Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. Nikki Wilkerson was used to thinking of herself as the small brown girl growing up in rural Pennsylvania.

She has been eyed skeptically while out shopping and questioned by the police for no clear reason at all. But she had resigned herself to keeping quiet about racism, which her white friends never seemed to notice even when it happened right in front of them. Nobody around here ever talked about any of this. Its just what it was.

And yet there one afternoon in early June, right in the middle of the county seat, she happened upon it: a crowd of white people demanding justice for Black lives. They would be joined by Black high school students, children of Latino farmworkers, gays, lesbians, queer, transgender, whatever, Ms. Wilkerson, 34, said. This was not the Chambersburg I grew up in. I had no idea. All of these people are just coming out of the woodwork.

The sight was inspiring, she said. But also frustrating. Why werent we doing this a long time ago?

Black Lives Matter could be responsible for the largest protest movement in U.S. history, which sprang up in countless cities and small towns after George Floyd was killed by the police in May. While the street protests have tapered off in most places, newly minted activists in small towns are still discussing plans for new events or standing in the back of otherwise empty City Council meetings to make their demands for police reform.

But beyond any policy changes, which could be slow in coming, a significant consequence of recent weeks could be the realization for many Americans in small towns that their neighbors are more multiracial and less willing to be quiet about things than most people had assumed.

Across the state in Lehighton, Pa., a town that is 95 percent white, Montreo Thompson, 26, pulled a lawn chair into his driveway in early June and held up a Black Lives Matter poster. Within days he was helping lead marches in towns all over the region, and also protesting alongside Black people he had never seen before some of whom lived down the street. They were literally walking distance from our house and I never knew they were there.

Small-town America has never been racially or politically monolithic. After the 2016 election and especially in places where President Trump romped, thousands of women who were aghast at the result became politically active for the first time in their lives, meeting in library basements and organizing small but regular rallies. Still, that movement, powered chiefly by middle-aged, middle-class women in the suburbs and exurbs, was in many ways just a preamble to the mass wave of protests following Mr. Floyds death.

For weeks, protesters in Chambersburg gathered on the sidewalk in front of Central Presbyterian Church, a bronze-steepled landmark dedicated in 1871, just seven years after the town was burned to the ground by Confederate soldiers. The Rev. Scott Bowerman, who has been pastor of the church for eight years, called Mr. Trumps election an apocalyptic moment. It was a deliberate word choice, he said, based in the root meaning of apocalypse: a revelation.

The 2016 election, Mr. Bowerman said, revealed that Franklin County, where Chambersburg sits, was not only conservative but enamored of a brand of America-first politics that truly electrified many of the white voters, who unfurled flags for Mr. Trump in a way they never had for any another candidate. Mr. Trump won the county by more than 45 points, 71 to 25 percent.

But the election also revealed a silent minority, long quiet about their politics. Many already knew one another (the usual suspects, Mr. Bowerman said) but they began forming overtly liberal groups Franklin County Coalition for Progress, Community Uniting, Concerned Citizens of Franklin County planning events to celebrate Pride month, for instance, and digging into issues like redistricting reform. A new organization called Racial Reconciliation began holding discussion groups at the Presbyterian church, with mostly white attendees.

But then the George Floyd demonstrations began. These protesters were not the Trump faithful, nor were they members of the so-called resistance. At first, nobody recognized them at all.

I couldnt believe it, said Linda Thomas Worthy, a founder of Racial Reconciliation and one of the countys most outspoken figures on racial issues. She would drive through downtown during the first week of the protests to try to understand who all of the people coming out to denounce racism were. I wanted to see how this unfolds.

It started with Shiloh Hershey, 24, who had never done anything like this and declined to be interviewed. She is white. But, said Amy Stewart, her mother, Ms. Hershey knows something about being marginalized, having come out as transgender several years ago. I know what its like to have a child who can be hated for who they are, Ms. Stewart said.

On the last afternoon in May, Ms. Hershey and her mother walked downtown after gathering up markers, poster board and a concoction of baking soda and water to pour in their eyes if they were tear gassed. The protest soon became a standing appointment, growing larger and more eclectic by the day, filled mostly by people who did not know one another and had never protested before.

The protesters were mostly white but not exclusively so, not in a town where more than a third of the students in the local schools are minorities. Lexi Leydig, 23, who is mixed race and was raised by a Guatemalan stepfather, was there, as was Maricruz Cabrera, 26, a Mexican-American who waits tables down the street at Falafel Shack.

Protests followed in nearly every town in Franklin County: Shippensburg up the road, little Greencastle and Mercersburg, and Waynesboro, where a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan showed up to jeer.

The politics of the protesters were deeply eclectic. Many of those at the demonstrations in Chambersburg were avowedly apolitical, with little faith in either major party or electoral politics at all. In Shippensburg, a young Black nursing assistant who announced the rally there was joined by a Republican, a libertarian, a Democrat and a young man who described himself as a radical Christian, all committed to defunding the police.

The most unexpected champion, perhaps, has been the Franklin County district attorney, Matt Fogal, a Republican. For weeks he had been stewing, unhappy about how partisan the pandemic response had become and about the presidents provocations. Then one afternoon he heard the protest out of his office window.

Im listening to them out there and just people honking in support, absolutely peaceful, a contrast to some of the images that we had been seeing, he said. He sent a statement to local media. Black lives matter. Period, it said, going on to urge people to put country over party in November. The former chairman of the local Republican Party called the statement thoroughly disgusting.

Few involved in the protests believe that the politics of the county had somehow been transformed overnight. Trump flags still hang from front porches all over the county, and on local Facebook pages, many commenters mock the protesters as ignorant and wasting their time. Many of the young people doubt much will come of this at all. Once everything slows down, said Ms. Leydig, people will just go back to their ways.

Still, there are some developments. The district attorney is forming an advisory group on racial matters. The meetings of Racial Reconciliation, which held a large demonstration in late June, are markedly bigger than they were. The liberal groups have begun letter-writing campaigns to downtown businesses, urging them to publicly support Black Lives Matter.

The protests themselves, fueled by the young and often working class, have been hard to keep going. A young woman who had taken over the organizing in Chambersburg soon found her days growing too complicated, especially after her mother was suddenly evicted from public housing.

The task of organizing transferred to a local graduate student, Kristi Rines, 30, who tries to keep a regular appointment in front of the church, taking meticulous notes about the ratio of honks to jeers (3 p.m. 4 p.m.; 9 incidents of backlash, 77 incidents of support) but often standing by herself in the sweltering heat.

Ms. Wilkerson has tried to show up, but it is hard with children and a full-time job. She teaches teenagers at a private juvenile detention center in the county, and as one of the few Black employees, has been among the few who will talk with the boys there about what has been happening outside.

They heard how theyre changing names of syrup bottles and theyre canceling TV shows, Ms. Wilkerson said. Her students tell her that they had never asked for any of those things, instead wanting an end to watching my friends get beat up and watching my uncles and fathers and brothers get arrested over small amounts of marijuana.

They dont have much faith in the system changing, Ms. Wilkerson said. She tells them she hopes it will. Thats all I can really say.

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What Black Lives Matter Has Revealed About Small-Town America - The New York Times

Black Lives Matter protests continue nearly two months after the death of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck.

Floyd's death sparked worldwide demonstrations that brought thousands to the streets, and people are still out there, including Miski Noor, an organizer and activist with Black Visions Collective.

Noor has been on the streets of Minneapolis every day since Floyd was killed. All four police officers involved in Floyds death have been charged, and now protesters have their eye on a larger goal defunding, and eventually abolishing, the police.

When activists say they want to abolish the police, they 100% mean they want no more police, Noor says.

What we're saying is that whatever it is that we're envisioning together to move toward is much safer than what currently exists, she says, because what currently exists is a police system that is entrenched in and comes from slave catching and union busting and that is incapable of keeping so many of us in mostly marginalized communities safe.

The Minneapolis city council unanimously pledged to abolish the citys police force last month and replace it with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.

Abolishing the police force will require amending the citys charter, and activists are in the process of putting an amendment on the ballot in November, Noor says. According to a draft amendment, the new department would consist of peace officers working to ensure public safety through a holistic, public health-oriented approach.

The idea of defunding the police has caught the attention of other governments across the country, with many leaders pledging to reallocate funds meant for the police force into other initiatives, such as mental health services. But the movement has also drawn ire from critics, who say getting rid of police will lead to more violence.

Of course, people are scared, but our people don't know life without police and can't imagine it in so many ways, Noor says. So as organizers and as abolitionists, it's our responsibility to hold people in their fear and then ask them the questions of what actually [does] keep them safe.

Activists who support police abolition point to statistics that show where police havent been effective in curbing violence. They say marginalized communities are overpoliced but they still experience an undue amount of violence.

In Minneapolis for example, reporters at the Star Tribune found that in 2019 only 56% of homicide cases were solved by police. In 2016, the Minneapolois police cleared only 22% of rape cases.

Noor also points to a specific example where the police responded but didnt act.

I was involved in the 18-day police occupation of the fourth police precinct when Jamar Clark was murdered. It's about to be the fifth year anniversary of his murder this coming November, she says. And while we were protesting, white supremacists came and shot at us, and five people were shot and the police were right there and did nothing.

Ahead of the upcoming election, many conservatives are using the movement to defund the police to discredit Democrats. Noor says she is not concerned about alienating people because this moment is different.

Now it's a different world. We're inside of a pandemic, and inside of that, there's been police terror, which has led to an uprising, she says. And a lot of that is because of the missteps and poor decision-making of the current president, and the voters and the people will reckon with him for that.

Marcelle Hutchins produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Tinku Ray. Samantha Raphelson adapted it for the web.

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Black Lives Matter Activist: Abolishing The Police '100%' Means Just That - Here And Now

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KRON) City officials along the Peninsula quietly remove a Black Lives Matter mural after someone suggests putting up a Trump 2020 slogan.

The Redwood City mural was put up on the 4th of July with approval from city officials but it was washed away last week after a local attorney requested that mural supportingPresident Trump be painted nearby.

Well, the artist says hes thankful the city allowed him to paint the mural in the first place.

His issue is that a human rights message was possibly washed away because of someones political stance.

On the other hand, the woman calling for the Trump campaign slogan to be painted says both ideas are free speech and comparable.

Redwood Citys Black Lives Matter mural on Broadway has been quietly washed away.

The mural was painted a little over two weeks ago but as a new proposal emerged, the bright yellow letters soon vanished.

They made the decision to take Black Lives Matter off the street as the first person that proposed the MAGA 2020, Dan Pease said.

Dan Pease was surprised by the removal considering the city supported the mural and even supplied the paint.

Then last week the 17-foot letters were erased shortly after a local real estate attorney requested a Trump campaign slogan be painted nearby.

Black Lives Matter is not a political statement. Black Lives Matter is a human rights issue, its a call, its a message, its a symbol, Pease said.

Maria Rutenberg argues the public space was being used to promote a limited private agenda and that Redwood City has become an arbiter of private political expression.

A statement to KRON4 reads in part:

Governments cannot and should not get to pick and choose who should be allowed to speak. Now that the cities open up asphalts as public forums, everyone with any political message is free to write their own. I, for one, would like to paint MAGA 2020. At a time like this, its especially important that we allow free and open political discussion for all sides, not just BLM.

Pease says city officials told him last week they planned to remove the mural for violating traffic and vehicle codes but he believes the quick removal came in fear of any legal pressure.

Pease would like to discuss any differences with people in his community who think Black Lives Matter is a political message.

I dont agree with MAGA 2020 but if somebody wants to support Trump wants to put MAGA 2020 and the city of Redwood City wants to support that then more power to that individual, Pease said.

Pease says hed be more than happy to paint the mural again but only if the city wanted him to.

He hopes people were at least inspired by the former mural.

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Black Lives Matter mural in Redwood City washed away after suggestion to paint MAGA 2020 - KRON4

Advertisings unique ability to persuade by creating the appearance of change through rhetoric, symbols and events has helped corporations and existing power structures conceal and protect white gains and Black losses behind the scenes for generations.

So as Black Lives Matter gained mainstream acceptance in June, brands eager to stay on trend turned to ad agencies to help them join the movement through woke messaging. And though we'd seen similar efforts backfire before Pepsis infamous protest ad with Kendall Jenner in the midst of protests against police shootings in 2017 come to mind long-standing public pressure campaigns to end commercial monuments to white supremacy (ranging from corporate mascots of happy Black servitude to racist NFL trademarks) were, in fact, finally successful this time.

While these hard-won victories are worth savoring, they are still largely symbolic because it's hard to ascribe them to any true change of attitude; the people spoke, but it was really that money talked. So, when Proctor & Gamble tells its consumers that Now is the time to be Anti-Racist, one has to wonder whether the companies and the agencies that produced the ad got the memo, too.

Because, when it comes to feigning change while continuing to marginalize Black lives and maintain white power, advertising has a long record as a repeat offender. And nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the ongoing, striking lack of diversity in the advertising industry itself.

In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed advertising and promotion managers in the United States, and found that less than one percent (0.7 percent) were Black a stark contrast to the 13.4 percent of the U.S. population that is Black. Perhaps more troubling, the number had actually gotten worse: In 2010, the percentage was 0.8 percent.

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To find out why, I conducted field work through internship programs at three major New York City advertising agencies. I found three related problems that likely contribute to the problematic, and ongoing, lack of Black advertising managers.

First, white nepotism runs rampant: At the agencies I studied, all 24 of the interns referred to as "must-hires" (which means interns with family connections) were white. In most cases, must-hires are a well-kept but open secret at an organization; their connections are subject to an implicit don't ask, don't tell policy. (Except, this time, I did ask and my anonymous sources told.) And since they are white, their race conceals them like a cloaking device they aren't subject to questions about whether they got their jobs due to "affirmative action" policies even though "must hire" policies are exactly that.

Second, the qualifications for entry-level positions in advertising can be loose and subjective; it comes down to whether a candidate feels like a "culture fit" rather than objective skills or experiences. As one human resources manager told me, the interview process for such positions feels more like rushing for a fraternity or sorority than interviewing for a firmly conceived job. As a result, colorblind whites cant (or choose not to) see that they are consistently hiring people that look like or come from the same backgrounds, because those are the people with whom they feel the most comfortable.

Third, advertising employees often refer their friends for open positions, which may save the agency the expense of a headhunter and provide the added bonus of a familiar officemate, but also makes for a racially homogenous workplace. Sociologists have long documented how the powerful and well-connected use this kind of opportunity hoarding as a means to conserve power within familial (and thus racial) lines.

All of which puts Black applicants in a tough spot. While Latinos and Asians are also underrepresented in advertising, Blacks stand out in an agency setting as one of the interns in my study put it like "freckles." This presents serious obstacles to mentoring and makes Black employees particularly vulnerable to white backlash.

For instance, over half of the white "must-hires" in my study opposed affirmative action, even though they got their own spots through just such a program; these white hires nevertheless complained that Black interns got in "only because" of their race. (Meanwhile, though a smattering of diversity initiatives offered competitive scholarships for minority interns, the must-hires in my study still outnumbered them by a ratio of more than 2 to 1.)

My research only begins to scratch the surface of a deeply entrenched problem but don't take my word for it. Watch Travis Wood's short SXSW film "Affurmative Action," which mocks how creative companies Meet the Team pages often feature plenty of dogs ... but no Black people. Or read this open letter from 600 & Rising, a coalition of 600+ Black advertising professionals calling for urgent action from agency leadership the most important of which being "transparency on diversity data.

In order to dismantle white supremacy inside advertising, more data is needed to hold ad agencies accountable and yet, despite decades of problems and numerous requests, as of last year neither major industry group not the 4A's nor the American Advertising Federation even bothered to track diversity statistics in their industry.

The Pledge for 13 has, in fact, offered to establish a a hub that tracks the performance and progress of agencies throughout the industry on diversity goals and instructing participating agencies to commit to achieving 13 percent African American leadership by 2023.

The pressure seems to be working: On the eve of Juneteenth, June 19, 600 & Rising announced that 30 agencies agreed to publicly share their internal diversity data on an annual basis, broken down by gender identity, race/ethnicity, seniority and department. The 4As signed on as a co-sponsor and agreed, for the first time, to conduct an annual diversity survey to create industry benchmarks.

But, of course, weve been here before.

In 2009, the NAACP launched the Madison Avenue Project and released a damning (if not surprising) report exposing the widespread and systematic under-hiring, under-utilization, and under-payment of Black people across the advertising industry. Not only was racial discrimination 38 percent worse in the advertising industry than in the overall U.S. labor market, but the discrimination divide had gotten twice as bad as it had been 30 years before. Months after the reports release, Adland's own Dan Wieden who coined Nike's catch phrase "Just Do It" criticized his own agency for hiring white kids to sell Black culture, asking a room of industry insiders, "How many Black faces do you see here?"

All this pressure didnt stop the 2011 CLIO Awards advertising's Oscars from their tone-deaf promotion campaign featuring a bunch of white guys dressed up like characters from AMC's "Mad Men." (The show seemed more aware of the problems within the industry than the industry: The fifth season of AMCs award-winning drama, premiering in 2012, opened with three white ad men hurling insults and water bombs onto the heads of Black civil rights protesters an event that actually happened at Young & Rubicam.)

Meanwhile as protests continue and brands jump on the bandwagon majority-white advertising agencies, among the hipster trappings of a progressive workspace, are still hiring predominately white people on the basis of favors, "fit" and friendship. And they're all working to convince us how "woke" our favorite brands are, so that we don't look too hard behind the curtain at how white the people in control of those brands and the messaging around them remain.

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Corporate ads said Black Lives Matter. But the industry creating them is nearly all white. - NBC News

By Kirsten Gutierrez, WRAL reporter

Raleigh, N.C. A new mural in Raleigh's Five Points neighborhood is sure to catch your eye the next time you drive through.

The mural is meant to call for action and demand change.

At the 5 Points intersection in Raleigh, you'll notice familiar faces.

Those faces were placed on top of the Shps at 1700 building Friday as a showcase of solidarity. Among the people now covering the edges of the roof are Michael Brown, Jordan Baker, Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice. On the other side of the building are Eric Garner, George Floyd, Breona Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Its great for one thing. Its part of getting together. Just hope everyone gets on one accord and gets together," said 5 Points resident Edgar Cross.

Many who live in the neighborhood are just starting to notice the mural and believe its a great way to spread awareness.

" [It's} such a great response to see here in a very conservative neighborhood that doesnt have any murals yet, I think it speaks high volumes of education and what we want our community to reflect as well as our downtown community," said Carolyn Walker, a 5 Points resident.

So far, the posters have spoken far louder than expected.

I think thats the purpose of it, to make change," said Cross.

The owner of this building said they planned to keep the mural up for as long as the posters last.

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Black Lives Matter mural placed on top of building in 5 Points neighborhood - WRAL.com

A protester holds up a sign at a demonstration against Whole Foods Markets clothing policy. outside Whole Foods on Gilman Street in Berkeley on July 17, 2020. Photo: Nancy Rubin

About 200 people gathered at the intersection of Gilman and Ninth streets Friday afternoon to protest a Whole Foods Market policy of not letting employees wear masks or T-shirts reading Black Lives Matter.

They came out to support Jordan Baker, who wore a Black Lives Matter face mask to work at the Gilman Street Whole Foods on July 15 and was asked to remove it within five minutes of arriving at work, according to her Instagram account.

I honestly dont want to work for a company who only supports a movement when it makes them look good, or makes them money, she wrote.

Her post was liked more than 40,000 times and many people at the rally said they had seen it and had turned up to support her.

Baker declined to talk to Berkeleyside during the rally. She said she has quit her job at Whole Foods.

The companys dress policy prohibits workers from wearing clothing with visible slogans, according to a spokesperson who sent the following statement:

In order to operate in a customer-focused environment, all Team Members must comply with our longstanding company dress code, which prohibits clothing with visible slogans, messages, logos or advertising that are not company-related, reads the statement. Team Members with face masks that do not comply with dress code are always offered new face masks. Team Members are unable to work until they comply with dress code.

But a woman who works at the Gilman store disputed that characterization. She said people wear clothing with slogans all the time and management does nothing about it. It was only when Baker wore a Black Lives Matter mask that they complained.

I wear logos every day and its never a problem, she said.

The woman, who did not want to give her name, said workers at the Gilman store are upset about the company policy. A number have quit. The woman, who has worked there for about a year, said she intended to quit soon. Others at the rally said word about what happened to Baker had spread among workers at the Berkeley and Oakland stores.

This is not the first large company to run into trouble when its employees wanted to wear Black Lives Matter merchandise. Starbucks, after tweeting on June 1 that it stood in solidarity with our Black partners, customers and communities, told its employees they could not wear BLM merchandise because its dress code, like Whole Foods, prohibited political or religious slogans, according to Buzz Feed. Starbucks later reversed its position.

The crowd, which started gathering at 3 p.m., soon swelled to more than 200. Protesters stood on the sidewalk and hoisted signs in the air. Many cars and trucks tooted horns in solidarity.

One woman, who used to work at the Whole Foods in Oakland, said the corporation was hypocritical because it said it supports social justice issues and has no tolerance for racism. But when an employee wears a Black Lives Matter face mask, she is told those words are prohibited.

Its tone-deaf, she said. Its super inconsiderate. Theyre performative. Its lip service.

A number of people at the rally said the concept of Black Lives Matter was no longer controversial after the mass movements prompted by the police killing of George Floyd, but instead expressed a demand for basic human rights.

This is not a political issue, the woman said. It is a human rights issue. This is not a controversial statement. Its a human rights statement.

Others at the rally said they were there to demand societal changes.

What I like to see is people participating, making social change, said Michael Ware, who works down the street at Berkeleys transfer station. Its our time, not only for Blacks but for whites to come together. This is an opportunity to unite for the better of all people.

The rally didnt seem to affect Whole Foods business much. As cars tried to turn into the parking lot, protesters would plead with the drivers to go elsewhere. A few turned around.

Inside, people continued with their shopping, seemingly unaware of the protest outside. However, three young women walked around the store and stopped customers to suggest they leave. They stopped this reporter and explained that Amazon was the true owner of Whole Foods, that it didnt pay its employees well, and that is a corrupt company. They encouraged customers to shop at Berkeleys independent markets, including Berkeley Bowl, Monterey Market and the Berkeley Natural Food Company.

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After being told to remove her "Black Lives Matter" face mask, Whole Foods employee quits in protest. - Berkeleyside

Walls covered in graffiti and street art can offer a synopsis of social movements. Recently, in response to police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and many others, artists worldwide have been ignited, taking to streets to express themselves. Syrian artists Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun painted I cant breathe across a fragment of wall in the northwest Idlib province; Italian artist Jorit Agoch made a mural of Floyd along with revolutionaries Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Vladimir Lenin in Naples; and on the Berlin Wall, Eme Freethinker portrayed Floyd and his final words. Driven by the necessity for reform and resistance, these artists are reclaiming public spaces.

In recent years, as the Black Lives Matter movement has gained momentum and protests occur internationally, graffiti has increasingly been used to propel its vision. The inherently political mediums storytelling powers have become a way for communities to raise awareness, express themselves, and even educate the public.

On June 20th in Cleveland, Ohio, artists Stamy Paul and Ricky Smith led a group of local artists, graffiti writers, and activists in creating a Black Lives Matter street mural. While such efforts have proliferated since Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., the Cleveland mural, like some others across the U.S., is more elaborate and artful. Each bold letter encompasses kaleidoscopic images of fire, characters, words (such as unity), and messages (Black women are beautiful).

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How Graffiti Artists Are Propelling the Vision of the Black Lives Matter Movement - Artsy

"End Racism Now" mural painted in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

In the wake of the tragic murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many other Black Americans, nonprofits and other organizations have begun to take stock of their approach to racial equity. Many of them have posted statements pledging to do better. Friends of the Children, a high-performing nonprofit that empowers youth who face tremendous obstacles, decided to go deeper. Friends of the Children created a three-pronged plan that focuses on advancing two of its core values: Put Children First and Demand Equity. It also asked each of its 22 locations to explore how they could drive substantive change in their communities.

Friends of the Childrens proactive approach undertaken even as it scrambled to adjust its work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has much to offer any organization striving to turn its statement expressing support for the Black community into real-world change.

Building a Foundation

Friends of the Children was founded back in 1993 by Duncan Campbell, who was himself an at-risk child. Both of my parents were alcoholics, he explained. We were on welfare, living in a tough neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. My dad was in prison twice. But Campbell had some good fortune, too. In the face of chaos at home, he told me when I interviewed him for my book Engine of Impact (co-authored with Bill Meehan), I was fortunate to have profound, shaping influences by other caring adults in my life who encouraged and mentored me, and this was transformational. I landed on my feet and went on to have a successful career working in the private sector.

A youth from the Friends of the ChildrenAustin chapter enjoys time on the playground with his ... [+] Friend.

Campbell became convinced that the best way to help children with troubled and unstable backgrounds was through enduring mentor relationships, and he used the fruits of his business success to establish Friends of the Children. Many mentoring programs depend on volunteers. But Campbell decided that Friends of the Children would instead employ and train salaried professional mentors who could provide a high level of quality and consistency. The Friends of the Children model derives from that decision: Mentors, known as Friends, work with kids over a 12-and-a-half-year period. Children selected for the program, who come from the most adverse circumstances, benefit from that kind of sustained commitment.

Campbell was determined to ensure that Friends of the Childrens work would be evidence-based. Given my childhood, he told Leap of Reason, everything starts with reality for me. Whatever I was going to do for children, I knew it had to be grounded in real data and real outcomes. Today, Friends of the Children regularly measures results by working with an outside evaluator. (It also participated in a multisite, longitudinal randomized controlled trial funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.)

And Friends of the Children generates strong outcome data: 83 percent of Friends of the Children youth graduate from high school (or receive a GED); 98 percent wait until after their teen years to become parents; 93 percent remain free from involvement in the juvenile justice system; and 92 percent enroll in post-secondary education, serve in the military, or join the workforce.

Duncan Campbell, Founder, Friends of the Children (L) and Terri Sorensen, CEO, Friends of the ... [+] Children (R)

Meeting the Moment

Friends of the Children has always served people of color. According to CEO Terri Sorensen, 88 percent of the youth in its program identify as people of color (with 60 percent identifying as Black or African American, or as multiracial) and 68 percent of its program staff identify as people of color.

When I talk to Duncan, Sorensen continued, he says, This is work we have been doing all along, and that is true. The recent focus on Black Lives Matter has led Friends of the Children to ask what more it can do on the national level to end the structural racism that exists in education, juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health systems. Friends of the Children is taking this work further by creating a racial equity working group that includes46 percent of its board members. Previous equity work facilitated the creation of this group. Several years ago, Friends of the Children made a deliberate decision to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of its board. It was incredibly important that we bring` more diverse voices to the table who represent the youth we serve, Sorensen explained, a combination of putting children first with our demanding equity value is how we approach Black Lives Matter.

An adolescent and her Friend talking together from the Friends of the ChildrenBoston chapter.

Friends of the Children has taken steps internally as well, like creating a staff focus around racial equity, questioning how racial bias might have affected its policies, and auditing itself. Under the leadership of chief program officer Carmi Brown, a staff-led racial equity working group has begun to work on what Friends of the Children calls asset framing. This effort, said Sorensen, is based on the work of BMe Community, an organization that strives to present Black and brown people in a positive light by shifting the narrative away from such topics as poverty and prison and by focusing on positive contributions that Black and brown people make to society.

Finally, Friends of the Children is working with BMe to strengthen its advocacy within systems that impact its youth. Friends of the Children is also creating a new chief officer of racial equity position to help make decisions, align chapters, and communicate with stakeholders on racial equity issues. Weve always thought it would be great to do this, said Sorensen, but [the current focus on racial justice] spurred us to act.

Supporting a Movement

All of Friends of the Childrens 22 locations are working with the national organization to advance racial equity while also crafting and implementing their own approaches to this issue. For Gary Clemons, executive director of Friends of the ChildrenNew York, doing this work is both a professional and a personal commitment. Clemons joined Friends of the Children in 2008 as a Friend in its Portland chapter and quickly worked his way up in the organization. He is also a Black man who grew up in a community with high unemployment rates, lack of social services, and under-resourced schools, which attributed to his experiences with gangs and homelessness. Having overcome these obstacles to become a passionate advocate for marginalized communities, Clemons is determined to make the most of the current nationwide focus on racial justice. Im 44, he said, and for the first time in my life I feel like there could be change. I have made a pact with myself: We want to make sure this is not a moment it is a movement.

Gary Clemons, Executive Director, Friends of the ChildrenNew York

Under Clemonss leadership, Friends of the ChildrenNew York is working to implement and scale an anti-racism framework that starts by changing the narrative around race. A lot of times, when we talk about Black and Latinx people, we talk about them in such a negative way, or we do it through the lens of whiteness. Theres so much richness in those two cultures, and we want to make sure we bring it to life, he said. It is also essential to change this narrative in the minds of Black and brown youth. When he was working as a Friend, Clemons recalled, he knew from experience that his youth didnt feel affirmed by our society and made it a point to tell them what they were doing right. I told them how great they were, he explained, and how great their caregivers were, to reaffirm their identities.

Equally important, Clemons seeks to expand the definition of racism. The country has been stuck in a 1960s version of racism, which is just [about] color, he explained. You need to talk about institutional racism, but you also have to talk about culture how someone talks, dresses, looks. We demonize certain parts of Black or Latinx culture that are furthest from whiteness, and we need to think about it in a more expanded way. Clemons offered guidance on how organizations like Friends of the Children can begin that process: Highlight all aspects of Black and brown culture, and, as an organization, make sure that we tell positive stories around youth and communities we serve and talk more about systemic issues that act as barriers for them. Families have been part of a racist system for a long time, so we see symptoms but not the root causes.

A youth and his Friend from the Friends of the ChildrenLos Angeles chapter.

Addressing these causes, said Clemons, entails advocating for policy change; partnering with systems including criminal justice, foster care, and education that are often punitive toward Black and brown children; and mobilizing resources for Black and brown communities. And, he noted, even organizations like his own, with a long history of serving Black and brown people, need to consider how they may reflect the values of a society centered on whiteness. Whatever is in your mission, he concluded, figure out what you can do to influence change. We can all contribute to changing the narrative.

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For Friends Of The Children, Black Lives Matter Is More Than A Moment - Forbes

According to the mainstream media, Black Lives Matter is a peaceful group fighting for civil rights. But this narrative flies in the face of hard truths concerning Black Lives Matters conduct since its inception in 2012.

Especially in light of the recent acts of anarchy and cop assassinations committed by members and sympathizers of the movement, its important that the public know exactly what this group participates in and stands for.

Here are five things you need to know about Black Lives Matter:

1. Black Lives Matter pushes a false narrative based on lies.

Leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement have expressed outrage over white cops allegedly targeting and murdering black men in cold blood with racial animus. The movement has depicted such horrors as an epidemic.

But such a narrative is false; statistical evidence has wholly debunked these claims and a new study has actually found no racial bias against blacks in police shootings.

Further, even the blown-up stories in the media helping to build the false narrative are built on lies: The Black Lives Matter movement earned its claim to fame by promoting the lie that Michael Brown was fatally shot by white officer Darren Wilson while he was surrendering with his hands up.

This is false. It never happened. Instead, Brown was believed to have been reaching for Wilsons gun moments before he was shot and killed in an act of self-defense. This was evidenced in the Justice Departments own investigation, which completely exonerated Wilson of wrongdoing.

Still, even today, Black Lives Matter protesters chant the lie over and over again.

2. Black Lives Matter calls for anarchy, and they follow through on it.

Black Lives Matter protesters staple chant is no justice, no peace. They have also explicitly called to dismantle this system.

And yes, they act on those calls for anarchy.

For instance, in response to the acquittal and total exoneration of law enforcement office Darren Wilson, movement members set the city of Ferguson, Missouri on fire. Innocent people had their businesses trashed and looted while the peaceful people of Missouri (black and white alike) awakened to find their city in shambles, literally on fire.

Further, just this weekend, over 300 people were arrested at Black Lives Matter protests held in New York, Chicago, Minnesota and Louisiana.

3. Black Lives Matter has explicitly called for dead cops and the lynching of white people.

Black Lives Matter members have disturbingly called for the murder of innocent white people, white police officers in particular.

Here are four videos calling for such action.

At a Black Lives Matter protest held in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, one attendee told fellow protesters to evade the law and murder cops if they feel they have been targeted by an officer for a crime they did not commit:

Black Lives Matter protesters chant Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon! at the Minnesota State Fair:

Black Lives Matter protesters chant What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want them? Now! in response to the death of Eric Garner:

A radio host affiliated with Black Lives Matter agrees with an anonymous caller demanding that white people be a sacrifice for alleged racially-motivated police brutality. The caller suggests that after black people murder innocent white people, they should hang them from a tree, take pictures of it and send it to mother f*ckers.

4. Black Lives Matter has pushed for segregation, even from Black Lives Matter sympathizers and their own members who are not black.

In November of 2015, Black Lives Matter members openly promoted segregation: Activists at the University of Missouri demanded a blacks only healing space where white allies and sympathizers of their cause were kicked out. This counterproductive move was in response to perceived racial injustices and white privilege at the college.

Earlier this month, Black Lives Matter members reportedly refused to sell a white supporter of the movement a Black Lives Matter t-shirt because of the color of his skin. Apparently the t-shirts were reserved for blacks only.

5. The Obama Administration has legitimized Black Lives Matter.

Despite all the racist, hateful acts committed and promoted by members of the Black Lives Matter movement, our president continuously legitimizes the group.

As recent as February of this year, Mr. Obama invited race-hustlers and prominent Black Lives Matter figures such as Deray McKesson to speak about race at the White House. He reportedly told McKesson and the other so-called activists that they have done outstanding work and made history.

Weve got some young people here who are making history as we speak.

Barack Obama, praising Black Lives Matter supporters

Weve got some young people here who are making history as we speak, said Obama. People like Brittany [Packnett] who served on our Police Task Force in the wake of Ferguson and has led many of the protests that took place there and shined a light on the injustice that was happening. People like Deray McKesson who has done some outstanding work mobilizing in Baltimore around these issues and to see generations who are continuing to work on behalf of justice and equality and economic opportunity is greatly encouraging to me.

Of course, the left as a whole, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and the mainstream media at large, have also pitched in to legitimize and pander to the hate group.

Continued here:

5 Things You Need To Know About Black Lives Matter | The ...

Black lives did not matter when they were inhumanely transported like livestock from Africa. Black lives did not matter when they were lynched by the hundreds at the hands of the KKK. Black lives did not matter when they were attacked by dogs as they protested for equal rights.

With the weekly news cycle seeming to, without fail, include the death of at least one black boy at the hands of the police, or the body of a black woman being thrown to the ground by local law enforcement, or a black child being manhandled by the services meant to protect them, my heart sinks as I cling to the desire that black lives will matter.

When Nancy Pelosi, as part of MSNBCs town hall last year, was asked by student Shelly Ward if she supported the Black Lives Matter movement, Pelosis response was an all too familiar Well, I believe that all lives matter. Her statement was to the very obvious disappointment of the young black woman who asked the question, and to the disappointment of an exhausted black community.

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As someone who is constantly bombarded with the howling of but all lives matterand the heated conversations that inevitably followlet me explain. Black Lives Matter is not a term of confrontation or an exclusionary demand. As Columbia Law Professor Kimberle Crenshaw explains, saying black lives matter is simply aspirational; it's a rallying cry for a shift in statistical numbers that show that people who are black are twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed, compared to a white individual. According to a 2015 study, African-Americans died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites were killed at a rate of 2.9 per million.

Anyone who has kept any type of pulse on civil rights and the black human condition in the United States since the transatlantic slave trade would understand the need to emphasize the protection of black bodies. The people who have had the luxury of ignoring this particular issue is the white community, which has had the privilege of not questioningon a large scalewhether the systems they live in are detrimental to their livelihoods, based on their skin color.

But as the Black Lives Matter movement emerged, they were all of a sudden jolted into an awareness of the intersection of race and surviving police encounters. Instead of exploring the reasons why a movement like this would even be necessary, many have a knee jerk reaction. What about me? All lives matter, they cry. Why be divisive and unfair, what about our safety? The point these people miss is that the majority of experiences here in America already tend to center and highlight whiteness and cater to its safety. The country was built to function that way. Its roots of white supremacy and the marginalized concern for people of color has remained.

Today, looking at the gross brutality and murders of black American citizens like Oscar Grant, Michelle Cusseaux, Samuel Dubose, and Jordan Edwards, we are still aspiring to convince you that black lives matter.

But let's get back to the issue of countering Black Lives Matter with the phrase All Lives Matter. I've come to describe this as a collective gaslighting from the white community. Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power (or in this case, keep their own peace), makes a victim question their reality. Why do those who counter black lives matter act as though black people aren't aware of the glaring disproportionate statistics of police brutality, of health care racism, and of mass incarceration? This is our reality. You deciding to ignore it for your own comfort doesn't make it any less true.

If a patient being rushed to the ER after an accident were to point to their mangled leg and say, This is what matters right now, and the doctor saw the scrapes and bruises of other areas and countered, but all of you matters, wouldnt there be a question as to why he doesn't show urgency in aiding that what is most at risk? At a community fundraiser for a decaying local library, you would never see a mob of people from the next city over show up angry and offended yelling, All libraries matter!especially when theirs is already well-funded.

This is because there is a fundamental understanding that when the parts of society with the most pain and lack of protection are cared for, the whole system benefits. For some reason, the community of white America would rather adjust the blinders theyve set against racism, instead of confront it, so that the country can move forward toward a true nation of justice for all.

"Stating 'black lives matter' doesnt insinuate that other lives dont."

Let me be clear: our stating that black lives matter doesnt insinuate that other lives dont. Of course all lives matter. That doesnt even need to be said. But the fact that white people get so upset about the term black lives matter is proof that nothing can center the wellbeing and livelihoods of black bodies without white people assuming it is to their demise.

My personal message to those committed to saying all lives matter in the midst of the justice-driven work of the Black Lives Matter movement: prove it. Point out the ways our societyparticularly the systems set in place to protect citizens like police officers and doctors and elected officialsare showing up to serve and protect black lives. Illuminate the instances in which the livelihood of the black community was prioritized, considering the circumstances that put us into less-privileged spaces to begin with. Direct me to the evidence of justice for the bodies discarded at the hands of those in power, be it by unjustified murder, jail cell, poisoned water, or medical discrimination.

These are the things that must be rectified for us to be able to exhale. Until then, I'll be here, my black fist raised with Black Lives Matter on my lips.

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What Does "Black Lives Matter" Actually Mean? Why Saying ...