BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter is an activist movement in the United States that began in the wake of the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmermanin the Florida shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin. The Black Lives Matter movement campaigns against what it callspolice brutality against African Americans in the United States. The group received fresh impetus from the 2014 deaths of two unarmed African Americans, teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and 43 year old Eric Garner in New York City; in both cases the grand jury did not indict the officers and no charges were brought. Several unarmed African Americans who died at the hands of law enforcement have had their deaths protested by the movement, including Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray (whose death sparked the 2015 Baltimore protests). Numerous media organizations have referred to it as "a new civil rights movement." [1][2][3]
The movement was co-founded by three black activists: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.[4][5] Although the three run a stable website and organization, the overall Black Lives Matter movement is a decentralized network, and has no formal hierarchy or structure.[6] The movement reached national awareness with the protests and unrest in Ferguson in August 2014, although Garza, Cullors and Tometi were not initially involved in those events.[2][7]
The shooting of Walter Scott by a white policeman was recorded by a bystander, who contacted a local activist involved with Black Lives Matter; they, in turn, contacted Scott's family to take possession of the video. Soon after the video was released to the public, the officer was arrested and charged with murder. The case is pending.[8]
Description and events
The movement began as a hashtag after George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and gained momentum after the shooting of Michael Brown, the shooting of John Crawford III, and the death of Eric Garner, all in 2014. Currently, there are 23 Black Lives Matter chapters in the U.S., Canada, and Ghana.[9] The organization states that Black Lives Matter is "a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of black people by police and vigilantes" and that "Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, black undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum."[10] Protesters and protest organizers have met with U.S. President Barack Obama and other prominent leaders to demand an end to what they view as racial profiling, police brutality, mass incarceration of African-Americans, and the militarization of many U.S. police departments.[citation needed]
The #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was created by Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors right after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in theTrayvon Martin trial.[11] The American Dialect Society chose the hashtag form of the phrase as their word of the year for 2014.[12][13] Vida Johnson and other black professors support the movement.[14]
As of August 15, 2015, at least 1007 Black Lives Matter demonstrations had been held worldwide.[15] In August 2014, during Labor Day weekend, Black Lives Matter organized a 'Freedom Ride' that brought more than 500 black people from across the nation into Ferguson, Missouri, to support the work being done on the ground by local organizations.[16]Black Lives Matter members and supporters rode in from New York City, Newark, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Miami, Detroit, Houston,Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, Portland, Tucson, Washington, D.C., and more, in a similar way to that of the Freedom Riders in the 1960s.[17] In December 2014, at least 20 members of a protest that had been using the slogan were arrested at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.[18]
The "informal branch of Black Lives Matter in Ferguson" has been involved in the Ferguson unrest, following the death of Michael Brown.[19] Most of the protesters actively distinguish themselves from the older generation of black leadership, such as Al Sharpton, by their aversion to middle-class traditions such as church involvement, Democratic Party loyalty, and respectability politics.[20][21] The movement tends to be skeptical of nonviolence and embraces a diversity of tactics. [22]
Black Lives Matter organizers supported the April 2015 fast food strike in solidarity with fast food workers, and to oppose racial income inequality.[23][24][25]
At the Netroots Nation Conference in July 2015, founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors led a protest yelling "Burn everything down!", and interrupted the speeches of Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders.[26][27] Later during the event, the protestors shouted and booed at Martin O'Malley when he said "Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter."[28]
On August 8, 2015, a speech by Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights activist Bernie Sanders was disrupted by a group from the Seattle Chapter of Black Lives Matter[29] who walked onstage, seized the microphone from him and called his supporters racists and white supremacists.[30][31][32] Bernie Sanders issued a platform in response.[33] Nikki Stephens, the operator of a Facebook page called "Black Lives Matter: Seattle" issued an apology to supporters of Bernie Sanders, saying that the actions did not represent her understanding of Black Lives Matter. She was then sent messages by members of the Seattle Chapter which she described as threatening, and was forced to change the name of her group to "Black in Seattle." The founders of Black Lives Matter stated that they had not issued an apology.[34] In response to the protest, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened to fight any Black Lives Matter protesters if they attempted to speak at one of his events.[35]
On August 13, 2015, activists chanting "Black Lives Matter" interrupted the Las Vegas rally of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.[36] As Bush exited early, some of his supporters started responding to the protestors by chanting "white lives matter" or "all lives matter".[37]
On August 19, 2015, Black Lives Matter issued a statement against the murder of black transgender women, titled "It's Time! Putting the T Back in Black."[38]
On August, 29, 2015, marchers using the Black Lives Matter banner were recorded in a 19-second video posted on Twitter showing marchers chanting, "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon" at the Minnesota State Fair. The reference to police as "pigs" drew criticism from Dave Titus, president of the St. Paul Police Federation, who called the language "outrageous and disgusting." [39]
Influence
Founder Alicia Garza has denounced corporate and mainstream appropriations and adaptations of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and slogan that she believes ignore or contradict the spirit and philosophy behind it, including the "Our Lives Matter" iteration. She has written: "#BlackLivesMatter doesn't mean your life isn't important–it means that black lives, which are seen as without value within white supremacy, are important to your liberation".
In a video interview with Laura Flanders, Garza discussed how "changing Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter is a demonstration of how we don't actually understand structural racism in this country". She went on to discuss how other lives are valued more than black lives, which she strongly feels is wrong, and that to take blackness out of this equation is inappropriate.[40] In a Twitter post, Black Lives Matter said, "If you really believe that all lives matter, you will fight like hell for Black lives."[41]
Black Lives Matter appeared in an episode of Law & Order: SVU.[11][42] The TV drama Scandal expressed support to the Black Lives Matter movement on their March 5, 2015 episode that showed an unarmed black teen shot by a police officer.[43]
The hashtag #BlueLivesMatter was created by supporters who stood up for police officers' lives.[44] "Blue Lives Matter" was read on signs at a pro-police officer rally at the Civic Center in Downtown Denver. At the Netroots Nation Conference in Phoenix demonstrators from Black Alliance for Just Immigration booed and shouted at Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley when he stated "Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter." He later apologized for his remarks, saying that he didn't mean to disrespect the black community.[28]
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