Given the immense amount of misinformation and media attention our event has been getting, we felt as though it was important to clear the air and set the record straight on some things. The Saugus Black Lives Matter protest came to be after the recent events surrounding George Floyd and the harmful rhetoric it had encouraged across various social media platforms, specifically those of a lot of Saugus residents.
Over the past few weeks, a bunch of us Saugus kids have been seeing racial slurs and threats being spoken by other Saugus kids. We wanted to make it clear that not all of the Saugus community shares these views and to let people know that black lives matter!
Seven Greer and myself, with the help of over a dozen other Saugus kids who prefer to remain unnamed, began organizing a peaceful protest with signs in Saugus Center like various other neighboring towns have done. This planning was going well and all we ever intended was for a Facebook event to be made so other Saugus residents could join us.
On June 8, Seven was approached by town Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Cogliano, who offered to help with our protest by providing a podium for speeches and to help organize a march.
At first it sounded like a pretty sweet bargain and a nice platform, but it soon turned into a show of political affairs that us Saugus kids never wanted to be a part of. Seven was put in a groupchat with Cogliano as well as two other women we had never met, and immediately our peaceful protest with signs was turned into a spectacle and political agenda titled “Unity Rally” that we didn’t want to be a part of.
When I made this Facebook event, Seven was immediately attacked and told that he needed to make me delete the posts immediately. My personal profile became subject to scrutiny as well, given that a separate post of mine completely detached from the event that was posted over a week ago was taken out of context.
We walked away from this Unity Rally due to town officials trying to take this away from us and turn it into something it was never meant to be about. Later that night, an article about the Unity Rally was posted without the consent of Seven for his name to be included, and details mentioned about the event were ones we never agreed to. We never even wanted our names to be included because this isn’t about me or Seven, it is about Black Lives Matter.
As I said, we aren’t even the sole organizers. It’s us and a bunch of our friends — our names were the only public ones for the sake of spreading information. Please, stop making this about us. It is about Black Lives Matter and the systemic racism within our country that needs to be abolished. The hostility we have faced over these past 48 hours has been nothing short of overwhelming.
We are your children. Your neighbors. Your co-workers. We’ve spent our lives in Saugus.
We are allowed to have differing views and have a right to peaceful protest. While you may disagree with our opinions and ways of achieving reform, please respect that we are standing up for what we believe in — regardless of what others may think.
We will no longer be continuing to address the lies and defamation being spread about our event and us as individuals.
Our event is still scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. in Saugus Center where we will stand with signs, similar to what you see around election season! All of the organizers are adamant that this will be a peaceful protest. There is no room for violence anywhere, and anyone who actually knows us knows that we are essentially a bunch of hippies. We sincerely hope that this statement clears up any confusion surrounding our event.
Once again, this never had anything to do with me or Seven or any other individual Saugus resident. It has to do with Black Lives Matter, a movement much bigger than any of us. Here is a link with a bunch of petitions as well as places to donate to help support the movement!
https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Thank you all so much for your continued support and interest in showing up! Nothing but love here, man.
Melanie Mazzarini
Saugus