week 2

poli 316

Founders of #BlackLivesMatter:

Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.

Creation of #BlackLivesMatter:

Created as a call to action for Black people after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Core Definition of Black Lives Matter:

An ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.

Purpose of BLM:

An affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, their humanity, and their resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

Focus of BLM (Inclusivity):

Centres Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, Black-undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum.

BLM as a Tactic:

A tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement.

BLM Strategy:

Strategy and action centred around Blackness without other non-Black communities of colour or White folks needing to find a place to centre themselves within it.

Critique of "All Lives Matter":

When deployed to correct an intervention specifically created to address anti-Blackness, it perpetuates White supremacist domination by homogenizing different experiences.

Theft/Erasure Critique:

When the work of queer Black women is adopted, but not named or recognized, and promoted as if it has no history, such actions are problematic.

Hetero-Patriarchy and Racism within Movements:

Straight men, unintentionally or intentionally, have taken the work of queer Black women and erased their contributions; hetero-patriarchy and anti-Black racism within progressive movements are real, felt, and are killing the potential to build power for transformative social change.

State Violence (BLM definition):

Includes acknowledging Black poverty and genocide, the incarceration of 1 million Black people (half of all people in prisons or jails), the relentless assault on Black women's children and families, and the unique burden borne by Black queer and trans folks.

Achieving Collective Freedom:

When Black people get free, the benefits will be wide reaching and transformative for society as a whole, because Black lives, seen as without value within White supremacy, are important to everyone's liberation.

Trayvon Martin (2012):

The 17-year-old whose posthumous placement on trial for his own murder and the acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, sparked the creation of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.

Michael Brown (2014):

Eighteen-year-old whose killing by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO, inspired the move of the hashtag from social media to the streets and the creation of the infrastructure for the movement.

Recursive Trauma:

The feeling experienced by Black Americans where cases like Michael Brown's murder felt familiar, triggering bitter anger and reinforcing the idea that the system was not structured to deliver justice.

Ferguson Uprising Characteristics (4):

Fueled by recursive trauma, confluence of injustice, an established Black-led social justice ecosystem, and mobilization from across the US.

Racial Capitalism (Ferguson Example):

The systematic exploitation of Black residents by police for the purpose of collecting municipal revenue through petty fines and fees, creating a vortex of debt and despair.

George Floyd (2020):

His murder in Minneapolis sparked open Black revolt and the most widespread spontaneous uprising in US history.

"I Can't Breathe": George Floyd's last words, which repeated the last words of Eric Garner, lending the subsequent rage a humiliated futility.

The Riots (2020):

Were essential, propelling and making possible the protests; they were seen by many as a defensible answer to state violence, and resulted in political action described as "magic actions".

Politics of Despair:

A public mood characterized by a feeling of inefficacy and hopelessness, where people believe that voting doesn't count and those governing are unresponsive; social movements act as a force to counteract this.

Social Movements (Democratic Role):

Argued to be an essential institutional element, or a Fifth Estate, that serves as an indispensable check on institutional tendencies toward bureaucracy and oligarchy.

Abolition:

The chief demand of the rebellion; it argues that the only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and police, aiming for the full elimination of police and prisons.

Abolition and Systemic Change

The position that a world without police and prisons requires ruthless criticism and transformation of every piece of the social whole ("Abolition requires that we change one thing, which is everything," per Gilmore).

M4BL Leadership Model:

Described as "leaderful," which promotes diffuse leadership to prevent the movement from being killed by targeting key actors, in the style of Ella Baker.

Radical Black Feminist Pragmatism (RBFP):

The peculiar political philosophy of the M4BL that centers the experiences of the most marginalized and takes lessons from many 20th-century ideologies.