On today’s Right Hook, George meets US human-rights activist and writer Eljeer Hawkings, in Dublin to speak about anti-austerity, the 50th anniversary of Malcolm X’s murder and the #BlackLivesMatter campaign.
Tune in live today at 6pm: www.newstalk.com/player/
But what exactly is #BlackLivesMatter, and why is it still making headlines across the pond. Here are five things you need to know about the movement.
1. It’s a movement, not a moment: #BlackLivesMatter finds its genesis in social media, where it began as a hashtag on Twitter following the acquittal of George Zimmerman – a man in Florida who shot dead an unarmed African American teenager named Trayvon Martin in 2013. Two other high-profile shootings, Michael Brown in Ferguson and John Crawford III in Dayton, along with the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island after police officers held him in an illegal chokehold have further galvanised the movement objectives to address racial discrimination in America.
2. It’s going global: There are more than 20 chapters of the movement located in countries all over the world, with protests movements taking place in countries across Europe, as well as in cities across the United States. In the short time since the movement was founded, more than 700 different #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations have taken place worldwide.
3. It isn’t just about young African American men: #BlackLivesMatter also strives to address the administrative policies that affect all black people, regardless of gender, sexuality or religious beliefs.
4. The movement understands the power of young people and social media: During last summer’s Ferguson riots, the group organised a ‘Freedom Ride’ the brought 500 people from all across the United States to Missouri, to bolster the peaceful protest. When senior African American leaders like Al Sharpton held a ‘Justice for All’ march in Washington, a group of activists from Ferguson were so annoyed that their work had been co-opted into a wider organisation that they took to the stage uninvited. Met with loud chants of “Let them speak!”, Johnetta Elzie took the mic and addressed the crowd: “I thought there was going to be actions, not a show. This is a show.”
5. The President is listening: Barack Obama and other prominent members of the US political elite have met with the group, whose demands for an end to racial profiling, police brutality, mass incarceration and the arming of US police stations with military-standard equipment await a response.
