by Darnell Moore. Here are some essential readings from several astute activists, journalists and writers that have inspired, angered and challenged readers everywhere this past year. While this is in no way an exhaustive list, the following offers insider and outsider views of Ferguson, pushing all of us to consider the radical spirit and collective beauty illuminated in mass mobilized protests.
by Malkia Cyril. Like many thousands of black activists, I waded through the multicultural waters of the last 20 years. Even as black organisers and activists actively built a solidarity movement with other communities of colour, anti-blackness prevailed without an organised counter. Until now.
Dante Barry, Million Hoodies Movement. The response to this growing movement has been anemic. Task forces were formed and body cameras funded, but conversations in the halls of power have focused exclusively on tweaking, not truly reforming policing practices. New York has a lot of work to do to bring real systemic change to the NYPD.
Say Her Name responds to increasing calls for attention to police violence against Black women by offering a resource to help ensure that Black women’s stories are integrated into demands for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representations of victims and survivors of police brutality.
Some Jews may engage with Black Lives Matter as white allies while others bring their insights and experiences as Jews of Color.
By Nakisha M. Lewis, Tynesha McHarris, and Allen Kwabena Frimpong. But the systemic changes needed to end the violence won’t happen unless this movement gets the resources to build an infrastructure that harnesses a strong network of organizers and organizations.
Everyday, people of color in the United States are being criminalized for their economic condition, their race, their migrant status, gender and so much more. However, the real crime is demonizing, criminalizing and imprisoning millions of young men and women, relegating them to the margins of society as disenfranchised, unemployable pariahs.
Allison Brown, Open Society Foundations: On Mother’s Day, I watch Samaria Rice beg for some closure five months after her son, Tamir, was shot to death by police officers within moments of encountering him in a Cleveland park. I think of Gloria Darden and the shock she must have experienced at discovering that her son, Freddie Gray, was killed so senselessly and so violently by police.
Julie Quiroz, The Movement Strategy Center: I’m always glad when I get asked, “Is there anything that could really make a difference?” because there is so much coming from the movement for Black lives.
#BlackLivesMatter has infiltrated America’s modern vocabulary. It’s the rallying cry for a movement that began getting a lot of national attention after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. But #BlackLivesMatter began before Ferguson.
