t breathe” and Black lives matter.”
He saw the clean-up campaign “as a form of protest because sadly, all of the negative things, like rioting and looting, were associated with black people… But that was not the case.”
He believed that the looters were “coming from out of town and that is why I kind of gained attention because I was from out of town and I was in no way trying to perpetuate any negativity that some of the looters and rioters were trying to perpetuate.”
Outstanding
Paul was an outstanding member of the speech and debate team and choir at Wooster High School.
He also “received a scholarship to attend the top speech and debate team in the nation.”
The ambitious young man also created a limited liability company called, We Hear You, where he is working to create an application that turns American Sign Language into audible speech. This would be done without using “any complicated technology that would take away from the beauty of sign… and deaf culture and hearing impaired individuals.”
He was hoping to have the first commercial product by the end of this year but due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, that timeframe may not be possible.
The idea of creating the company came to his mind while trying to think of different ways to help the community.
“I did my research and then I got some great people on board and I decided to run with it,” he told SN. “God gave me the opportunity to perceive an idea like that and I did not take it for granted.”
He advised other youth that “knowledge is power; don’t wait for somebody to teach you the things that you should know. Be proud to know your history. Be proud to advocate for things you’re passionate about. Do the research on your own and pride yourself in being knowledgeable.” Paul was born in Brazil and two years later his family relocated to Guyana, where he lived for four years before moving to Ohio, USA.
“I’m the baby of the family and I’m Guyanese by the morals and the values I was thought… I’ve only had the opportunity to do the things I’ve been able to do because of the guidance that my parents provide me (with) and the morals that they thought me…”
He added: “Growing up with a family of excellence you have to rise to the occasion, you have to learn from the great examples that they have set…”
“I remember one thing my mom used to say was, ‘many hands make the work light’ and I used that to drive me when it came to the clean-up,” he asserted.
In fact, it was for that reason he did not turn away anyone, knowing that “the more hands we could get…, the sooner we’d get the work done and the more efficiently we’d be able to work.” He said too that it was an “amazing feeling” that is was done successfully.