Mediaboss Marketing

Patrisse Khan-Cullors and two friends are founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. She sees the movement going forward with renewed focus, and building political power. Courtesy of Patrisse Khan-Cullors hide caption

Patrisse Khan-Cullors and two friends are founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. She sees the movement going forward with renewed focus, and building political power.

It's been five years since the death of Trayvon Martin and the outrage that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

Martin 17 years old, black and unarmed was shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. He claimed self-defense, and was later acquitted.

After the verdict, there were demonstrations and an emotional Facebook post by an activist named Alicia Garza.

It read, in part: "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter."

That phrase was streamlined by her friend, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, and with the help of a third friend, Opal Tometi, "black lives matter" became a hashtag, a rallying cry and eventually a protest movement that gained steam after police killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Since then, much has changed, Khan-Cullors tells NPR's Audie Cornish.

"In that moment, it wasn't popular to be in the streets. It wasn't a part of the mainstream dialogue," she says. "What we've seen over the last five years is the popularization of protest and the willingness of both media but also Hollywood to talk about Black Lives Matter unapologetically."

On whether the movement would have benefited from focusing on a single policy issue

The movement is a decentralized one. Many different people across the country are entering from different angles. We're not looking for one fix-it policy. We're taking on our mayors, our chiefs of police, our sheriffs and our DAs. We're looking at the entire system and the ways that it can transform itself so that we can actually see a world where black lives matter. And I think it's been incredibly effective.

On whether Donald Trump's election felt like a rebuke

I'll say this: Whenever black people say enough is enough, we are often up against white nationalism. And so what this election showed us is our movement became too powerful and that white nationalism although (it) has always existed took power again.

On Trump's voter base

There are people who are white racists and identify as such. And there are people who are well-meaning white people who also voted for Trump. There also are a significant amount of people of color who voted for Trump. And I think we have to consider what kind of conditions allowed for people who actually believe in American democracy to vote for a Trump.

On what lies ahead for the movement in the Trump era

I see us moving forward with a renewed focus. We have to defend and protect our communities, but we also have to build a long-term strategy to ensure that those who are most at the margins, that we'll actually be able to build real political power.

To hear more of this interview, click on the audio button.

View post:
Black Lives Matter Finds 'Renewed Focus' 5 Years After Trayvon Martin - NPR

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Black History Month which is meant to celebrate achievements made within the African-American community has morphed into the Black Lives Matter movement in many public schools.

Earlier this month, the entire school district in Rochester, New York, designated a Black Lives Matter day to celebrate the citys diversity.

We want people to acknowledge and respect one item, one part of what makes America great, which is the black community, Van White, the Rochester school board president, told the local Time Warner Cable News. The whole idea is to understand the struggles that black folks have in this country. If people dont respect your life as an African-American, Latino, Italian, that will raise obstacles for you.

Mr. White and the school board maintained their decision to celebrate the day had no affiliation with the national Black Lives Matter movement, yet by merely naming the day Black Lives Matter, it is politically charged that western society systemically and institutionally discriminates against people of color. That lady justices scale is tipped against them, and shes not blind.

In Illinois, 220 students at DeKalb High School, decided to stay at home after a Black History Month assembly led to racially charged exchanges and rumors about threats against the school, according to the Daily Chronicle.

Two sophomores recited the poem Angry Black Women, at the assembly, which includes racially charged lines like Im mad because the system is built for the white man. Im mad because white women fetishize our black men or refuse to acknowledge our Black Lives Matter and Mad because Black Lives Matter is corrected to All Lives Matter by White America who feels threatened by us.

Parents were only notified of the performance after it went viral, and school Superintendent Doug Moeller admitted the school shouldve been more diligent in reviewing what content was presented. A rap song titled I cant breathe was also performed.

I dont think [the high school administration] did their due diligence in terms of reviewing the skits and the songs that were going to be presented, Mr. Moeller told the Chronicle after the uproar. Again, I didnt find them offensive, but I can understand how some of our students might find them offensive, just given the race relationships in this town.

In North Texas, a Black History Month performance also took a political tone, offending the towns police chief.

During an assembly this month, students held up signs reading Black Lives Matter, I cant breathe, and The whole system is guilty.

Allowing this only promotes the discontent and hatred for police to continue. Its a bad day, Police Chief Mike Broadnax told his local CBS News.

According to the local television station, Principal Michael Bland emailed the schools staff and called the highly politicized message an unfortunate event.

See the original post:
Black History Month morphs into Black Lives Matter month in many public schools - Washington Times

Mashable

A YA tale inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement should be the next book you read Mashable It may be early in the year, but the best YA novel of 2017 is likely already in stores. The Hate U Give, the debut novel of author Angie Thomas, hit shelves today and is the buzziest non-sequel to hit the YA world in some time. Inspired by the Black ... This Young Adult Novel That Tackles Black Lives Matter Is Exactly What We NeedRefinery29 all 3 news articles »

Excerpt from:
A YA tale inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement should be the next book you read - Mashable

A new musical work by pianist and composer Jon Jang, and in collaboration with poet performer Amanda Kemp, "Can't Stop Cryin' for America! (Black Lives Matter)," will make its world premiere this year as part of the 30th anniversary season of Asian Improv aRts.

The work memorializes African Americans "killed by the police and/or white supremacists" in 2014 and 2015, according to Jang, while making connections to the history of legal lynching, institutional racism, and African American and Asian American alliances.

"As a U.S. artist and citizen, I support Black Lives Matter and the rights of immigrants of color to live a life of equality in our country," Jang told NBC News. "We need to reject confusing statements such as 'All Lives Matter' and 'We Are Immigrants' because [they do] not address the history of institutional racism and exclusionary laws that have destroyed or nearly destroyed families of color in our country."

RELATED: Composer Debuts Song Honoring Dim Sum Workers Two Years After $4 Million Settlement

One vignette, "More Motherless Children," is based on the African-American spiritual, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," and memorializes the six women and three men killed in 2015 by an avowed white supremacist at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Another vignette, "Say Her Name: Sandra Bland!" expresses the defiance of the young woman who was found hanging in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, after she was pulled over for a traffic stop.

Others remembered in the work include Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and Emmet Till.

Recalling the early support of African-American legislators for Japanese-American redress and reparations in the 1980s, Jang continued, "It is important to continue to support black/Asian alliances with other people of color and white progressives to form a broad coalition as we celebrate Black History Month and memorialize Day of Remembrance [Feb. 19, the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066] for Japanese Americans."

The Jon Jangtet will perform Jon Jang's "Cryin' for America! (Black Lives Matter)" for its world premiere, June 2017. Photo by Bob Hsiang

Following performances last year of "Cryin' in America" as a work in progress, the world premiere will be performed by Jang, Kemp, and the Jon Jangtet Jang's music group at the Joe Henderson Lab at the SFJAZZ Center on June 18.

Follow NBC Asian America on

See the original post here:
Composer Jon Jang 'Can't Stop Cryin' for America' in New Black Lives Matter Tribute - NBCNews.com

Small screen, big issues: Sanaa Lathan in Shots Fired, left, and Austin P McKenzie in When We Rise. Composite: Fox via Getty images/Allstar/Warner Bros

On a reputable college campus, a young undergrad comes forward and names multiple star football players as her rapists. A scandal instantly erupts, complete with media dressing down the university administration, coaches confessing to cover-ups, and the survivors name dragged through the muck. Its a regrettably familiar story, but for once, its not the latest above-the-fold headline from the daily news; its called Controversy, and it may appear on Foxs programming schedule sometime soon.

Fox ordered the pilot just last month and cast Whiplash actor Austin Stowell last week, marking the latest in a string of big four network series with concepts built around hot-button issues. This week sees the premiere of When We Rise on ABC, a well-pedigreed docudrama series about the fight for queer rights from Milk writer and LGBT advocate Dustin Lance Black, with additional star power from Guy Pearce and Whoopi Goldberg, to name just two of the ensemble. Fox tackles Black Lives Matter and the police violence epidemic next month with Shots Fired, a 10-part miniseries about a North Carolina town rocked by a racially charged shooting. ABCs Black-ish has consistently engaged with the uglier aspects of the black experience in America, and touched a nerve last year with an episode that also dealt with police brutality on black bodies. In an era of safe spaces, network TVs preparing for some difficult discussions.

Ever since HBO declared themselves separate from TV, premium cable has been the province of the bold and the envelope-pushing. Its not as if the major networks are only waking up to the notion of socially conscious writing now Norman Lear built an empire around shows willing to speak to the most pressing matters of his day, from race relations on Sanford and Son to abortion on Maude. But without the content restrictions of the major networks and their fickle advertisers, shows on HBO and Showtime could more freely explore such thorny subjects. On networks, they were usually constrained to very special episodes, where they could be handled in a contained, often overtly preachy capacity. Law and Order: SVU, for instance, has made a habit of ripping their plotlines from headlines. When they ran their Black Lives Matter episode in October 2015, however, audiences reacted negatively to the shows cursory treatment of its sensitive material.

In this era of social unrest, audiences have begun to demand art that speaks more frankly and directly to major concerns. Programs such as When We Rise and Shots Fired, as well as some shows infiltrating basic cable (Ryan Murphy recently announced that the next season of American Horror Story would detail the waking nightmare of the 2016 presidential election), foreground their issues instead of writing around them. As much as network offerings have touched upon the major crises of their time, thats been the full extent touching upon, and little more. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter about Black-ishs Black Lives Matter episode, creator Kenya Barris said: Well, my hopes are that it starts a great conversation and, at the same time, makes people laugh and think. My fear is: I dont what to piss anyone off. I dont want to politicize the show Its politically adjacent.

With a run time beyond a single episode and a firmer commitment to their causes, this upcoming wave of issue-driven series will be able to actually have the conversations that other shows aim to start. Any subject worth delving into contains far more complexity and nuance than could be conceivably squeezed into a half-hour, and these new shows can cover a wider breadth of discourse. Dustin Lance Black expressed the heightened ambition of When We Rise in a recent interview with the New York Times, saying: We did not create this series for half a nation. I believe that most Americans, including Americans who voted for Donald Trump, will fall in love with these real-life families and absolutely relate to their stories when they tune in We are in a period of backlash right now. I would give anything for this to be less topical. But this series shows [queer] history is a pendulum, not a straight line.

Partisan times call for television unafraid to make a principled stand, and the box-office success of politically charged films such as Hidden Figures suggests that there may be a little money in it too. What executives once considered too touchy for the broad platform of network TV, viewers have now declared too vital to go unremarked upon. Perhaps audiences have grown more daring, or theyre just tired of the mealy-mouthed talk-arounds filling their airwaves. Either way, network TV the most popular, readily accessible art form has doubled down on its utility as a public forum. Bring the burning questions of the day home, and they can no longer be ignored.

Visit link:
From gay rights to Black Lives Matter: why network TV suddenly got serious - The Guardian