Black Lives Matter

 

You might know . . .

The Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, in response to the police shooting of African American teenager Mike Brown.

But maybe you’ve never thought about . . .

Black Lives Matter is a movement started by three queer women of color focused on police reform, advocating for human rights for African Americans, and addressing matters of racial justice. These have gained media attention with the advent of cell phone video, but the problem has been ongoing for generations. Black lives are lifted up specifically because of the history of racial discrimination against Black bodies—from slavery to Jim Crow to the current police violence epidemic. All lives won’t matter until Black lives matter. The Black Lives Matter movement is also an advocacy movement working toward changes to laws, policies, and practices around issues of race and policing.

“I love my blackness. And yours.”

DeRay Mckesson

While more than half of those killed by the police in the US were white, the rate of white people being killed by police was about 2.9 per million people in the population. Compare this with the 6.66 per million rate for Black people and 10.13 per million for Native Peoples.

Source: The Guardian

 

1 in 65 deaths (or 1.5%) of young Black males is the result of being fatally shot by police.

Source: The Guardian

 

In a 2015 study, only 65% of the participating police academies provided de-escalation training, while 95% provided firearm training. Police agencies spend roughly 58 hours teaching recruits about firearms and 49 hours teaching defensive tactics. Crisis intervention and de-escalation training are only about 8 hours each.

Source: Police Executive Research Forum

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO
  • Find ways to get involved with your local Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter, or attend a Black Lives Matter rally in your community. Bring your friends and family with you. Listen to the stories being told there.
  • Educate yourself about the BLM movement. Watch the film Whose Streets? (directed by Sabaah Folayan, released August 2017). Read the report on the investigation of the Ferguson Police Department by the US Department of Justice.
  • Pay attention to how BLM is talked about in the news, and notice how the movement’s work is described differently than that of advocacy groups led by white people.
  • Contact your representatives to advocate for police reform at the local and state levels, especially more funding for de-escalation training. See page 145 for a helpful guide on contacting your representatives.

According to a 2016 report, 1,092 people were killed by the police in the US.

Source: The Guardian

 

REFLECTION & JOURNAL SPACE