By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
On an evening in February 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin had just purchased some Skittles and an AriZona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail from 7-Eleven and was headed back to the gated community where his father’s fiancée lived. Convinced the boy was a prowler, a man named George Zimmerman pursued Martin and shot him in what he claimed was self-defense. He was found not guilty of Trayvon Martin’s murder.
“I was 8 years old when Trayvon Martin happened,” recalled Jadyn Godin of Baldwinsville, now 16. “I remember being scared after that.”
Godin said she used to walk to Rite Aid with two of her close friends. Like Trayvon Martin, Godin and her two male friends are black.
“I used to be scared, like, ‘What if they don’t make it back one day?’” she said.
Godin felt called to action after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In the weeks since his death — and in the wake of other police killings of black people like Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13 and Tony McDade in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 27 — protests have erupted across the United States in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I realized I can’t be quiet about this. Even if it’s not happening to me, I can’t be quiet about it or else nothing’s ever going to change,” Godin said.
(Photo by Joy Swensen)
The teenager floated the idea for a rally to a few friends on Snapchat. She wanted to gather in Baldwin Canal Square on June 2 and make posters in support of Black Lives Matter. Word spread quickly, and Baldwinsville Police Department Lt. Michael Lockwood paid Godin a visit before the protest to let her know the BPD would be on hand to make sure protesters and bystanders would be safe.
“The amount of people that showed up there I was not expecting. I was expecting maybe 30 people,” Godin said.
Godin’s grandparents counted more than 75 people toward the beginning of the protest.
“People just joined off the street and came off their porches,” she said. “It’s been so crazy for me to see everybody coming together and working to fight this.”
As the crowd swelled behind the B’ville Diner, Godin asked the BPD if the group could march the streets. The police agreed and directed traffic as the people walked. Some officers even joined the march.
“One of them came up to us as we were walking and asked, ‘Is it all right if I walk with you?’ and I was like, ‘Yes, please walk with us,’” Godin said. “[Officer Martin] Knaul asked everybody to take a knee and I was like, ‘This does not happen everywhere.’”
Godin said she has had positive interactions with the Baldwinsville PD. Knaul is the school resource officer for Baker High School.
The Baldwinsville officers’ peaceful involvement in the June 2 protest is a stark contrast to what has happened during protests in other American cities. In Seattle, a police officer was accused of pepper-spraying a 9-year-old girl. Police and the National Guard opened fire during a protest in Louisville, and restaurateur David McAtee was killed. In Syracuse, photojournalist Dennis Nett was shoved to the ground by an officer, breaking two of his camera lenses and leaving Nett with a few scrapes and bruises.
Unfortunately, Godin has suffered her share of racism in Baldwinsville. Godin said she has spent plenty of time crying and arguing in the principal’s office over her classmates’ racist behavior, beginning with a boy who harassed her in eighth grade.
“He called me the N-word. He was telling me I should be lynched,” Godin said.
A neighbor also hurled racial slurs at the teenager, and Godin said a teacher began treating her differently upon learning Godin’s father is black. (Her mother, stepfather and siblings are white.)
“I’ve worked too long and hard to fight this since I was so young. I’ve had so many experiences not just with racism but injustice — not just me but my friends,” she said. “In my immediate family I’m the only person of color so nobody really understands what goes on and how it feels, but they support me and that’s all that matters.”
Between finishing up her schoolwork for the year and trying to educate her friends, family and community about racial injustice, Godin is understandably in need of a break.
“Everybody wants me to do a second one but I’m still trying to recover from the first one, to be honest,” she said.
However, she shared some simple advice for her community.
“Think before you do or say something: is it going to be insensitive?” Godin said.
Godin also encourages people to support black-owned businesses and sign petitions calling for justice in cases like the death of Breonna Taylor.
“Shortly after midnight on March 13, Louisville police officers, executing a search warrant, used a battering ram to crash into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency room technician. After a brief confrontation, they fired several shots, striking her at least eight times,” reads a New York Times report about Taylor’s death.
“Until those officers are arrested — I have been screaming her name. The whole situation makes me so mad,” Godin said.
Above all, Godin encourages community members to be kind and have an open mind.
“Even if you don’t agree or don’t see eye to eye, don’t say they’re automatically wrong especially if they’re a person of color. You don’t have the same experience that they do. Don’t invalidate the protests,” she said. “Everybody just be kind to each other.”
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Thank you to Carly Madden, Joy Swensen and Arianna Leonard for their photos of the June 2 Black Lives Matter protest in Baldwinsville. Click through to see photo captions and credits.
