![]() We are actually experiencing this in very institutionalized ways every single day. We are experiencing premature death for a number of reasons. I think about any of these other sectors and the ways in which they are treating our people and I look at the outcomes. ![]() I look at things like the immigration system. We deserve to live in a world where there’s no impunity, but beyond this question of impunity there are all these structures that are actually doing a disservice to our people. The reality is we deserve to live in a world where we are not murdered. I think we’re at this stage where we are doing a lot more education with our people and saying, “We are not just looking for one guilty verdict.” We are having these one on one or small community/town hall and panels to really engage our people in a deeper conversation about what we truly deserve. That really puts Black Lives Matter in a different space. We actually need to push a more profound question around the structures that are oppressing our people. We don’t want to reinforce a system that is actually designed to lock up our people. We know that 50 percent of women who are incarcerated are black women. We know that nearly half of the incarcerated population is black people. It’s never going to be a solution for us. Absolutely, I have a huge concern in relying on the current apparatuses we have for “justice” for our people. Even if we were going to get an indictment or a guilty verdict, that actually would not provide us with the larger vision of liberation that our communities actually deserve. We know that the system was not designed for justice for us. It’s a love note for our people, but it’s also a demand. Can you talk a little bit about the limitations of that?īlack Lives Matter is really an affirmation for our people. It has become linked to the idea that justice means indicting, convicting, and incarcerating killer cops. For me the solution is always organizing.īlack Lives Matter, in a lot of people’s understanding, is very much tied to anti-police brutality work because the slogan got popular around Michael Brown’s killing. As organizers, we knew that we couldn’t sit in that hopelessness, right? We had to make this mean something and I was very committed to that. But there was just something in that moment that felt really hopeless for a lot of us. I had a slew of texts from people asking, “What are we doing? Where are we going? March tomorrow.” Both of us, as organizers, were like, “Oh my god what is this moment.”Īlthough many people think that justice would have meant finding him guilty, we know that it’s beyond that. I had actually just walked out of a screening of Fruitvale Station with my friend, another black organizer in Brooklyn when George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin. You also asked about the feeling of that moment and I kind of digressed. It was very important to have something that was broad enough that captured the state of black life and the fact that we are experiencing a range of violence and we need to be able to speak to all of that. And that’s also why Black Lives Matter is Black Lives Matter, not justice for X. How are we specifically addressing anti-black violence as it occurs? More broadly, I really wanted to open up the space for a conversation that moved beyond police brutality. The point was really to engage people who are community organizers or just concerned citizens in this moment in racial justice. That really resonated with me.Īt the time, Black Lives Matter was kind of like a rallying call and it was something we’ve been articulating online in some ways, in conversations, and beginning to put it on our posters and signs as we are going through the streets. Within this formation Alicia basically said, “Hey, we need to come together to understand this moment and provide some shared guidance, a reading, as well as a call to action for our people.” Black Lives Matter is how she’d been talking about it. Opal Tometi: There was a call to action with the group of people that we had been working with called BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity). Mychal Denzel Smith: Can you take me to the moment you read Alicia Garza’s Facebook post that said “Black Lives Matter” and what you felt reading at the time?
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