Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

BY JASON STARR

Observer staff

The Black Lives Matter flag will fly above Town Hall in Williston.

The selectboard voted 3-2 Tuesday to raise the symbol starting March 1 and ending June 21, approving a motion from board member Ted Kenney that followed a request from a group of citizens.

The request was originally submitted in October and the board deliberated on it at three separate meetings, collecting about 140 written and verbal public comments that revealed strong opinions among residents both for and against the idea.

The flag already flies at local public schools, approved in 2020 by the Champlain Valley School Board.

In making the motion to fly the flag for four months, Kenney said he separates the sentiment black lives matter from the organization of the same name. Residents who spoke against the proposal Tuesday called the organization an extremist political group.

Board member Joy Limoge, who said she received hate mail as a result of her previously stated opposition to the request, voted with Gordon St. Hilaire to oppose the motion. Jeff Fehrs and Terry Macaig voted with Kenney to approve.

Black Lives Matter is a political organization with a radical agenda, said Limoge.

She believes the board overstepped its bounds with the approval.

This is not what our function is, she said.

St. Hilaire objected because he hoped to put the question to town voters.

After the vote, Macaig directed town administrators to acquire the flag and raise it on March 1. At a meeting in June, the board plans to consider whether to extend the display.

Several residents spoke at Tuesdays meeting, some urging the board to approve the proposal and others urging the board to reject it.

It would make me feel incredibly proud that Williston was able to use its voice to talk about a more just and equitable society, said resident Jerry Greenfield, noting the countrys history of slavery and unequal treatment of black people. To address the inequality in our history, you have to be willing to speak out about things that arent right.

Resident Cindy Provost asked the board what the flag display will accomplish and said it will deface the towns historic village.

Will it really improve how people act or think, she asked. I personally feel it will be something that will divide the town more, rather than bring it together. I dont feel like we have to have a banner to make people think we will include everybody in our town.

Fehrs said the flag display is a first step toward addressing racial inequality in Williston.

I believe we are a just and caring community, but we need to do better, he said. It takes courage to admit racism does exist in our communityand we want to address that.

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Black Lives Matter flag to fly at Town Hall Williston Observer - Williston Observer

A team of Newsday photographers collectively captured first place in a prestigious photography contest for their work chronicling Black Lives Matter protests on Long Island and New York City.

Pictures of the Year International, or POYI, awarded Newsdays photojournalists the top honor in the category of "Local Team Picture Story." The entry consisted of 18 pictures by Newsday photographers in a series dubbed "Justice for George Floyd."

The winning photographers are: J. Conrad Williams Jr., Alejandra Villa Loarca, Charles Eckert, Thomas A. Ferrara and Steve Pfost.

The contest was part of POYI 78th competition. It is affiliated with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism and recognizes outstanding photojournalism, online presentation and visual editing created or published in 2020, according to POYIs website.

Lynden R. Steele, the photojournalism director of the Reynolds Journalism Institute, said in an email Thursday that a panel of professional photographers unanimously determined Newsdays photos were the best in its category.

One of the awards judges, Cheriss May, an independent photographer and adjunct professor at Howard University, discussed the contest during a webinar on Wednesday. May said Newsdays winning images are "powerful" and could stand alone, but collectively they produced "a strong showing to tell a story."

John Keating, Newsdays director of multimedia news gathering, said in a statement Thursday: "It is an honor for Newsday photographers to be recognized by Pictures of the Year International. Our team fanned out across Long Island and New York City covering dozens of demonstrations over the summer."

He added: "There were risks involved. The threat of the COVID-19 virus being spread through large crowds was always present, and a number of the marches turned violent. Despite the dangers, Newsday photographers continued to work long days and often late into the night. The pictures produced helped Newsday readers understand the raw emotion behind the uprising."

Protesters chant on the ground on Carleton Avenue in Central Islip onJune 5.A bloodied protester is arrested as demonstratorsscuffle with members of the NYPD inBrooklynonMay 30. A protesterand NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan embrace during a solidarity rally for George Floyd onJune 1. Credits: Newsday /Steve Pfost;Charles Eckert; Newsday /Alejandra Villa Loarca

Some of Newsdays honored photos included a picture from Villa Loarca showing NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan hugging a woman in early June; a Williams photo taken about two weeks later in Roosevelt of a demonstrator holding a megaphone, raising his left hand while protesters march behind him, and a Pfost photo from early June taken in Central Islip.

Pfosts image shows a coordinated and symbolic demonstration of protesters laying on the ground with their hands behind their backs, as if under arrest.

To see the entire award-winning series, explore the gallery below.

Antonio Planas joined Newsday in 2018 and covers police news and general assignments. An award-winning reporter and Michigan State University alumnus, he has worked at the Boston Herald and Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Excerpt from:

Newsday photographers win award for protest coverage - Newsday

" Black Lives Matter" is more popular than either President Trump or Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to recent polling. The online research firm Civiqs found in June that voters approved of the movement by a 28-point margin. Rasmussen found 62% of likely voters viewed it favorably and 32% very favorably.

This demonstrates that there is a national consensus that the lives of black fellow citizens matter, which has not always been the case in our history. It also suggests strong support for better, fairer policing in minority communities. But that seems far more likely to be because large majorities believe in the principle of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal rather than because they support the agenda of the organization with the innocuous-sounding name, Black Lives Matter.

Fact is, "black lives matter" is a matter of common decency entirely separate from the activist, ideological, left-wing agenda of the BLM group. That organization has stated aims that go far beyond addressing police brutality. Its goals include, without apology, the upending of American society. Yet it has gained massively more attention, support, and money since the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis police custody. It is therefore important that the public, much of which thinks that by supporting BLM, they are backing obviously decent and humane reforms, knows enough to make the distinction between the idea and the ideologues hijacking it.

The co-founders of Black Lives Matter are avowed Marxists. At least one names a convicted cop killer among her heroes. A key mentor in building and shaping the group is a two-time vice presidential candidate for the Communist Party USA. The national organization is financially supported through a leftist group whose board of directors includes a convicted terrorist. A 2017 report from Black Lives Matter describes its founders, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and Opal Tometi, as three radical Black organizers. The women espouse Marxism and openly push radical identity politics.

Susan Rosenberg was listed as vice chair of the board of directors for Thousand Currents, BLM's financial sponsor, until the website was pulled down in late June. She had been a member of a radical leftist revolutionary militant group known as the May 19th Communist Organization, which was affiliated with the Weather Underground terrorist group and the radical Black Liberation Army. She was convicted on weapons and explosives charges and sentenced to 58 years in prison, serving 16 years behind bars before being pardoned by President Bill Clinton at the end of his second term in January 2001.

Rosenberg was a radical in the 1960s and 1970s who landed on the FBIs Most Wanted list for a number of crimes. She was caught in 1984 while unloading hundreds of pounds of dynamite and weapons, including a submachine gun, from her car at a New Jersey storage facility. She was believed to have been part of politically motivated bombing plots. Rosenberg and her associates were also charged with bombings during the 1980s that detonated at the Capitol and the Navy War College, among other targets. They were tied to a 1981 Brinks armored car robbery in which a guard and two police officers were killed. She wrote an autobiography in 2011 titled An American Radical: Political Prisoner in My Own Country about her own radical escapades.

Garza has repeatedly talked about how convicted cop killer and wanted domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, is one of her main inspirations. Rosenberg was suspected of helping Shakur escape from prison after murdering a police officer.

Garza wrote an article for Feminist Wire in 2014 claiming that hetero-patriarchy and anti-Black racism within our movement is real and felt and explaining that when I use Assatas powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assatas significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why its important in our context. Garza has repeatedly tweeted approvingly about Shakur.

Shakur is on the FBIs Most Wanted Terrorists list with a $1,000,000 reward for information directly leading to her apprehension. She is believed to be hiding in Cuba. Shakur, a member of the revolutionary extremist group the Black Liberation Army, is wanted for escaping from prison in New Jersey in 1979 while serving a life sentence for murdering a police officer. In 1973, Shakur and two accomplices were stopped for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike by two state troopers. She was wanted at the time for her role in a number of serious crimes, including bank robbery. When pulled over, Shakur and her comrades opened fire on the officers, wounding one trooper and killing Werner Foerster execution-style at point-blank range.

The BLM website is operated under an umbrella group known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, chaired by Cullors, who said she and Garza are trained organizers and trained Marxists during a 2015 interview with the Real News Network, noting: We actually do have an ideological frame. We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories, and I think what we really try to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk.

Black Lives Matter states that it was founded in 2013 in response to George Zimmerman being acquitted of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman argued hed acted in self-defense. President Barack Obamas Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder found insufficient evidence to pursue any federal civil rights charges.

Cullorss memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, includes a foreword written by Angela Davis and an opening epigraph from Shakur. In the book, Cullors writes that we do this work today because on another day work was done by Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, [transgender activist] Miss Major, the Black Panther Party, and others. In describing her move toward activism, Cullors wrote, I read, I study, adding Mao, Marx, and Lenin to my knowledge of hooks.

Mao Zedong, founder of the Peoples Republic of China, was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his own people, including 45 million or more during the Great Leap Forward, and millions more during the Cultural Revolution. Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union, presided over the Red Terror, which killed many tens of thousands as he launched one of the most repressive regimes in history.

Cullors told Teen Vogue in 2019 that Angela Davis is a mentor of mine. The duo have coordinated on BLMs strategies, and they appeared together at a TimesTalks event put on by the New York Times in 2018. During that discussion, Cullors called the poverty she grew up in a setup imposed upon her by a capitalist society and remarked: If this is a setup, then I can set it up differently. Davis, seen as a hero and mentor to the BLM co-founders, is another Marxist and was the Communist Party vice presidential nominee in 1980 and 1984. She was a leading apologist for the Soviet Union during the Cold War, even praising the East German and Soviet tyrannies while in East Berlin. Davis was the winner of the Soviet Unions Lenin Peace Prize and repeatedly praised the USSRs October 1917 Revolution.

In the United States, Davis was affiliated with the Black Panther Party and connected to violent, murderous radicals. Firearms registered to her were used in the takeover of a California courtroom in 1970 where four people were killed. Davis detests Israel and has been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism for decades. She has been a fervent supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement waging economic warfare against the state of Israel in recent years. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote in his 1991 book Chutzpah that hed asked Davis if shed be willing to speak up on behalf of Jewish prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union when she went to Moscow to receive a prize and claims she told him that they are all Zionist fascists and opponents of socialism and would urge that they be kept in prison. But she has pushed for political prisoner Marwan Barghouti to be released from an Israeli prison. Barghouti, one of the leaders of the First and Second Intifada and a founder of the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, was convicted on 21 counts of murder for attacks carried out by Palestinian terrorists.

Davis recently endorsed Biden on Moscow's state-owned Russia Today.

Garza and Davis appeared on Democracy Now! in 2017, with Garza effusive in her praise of Davis and repeatedly thanking her for helping guide the BLM leaders.

I have to say, Angela, one of the things I appreciate so much about you is that youre not waxing poetic about things that happened; youre still very much in relationship to all of us and still teaching us, Garza said. Thank you for being a constant presence for us. You are always 100% available and paying attention, and it means a lot to all of us. You are one of my greatest teachers.

Garza explained how thoroughly shed been shaped by Daviss radical ideology: I have a bookshelf full of your writings. And theres something very special and powerful about what you have offered to all of us this unapologetic way of making sure that we understand how intricately connected race and class and gender is, and then pushing that up against the state and the state apparatus and having us understand how we need to fight that with the relationship between race and class and gender in shaping our strategies and our movements is unmatched, so I want to thank you for that. Thank you for shaping not just our ideas, but the fights that we have on the ground.

Garza spoke at a leftist Net Impact Conference in 2016, where she made it clear that BLM was a wider agenda than police brutality, also pointing to the wage gap, climate change, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at the Standing Rock Reservation, and much more, arguing that at the root of these alleged problems was the capitalist system.

The closely affiliated Movement for Black Lives claimed in 2016 that Israel was an apartheid state committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Cullors has repeatedly talked about the importance of solidarity with Palestine, leading a delegation to Palestine. Cullors was one of the signatories of 2015s Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, a thoroughly anti-Israel screed that stated in part: Out of the terror directed against us from numerous attacks on Black life to Israels brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. The statement also said that the signatories reject Israels framing of itself as a victim and, hand-waving away the countless terrorist attacks and thousands of rocket bombardments against Israel, falsely claimed that anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter.

In the wake of Floyds death and the subsequent protests, Black Lives Matter quickly set up a petition on its website to #DefundThePolice.

We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken, Black Lives Matter said. We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.

The Black Lives Matter website explains this proposal with a July post declaring: We know that police dont keep us safe and as long as we continue to pump money into our corrupt criminal justice system at the expense of housing, health, and education investments we will never be truly safe. Thats why we are calling to #DefundPolice and #InvestInCommunities.

The group argued that George Floyds violent death was a breaking point an all too familiar reminder that, for Black people, law enforcement doesnt protect or save our lives. They often threaten and take them.

BLM is clear about its opposition to President Trump and Republicans. A letter from BLMs organizing director Nikita Mitchell has lamented that we face blatant anti-Blackness, capitalist values, and imperial projects, and she decried a rise of conservatism that has resulted in a fascist president.

BLM says that it is looking to influence Novembers election, arguing that Black voters tipped the balance in the 2018 midterm elections and that moving towards 2020, we seek to increase the power of our voices and votes. The group recently launched a #WhatMatters2020 campaign aimed to maximize the impact of the BLM movement by galvanizing BLM supporters and allies to the polls in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The campaign says that it is focused on racial injustice, police brutality, criminal justice reform, Black immigration, economic injustice, LGBTQIA+ and human rights, environmental conditions, voting rights and suppression, healthcare, government corruption, education, and commonsense gun laws.

Beyond their Black Lives Matter work, Cullors calls herself the self-described wife of Harriet Tubman and works on radical Los Angeles jail reform, while Tometi also spent years as executive director of the leftist Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Garza, Cullors, and Tometi were named three of Time Magazines 100 Women of the Year for 2013.

Black Lives Matter raises money through the ActBlue donation platform, though claims that this makes it a "shell company" for the Democratic Party are unfounded. Black Lives Matter appears to make up the majority of the donation work that Thousand Currents does, with the 2019 public audit statement for the latter group showing just over $6.4 million in total financial assets, including holding more than $3.3 million in assets for Black Lives Matter as of the end of last June. The audit shows Thousand Currents released nearly $1.8 million in donations to Black Lives Matter during the year ending on June 30, 2019.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has pulled in huge amounts of cash since Floyds death, telling the Associated Press that it had received more than 1.1 million individual donations as of mid-June, with each donor giving an average of $33 per donation meaning the group brought in more than $33 million in less than a month. Donations have continued to roll in since then.

BLM announced funds totaling $12.5 million in recent weeks. It first unveiled a $6.5 million fund to support its grassroots organizing work on June 11, stating in a press release that it was grateful for the generosity and support of donors and that the fund would be available to all chapters affiliated with the BLM Global Network Foundation. Beginning July 1, affiliated chapters may apply for unrestricted grant funding of up to $500,000 in multi-year grants," the group said, later adding that another $6 million will go to helping black-led grassroots organizers.

In the upcoming year, we will provide resources to those new to the movement and interested in Black Liberation strategies by developing curriculum, Cullors said when announcing the new fund. In this stunning moment in American history, we will honor those lost, and those who have come before us in the fight for Black Liberation.

Radicals attempting to co-opt otherwise constructive social movements are nothing new. The far Left participated in, and in some cases infiltrated, civil rights groups without discrediting the just and necessary fight against Jim Crow. But the arguments that won the day against segregation were rooted in the best American traditions, not in overthrowing those traditions. Distinguishing Black Lives Matter the group from the growing sentiment in favor of racial justice driving the phrase's popularity is a necessary first step in repeating that history.

Jerry Dunleavy is a Justice Department reporter for the Washington Examiner .

Link:

Who Is Black Lives Matter? - Washington Examiner

The campaign for African American rights in the United States has evolved over the years, first getting widespread attention after World War II. Also called the Civil Rights Movement, it took hold in the 1940s and 1950s when the NAACP challenged discrimination in public recreational facilities, segregation, and restrictive covenants in transportation and housing. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed public school segregation, but white citizen councils down South fought back, using economic pressures, legal maneuverings, and, sadly, violence. There is a long road still ahead for African American justice and equality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.s (MLK) first significant success was the 1955-56 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. This nonviolent protest began when Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus. In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was unconstitutional. This led to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, which Reverend King helped establish.

The Reverends other major accomplishments included leading sit-ins and marches in Birmingham, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 when he was just 35 and donated his prize money to the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Power leader Malcolm X founded the Organization of Afro-American Unityin the early 1960s but was assassinated in 1965. MLK fell to the same fate in 1968. After the Vietnam War, black politicians made some gains on local and national levels as the years passed, but racism and discrimination against blacks remain in the fabric of U.S. society up until this day. There are many organizations that fight against this, and one of the newer ones is #BlackLivesMatter.

On February 26, 2012, a 17-year old African American boy, Trayvon Martin, was walking home when he was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic. Zimmerman stated that he was acting in self-defense, but the nation protested in anger. There were no eyewitnesses, but Zimmerman did have cuts on his head and a bloody nose. He was charged with second-degree murder, and a high-profile trial followed. He was later acquitted of all charges.

#BlackLivesMatter (BLM) was formed in 2013 in response to Zimmermans acquittal. This Black-centered political movement is the brainchild of three women: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. It has grown into a global organization, the Black Lives Matter Foundation. It is based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

According to their website, their mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. They work to improve Black lives by stopping violent acts and advocating for Black innovation, imagination, and joy. This is done through political and ideological intervention, with a focus that also includes women, and members of the LGBTQ+ as well as all others who were not represented by other organizations. #BlackLivesMatter does not have a central structure of a hierarchy and works through local chapters. The organizations regularly hold protests to combat police brutality, inequality, racial profiling, and killings of blacks.

#BlackLivesMatter had a significant presence in August of 2014 after an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Eighteen-year-old Mike Brown had allegedly stolen a pack of cigarillos from a shop and pushed a store clerk. The police officer who responded stopped Brown and a friend, and there was an altercation. Although reports vary, the officers gun was fired; the incident was filmed on CCTV.

Browns death created a nationwide controversy, and The Black Life Matters Ride took place the following Labor Day weekend. More than 600 people participated. On June 3, 2020, KMBC News reported that Ferguson elected their first black female mayor, Ella Jones.

BLM participated in two critical events in 2018. That June, activists gathered at the San Diego, CA border to protest the inhuman treatment of refugees and migrants who were seeking asylum in the United States. In September, BLM marked the sixth-month anniversary of Stephon Clarks murder with 175 caskets. This event included members of the NAACP, Immigration Coalition, BSU Sacramento City, and other organizations.

In February of 2019, BLM joined a group of almost 60 celebrities plus human rights organizations to get Shyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph released. Their actions were aimed at the alleged targeting of Black immigrants. Abraham-Joseph was being detained by Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

After George Floyd was killed on May 25 in Minneapolis, protests erupted in different countries, and along with countless others, BLM members took to the streets. Demonstrators gathered at Londons Hyde Park and marched towards Victoria Station, and others were at Trafalgar Square, kneeling in solidarity. Additional demonstrations took place in Berlin, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, and of course, the U.S.

Signs reading Black Lives Matter and Racism is a Pandemic could be seen everywhere. While most of the protests started out peacefully, many degenerated into riots, with violence, arson, and widespread looting. Major U.S. cities have had to set up curfews; others have called in the National Guard. A Las Vegas police officer was shot on June 2 and is in grave condition. There have been several deaths reported as well:

Dozens of other incidences like this are flooding the media, and many calls for peaceful protests are being ignored. On June 2, a social media post claimed that Black Lives Matter riots would be taking place in Fresno, California. Black leaders there spoke out to let people know this was fake.

In light of what happened and the ongoing protests, #BlackLivesMatter has a new goal, a national defunding of police. They are calling for people to advocate for investing in communities and resources to help Black people not only survive but thrive.

Originally posted here:

What Is The Black Lives Matter Movement? - WorldAtlas

Backlash against Black Lives Matter includes branding it as Marxist.

The attack has been made in recent weeks by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trumps personal lawyer; Ben Carson, Trumps secretary of Housing and Urban Development; conservative talk show host Mark Levin; and PragerU, which has more than 4 million Facebook followers.

Arent sure what Marxism is, actually? It was developed by 19th century German philosopher Karl Marx and is the basis for the theory of communism and socialism. "Marxism envisioned the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by the proletariat (working class people) and eventually a classless communist society," Encyclopedia Britannica and Oxford Reference say.

These days, Marxism usually means analyzing social change through an economic lens, with the assumption that the rich and the poor should become more equal.

In a recently surfaced 2015 interview, one of the three Black Lives Matter co-founders declared that she and another co-founder "are trained Marxists."

But the movement has grown and broadened dramatically. Many Americans, few of whom would identify as Marxists, support Black Lives Matter, drawn to its message of anti-racism.

"Regardless of whatever the professed politics of people may be who are prominent in the movement, they dont represent its breadth," said Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton University African American Studies professor and author of "From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation."

"There are definitely socialists within the movement, as there have been in every single social movement in 20th century American history and today. But that does not make those socialist movements, it makes them mass movements," she said.

Trained Marxists

In a Facebook post labeling Black Lives Matter as a Marxist movement, PragerU included a video interview with Carol Swain, a Black conservative and former professor at Vanderbilt and Princeton universities. She said, "Now, the founders of Black Lives Matter, theyve come out as Marxists."

Swain alluded to Black Lives Matters three co-founders, who are still featured prominently on the groups website Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. Their primary backgrounds are as community organizers, artists and writers. Swain, though, was referring to a newly surfaced interview Cullors did in 2015, where she said:

"We do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia, in particular, are trained organizers; we are trained Marxists. We are superversed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think what we really try to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many Black folks."

We didnt find that Garza and Tometi have referred to themselves as Marxists. But the book publisher Penguin Random House has said Garza, an author, "describes herself as a queer social justice activist and Marxist."

What Black Lives Matter says

Black Lives Matter was formed in response to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Florida. The group calls its three co-founders "radical Black organizers."

The project started with a mission "to build local power and to intervene when violence was inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes," the groups website says. "In the years since, weve committed to struggling together and to imagining and creating a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic and political power to thrive."

Included on its list of beliefs is one that has drawn criticism as being consistent with Marxism:

"We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and villages that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable."

A spokesperson for Black Lives Matter; Kailee Scales, managing director at Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation;and the three co-founders did not reply to our requests for information.

"On one level, these are just put downs," University of Massachusetts Amherst economics professor Richard Wolff, author of "Understanding Marxism," told PolitiFact about the attacks on Black Lives Matter.

If people declare themselves Marxists, they are in effect Marxists, but "there really is no standard" of what Marxism is, "theres no way to verify anything."

Black Lives Matter today

Its important to recognize that movements evolve.

Noting Cullors declaration of being Marxist trained, "one has to take that seriously: if the leadership says it is Marxist, then there's a good chance they are," said Russell Berman, a professor at Stanford University and a senior fellow at its conservative Hoover Institution who has written critically about Marxism.

But "this does not mean every supporter is Marxist Marxists often have used useful idiots. And a Marxist movement can be more or less radical, at different points in time," he said.

Black Lives Matters "emphatic support for gender identity politics sets it apart from historical Marxism," and the goals listed on its website "do not appear to be expressly anti-capitalist, which would arguably be a Marxist identifier," Berman added.

The groups support is broad.

Even as some Americans express support for socialism, most view it negatively, and few of the supporters would identify themselves as Marxist.

Meanwhile, 50% of registered voters support Black Lives Matter as of mid-July, up from 37% in April 2017, according to Civiqs, an online survey research firm.

In July, the New York Times reported that Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history, as four polls suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of Floyd and others in recent weeks. (That does not account for similar protests overseas.)

"I am fairly convinced these are mostly attempts to smear anti-racist activists. I think in some media, Marxist is dog-whistle for something horrible, like Nazi, and thus enables to delegitimize/dehumanize them," Miriyam Aouragh, a lecturer at the London-based Westminster School of Media and Communication, told PolitiFact.

Black Lives Matter "is not an organization, but a fluid movement; it doesnt actually matter if one of its founders was a liberal, Marxist, socialist or capitalist."

See more here:

PolitiFact | Is Black Lives Matter a Marxist movement?

Many see the slogan Black Lives Matter as a plea to secure the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans, especially historically wronged African Americans. They add the BLM hashtag to their social-media profiles, carry BLM signs at protests and make financial donations.

Tragically, when they do donate, they are likely to bankroll a number of radical organizations, founded by committed Marxists whose goals arent to make the American Dream a reality for everyone but to transform America completely.

This might be unknown to some of the worlds best-known companies, which have jumped on the BLM bandwagon. Brands like Airbnb and Spanx have promised direct donations.

True, others like Nike and Netflix have shrewdly channeled their donations elsewhere, like the NAACP and other organizations that have led the struggle for civil rights for decades. These companies are likely aware of BLMs extreme agenda and recoil from bankrolling destructive ideas. But it requires sleuthing to learn this.

Companies that dont do this hard work are providing air cover for a destructive movement and compelling their employees, shareowners and customers to endorse the same. Just ask BLM leaders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.

In a revealing 2015 interview, Cullors said, Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. That same year, Tometi was hobnobbing with Venezuelas Marxist dictator Nicols Maduro, of whose regime she wrote: In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and construct a fair, transparent election system recognized as among the best in the world.

Millions of Venezuelans suffering under Maduros murderous misrule presumably couldnt be reached for comment.

Visit the Black Lives Matter website, and the first frame you get is a large crowd with fists raised and the slogan Now We Transform. Read the list of demands, and you get a sense of how deep a transformation they seek.

One proclaims: We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear-family-structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and villages that collectively care for one another.

A partner organization, the Movement for Black Lives, or M4BL, calls for abolishing all police and all prisons. It also calls for a progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.

Another M4BL demand is the retroactive decriminalization, immediate release and record expungement of all drug-related offenses and prostitution and reparations for the devastating impact of the war on drugs and criminalization of prostitution.

This agenda isnt what most people signed up for when they bought their Spanx or registered for Airbnb. Nor is it what most people understood when they expressed sympathy with the slogan that Black Lives Matter.

Garza first coined the phrase in a July 14, 2013, Facebook post the day George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin. Her friend Cullors put the hashtag in front and joined the words, so it could travel through social media. Tometi thought of creating an actual digital platform, BlackLivesMatter.com.

The group became a self-styled global network in 2014 and a fiscally sponsored project of a separate progressive nonprofit in 2016, according to Robert Stilson of the Capital Research Center. This evolution has helped embolden an agenda vastly more ambitious than just #DefundthePolice.

The goals of the Black Lives Matter organization go far beyond what most people think. But they are hiding in plain sight, there for the world to see, if only we read beyond the slogans and the innocuous-sounding media accounts of the movement.

The groups radical Marxist agenda would supplant the basic building block of society the family with the state and destroy the economic system that has lifted more people from poverty than any other. Black lives, and all lives, would be harmed.

Theirs is a blueprint for misery, not justice. It must be rejected.

Andrew Olivastro is director of coalition relations at the Heritage Foundation. Michael Gonzalez is a Heritage senior fellow and author of the forthcoming book The Plot To Change America.

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The agenda of Black Lives Matter is far different from the ...

Teaching Strategies

June 29, 2020 by Jackie Glassman

At BrainPOP, we are devastated and deeply disturbed by the senseless murder of George Floyd and many other Black Americans. We stand in solidarity with the Black community indeclaring that Black Lives Matterand we are inspired by the thousands upon thousands of people coming together to demand justice in protests across the country and around the world.

Just like adults, young people are trying to make sense of what is happening in their world. Understandably, they have lots of questions! Because every BrainPOP movie is inspired by a real question, weve been receiving tons of email from families and teachers with questions from kids! Here are a few:

Dear Tim and Moby, Why did the police kill George Floyd in Minneapolis?

Dear Tim and Moby, Im hearing stuff on the news about riots for racial equality. I thought that stuff was over with? Im confused.

My son asked, What is the Black Lives Matter movement? Can you add a kid-friendly movie to the site?

In support of our mission to empower kids to shape the world around them and within them, we produced a new movieBlack Lives Matter Protests.

The movie provides context for the ongoing protests, as well as background on the movement. Its development was made possible by the invaluable insight, expertise, and feedback of several key advisors: Dena Simmons, activist, educator, and author of the forthcoming book, White Rules for Black People; Renae Williams, COO & Co-leader at BLEND Employee Resource Group; and Christy Crawford, Director of Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Education & Equity Initiatives at Computer Science For All.

We strongly suggest parents, caregivers, and teachers preview the movie before watching it with children as it describes acts of racist violence. While we dont advise this movie for younger students, you can find collections of free, age-appropriate topics that support antiracism on both BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. Please note we are committed to expanding these collections in the coming months.

Our hope is that the Black Lives Matter Protests movie opens the door to challenging and essential conversations at home and in the classroom, as well as inspires action. We understand that these discussions may not be easy, but silence is not an option. Silence allows racism to thrive.

Following are some suggestions from Dr. Jean Schlegel Ph.D., a New York-based clinical and school psychologist, to guide you on how to begin these important discussions and how to keep them going:

Create a space that is safe for kids to reflect on their emotional responses to the recent tragic events. Start by asking what theyve heard. Focus on themes they understand, such as fairness and empathy. You can point out that George Floyd was not treated fairly and in our school/family, we believe everyone should be treated fairly.

Its okay not to have all the answers. But its important to recognize that upsetting events are happening and this is a safe space to talk about it, listen to one another, and learn how we can change things. For more ideas on how to create a safe space for reflection, see Facing History and Ourselves.

Children, like adults, see skin color. Even from a young age, theyre aware of these kinds of differences. Its essential to acknowledge race even if you think it doesnt impact your family because it does, in fact, affect everyone. When we discuss identityand encourage kids to take pride in who they are and respect the differences in otherswe empower them to stand up to racial injustice. Talking about these issues with children also allows us to show how they can disrupt inequality and combat systemic racism. Talking about race is not racist. Its important!

White parents tend to avoid conversations about race with their children much more frequently than Black parents and other people of color, according to the study Identity Matters conducted by Sesame Workshop and NORC at the University of Chicago. There are multiple reasons why this may happen. Perhaps some white parents feel ill-equipped to have the conversations. Or they want to shield their kids from conversations about race. Or they worry about their own biasesthat its better to pretend that race doesnt exist. They think their kids will be happier and less racist if they dont talk about it.

Regardless of the reason, avoiding these discussions has negative consequences. For example, it places an undue burden on Black families because it means the people who are experiencing the effects of racism are the only ones talking about itand the only ones advocating for change.

The Child Mind Institute, in their article Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News, makes these four suggestions for engaging in conversations about race with your child:

Be clear, direct, and factual about current events and history. Emphasize that racial violence is wrong.

Encourage questions even if you cant answer them. Its okay to acknowledge that this is a difficult topic and that you are uncomfortable, but its not a reason to stop talking.

Dont hide your emotions. Letting your child know youre sad and angry about injustice is good modeling of human behavior that can assure them that its okay to express their feelings.

Keep the conversation open. Racism and violence are important topics that require ongoing dialogue. Let your kids know that youre always available to talk, and be sure to keep checking in on them, too.

From the Child Mind Institute

Black Lives Matter doesnt mean that only Black lives matter. It means that racism unfairly affects Black livesthe Black Lives Matter movement is calling on everyone to change that. Even if the intention is sincere, help your child understand that the phrase All Lives Matter implies that the BLM movements critique of systemic racism and its effects on Black people is invalid. For more teacher support on this topic, see Dena Simmons article, How to Be an Antiracist Educator. For more family support, read 6 Reasons All Lives Matter Doesnt Workin Terms Simple Enough for a Child from Parents.com.

Racial colorblindness is the idea that NOT seeing color is a good thing; that race shouldnt matter. But, in fact, it does the opposite. When we dont recognize race, we perpetuate racial misunderstandings and we erase the specific lived experience of those affected by racism. For a truly antiracist society to exist one day, its essential to be aware of and talk about race. We cant afford to be silent.

Acknowledge kids anxieties and fear, but also reassure them that many people are working very hard to change things and keep them safe. Its important to give children hope. We can give them hope by offering tools to work with. Explain that mass protest movementsfrom Civil Rights and Womens Suffrage to Black Lives Matterhave historically been able to change institutions and systems. Assure them that society can continue to improve. Empower young people by encouraging them to use their voice and actions to participate and make a difference. They can stand up for their friends and classmates, write letters, and engage in adult-guided activitieslike fundraisers.

Since BrainPOPs earliest days, weve helped kids understand difficult subjects, from September 11th to Coronavirus. By building background knowledge about challenging topics, we prepare and equip them to have critical conversations. To that end, BrainPOP is committed to developing additional new topics to help children, families, and teachers have necessary conversations about racism and identity.

For more on BrainPOPs thoughts and response to recent events, read the letter from our CEO which includes a link to a blog post featuring our free resources for supporting antiracist education.

Additional writing by Tamara Fisch.

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Helping Kids Understand the Black Lives Matter Movement ...

Taxpayers spend over $41 million per day collectively on police services across the country. This does not include spending on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, railway and military police, and government departments enforcing specific statutes in the areas of income tax, customs and excise, immigration, fisheries and wildlife. In engaging in these policing practices, police forces across the country routinely engage in surveillance against Black and Indigenous People, constrain our movements, harm and kill us. We believe that Black communities, and all communities, deserve better.

The $41 million per day that is being spent on policing is not creating safer, more secure communities. This funding can be reallocated to create safer and more secure societies for all of us, and to rid Black and Indigenous communities of a serious threat to our safety.

We can and should have an emergency service that people can call if they are experiencing mental distress. We can and should disarm police, like the United Kingdom does, and like Oakland has committed to do. We can and should invest in shelters for people who are experiencing gender-based violence, so that the 300 women who are turned away from shelters each night in Canada have a place to go. We can and should create an emergency service for survivors and victims of sexual assault that will actually support them, instead of relying on the police forces in this country who have been routinely accused of sexual misconduct. We can and should provide nurturing educational environments, free of police interacting with our children without parental supervision. We can and should decriminalize drug use, and take a public health approach to providing support for those who need it. We can and should stop policing poverty, and reinvest funding into social housing, free transit, and food security. We can and should create a world where we all feel safe, and we all get what we need to live a life of dignity. And we can start that process by taking the funding that we currently waste on policing, and reinvest it in creating the safety and security we all need.

We are working toward the abolition of the police and toward a society where we can all be safe. While this is focused on law enforcement, we are also calling to defund jails, prisons, immigration detention centres, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).

We are calling for a reinvestment into Black, Indigenous, racialized, impoverished, & other targeted communities.

We can defund the police, demilitarize the police, remove police from our schools, and invest in alternative approaches to creating safety and security for all of us.

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Black Lives Matter Canada

BLM activists: Meet 9 people behind the Black Lives Matter movement - CNN

Story by Chris JamesVideos by CNN Digital Productions

Updated 7:00 AM ET, Sat February 6, 2021

Summer 2020 saw a paradigm shift in America's ongoing struggle for racial justice. In the midst of a deadly pandemic and historic levels of unemployment, people from all walks of life took to the streets to protest the deaths of Black citizens by police.

From George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, to Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and many others before them -- countless names in recent memory have been transformed into hashtags, human representations of a public safety system that time and time again has shown brutality and indifference toward Black lives.

But in the process of turning that devastating pain of untimely death into a purposeful rallying cry to "say their names," millions of peaceful and passionate voices have banded together in solidarity to demand a better society. These proud voices are inspiring hope, building community and breaking barriers.

The Tipping Point

The world watched in horror as then-Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against the neck of George Floyd for more than seven minutes -- killing him while being filmed in front of horrified bystanders.

This single incident on May 25, 2020, would soon reverberate around the world. In a matter of days, Minneapolis became the epicenter of a reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement.

City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, 31, an artist turned politician, said he saw the crisis as an opportunity to reimagine public safety while actively listening to the concerns of constituents who felt victimized by an increasingly militarized system of policing.

For many residents, anger toward the status quo boiled over into what Kandace Montgomery, 30, founder of the Black Visions collective in Minneapolis, calls "righteous rage." As calls for equitable change are being rooted in reinvestment toward housing, education and health care, Ellison said he hopes Minneapolis can serve as an example for cities around the country.

Life of Activism

Over generations in America, the movement for civil rights and racial progress has been carried and organized by legions of dedicated Black women.

After the killing of Breonna Taylor by police in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020, it was largely the work of Black women that brought the case nationwide attention, as they took to the streets imploring as many people as possible to "say her name."

Nupol Kiazolu, 20, is one of these women, a self-described member of the "Trayvon Martin Generation."

As a sixth grader, she led a silent protest at her middle school. Armed with a bag of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea -- which Trayvon was carrying when he was killed nearly nine years ago -- and wearing a hoodie with the message "Do I Look Suspicious?" written on the back, Kiazolu said she understood at an early age the mere act of existing while Black could be deadly.

Nearly a decade later, she's become one of the most well-known activists in the Black Lives Matter movement and a member of the so-called Louisville 87.

After being arrested at a sit-in on the lawn of the Kentucky attorney general and fearing for her life in jail, she said she felt further emboldened to continue loudly and unapologetically spreading her message for justice.

A Social Movement

One fundamental difference between 2020's protest movement and others that have come before has been the increasingly sophisticated presence of social media.

With its growing influence over young people across the globe, the TikTok app became a particularly unlikely yet massive tool for activism and education.

Prior to the summer of 2020, TikTok influencer Jackie James, 17, said she had never felt the need to post about politics or social justice. But watching the video of George Floyd's death changed everything.

She began opening up about the racism she'd experienced as a Black teenager in Fargo, North Dakota -- urging her audience of 2.6 million to understand the devastating realities of inequality.

Across the country in Santa Clarita, California, Sofia Ongele, 20, was also employing TikTok to help her peers understand the Black Lives Matter movement. Using her expert coding skills as a so-called "hacktivist," she's created web apps and automatic email templates to help people more seamlessly lobby for change, helping mobilize thousands of her followers in calling for racial justice.

The Ally

One of the defining aspects of 2020's protest movement was its sheer diversity. At rallies around the country, people of all different races united in defense of Black lives.

Amid the pandemic, the very act of attending a demonstration in itself represented physical sacrifice. But for undocumented immigrants who joined the protest, they were taking on an entirely different level of risk by adding their voice for change.

Getting arrested at a protest could quickly jeopardize immigration status.

Mxima Guerrero, 30, is a DACA recipient who was taken into custody after attending a protest in Phoenix. If it weren't for the mobilization of her fellow activist community and quick-acting legal representatives, she could have been deported to Mexico.

While some might wonder why anyone would choose to risk so much just to attend a protest, Guerrero is adamant that she was doing the right thing. She said she sees the struggles of Black and brown people as interconnected, and is working with young organizers to inspire the next generation of leaders.

A Political Future

For some members of Generation Z, the death of George Floyd gave birth to an impassioned and unexpected sense of activism.

Chi Oss, 22, had never attended a protest until the summer of 2020.

Unable to forget the horrific video of Floyd's death, he said he found a therapeutic outlet for that pain and sadness on the streets of New York.

Protesting helped Oss process underlying trauma that he said had built up over his years living as a Black man in America. Within just a few weeks, he became one of the loudest voices calling for systemic change. And after months of organizing and engaging with community, he decided to take his activism a step further by announcing his candidacy for the New York City Council. If elected, Oss would be the youngest elected official in the city's history. In deciding to engage in democracy, he said he hopes to inspire others to realize the power of claiming a seat at the political table.

Going Viral

Within social movements of the digital age, there are often specific moments caught on camera that encapsulate much larger issues.

Whether they spark agreement or outrage, the raw emotion captured in these viral videos resonates with the millions of people who watch, share, debate and analyze.

In 2015, Kwame Rose, now 26, ascended to this viral fame after a confrontation with Fox News' Geraldo Rivera that was filmed by a bystander. Rivera had gone to Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody, in April 2015, which prompted massive protests and unrest.

Rose was livid that so many news outlets had come to his city to report on the burning buildings and not the millions of people living in poverty for generations.

This video would catapult Rose to the forefront of activism, changing his life in both positive and negative ways. Today he is dedicated to a guiding principle of helping people in his city, working with World Central Kitchen to provide meals for those in need during the Covid-19 crisis.

Creating Community

At a New York Pride Month protest called Brooklyn Liberation, thousands of people stood together wearing all white to call attention to the epidemic of violence against the Black trans community.

One of the attendees of that rally, Vanessa Warri, 29, said she sees her mere existence as a Black trans woman in America as a form of resistance in a society that has historically failed to ensure her safety. She's using her platform as a social welfare MSW/PhD candidate at UCLA to give a voice to a community that has long been silenced.

Warri said she is committed to this work not just for her own future, but to help improve the lives of an untold number of transgender people who continue to face immense challenges in a predominantly transphobic society.

The Survivor

Inner-city Black communities were hit particularly hard in 2020, and not just by the deadly coronavirus pandemic and an unprecedented economic crisis.

Aalayah Eastmond, 19, is a college student in DC who has experienced the terror of gun violence firsthand. As a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, she witnessed the murder of her classmates and managed to escape death herself.

In the aftermath of that mass shooting, she discovered her voice as a gun violence prevention activist. She's made it her mission to advocate for increased investment in inner-city communities, and says she sees it as the only way to effectively stop the disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black Americans.

Video producers: Chris James, Isabela Quintero, Alice Yu and Allison BrownEditors: Nick Blatt, Jesse Threatt and Amy Marino

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These BLM activists are fighting for the civil rights of the next generation - CNN

The five leaders named, Anthony Vickery, 21, Kongie Richardson, Keith Joseph, 24, Raelyn Person, 23, and Jason Bryson, were responsible for organizing one of Lompoc'slargestdemonstrations for social justice following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a Caucasian police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on Memorial Day.

The death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes on Memorial Day, sparked a national response that also shook Lompoc.

The June 2 protest, which drew hundreds of participants from various racial, religious and political backgrounds, remained peaceful, according to officials, who reported that no vandalism occurred.

Both Joseph and Vickery, on behalf the their group, thanked prize sponsorsValley of the Flowers United Church of Christ, and Vickery acknowledged all the nominees for their own community outreach and acts of kindness.

"It goes beyond the award just knowing that the community can come together when it wants to," Vickery said. "Everybody is so scared to make that change, but once one person does it, it's like a ripple effect. Things can happen."

Joseph explained that although brutality is nothing new, for him the death of Floyd tookmore time to process.

"To watch someone dieslowly on camera," Joseph said, "that one was different."

In contrast to focusing on Black lives solely, Joseph said the group's efforts were meant to benefit the community as a wholeand serve as a powerful reminder that the nation's not-too-distant history was plagued by racial segregation.

While the aim to improve mental health resources for local schools remains central to his campaign, Murkison, who is Black, said he also hopes to cast a wider net on youth representation and diversity while serving on the school board.

"We just spoke from the heart," he said, recalling the intensity of the protest and the many challenges of organizing it. "It wasn't just Black lives; it's just wanting to help the community."

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Lompoc Black Lives Matter organizers awarded Valley of the Flowers Peace Prize - Lompoc Record