Ms. Patrice Cullors and Ms. Opal Tometi, during the 15th Annual MLK Lecture in Social Justice at the University of Pennsylvania, detailed the movement’s do’s and don’ts.
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At a theater in Philadelphia Thursday evening, with a sizable audience observing and listening, Ms. Patrice Cullors, one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, hesitated not in embracing her identity and that of her allies and co-founders.
“We’re going to say that we’re queer on stage,” Ms. Cullors, who at age 28 started an advocacy organization due to the brutality in the LA Sheriff’s office, remarked proudly.
The fact that Black Lives Matter, a movement that started in 2013 and has since grown into 31 chapters in America and abroad, is, as Ms. Cullors noted, “Predominately led by black women and trans-folk,” the relationship with the black church, which many argue was a staple in the civil rights movement and a staunch supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is “complicated.”
“There’s a myth that the church supported King,” said Ms. Cullors, “the brother didn’t get support from church; maybe 13% supported King, and that sounds about right in this moment, too.”
Ms. Cullors, a Los Angeles-born woman that’s expecting, explained that those at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement are individuals who have either been pushed out of the church, have left the church, or have felt deeply “disappointed by the lack of support they received from the black church.” Despite the lack of cohesion between the grassroots movement and African-American religious institutions, Black Lives Matter remains “deeply spiritual,” Ms. Cullors argued.
And it’s not solely identity, sexuality and/or gender that causes tension between the movement and religious institutions, as politics, too, plays a large role. The movement, said Ms. Cullors, has become a threat to the old guard.
Moreover, the old guard has a long-held relationship with the Democratic Party, which the movement, as a matter of principle, will not align itself with.
“To align ourselves with entities that don’t show up for black lives is counter-intuitive,” Ms. Cullors said.
“The black radical tradition causes us to critique the two-party system,” Ms. Opal Tometi, also a co-founder of Black Lives Matter who shared the stage yesterday at the Zellerbach Theater on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania with Ms. Cullors, stated.
Ms. Tometi, born to Nigerian immigrants, noted that the goal of the movement isn’t to integrate into the established system, but rather to question, challenge and transform it. More specifically, in addition to “questioning the structure as it stands,” Black Lives Matter concerns itself with “uprooting racism at its core,” said Ms. Tometi, who noted that racism shows up in many facets of American life.
But just as visible as racism is in America, so, too, does it have mainstream visibility across the globe, forcing Black Lives Matter to be engaged in international affairs. And according to Ms. Cullors and Ms. Tometi, the movement was never designed to have solely a domestic footprint.
“We’re apart of a global struggle against the U.S. Empire,” said Ms. Cullors, who added that Dr. King, given his fiery condemnation of the Vietnam War, also wasn’t just concerned with black Americans.
Ms. Tometi next week will travel to Germany because “they, too, see themselves as apart of this movement for black lives.”
The biggest strength of the movement, the founders argued, is their de-centralized network. In other words, Black Lives Matter’s biggest asset is their ubiquity of leadership.
“We’re way more powerful with a de-centralized network; you can’t just take one or two of us out; we’re everywhere,” remarked Ms. Tometi.
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CLICK HERE to listen to ‘Exploring Generations of Black Activism,’ a podcast from The Dr. Vibe Show featuring a panel of black male thought-leaders.
Keep a look out in January 2016 for an NPR Music documentary starring Grammy Award-Winner Mr. Christian McBride and co-starring Mr. Christopher “Flood the Drummer” Norris.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
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Photo: (From L to R): Ms. Patrice Cullors, Ms. Opal Tometi and Dr. Camille Z. Charles of the University of Pennsylvania. Photo Credit: C. Norris – ©2016
I’d like to preface my comments by mentioning I am NOT a person who embraces the ignorant, people dividing Black vs White or White vs Black game a significant number of my American neighbors wish to embrace. I’m a person who grew up in the sixties embracing the values of peace, love and unity espoused by many of my American neighbors of all flavors during that period of American history. I recognize and appreciate the issues of inequality raised by members and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. I realize there are inequalities that still need to be addressed… Read more »