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A Q&A with Cazembe Murphy Jackson of BLM Atlanta

Cazembe Murphy Jackson, a Black Lives Matter organizer from Atlanta, Georgia, recently took his group's message of activism abroad to London. While there, he learned about some surprising parallels between organizing in the U.K. and in the U.S. as well as why some Londoners are using Donald Trump's presidency as a galvanizing force to get people out in the streets across the pond. MTV News writer Marcus Ellsworth spoke with Jackson about his trip, activism in London, and what building international solidarity means for black people.

Why was it important for an organizer out of Atlanta to go work with activists in London?

Cazembe Murphy Jackson: BLM is a global network. We are working with folks in different countries, and have been for a while, to help develop their own resistance against racism. It's really important for us to be able to understand how anti-blackness happens in different contexts and different places in the world so that we can actively build strategies to fight it in different places. The strategy can't be the same if the way that anti-blackness is experienced is not the same.

Black Lives Matter and the National Union of Students, which is the student union in London that brought me over there, have already been in a relationship for the past couple of years. [Both organizations have] had folks go over to London and they've also brought people from London to the States.

Before you went, did you have any expectations about what this journey might be like?

Jackson: The biggest thing that I thought would happen is that I wouldn't be understood or accepted fully as a trans man. Because the people who know me and love me would not be around me, I thought that I would have to face a lot of transphobia. It ended up not being true. I learned that even black people in different places in the world have this thing that bonds us together; we have such a similar experience. Even though the context of the way that racism works is different [in different countries], it still produces the same result in us, which allows us to be able to relate to other black people. Once we started talking to each other, it's like we'd all been friends our whole lives. And I found that you can definitely find community in other countries just as quickly as you can in the place [where] you're from.

What are some major concerns black organizers have in the U.K.?

Jackson: A recurring theme was that it's really hard for them to get a good turnout for their events unless they mention something about what's going on in the United States in their outreach. If someone died in police custody in the U.K., and [organizers] want to have a rally or an action to bring people out, they would also [reference] something that happened in the United States. The summit that I came over to speak at was called "Trump, Brexit, and Beyond" [even though] the summit was about the way that new acts of Islamophobia [are manifesting] against immigrants in the U.K. It could have just been [called] "Brexit and Beyond," but in order to get people in, they also had to talk about Trump.

Folks really want to be able to say, "Oh, Trump is a bad guy, but we're the U.K. and we're not like that." Everyone wants to talk about how bad Trump is, but the reality is that Trump and Theresa May are two peas in a pod. Now that the U.K. is out of the E.U., she's got to find other people to make trade partnerships with. It's a very important thing for folks in the U.K. to pay attention to Theresa May [in] the same way that they're paying attention to Trump.

There was a rally in front of Parliament when [members of Parliament] were voting on whether they were going to let E.U. immigrants stay in the U.K. That was a huge rally. It was an opportunity to push Parliament to make the right decision. But when [organizers of the rally] came out, they also had to talk about Trump and his Muslim ban in order to draw people out, and it wasn't even about that.

It reminds me of living in small [American] towns, even like Chattanooga. There are over 60 people who've been killed by police in the city of Chattanooga since the 1970s. But in order for us to get a big turnout to fight against police brutality and police murder, we had to talk about Trayvon Martin or Mike Brown. I don't know what the science is around what moves people to come out, but it does seem like there's something that has to do with what is popular in America in the larger context to bring people out in smaller and more distant places.

Are there other issues that BLM focuses on in the U.S. that you also saw reflected in the U.K.?

Jackson: I don't think that I did enough talking and digging to be able to accurately say all of the things that black folks are working on in the U.K. But a lot of black people I met who are organizing are also Muslim. They're also either immigrants to the U.K. or their parents are immigrants. That makes for a really great environment for international solidarity, because they actually have family in other countries. The immigration fight and the fight against Islamophobia is really big in [those] black communities, because they live at that intersection.

I think they do a lot of organizing around police brutality and murder in police custody. There's a group called United Families & Friends, a campaign that is led by friends and family of people who have died in police custody. They help others learn what the process is for trying to get justice for your family through the state. I thought it was interesting that while there have been over, I believe, 2,000 deaths in police custody in the U.K. [on record], no police officer has ever been convicted of any wrongdoing. The majority of police in the U.K. don't carry guns, so they don't have the police-murder epidemic the way we have it here. But the people who do die in police custody, a lot of them die from the use of the batons. So people are getting beat to death. In the U.S. it's still bad, but there have been some officers who have been convicted of some things.

Another thing that's different is that they skew the numbers [of] how many people are incarcerated. We often say the U.S. incarcerates black people so much that there's more black people in jail now than there were during slavery. We think of these really large numbers to show how disproportionate the amount of black people in jail in the U.S. is. That's skewed for the U.K. because half of the people are not in jail: They're being forced to stay in mental institutions and they treat them like they're in jail. You can be arrested and be forced to go. That's used for asylum seekers, immigrants, and folks who are citizens in the U.K. When you combine the numbers [of people in jails and mental institutions], it would put the U.K. closer to the U.S.

How can people in America find ways to stand in solidarity with black folks in other countries and the issues theyre organizing around?

Jackson: I think the simplest thing that can be done to start building international solidarity is to find out what's happening in other places. I think the way we are able to care about what's happening somewhere else is [by] actually reading about it. Then, after we learn about what's happening and its context, the next step is to talk about it. We use Facebook for a lot of stuff. We use Twitter and all of these other social media platforms to talk about important ideas and theories.

I think once we start understanding what is happening, and make sure that the people around [us] also know its important, then those who are able need to build relationships with people in other places. Of course, some of that is going to require travel. That can get tricky. It can get pricey and some folks will need passports.

I got my passport through a trans passport workshop. When I was asked to take a companion with me, I ended up taking my friend Prentis Hemphill because they have a passport and are the director of healing justice for BLM. No one [else in my Atlanta chapter] could go because they didn't have a passport. We need to have passport clinics, and not just for trans people, [but also] for young black people. Because black people need to be able to see other black people thriving and surviving in other places in the diaspora other than the U.S. They need to know how magical our people are everywhere, and to know that we are everywhere.

The way that you start knowing that is by going and seeing. One of the other things I thought when I found out I was going to London was, Yo, are there black people there? And there's SO many black people there. All different kinds of black people. When we can see people in different places and we understand the context [in which] they are actually living, then it makes it possible for us to build some kind of genuine solidarity based on a real relationship and a real understanding of each other's experiences. To be able to say that we're in solidarity with people around the world, I just think we have to go deeper.

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How One Black Lives Matter Activist Found Solidarity In The UK - MTV.com

When Milan Bolden-Morris walked into Pahokee High Schools prom, she knew her dress would get attention.

Not for the sparkles or the cut like others that night, but for the faces of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and others displayed across her dress. Faces of those whose deaths sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

As the 17-year-old smiled for the cameras, she said she knew the dress was bigger than prom or her.

Every life on this earth is precious. God created us all as gifts, Bolden-Morris said. When a mother loses a child or a child loses a parent, especially when its under unnecessary circumstances, their lives shouldnt be overlooked.

Friday evening, Bolden-Morris wore the dress created by local designer Terrence Torrence, who said hes had the idea for a while. When he was asked to design a dress for Bolden-Morris, a Cardinal Newman senior basketball star who is the Palm Beach Post Small Schools All-Area player of the year, he said he had an idea and wanted to bounce it off of her. Bolden-Morris, who got a full scholarship to Boston College and will study pre-med, she said she loved the idea.

I already knew this dress was way bigger than me or how I looked in it or how I felt in it, she said. I knew the purpose was to bring awareness. To highlight these things going on in America.

Bolden-Morris was invited to Pahokee High prom by a family friend because she cant make it to Cardinal Newmans prom.

Torrence and Bolden-Morris both knew the dress would garner attention, but didnt know it would get this big. Snoop Dogg shared a photo of Bolden-Morris on his Instagram, and Essence and CNN wrote stories about it. Most important for both Bolden-Morris and Torrence was the call from Trayvon Martins mother, Sybrina Fulton.

I just thought, Wow, this is amazing, Bolden-Morris said. God is really using me for things that are bigger than me.

She said she was honored to have such an influential person with such courage and power to praise her for her small act. Morris said she was just the model conveying Torrences message.

Torrence, who splits his time between West Palm Beach and Atlanta, said he was so happy to hear Fulton loved the dress. Above all other comments and praise, Fultons was the most important to him. On Torrences dress, he displayed a photo of Trayvon Martin in a hoodie as the most prominent figure.

Trayvon, I remember that whole movement. It was the first time I can remember people coming together for someone killed that way, he said. I remember being in L.A. and wearing my hoodie for Trayvon.

Though many of the faces included on the dress garnered the national spotlight like Sandra Bland and Mike Brown, the faces of locals Corey Jones and Henry Bennett III rested there as well. Torrence, who grew up in Belle Glade like Bolden-Morris, said it was important to remind people police violence happens at home too.

The ones I chose, they all spoke to me. The look on their faces all had this glow, he said. At the end of the day, you want to always remember their faces and their stories. Everyone on that dress has a story.

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Cardinal Newman star player wears Black Lives Matter prom dress - Palm Beach Post

NEW HAVEN >> Before arriving at the Yale Divinity School to lead a discussion on race Thursday evening, Jimmy Jones couldnt help but think about the son he buried 20 years ago.

There is no pain like the pain of burying your children, Jones said, referring to his son, Malik Jones. My heart still aches.

Malik Jones was fatally shot by East Haven police on April 14, 1997. Twenty years later, Jones led a discussion titled Black Lives Matter Because All Lives Matter, at the school from which he graduated in 1983, in commemoration. Now a professor at Manhattanville College, Jones, who still lives in New Haven, joined the Rev. Bonita Grubbs and Divinity School student Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes for a conversation on race.

Following his sons death, Jones said he was essentially muted by rage. His ex-wife, Emma Jones, became the family spokesperson and to this day continues to advocate on behalf of her son.

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I was angry, so I couldnt even speak publicly for two months, Jones said. He said found some solace in Islamic writings: Patience is to be observed at the first stroke of a calamity.

Fatal incidents involving black men and women continue to garner widespread attention, especially after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014. That shooting, and other high-profile incidents involving fatal use of force by police, sparked a renewed interest in police accountability and discussion on law enforcements relationships with the African-American community.

This conversation keeps happening because incidents keep happening, Cudjoe-Wilkes said.

In his discussion, Jones expanded the current climate to show how closely it mirrors fears and anxieties African-Americans faced during the Jim Crow era. During this period, thousands of African Americans, and even white immigrants from countries such as Italy, were lynched without repercussion.

Jones described the lynching of Emmett Till as having a profound effect on his psyche. Jones grew up in Virginia, and said the photographs published from Tills open-casket funeral were haunting. Tills mother, Mamie, wanted an open casket to show how savagely he had been assaulted.

As a 9-year-old, looking at this picture on Jet magazine, it terrorized me, Jones said. Indeed, that was the point of this kind of attack.

Following Maliks death, Jones said he spoke with the East Haven police chief, a police commissioner and mayor. He asked that they address his sons shooting, or risk further turmoil. He said it wasnt meant as a threat, but rather a warning of unrest.

If you allow this kind of thing in our community ... sooner or later, it will come back to bite you, Jones said.

Jones suggested a new BLM movement, perhaps with the acronym standing for Be Like Martin, in reference to Martin Luther King Jr., or Be Like Mary as in Jesus mother, or Be Like Muhammad the prophet of Islam.

One attendee on Thursday asked about how the current generation can be reenergized, since Civil Rights-era figures such as King were young. Cudjoe-Wilkes said the Black Lives Matter movement was started by three gay women in their 20s who wanted to keep people informed about incidents involving African Americans. The phrase itself is frequently used on social networks with a hashtag to make it part of a larger, global conversation.

That hashtag helped keep a lot of people aware of what was going on, Cudjoe-Wilkes said.

Cudjoe-Wilkes said every generation seemingly has had their tools be mocked or questioned by older generations.

Jones said patience must be practiced, as the fruits of the current generations social activism will bear in the future.

We shouldnt give up on our young people, Jones said.

Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901.

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Malik Jones' father leads Black Lives Matter discussion 20 years after son's fatal shooting - New Haven Register

A Black Lives Matter demonstration and a march to demand that Donald Trump give up his tax returns are planned for downtown. Meet the organizers and see what to expect.

In Seattle we do like our protest marches.

The city issued 49 free speech events permits in 2016, averaging nearly one a week, ranging from Homeless Rally and March to Seattle Dyke March.

These days, if you can make a Facebook event about one, theyll come. Hopefully.

Downtown on Saturday will offer two protests with similar themes. The weather is cooperating, with a partly-cloudy forecast that shows a little sunshine poking through.

1. Tax March Seattle: Donald Trump, release your tax returns. Its page now lists 3,100 as going and 7,700 as interested. Symbol: A giant inflatable chicken with Trumpish blond hair, called Chicken Don.

2. Black Lives Matter March on Seattle 2.0: We are in a tax system that does not value people of color and black people We also DEMAND Donald J. Trump to release his tax return Its page lists 18,000 as going and 37,000 as interested. Symbol: Black beanies that participants are urged to wear to show you shouldnt discriminate against clothing or peoples color.

You can make a full Saturday of protesting.

The Tax March is timed to begin at the Federal Building at Second Avenue and Marion Street at 11 in the morning and end at 1 p.m. at Seattle Center.

Then you can just make your way to Westlake Park, where Black Lives Matter will have a dance party beginning at 1, followed by rally and the finale a march at 3 to the Federal Courthouse at Seventh Avenue and Stewart Street.

As with other recent protests, many of those behind them are not from traditional political camps.

Theyre in their 20s and early 30s, and their activism begins with grass-roots social media.

Cody Herring, 26, a Microsoft engineer, is one of those behind Tax March Seattle.

I dont have much, if any, activism background, he says.

Now hes sending out a news release about President Donald Trump and American Kleptocracy.

Herring, who lives in the Judkins Park area, says his interest in activism was piqued when he was having a pancake breakfast for friends at his home Jan. 21.

That was the day of the historic Womens March that drew tens of thousands in Seattle, and which began at the park.

We invited random people to come in and have pancakes, Herring says. It was the first day I felt hopeful since Nov. 8.

That was the day that Americans elected Trump as president.

Herring says he was inspired by a tweet from comedian Patton Oswalt, known for his epic Trump takedowns.

This time, Oswalt was making a serious statement: Dear #WomensMarch organizers: please organize a #TrumpTaxesMarch for April 15th. I am happy to help. We all are.

So up went Tax March Seattle on Facebook.

As with marches these days that become nationwide, the one in Seattle started locally and then joined others. Some 170 cities are now listed as having marches. In this state, there also will be protests in Anacortes, Olympia, Richland and Spokane.

The Black Lives Matter march has a more recognizable name listed at its spokesman.

He is Mohawk Kuzma, 26, who in December 2014 became something of an unofficial spokesman for a loosely connected group of Seattle protesters after the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

Kuzma actually had begun working with some of the Tax March people to have one march, but things fell apart between them as happens in emotionally charged grass-roots dealings.

So he put up his own Facebook page.

If Kuzmas name seems unusual, well, here is the story behind it.

His real name is Miles Partman.

From 2011 until 2015, he says, he had a Mohawk hairstyle and so that became his nickname.

As for Kuzma, he says, he went online and used a random-name generator and there it popped up.

I liked the sound of it, he says.

Others involved in the march dont have the local notoriety of Kuzma.

One such person is Jessica Owens, 32, who manages The Weaving Works in the Roosevelt District.

She has contacts with a wide number of knitters and crocheters in the area who helped with the pussy hat project that was a symbol in the Womens March.

Now they were looking for another project and there it was black beanies for the Black Lives Matter march.

So up went a Facebook group called the BLF206 March On Seattle 2.0 Yarn Army (the BLF stands for Black Liberation Front).

It includes a link to a simple pattern for a super simple garter stitch hat that a first time knitter can make.

It turns out that a beanies shape is more complex to knit than that of a pussy hat.

The group didnt have much notice but has managed to collect 100 knitted hats.

Owens posted to her army of knitters, Thank you to everyone has dropped off hats! Keep them coming Its been wonderful to see all of your wonderful work and thoughtfulness.

Meanwhile, both groups say they really dont know how many protesters will show.

Its one thing to click going on Facebook, and another to actually trek to downtown.

But you can dream that your posting will actually motivate the masses.

Says Cody Herring, Were hoping itll be like the Womens March. Two-hundred-thousand. Thatd be cool.

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2 downtown marches Saturday: Black Lives Matter and calling on ... - The Seattle Times

BLACK LIVES MATTER Philadelphia made a good bit of news this week because its invitation for its April 15 strategy meeting stated, "Please note that BLM Philly is a Black only space." They followed up by tweeting out, "If you identify as a person of the African Diaspora. You can attend our meetings and become a member. If not you can support us in other ways."

The conservative website The Daily Caller headlined, "Black Lives Matter Philly Bans White People from Its Meetings." Breitbart detailed the same issue and talked about how many people on Twitter said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would never sanction such a policy. BLM Philly countered on Twitter: "He made that choice and we have made ours. White people can support us but they cannot attend our meetings."

These columns only scratched the surface.

Writing in the Daily News, Jenice Armstrong wrote a brilliant piece that featured Asa Khalif, leader of Black Lives Matter Pennsylvania, and his 80-year-old grandmother, who is white. Khalif conceded that his grandmom would be welcome but that the overall banning of whites policy is not new. Khalif said, "It's a space particularly for black people to heal, cry, to vent, to organize, to be empowered, to be uplifted."

I know Asa and, even though I think this policy is misguided, I think he and his colleagues can certainly pursue it. I don't, however, think they can legally pursue it in taxpayer-funded spaces. Nashville Public Library officials agree with me. They rejected the request of the Nashville chapter of Black Lives Matter to meet in a library because library policy specifies that all meetings at their facilities must be open to the public and news meetings.

My first thought when I heard about all this was this meeting in this discriminatory form can't happen in a taxpayer-funded site. The meeting is supposed to be held at the Mastery Charter School-Shoemaker Campus in West Philly. I contacted Scott Gordon, who runs all the Mastery Charter schools. I'm a big fan of what Scott has accomplished for kids in his schools, and I would be surprised if he sanctioned this meeting.

I was right. Scott was unaware of this meeting. He checked into it and then he emailed me: "Thanks for bringing the matter to my attention. We are following up to ensure all organizations using our facilities abide by our policy. Below is a statement regarding the policy."

The statement said: "Mastery charter schools are public schools. As such, community groups may reserve space for meetings and events in our facilities. Events must follow our facility use policy, which does not allow any organization using our facilities to bar participation by any members of the public based on race, religion, or gender."

My instinct was to say that BLM Philly is out of step with where Americans are and what is settled policy. Isn't it curious that Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym and other major critics of charter schools are silent on this? Do they believe in some BLM Philly loophole that allows them to discriminate?

In fact, the Black Lives Matter coalition has clearly been an opponent of charter schools. In fact, Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute, writing at Philly.com says BLM "talks about an international education privatization." He further says this echoes the National Education Association tweeting, "Privatization is a global threat to public education." He talks about an NEA resolution that supports BLM. He also says Herm Rivera, one of the authors of the BLM document opposing charter schools, is executive director of the Philadelphia Student Union, which has received funding from the American Federation of Teachers.

I guess BLM Philly, which I feel blocks opportunity for minority students by trying to block charter schools, sees this charter school as an opportune spot for them. I hope people of good will see through this and oppose their use of a taxpayer-funded facility. I have faith in Gordon and people who honor King's memory and wisdom.

Teacher-turned-talk show host Dom Giordano is heard 9 a.m. to noon weekdays on WPHT (1210-AM). Contact him at http://www.domgiordano.com

@DomShow1210

Published: April 13, 2017 12:49 PM EDT

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Black Lives Matter is not inclusive - Philly.com - Philly.com