Black Lives Matter – Wikipedia

Social movement originating in the United States

Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.[1][2][3][4][5][6] It started following the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Pamela Turner and Rekia Boyd, among others. The movement and its related organizations typically advocate for various policy changes considered to be related to black liberation.[7] While there are specific organizations that label themselves simply as "Black Lives Matter," such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the overall movement is a decentralized network of people and organizations with no formal hierarchy.[8] The slogan "Black Lives Matter" itself remains untrademarked by any group.[9] Despite being characterized by some as a violent movement, the overwhelming majority of its public demonstrations have been peaceful.[10]

The movement began in July 2013, with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin 17 months earlier in February 2012. It became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two more African Americans, Michael Brownresulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, a city near St. Louisand Eric Garner in New York City.[11][12] Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election.[13] The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016.[14]

The movement returned to national headlines and gained further international attention during the global George Floyd protests in 2020 following his murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.[15][16] An estimated 15million to 26million people participated in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, making it one of the largest movements in the country's history.[17] It comprised many views and a broad array of demands but they centered on criminal justice reform.

The popularity of Black Lives Matter has shifted over time. Whereas public opinion was net negative in 2018, it grew increasingly positive through 2019 and 2020.[18] A June 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that 67% of adult Americans expressed some support for the Black Lives Matter movement.[19] A later poll conducted in September 2020 showed that support among American adults had dropped to 55%, with notable declines among whites and Hispanics, while support remained widespread among black adults.[20] By May 2022, support for Black Lives Matter had decreased significantly among all racial demographics, including among African-Americans.[21][22][23]

The phrase "Black Lives Matter" can refer to a Twitter hashtag, a slogan, a social movement, a political action committee,[24] or a loose confederation of groups advocating for racial justice. As a movement, Black Lives Matter is grassroots and decentralized, and leaders have emphasized the importance of local organizing over national leadership.[25][26] The structure differs from previous black movements, like the Civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Such differences have been the subject of scholarly literature.[27] Activist DeRay McKesson has commented that the movement "encompasses all who publicly declare that black lives matter and devote their time and energy accordingly."[28]

In 2013, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi formed the Black Lives Matter Network. Garza described the network as an online platform that existed to provide activists with a shared set of principles and goals. Local Black Lives Matter chapters are asked to commit to the organization's list of guiding principles but operate without a central structure or hierarchy. Garza has commented that the Network was not interested in "policing who is and who is not part of the movement."[29][30]

The loose structure of Black Lives Matter has contributed to confusion in the press and among activists, as actions or statements from chapters or individuals are sometimes attributed to "Black Lives Matter" as a whole.[31][32] Matt Pearce, writing for the Los Angeles Times, commented that "the words could be serving as a political rallying cry or referring to the activist organization. Or it could be the fuzzily applied label used to describe a wide range of protests and conversations focused on racial inequality."[33]

On at least one occasion, a person represented as Managing Director of BLM Global Network has released a statement represented to be on behalf of that organization.[34]

Concurrently, a broader movement involving several other organizations and activists emerged under the banner of "Black Lives Matter", as well.[14][35] In 2015, Johnetta Elzie, DeRay Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, and Samuel Sinyangwe initiated Campaign Zero, aimed at promoting policy reforms to end police brutality. The campaign released a ten-point plan for reforms to policing, with recommendations including: ending Broken windows theory policing, increasing community oversight of police departments, and creating stricter guidelines for the use of force.[36] The New York Times reporter, John Eligon, wrote that some activists expressed concerns that the campaign was overly focused on legislative remedies for police violence.[37]

Black Lives Matter also voices support for various movements and causes beyond police brutality, including LGBTQ activism, feminism, immigration reform, and economic justice.[38]

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is a coalition of more than 50 groups representing the interests of black communities across the United States.[39] Members include the Black Lives Matter Network, the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.[40] Endorsed by groups such as Color of Change, Race Forward, Brooklyn Movement Center, PolicyLink, Million Women March Cleveland, and ONE DC,[41] the coalition receives communications and tactical support from an organization named Blackbird.[42]

Following the murder of George Floyd, M4BL released the BREATHE Act, which called for sweeping legislative changes surrounding policing; the policy bill included calls to divest from policing and reinvest funds directly in community resources and alternative emergency response models.[43][44]

On July 24, 2015, the movement initially convened at Cleveland State University where between 1,500 and 2,000 activists gathered to participate in open discussions and demonstrations. The conference in Cleveland, Ohio initially attempted to "strategize ways for the Movement for Black Lives to hold law enforcement accountable for their actions on a national level".[45][46][47] However, the conference resulted in the formation of a much more significant social movement. At the end of the three day conference, on July 26, the Movement for Black Lives initiated a year long "process of convening local and national groups to create a United Front".[45] This year long process ultimately resulted in the establishment of an organizational platform that articulates the goals, demands, and policies which the Movement for Black Lives supports in order to achieve the "liberation" of black communities across America.[45]

In 2016, the Ford Foundation announced plans to fund the M4BL Movement for Black Lives in a "six-year investments" plan, further partnering up with others to found the Black-led Movement Fund.[48][49][50] The sum donated by the Ford Foundation and the other donors to M4BL was reported as $100million by The Washington Times in 2016; another donation of $33million to M4BL was reportedly issued by the Open Society Foundations.[51][52]

In 2016, M4BL called for decarceration in the United States, reparations for harms related to slavery, and more recently, specific remedies for redlining in housing, education policy, mass incarceration and food insecurity.[53] It also called for an end to mass surveillance, investment in public education, not incarceration, and community control of the police: empowering residents in communities of color to hire and fire police officers and issue subpoenas, decide disciplinary consequences and exercise control over city funding of police.[54][55]

Politico reported in 2015 that the Democracy Alliance, a gathering of Democratic-Party donors, planned to meet with leaders of several groups who were endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement.[56] According to Politico, Solidaire, the donor coalition focusing on "movement building" and led by Texas oil fortune heir Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a member of the Democracy Alliance, had donated more than $200,000 to the BLM movement by 2015.[56]

According to The Economist, between May 2020 and December 2020, donations to Black Lives Matter related causes amounted to $10.6 billion.[57] The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, one of the main organizations coordinating organizing and mobilization efforts across the Black Lives Matter network, reported raising $90 million in 2020, including a substantial number of individual donations online, with an average donation of $30.76.[58][59]

Black Lives Matter originally used various social media platformsincluding hashtag activismto reach thousands of people rapidly.[60] Since then, Black Lives Matter has embraced a diversity of tactics.[61] Black Lives Matter protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful; when violence does occur, it is often committed by police or by counter-protesters.[62][63][64] Despite this, opponents have falsely portrayed the movement as violent.[64][65]

Analysis of the usage of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Twitter in response to major news events

In 2014, the American Dialect Society chose #BlackLivesMatter as their word of the year.[66][67] Yes! Magazine picked #BlackLivesMatter as one of the twelve hashtags that changed the world in 2014.[68] From July 2013 through May 1, 2018, the hashtag "#BlackLivesMatter" had been tweeted over 30million times, an average of 17,002 times per day.[69] By June 10, 2020, it had been tweeted roughly 47.8million times,[70] with the period of July 717, 2016 having the highest usage, at nearly 500,000 tweets a day.[69] This period also saw an increase in tweets using the hashtags "#BlueLivesMatter" and "#AllLivesMatter".[69] On May 28, 2020, there were nearly 8.8million tweets with the hashtag, and the average had increased to 3.7million a day.[70]

The 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers saw the online tone of the movement become more negative than before, with 39% of tweets using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter expressing opposition to the movement.[71] Nearly half in opposition tied the group to violence, with many describing the group as terrorist.[71]

Khadijah White, a professor at Rutgers University, argues that BLM has ushered in a new era of black university student movements. The ease with which bystanders can record graphic videos of police violence and post them onto social media has driven activism all over the world.[72] The hashtag's usage has gained the attention of high-ranking politicians and has sometimes encouraged them to support the movement.[27]

On Wikipedia, a WikiProject dedicated to coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement was created in June 2020.[73]

In 2020, users of the popular app TikTok noticed that the app seemed to be shadow banning posts about BLM or recent police killings of black people. TikTok apologized and attributed the situation to a technical glitch.[74]

BLM generally engages in direct action tactics that make people uncomfortable enough that they must address the issue.[75] BLM has been known to build power through protest and rallies.[76] BLM has also staged die-ins and held one during the 2015 Twin Cities Marathon.[77]

Political slogans used during demonstrations include the eponymous "Black Lives Matter", "Hands up, don't shoot" (a later discredited reference attributed to Michael Brown[78]), "I can't breathe"[79][80] (referring to Eric Garner and later George Floyd), "White silence is violence",[81] "No justice, no peace",[82][83] and "Is my son next?",[84] among others.

According to a 2018 study, "Black Lives Matter protests are more likely to occur in localities where more black people have previously been killed by police."[85]

Since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter,[86] the movement has been depicted and documented in film, song, television, literature, and the visual arts. A number of media outlets are providing material related to racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement. Published books, novels, and TV shows have increased in popularity in 2020.[87] Songs, such as Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us" and Kendrick Lamar's "Alright", have been widely used as a rallying call at demonstrations.[88][89]

The short documentary film, Bars4Justice, features brief appearances by various activists and recording artists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The film is an official selection of the 24th Annual Pan African Film Festival. Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement is a 2016 American television documentary film, starring Jesse Williams, about the Black Lives Matter movement.[90][91]

The February 2015 issue of Essence magazine and the cover was devoted to Black Lives Matter.[92] In December 2015, BLM was a contender for the Time magazine Person of the Year award, coming in fourth of the eight candidates.[93]

A number of cities have painted murals of "Black Lives Matter" in large letters on their streets. The cities include Washington, D.C., Dallas, Denver, Charlotte, Seattle, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Birmingham, Alabama.[94][95]

On May 9, 2016, Delrish Moss was sworn in as the first African-American police chief in Ferguson, Missouri. He acknowledged that he faces such challenges as diversifying the police force, improving community relations, and addressing issues that catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement.[96]

According to a study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2002 to 2011, among those who had contact with the police, "blacks (2.8%) were more likely than whites (1.0%) and Hispanics (1.4%) to perceive the threat or use of nonfatal force was excessive."[97]

According to The Washington Post, police officers shot and killed 1,001 people in the United States in 2019. About half of those killed were white, and one quarter were black, making the rate of deaths for black Americans (31 fatal shootings per million) more than twice as high as the rate for white Americans (13 fatal shootings per million).[98][99] The Washington Post also counts 13 unarmed black Americans shot dead by police in 2019.[100]

A 2015 study by Cody Ross, UC Davis found "significant bias in the killing of unarmed black Americans relative to unarmed white Americans" by police. The study found that unarmed African Americans had 3.49 times the probability of being shot compared to unarmed whites, although in some jurisdictions the risk could be as much as 20 times higher. The study found that 2.79 more armed blacks were shot than unarmed blacks. The study also found that the documented county-level racial bias in police shootings could not be explained by differences in local crime rates.[101]

A 2019 study by Cesario et al. published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that after adjusting for crime, there was "no systematic evidence of anti-black disparities in fatal shootings, fatal shootings of unarmed citizens, or fatal shootings involving misidentification of harmless objects".[102] However, a 2020 study by Cody Ross et al. criticizes the data analysis used in the Cesario et al. study. Using the same data set for police shootings in 2015 and 2016, Ross et al. conclude that there is significant racial bias in police shooting cases involving unarmed black suspects. This bias is not seen when suspects were armed.[103]

A study by Harvard economist Roland Fryer found that blacks and Hispanics were 50% more likely to experience non-lethal force in police interactions, but for officer-involved shootings there were "no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account".[104]

A since retracted 2019 study in PNAS concluded that black people were actually less likely than white people to be killed by police, based on the death rates in police encounters.[105] A study published in the journal Nature found that such conclusions were erroneous due to Simpson's paradox. According to the paper, while it was true that white people were more likely to be killed in a police encounter, overall black people were still being discriminated against because they were more likely to have interactions with the police due to structural racism. They are more likely to be stopped for more petty crimes or for no crime at all. Conversely, white people interact with police more rarely, and often for more serious crimes such as shootings, where police are more likely to use force. The Nature paper also backed up the findings of Ross and Fryer, and concluded that overall rate of death was a much more useful statistic than the rate of death in encounters.[106][107]

Black Lives Matter protesters are themselves sometimes subject to excessive policing of the kind against which they are demonstrating. In May 2020, in addition to police, 43,350 military troops were deployed against Black Lives Matter protesters nationally.[108] Military surveillance aircraft were deployed against subsequent Black Lives Matter protests.[108] Observers, such as U.S. President Joe Biden, have noted that violent far-right mobilizations, including the 2021 United States Capitol attack, attracted smaller and more passive police presences than peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.[109][110][111][112][113][114] In November 2015, a police officer in Oregon was removed from street duty following a social media post in which he said he would have to "babysit these fools", in reference to a planned BLM event.[115]

According to a report released by the Movement for Black Lives in August 2021, the United States federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020. According to the report, "The empirical data and findings in this report largely corroborate what Black organizers have long known intellectually, intuitively, and from lived experience about the federal government's disparate policing and prosecution of racial justice protests and related activity".[116]

In 2014, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Laquan McDonald, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Antonio Martin, and Jerame Reid, among others.[117]

In July, Eric Garner died in New York City, after a New York City Police Department officer put him in a banned chokehold while arresting him. Garner's death has been cited as one of several police killings of African Americans that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.[118]

During the Labor Day weekend in August, Black Lives Matter organized a "Freedom Ride", that brought more than 500 African-Americans from across the United States into Ferguson, Missouri, to support the work being done on the ground by local organizations.[119][120] The movement continued to be involved in the Ferguson protests, following the shooting of Michael Brown.[121] The protests at times came into conflict with local and state police departments, who typically responded in an armed manner. At one point the National Guard was called in and a state of emergency was declared.[26]

Also in August, Los Angeles Police Department officers shot and killed Ezell Ford; BLM protested his death in Los Angeles into 2015.[122]

In November, a New York City Police Department officer shot and killed, Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old African-American man. Gurley's death was later protested by Black Lives Matter in New York City.[123] In Oakland, California, fourteen Black Lives Matter activists were arrested after they stopped a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train for more than an hour on Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The protest, led by Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, was organized in response to the grand jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown.[124][125]

Also in November, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer. Rice's death has also been cited as contributing to "sparking" the Black Lives Matter movement.[118][126]

In December, two to three thousand people gathered at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, to protest the killings of unarmed black men by police.[127] The police at the mall were equipped with riot gear and bomb-sniffing dogs; at least twenty members of the protest were arrested.[128][129] Management said that they were "extremely disappointed that organizers of Black Lives Matter protest chose to ignore our stated policy and repeated reminders that political protests and demonstrations are not allowed on Mall of America property".[128]

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, BLM protested the police shooting of Dontre Hamilton, who died in April.[130] Black Lives Matter protested the shooting of John Crawford III.[131] The Murder of Renisha McBride was protested by Black Lives Matter.[132]

Also in December, in response to the decision by the grand jury not to indict Darren Wilson on any charges related to the Shooting of Michael Brown, a protest march was held in Berkeley, California. Later, in 2015, protesters and journalists who participated in that rally filed a lawsuit alleging "unconstitutional police attacks" on attendees.[133]

A week after the Michael Brown verdict, two police officers were killed in New York City by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who expressed a desire to kill police officers in retribution for the deaths of Garner and Brown. Black Lives Matter condemned the shooting, though some right-wing media attempted to connect the group to it, with the Patrolman's Benevolent Association president claiming that there was "blood on [the] hands [of] those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protests".[26] A conservative television commentator also attempted to connect Black Lives Matter to protesters chanting that they wanted to see "dead cops," at the December "Millions March" which was organized by different groups.[26]

In 2015, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Charley Leundeu Keunang, Tony Robinson, Anthony Hill, Meagan Hockaday, Shooting of Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, William Chapman, Jonathan Sanders, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, Jeremy McDole, Corey Jones, and Jamar Clark as well Dylann Roof's murder of The Charleston Nine.[134][135]

In March, BLM protested at Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office, demanding reforms within the Chicago Police Department.[136] Charley Leundeu Keunang, a 43-year-old Cameroonian national, was fatally shot by Los Angeles Police Department officers. The LAPD arrested fourteen following BLM demonstrations.[137]

In April, Black Lives Matter across the United States protested over the death of Freddie Gray which included the 2015 Baltimore protests.[138][139] The National Guard was called in.[26] After the shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, Black Lives Matter protested Scott's death and called for Civilian oversight of police.[140]

In May, a protest by BLM in San Francisco was part of a nationwide protest, SayHerName, decrying the police killing of black women and girls, which included the deaths of Meagan Hockaday, Aiyana Jones, Rekia Boyd, and others.[141] In Cleveland, Ohio, after an officer was acquitted at trial in the Killing of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, BLM protested.[142] In Madison, Wisconsin, BLM protested after the officer was not charged in the shooting of Tony Robinson.[143]

In June, after Dylann Roof's shooting in a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, BLM issued a statement and condemned the shooting as an act of terror.[citation needed] BLM across the country marched, protested and held vigil for several days after the shooting.[144][145] BLM was part of a march for peace on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in South Carolina.[146] After the Charleston shooting, a number of memorials to the Confederate States of America were graffitied with "Black Lives Matter" or otherwise vandalized.[147][148] Around 800 people protested in McKinney, Texas after a video was released showing an officer pinning a girlat a pool party in McKinney, Texasto the ground with his knees.[149]

In July, BLM activists across the United States began protests over the death of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman, who was allegedly found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas.[150][151] In Cincinnati, Ohio, BLM rallied and protested the death of Samuel DuBose after he was shot and killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer.[152] In Newark, New Jersey, over a thousand BLM activists marched against police brutality, racial injustice, and economic inequality.[153] Also in July, BLM protested the death of Jonathan Sanders who died while being arrested by police in Mississippi.[154][155]

In August, BLM organizers held a rally in Washington, D.C., calling for a stop to violence against transgender women.[156] In Charlotte, North Carolina, after a judge declared a mistrial in the trial of a white Charlotte police officer who killed an unarmed black man, Jonathan Ferrell, BLM protested and staged die-ins.[157] In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Janelle Mone, Jidenna, and other BLM activists marched through North Philadelphia to bring awareness to police brutality and Black Lives Matter.[158] Around August 9, the first anniversary of Michael Brown's death, BLM rallied, held vigil and marched in St. Louis and across the country.[159][160]

In September, over five hundred BLM protesters in Austin, Texas rallied against police brutality, and several briefly carried protest banners onto Interstate 35.[161] In Baltimore, Maryland, BLM activists marched and protested as hearings began in the Freddie Gray police brutality case.[162] In Sacramento, California, about eight hundred BLM protesters rallied to support a California State Senate bill that would increase police oversight.[163] BLM protested the shooting of Jeremy McDole.[164]

In October, Black Lives Matter activists were arrested during a protest of a police chiefs conference in Chicago.[165] "Rise Up October" straddled the Black Lives Matter Campaign, and brought several protests.[166] Quentin Tarantino and Cornel West, participating in "Rise Up October", decried police violence.[167]

In November, BLM activists protested after Jamar Clark was shot by Minneapolis Police Department.[168] A continuous protest was organized at the Minneapolis 4th Precinct Police. During the encamped protest, protesters, and outside agitators clashed with police, vandalized the station and attempted to ram the station with an SUV.[169][170] Later that month a march was organized to honor Jamar Clark, from the 4th Precinct to downtown Minneapolis. After the march, a group of men carrying firearms and body armor[171] appeared and began calling the protesters racial slurs according to a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter. After protesters asked the armed men to leave, the men opened fire, shooting five protesters.[172][173] All injuries required hospitalization, but were not life-threatening. The men fled the scene only to be found later and arrested. The three men arrested were young and white, and observers called them white supremacists.[174][175] In February 2017, one of the men arrested, Allen Scarsella, was convicted of a dozen felony counts of assault and riot in connection with the shooting. Based in part on months of racist messages Scarsella had sent his friends before the shooting, the judge rejected arguments by his defense that Scarsella was "nave" and sentenced him in April 2017 to 15 years out of a maximum 20-year sentence.[176][177]

From November into 2016, BLM protested the Murder of Laquan McDonald, calling for the resignation of numerous Chicago officials in the wake of the shooting and its handling. McDonald was shot 16 times by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.[178]

In 2016, Black Lives Matter demonstrated against the deaths of numerous African Americans by police actions, including those of Bruce Kelley Jr., Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Joseph Mann, Abdirahman Abdi, Paul O'Neal, Korryn Gaines, Sylville Smith, Terence Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, Alfred Olango, and Deborah Danner, among others.

In January, hundreds of BLM protesters marched in San Francisco to protest the December 2, 2015, shooting death of Mario Woods, who was shot by San Francisco Police officers. The march was held during a Super Bowl event.[179] BLM held protests, community meetings, teach-ins, and direct actions across the country with the goal of "reclaim[ing] the radical legacy of Martin Luther King Jr."[180]

In February, Abdullahi Omar Mohamed, a 17-year-old Somali refugee, was shot and injured by Salt Lake City, Utah, police after allegedly being involved in a confrontation with another person. The shooting led to BLM protests.[181]

In June, members of BLM and Color of Change protested the California conviction and sentencing of Jasmine Richards for a 2015 incident in which she attempted to stop a police officer from arresting another woman. Richards was convicted of "attempting to unlawfully take a person from the lawful custody of a peace officer", a charge that the state penal code had designated as "lynching" until that word was removed two months prior to the incident.[182]

On July 5, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man, was shot several times at point-blank range while pinned to the ground by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On the night of July 5, more than 100 demonstrators in Baton Rouge shouted "no justice, no peace," set off fireworks, and blocked an intersection to protest Sterling's death.[183] On July 6, Black Lives Matter held a candlelight vigil in Baton Rouge, with chants of "We love Baton Rouge" and calls for justice.[184]

On July 6, Philando Castile was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer, after being pulled over in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Castile was driving a car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter as passengers when he was pulled over by Yanez and another officer.[185] According to his girlfriend, after being asked for his license and registration, Castile told the officer he was licensed to carry a weapon and had one in the car.[186] She stated: "The officer said don't move. As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times."[187] She live-streamed a video on Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Following the fatal shooting of Castile, BLM protested throughout Minnesota and the United States.[188]

On July 7, a BLM protest was held in Dallas, Texas that was organized to protest the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. At the end of the peaceful protest, Micah Xavier Johnson opened fire in an ambush, killing five police officers and wounding seven others and two civilians. The gunman was then killed by a robot-delivered bomb.[189] Before he died, according to police, Johnson said that "he was upset about Black Lives Matter", and that "he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."[190] Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and other conservative lawmakers blamed the shootings on the Black Lives Matter movement.[191][192] The Black Lives Matter network released a statement denouncing the shootings.[193][194] On July 8, more than 100 people were arrested at Black Lives Matter protests across the United States.[195]

In the first half of July, there were at least 112 protests in 88 American cities.[196] On July 13, NBA stars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade opened the 2016 ESPY Awards with a Black Lives Matter message.[197] On July 26, Black Lives Matter held a protest in Austin, Texas, to mark the third anniversary of the shooting death of Larry Jackson Jr.[198] On July 28, Chicago Police Department officers shot Paul O'Neal in the back and killed him following a car chase.[199] After the shooting, hundreds marched in Chicago, Illinois.[200]

In Randallstown, Maryland, near Baltimore, on August 1, police officers shot and killed Korryn Gaines, a 23-year-old African-American woman, also shooting and injuring her son.[201] Gaines' death was protested in Baltimore.[202]

In August, Black Lives Matter protested in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the death of Bruce Kelley Jr., who was shot after fatally stabbing a police dog while trying to escape from police the previous January.[203]

In August, several professional athletes began participating in National Anthem protests. The protests began in the National Football League (NFL) after Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers sat during the anthem, as opposed to the tradition of standing, before his team's third preseason game of 2016.[204] During a post-game interview he explained his position stating, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,"[205] a protest widely interpreted as in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.[206][207][208] The protests have generated mixed reactions, and have since spread to other U.S. sports leagues.

In September, BLM protested the shooting deaths by police officers of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina.[209][210][211] The Charlotte Observer reported "The protesters began to gather as night fell, hours after the shooting. They held themed signs that said 'Stop Killing Us' and 'Black Lives Matter,' and they chanted 'No justice, no peace.' The scene was sometimes chaotic and tense, with water bottles and stones chucked at police lines, but many protesters called for peace and implored their fellow demonstrators not to act violently."[212] Multiple nights of protests in September and October were held in El Cajon, California, following the shooting of Alfred Olango.[213][214]

During the 2017 Black History Month, a month-long "Black Lives Matter" art exhibition was organized by three Richmond, Virginia artists at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond in the Byrd Park area of the city. The show featured more than 30 diverse multicultural artists on a theme exploring racial equality and justice.[215]

In the same month Virginia Commonwealth University's James Branch Cabell Library focused on a month-long schedule of events relating to African-American history[216] and showed photos from the church's "Black Lives Matter" exhibition on its outdoor screen.[217] The VCU schedule of events also included: the Real Life Film Series The Angry Heart: The Impact of Racism on Heart Disease among African-Americans; Keith Knight presented the 14th Annual VCU Libraries Black History Month lecture; Lawrence Ross, author of the book Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses talked about how his book related to the "Black Lives Matter" movement; and Velma P. Scantlebury, M.D., the first black female transplant surgeon in the United States, discussed "Health Equity in Kidney Transplantation: Experiences from a surgeon's perspective."

Black Lives Matter protested the shooting of Jocques Clemmons which occurred in Nashville, Tennessee on February 10, 2017.[218] On May 12, 2017, a day after Glenn Funk, the district attorney of Davidson County decided not to prosecute police officer Joshua Lippert, the Nashville chapter of BLM held a demonstration near the Vanderbilt University campus all the way to the residence of Nashville mayor Megan Barry.[219][220]

On September 27 at the College of William & Mary, students associated with Black Lives Matter protested an ACLU event because the ACLU had fought for the right of Unite the Right rally to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia.[221] William & Mary's president Taylor Reveley responded with a statement defending the college's commitment to open debate.[222][223]

In February and March 2018, as part of its social justice focus, First Unitarian Church Church of Richmond, Virginia in Richmond, Virginia presented its Second Annual Black Lives Matter Art Exhibition.[224] Works of art in the exhibition were projected at scheduled hours on the large exterior screen (jumbotron) at Virginia Commonwealth University's Cabell Library. Artists with art in the exhibition were invited to discuss their work in the Black Lives Matter show as it was projected at an evening forum in a small amphitheater at VCU's Hibbs Hall. They were also invited to exhibit afterward at a local showing of the 1961 film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun.

In April, CNN reported that the largest Facebook account claiming to be a part of the "Black Lives Matter" movement was a "scam" tied to a white man in Australia. The account, with 700,000 followers, linked to fundraisers that raised $100,000 or more, purportedly for U.S. Black Lives Matter causes; however, some of the money was instead transferred to Australian banks accounts, according to CNN. Facebook has suspended the offending page.[225][226][227]

On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man, was murdered while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia.[228] Arbery had been pursued and confronted by three white residents driving two vehicles, including a father and son who were armed.[229] All three men were indicted on nine counts, including felony murder.[230]

On March 13, Louisville police officers knocked down the apartment door of 26-year-old African American Breonna Taylor, serving a no-knock search warrant for drug suspicions. After her boyfriend shot a police officer in the leg,[231] Police fired several shots which led to her death. Her boyfriend called 911 and said, "someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend".[232] Protests were held in Louisville with calls for police reform.[233]

At the end of May, spurred on by a rash of racially charged events including those above, over 450 major protests[234][235] were held in cities and towns across the United States and three continents.[236] The breaking point was due primarily to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin,[237] eventually charged with second-degree murder after a video circulated showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd pleaded for his life, repeating: "I can't breathe."[238][239] Following protesters' demands for additional prosecutions, three other officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.[240]

Black Lives Matter organized rallies in the United States and worldwide[241] from May 30 onwards,[242][243] with protesters enacting Floyd's final moments, many lying down in streets and on bridges, yelling "I can't breathe," while others marched by the thousands, some carrying signs that read, "Tell your brother in blue, don't shoot""Who do you call when the murderer wears a badge?" and "Justice for George Floyd."[244] While global in nature and supported by several unassociated organizations, the Black Lives Matter movement has been inextricably linked to these monumental protests.[245] Black Lives Matter called to "defund the police", a slogan with varying interpretations from police abolition to divestment from police and prisons to reinvestment in social services in communities of color.[246] In 2020, NPR reported that the Washington D.C. Black Lives Matter chapter's demands were defunding the police, halting the construction of new jails, decriminalizing sex work, removing police from schools, exonerating protesters and abolishing cash bail in Maryland.[247]

On June 5, Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that part of the street outside the White House had been officially renamed to Black Lives Matter Plaza posted with a street sign.[248]

On June 7, in the wake of global George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter's call to "defund the police", the Minneapolis City Council voted to "disband its police department" to shift funding to social programs in communities of color. City Council President Lisa Bender said, "Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period." The council vote came after the Minneapolis Public Schools, the University of Minnesota and Minneapolis Parks and Recreation cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department.[249] At the end of 2020, approximately $8 million of the city's $179 million police budget was reallocated for violence prevention pilot programs, and was considered the type of incremental reform that activists and politicians had earlier denounced.[250]

On July 20, the Strike for Black Lives, organized in part by Black Lives Matter, featured thousands of workers across the United States performing a walkout to raise awareness of systemic racism following Floyd's murder.[251]

From May 26 to August 22, there were more than 7,750 BLM-linked demonstrations in over 2,240 locations throughout the United States.[252]

On April 20, 2021, a jury, consisting of six white people and six people of color, found Chauvin guilty on three counts: unintentional second-degree murder; third-degree murder; and second-degree manslaughter.[253][254][255]

In Illinois, Olivia Butts organized an effort to get the elimination of cash bail passed for 2023 under a new bill.[256]

As a result of 2021 marijuana legalization efforts, Black Lives Matter activist Lexis Figuereo's conviction was expunged in New York.[257]

A vigil was held for the death of Black Lives Matter co-founders cousin Keenan Anderson who was killed by a police officer of the LAPD.[258]

In 2015, after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, black activists around the world modeled efforts for reform on Black Lives Matter and the Arab Spring.[60][259] This international movement has been referred to as the "Black Spring".[260][261] Connections have also been forged with parallel international efforts such as the Dalit rights movement.[262]

Following the death of Ms Dhu in police custody in August 2014, protests often made reference to the BLM movement.[263][264] In July 2016, a BLM rally was organized in Melbourne, Australia, which 3,500 people attended. The protest also emphasized the issues of mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians by the Australian police and government.[265]

In May 2017, Black Lives Matter was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, which "honours a nominee who has promoted 'peace with justice', human rights and non-violence".[266]

In early June 2020, soon after the George Floyd protests in the US, protests took place in Australia, with many of them focusing on the local issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody, racism in Australia and other injustices faced by Indigenous Australians.[267] Cricketer Michael Holding criticized Australia, as well as England, for refusing to take a knee in support of Black Lives Matter during cricket matches.[268][269]

Blacks in Brazil suffer from economic marginalization, state violence, discrimination, and lower life-expectancy.[270] In June 2020, two Black children, 5-year-old Miguel Otvio Santana da Silva and 14-year-old Joo Pedro Matos Pinto, died in Brazil.[270] Miguel Otvio Santana da Silva was under the watch of the white boss of his mother when he fell off the balcony of a building.[270] Joo Pedro Matos Pinto was shot in the back by police in Rio de Janeiro during a raid where the police discharged seventy shots.[270][271] He was killed the same week as George Floyd.[272] Their deaths prompted protests in cities across the country.[270] The slogan "Black Lives Matter" was translated to "Vidas Negras Importam" in Portuguese.[270] Protests continued throughout 2020 and were renewed at the end of the year after supermarket security guards beat 40-year-old welder Joo Alberto Silveira Freitas to death in Porto Alegre.[273]

In July 2015, BLM protesters shut down Allen Road in Toronto, Ontario, protesting the shooting deaths of two black men in the metropolitan areaAndrew Loku and Jermaine Carbyat the hands of police.[274] In September, BLM activists shut down streets in Toronto, citing police brutality and solidarity with "marginalized black lives" as reason for the shutdown. Black Lives Matter was a featured part of the Take Back the Night event in Toronto.[275]

In June 2016, Black Lives Matter was selected by Pride Toronto as the honored group in that year's Pride parade, during which they staged a sit-in to block the parade from moving forward for approximately half an hour.[276] They issued several demands for Pride to adjust its relationship with LGBTQ people of color, including stable funding and a suitable venue for the established Blockorama event, improved diversity in the organization's staff and volunteer base, and that Toronto Police officers be banned from marching in the parade in uniform.[277] Pride executive director Mathieu Chantelois signed BLM's statement of demand, but later asserted that he had signed it only to end the sit-in and get the parade moving, and had not agreed to honor the demands.[278]In late August 2016, the Toronto chapter protested outside the Special Investigations Unit in Mississauga in response to the death of Abdirahman Abdi, who died during an arrest in Ottawa.[279]

In 2020, the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet and the killing of D'Andre Campbell in Canada sparked BLM protests demanding the defunding of police services.[280][281]

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Black Lives Matter - Wikipedia

Black Lives Matter | Definition, Founders, Goals, History, & Influence …

Black Lives Matter (BLM), international social movement, formed in the United States in 2013, dedicated to fighting racism and anti-Black violence, especially in the form of police brutality. The name Black Lives Matter signals condemnation of the unjust killings of Black people by police (Black people are far more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people) and the demand that society value the lives and humanity of Black people as much as it values the lives and humanity of white people.

BLM activists have held large and influential protests in cities across the United States as well as internationally. A decentralized grassroots movement, Black Lives Matter is led by activists in local chapters who organize their own campaigns and programs. The chapters are affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a nonprofit civil rights organization that is active in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

BLM was cofounded in 2013 as an online movement (using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media) by three Black community organizersPatrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. They formed BLM after George Zimmerman, a man of German and Peruvian descent, was acquitted on charges stemming from his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. Zimmerman, a neighbourhood-watch volunteer, had seen Martin walking in his neighbourhood and called the police because he thought Martin looked suspicious. Although Zimmerman was told not to do anything, he followed Martin, got into an argument with him, and shot and killed him. When law enforcement arrived, Zimmerman claimed that he had been assaulted by Martin and fired in self-defense.

Zimmerman remained free for weeks, but, as the shooting gained national attention, demonstrations demanding his prosecution were held in cities across the United States. He was finally charged with second-degree murder and arrested in April 2012. At his trial more than a year later, Zimmerman claimed that he had acted in self-defense, citing a controversial Florida law known as stand your ground. His acquittal in July 2013 was widely perceived as a miscarriage of justice and led to further nationwide protests.

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Black Lives Matter | Definition, Founders, Goals, History, & Influence ...

Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?

Black Lives Matter has been called the largest civil movement in U.S. history. Since 2013, local BLM chapters have formed nationwide to demand accountability for the killings of dozens of African Americans by police and others. Since the summer of 2020, when tens of millions in the U.S. and around the world marched under the Black Lives Matter slogan to protest a Minneapolis police officers murder of George Floyd, the movement has risen to a new level of prominence, funding and scrutiny.

BLM has long been seen as a coordinated yet decentralized effort. Lately, the movement and its leading organizations have become more traditional and hierarchical in structure. Public opinion is also changing, as BLM chapters call on the movements leaders to be more accountable to its grassroots groups. We caught up with two scholars of worldwide African communities and cultures Kwasi Konadu and Bright Gyamfi to discuss BLM as both a movement and an organization.

Black Lives Matter started in 2013 as a messaging campaign. In response to the 2012 acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Black teenager Trayvon Martin, three activists Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors protested the verdict on social media, along with many others. Cullors came up with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, which gained widespread use on social media and in street protests.

Over the next several years as Black Lives Matter flags, hashtags and signs became common features of local, national and even international protests in support of Black lives this messaging campaign became a decentralized social movement to demand accountability for police killings and other brutality against Black people.

The movement remained decentralized, although some significant, formal BLM-related organizations emerged during this time. For instance, in 2013 Cullors, Tometi and Garza formed the Black Lives Matter Network to facilitate communication, support and shared resources among the dozens of locally organized and led Black Lives Matter chapters that were springing up around the United States.

In 2014, the Movement for Black Lives, or M4BL, formed as a separate but related coalition of dozens of organizations of Black activist and others, including the Black Lives Matter Network.

In 2017, the Black Lives Matter Network transformed into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, co-founded by Tometi and Cullors, who was the executive director until she stepped down in May 2021. This group describes itself as a global foundation supporting Black led movements.

While the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation says it is decentralized, over time it has followed a pattern similar to other social movements driven by individuals and organizations. It has become more of a conventional hierarchical organization, centralizing its operations and leadership. Its founders have won awards, book deals and notoriety.

The BLM Global Network Foundation has not developed any publicly known independent source of funding, nor was a decision ever made to rely primarily on grassroots support or small individual donations. As a result, it is dependent on corporate and foundation money to pay for its operations and programs. Amid the George Floyd uprisings in 2020, the BLM Global Network Foundation generated some US$90 million in donations or grants from corporations and foundations.

The Movement for Black Lives, which calls itself decentralized and anti-capitalist, also raised millions in 2020, including $100 million from the Ford Foundation.

All told, corporations pledged close to $2 billion to BLM-related causes in 2020, though less is known about pledges for 2021.

Meanwhile, many frontline Black Lives Matters chapters have struggled to stay afloat. Some key chapters have begun calling for financial transparency and more democratic decison-making from national leaders at the BLM Global Network Foundation, as well as a share of the funds the national groups have raised.

Others have disavowed the Black Lives Matter Network and defected from it, focusing on local community fundraising and organizing to support their work.

Though the phrase Black Lives Matter has become a common sight, the movement is losing public support. According to a new Civiqs survey of 244,622 registered voters, support for BLM fell from two-thirds of voters in June 2020 to 50% in June 2021.

Some of this shift may be due to growing public awareness of the movements internal struggles, such as competing visions and competition over scarce resources, as well as questions about whether some BLM leaders have used donations for personal benefit.

Tensions and conflicts are part of the evolution of all social movements, including BLM.

Movements for peoples of African ancestry also face a distinct challenge: They often have to appeal for both funding and action from the same white power structure and corporate interests that participate in and benefit from the suffering of Black people.

For example, although President Lyndon B. Johnson is remembered for helping pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he routinely referred to the 1957 version of that act as the nigger bill in conversations with his Southern white supremacist colleagues.

Another example involves the McDonalds Corp. In 1968, after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., McDonalds partnered with U.S. civil rights organizations. The company claimed its African American-owned franchises were carrying on Kings civil rights agenda to empower the Black community.

According to historian Marcia Chatelain, however, instead of enabling economic freedom, McDonalds has burdened the Black community with low wages, relatively few franchises and high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. McDonalds has benefited from a devoted African American consumer base, more so because African Americans consume more fast food than any other race, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Money shaping social movements, such as the civil rights movement, is not new. The civil rights movement, including the summer of 1963s March on Washington, was funded by white liberal organizations and foundations. In the summer of 2020, BLM protests also generated millions in similar funding. Indeed, the Ford Foundation and the Borealis Philanthropy recently formed the Black-Led Movement Fund, which raises money for the Movement for Black Lives.

Malcolm X, in his analysis of the 1963 March on Washington, brought attention to the influence white philanthropy and leadership held over black social justice organizations, especially regarding funding that was controlled by the white power structure. Siding with Malcolms analysis, James Baldwin also observed, the March had already been co-opted.

Based on our research on civil rights-Black power organizations and on Black internationalism, BLM would benefit from a starfish organizational structure.

Starfishlike organizations are decentralized networks with no head. Intelligence is spread throughout an open system that easily adapts to circumstances. If a leader is removed, new ones emerge, and the network remains intact.

In the U.S., BLM organizers work through various groups, yet all are tied to centralized hubs, like the Movement for Black Lives coalition. These organizational choices conform to a spider analogy. Compared to the starfish structure, spiderlike organizations operate under the control of a central leader, and information and power are concentrated at the top.

[Youre smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversations authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]

In the wake of the 2020 mass protests against racism after George Floyds murder, many Republican-led states proposed a new wave of draconian anti-protest laws to stifle dissent. This suggests that BLM might be more resilient if it followed the starfish approach.

In their desire to appeal to a diverse public to end white supremacy, Black Lives Matters leaders fail to consider that pervasive anti-Black violence is the very engine that powers white supremacy and makes broad coalitions ineffective.

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Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?

Heres the Real Takeaway From Black Lives Matters Sketchy Finances

Jesse Grant/Getty for Viacom

Following the reveal of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundations IRS tax documents, its now safe to say that theres something questionable going on at the social justice nonprofit.

According to the groups Form 990, first reported by Associated Press, BLM is worth nearly $42 million in net assetsafter spending more than $37 million of the $90 million it previously had on high-end real estate, familiar consultants, ambitious grants, and more.

One of the more concerning situations revealed by the financial disclosures is the fact that co-founder Patrisse Cullors was the foundation boards sole voting director, and held no board meetings, before stepping down last year. Under her leadership, Cullors authorized a six-figure payout to be given to her childs father for various services, paid $1.8 million to companies owned by her relatives, and ensured that her brother, Paul Cullors, was one of the highest-paid employees of BLM.

The Hip-Hop Blogosphere Has a Serious False News Problem

This is yet another wave of bad news for Cullors, who has constantly denied financial impropriety, as she has previously tried to quell any growing concerns around her decision-making. These tax documents not only proved that Cullors lied about misusing some of the funds (such as hosting a birthday party for her son and throwing a private Biden inauguration celebration in the multimillion dollar property intended for activists and creators), but that she did so repeatedly.

Im a human being that has made mistakes that want to change, want to challenge those mistakes and want to learn from those mistakes, Cullors told Tramaine Lee of MSNBCs Into America podcast on Monday. And I think whats been hard is feeling like there isnt room and space for that.

While all of this news is disappointing and alarming, theres one truth that we should all take in: All politics is local, including the grassroots activism it takes to organize.

For years, much of what Cullors now describes as the white guilt money has been geared towards national organizations, like BLM, that say their missions are focused on addressing racial injustice. Cullors once made headlines for saying that hearing the term 990s was triggering to herbut thats what nonprofit transparency looks like. If the public at large wanted to fund multimillion-dollar villas, top-flight exec travel, and cashed-out gigs for the founders relatives, they could have easily donated to the Trump Foundation.

Story continues

Local Black Lives Matter chapters across the country have for years raised concerns over how the national arm had been leaving them fiscally malnourished. And that this could happen as their co-founders garnered lucrative book deals, speaking engagements, and career opportunities.

For donors of all identities, giving to the national organization felt like an easy way to maximize impact. But I would bet that most donors are probably furious to see their money going towards anything but direct action on the ground.

Its hard not to imagine how this money could have best been spent if local chapters and other more direct on-the-ground activist groups were given a larger chunk of this money to do the actual work. To now be fully aware that a great deal of the $90 million raised for BLM during the racial uprisings of 2020 didnt actually go to fuel the continuation of similar activity on the local levelthat feels like betrayal. Even worse, its hard not to consider such fundraising as anything more than just a big grift.

To those who have been giving money to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, now is the time to stop.

BLM Activist Accuses DeRay Mckesson of Stealing His Work in Ugly Spat

This is not to say that you shouldnt give money to Black activism efforts, but to rethink who and where youre giving it to. While it will require some additional work on your end to find local groups worthy of your financial support, such funds will make a more meaningful impact than whatever trickles down from some giant conglomerateespecially one that can afford to buy mansions, while many neighborhood orgs can barely keep the lights on.

To cite one personal example, I made the informed decision to cease donating to national political LGBTQIA organizations in 2016. The impetus was the Human Rights Coalitiona big national orgdragging its feet on rescinding its endorsement of former Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, who had made racist remarks at the time. As a Black queer man, I was furious that the organization had decided to use diverse resources to back a Senate Republican who they hadnt fully vetted for problematic behavior.

Since then, Ive found more pride in direct giving funds and donating volunteer hours to local nonprofits that do more intersectional work, such as the William Way LGBT Community Center in my own backyard of Philadelphia.

At a time when resources are scarce and there appear to be more problems than solutions, its time for us all to remember the importance of local grassroots efforts that have always empowered the people and politics. If the power is truly to the people, so should the fundingand such funding should never fall onto $6 million mansions and VIP parties, but on the ground where the people are.

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Heres the Real Takeaway From Black Lives Matters Sketchy Finances

BLM has left Black Americans worse off since the movement began …

The Black Lives Matter movement started a massive wave of Americans uniting to call for defunding the police and eradicating white supremacy to make positive changes for Black Americans. But experts reflecting on the movements scorecard in 2022 say Black America hasnt benefited.

"I would argue that, on balance, these communities are worse off because by [BLM] overemphasizing the role of police, they've changed police behavior for the worse," the Manhattan Institutes Jason Riley told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. "In other words, police do become more cautious. They're less likely to get out of their cars and engage with people in the community. And to the extent that police are less proactive, the criminals have the run of the place."

A protester waves a Black Lives Matter flag during a demonstration in Los Angeles April 20, 2021. (Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Riley noted that "police brutality still exists, bad cops exist," and he has no "problem with raising awareness about police misconduct." But he argued that BLM is "over-focused" on police and does not take into account that "97, 98% [of Black homicides] do not involve police at all."

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley (Fox News)

Dr. Carol Swain, a retired professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, told Fox News Digital that "an intelligent observer would be hard-pressed to identify any area in American society where BLMs activism has benefited the Black community."

MASSIVE INCREASE IN BLACK AMERICANS MURDERED WAS RESULT OF DEFUND POLICE MOVEMENT: EXPERTS

"What BLM has done is pervert the criminal justice system by engaging in activities that have resulted in a growing trend of trials by media," Swain said. "BLM has intimidated juries and judges. Its leaders have no interest in due process or the presumption of innocence."

Black Lives Matter began with the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and was officially founded in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting case of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Chants of "Black Lives Matter" later rang out at protests following the police-involved killing of Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014 and continued to into the next year after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

It ultimately grew to a vast movement by the summer of 2020 that swept the highest echelons of America, from corporate leaders to Hollywood icons to powerful sports figures pledging support.

BLM SILENT WHEN CONFRONTED WITH DATA SHOWING MASSIVE 2020 SPIKE IN BLACK MURDER VICTIMS

Defunding the police is a cornerstone of BLMs mission and remains on its list of seven demands on the groups website.

"We know that police dont keep us safe and as long as we continue to pump money into our corrupt criminal justice system at the expense of housing, health and education investments we will never be truly safe," BLM posted in July 2020.

But as the calls to defund rang out, violent crimes in the Black community skyrocketed. Murders in the 2010s first broke the 7,000 mark in 2015 after the highly-publicized deaths of Gray that same year and Brown in 2014, jumping by nearly a thousand in one year.

In 2020, the year George Floyd was killed during an interaction with Minneapolis police, Black murders jumped by a staggering 32% compared to 2019, according to FBI data. Overall, Black murders increased by 43% that year compared to the prior 10-year average. CDC data published Tuesday additionally showed that in 2020, Black Americans were disproportionally affected by gun-related homicides, increasing by 39.5% that year compared to 2019. Gun-related homicides rose by 35% overall that year, according to the CDC.

"Certainly, the protests and riots mid-2020 after the death of George Floyd followed a pattern of spiking violence that we've seen following past viral police incidents, such as the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. This pattern has been termed the Ferguson Effect' police pull back while violent crime spikes precipitously," Hannah Meyers, director of the policing and public safety initiative at the Manhattan Institute, previously told Fox News Digital.

FBI DATA SHOWS LARGE INCREASE IN MURDERS IN 2020 NATIONWIDE

The Ferguson Effect unfolded again in 2020, according to experts, but polling showed the Black community wasnt on board with the calls to defund.

A Gallup poll from August 2020 found 81% of Black Americans wanted "police to spend [the] same amount of or more time in their area," compared to 19% reporting police should spend less time in their neighborhood.

Riley said that the polling shows "that these activists are not in step with the people who actually live in these violent communities."

"You have to remember the overwhelming majority of people who live in these communities are law-abiding. You're talking about a very small percentage, mostly men, and mostly young men that are causing all this havoc in these communities. Many of these people would leave these communities. They can't afford to move anywhere else, so they're forced to deal with this."

Swain added that "BLM focuses on scattered cases of police abuse," but ignores "the horrendous Black-on-Black crimes that take place daily in cities around the nation."

Carol Swain on Fox News primetime (Fox News)

"BLM does not want young Black men and women to know the importance of individual choice in determining how an encounter with police will end. Instead of modeling lawful behavior, BLM and progressive politicians in Congress seem to hold the regressive belief that Black people are always right even when they are clearly wrong," Swain said.

"Many progressives White and Black hold a dangerous belief that black people are justified in challenging and disobeying lawful police orders. This encourages a dangerous double standard that erodes the rule of law and contributes to more criminal behavior."

ACTIVISTS LOOK THE OTHER WAY AS BLACK AMERICANS PAY BLOODY PRICE FOR BLM, 'WOKE AGENDA': EXPERTS

Black Lives Matter activists, however, say they built a movement that positively changed how America talks about race at a national level down to the community level.

"The conversation around race didnt exist in a vast capacity until we saw the BLM movement, this surge," T. Sheri Amour Dickerson, executive director and core organizer of BLM Oklahoma City, told NBC in 2020. "Now difficult conversations, honest conversations, and even some discourse, have become part of the daily discussion here in Oklahoma, and I think that goes nationwide in many different factions. Its also become more intergenerational."

Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, argued on Fox News "Americas Newsroom" last month that the defund movement did not hurt the Black community when confronted with FBI data showing the increase in Black murders. He defined the defund movement as "taking money from the police and putting it in community centers, job opportunities and after-school programs So it wasn't like just get rid of this money for the police. It was invest in the community."

"Great things have come out of Black Lives Matter. We've had more black corporate hires than in the history of this country. We've passed progressive laws. The cops that killed George Floyd wouldn't have been prosecuted. So many of these cops, so many measures for accountability. It came as a result of that," Newsome said while denouncing controversies surrounding the co-founders of BLM.

Newsome said the "people who started the movement" must be separated "from the people who carried the movement."

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's press team and Black Lives Matter of Greater New York did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment regarding experts saying the BLM movement has not benefited the Black community.

Swain said that the Black community will see change "when enough of its leaders push for a return to the values and principles of older generations who appreciated the sanctity of human life and took pride in their communities and self-betterment through individual effort and ingenuity."

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"We need fewer chapters of BLM and more exemplary organizations like the Woodson Center, which has an outstanding record of changing lives and giving hope to the least among us," Swain said.

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BLM has left Black Americans worse off since the movement began ...

What Happened To Black Lives Matter? – BuzzFeed News

Activists do have disagreements over where resources should be directed, and how it should be done. Johnson quietly led a campaign during 2016, questioning the allocation of resources. Intra-movement tension spilled over into a meeting that Black Lives Matter leaders held in Charlotte in August of last year. According to one source in attendance, people talked about how well-known, accomplished local leaders had spoken of being homeless, or close to it. There were at least four people at the national convening talking openly about being [personally] housing insecure, the source said.

Its not clear what kind of resources and money truly exist inside the movement. Funding for activism is often difficult; fundraising (even in the age of crowdsourcing) can require intense, dedicated work (meetings, travel, pitches, compromises), tailored to foundations or donors, who operate on their own timetables.

Matthews raised, in her statement to BuzzFeed News, the difficulties and constraints of a large movement with many needs. We cant speak for other [Movement for Black Lives] organizations, but for [Black Lives Matter], like every organization trying to scale up responsibly, we are experimenting and learning as we go, she wrote. Its hard to please everyone, and we have had to make some hard decisions as we learn not unlike most new organizations.

Millions of people across the globe are drawn to the mission and vision of Black Lives Matter, and were proud to build with them toward a future where we can all thrive, she wrote. And to reach that goal, and earn some real wins along the way, we must make some strategic decisions about how to allocate our resources. Unfortunately, movements arent equipped to pay every person, activist, and organizer who shows an interest, and that makes some people unhappy, but we do our best to resource people in a variety of ways and as often as we can.

She noted that organizers have been paid in the past to do work, dating back to the 1960s and SNCC, but that most people dont commit to community organizing for the money we do it to survive. Matthews also said, "Yes, many of the organizations within [the Movement for Black Lives] are stretched thin. For many reasons, we dont always have enough resources to the things we need to do, but where we lack in resources, we are rich in imagination. Despite the unfair scrutiny and unsafe working conditions, we are still able to fight back against the anti-black racism and state-sanctioned violence thats killing us.

Still, local activists felt there was a disparity from their point of view, some people were famous, being featured in magazines. Even being more known isnt necessarily a solution.

It gets exhausting asking for stuff, said Daunasia Yancey, the founder of Black Lives Matter Boston, whose group had a much-publicized confrontation with Hillary Clinton, then a candidate, in nearby New Hampshire.

Yanceys local profile in Boston grew quickly. In January 2015, she was the cover subject of Boston Magazine. Yancey said she turned down an offer to be funded by a small family foundation based in the Boston suburbs. Cullors encouraged her to accept it, but her team expressed misgivings. My biggest regret is buying into the idea if youre getting paid for work its not good, she said. Yancey didnt have a job; Black Lives Matter Boston was her job. She said members of her team had two or, in some cases, three jobs.

Back in Boston, Yancey has brought her activism to a halt. If I dont have a place to live, we dont have a chapter, she told BuzzFeed News.

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What Happened To Black Lives Matter? - BuzzFeed News

Black Lives Matters National Organization Opens Its Books

From left, DZhane Parker, Cicley Gay, and Shalomyah Bowers. Photo: Brynn Anderson/AP

On Monday evening, the most prominent organization in the modern civil-rights movement, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, held a special meeting on Zoom. In attendance were the three members of a newly installed board, representatives of groups from across America that had received grants from the organization, and other stakeholders. For months, BLMGNF had endured criticism that its finances were opaque and inequitable and that its lack of transparency was harming the movement for racial justice; multiple states suspended its ability to solicit funds, and two launched formal investigations. Now the nonprofit was preparing to release the first official accounting of its finances at midnight. On the call, a recording of which I listened to, members of the board apologized for not being more transparent sooner and said they hoped the new disclosures would clear the bad air. And so, despite past efforts, what we also recognize is that there is still more work to do to increase transparency and ensure transitions in leadership are clear, said Shalomyah Bowers, one of the board members. Later, he added, So folks, again, understand what this 990 is and that we are clearing up all of the misinformation and disinformation.

Some things are indeed clearer and others are not. The document that BLMGNF filed with the federal government, an IRS Form 990, breaks down financial activity between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. George Floyd had just been murdered in Minneapolis, and donors gave the nonprofit nearly $77 million during the fiscal year. It spent nearly $38 million, with about $26 million in grants going to other activist groups, Black Lives Matter chapters, and other social-justice causes. By the summer of 2021, the organization had $42 million remaining in assets.

The report also reflects how BLMGNF has often operated in ways that trouble experts in nonprofit compliance. According to the 990, BLMGNF had few permanent staff for a group of its reach, listing 49,275 volunteers and just two employees. The board had a single voting member during the fiscal year: Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the group who served as executive director until May 2021. Under Cullorss leadership, BLMGNF relied heavily on outside consultants and often paid large sums to individuals in leadership positions or with family connections. According to the filing, Bowerss consulting firm was paid more than $2.1 million during the accounting period. Trap Heals LLC, an entertainment, clothing, and consulting company started by Damon Turner, the father of Cullorss child, received nearly $970,000. Cullors Protection LLC, a security firm run by her brother, Paul, was paid more than $840,000. The three entities were the highest-paid companies or independent contractors disclosed on the tax document.

My impression is that theyre trying to clean up the transparency and accountability problems theyve had, but they still have a lot of work to do, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School who specializes in nonprofits, said after reviewing the document. There are lots of transactions with businesses that have ties to the former founder and executive director, and charities arent prohibited from engaging in business with insiders or people related to insiders, but naturally those transactions receive more scrutiny.

Mayer said that two issues concerned him the most: There isnt evidence of a bidding process in place to prevent the appearance of conflicts of interest, and the board appears too small to adequately oversee an organization with such a large level of assets and a focus of such high national importance. I think it is surprising they didnt anticipate the need for this, these sorts of controls and so forth, given the amount of money and the interest that was being shown in the movement, he said. They were undoubtedly aware that they would be subject to potentially withering criticism if they didnt dot every i and cross every t.

Some of the strongest broadsides against BLMGNF have come from inside the movement. Ten city chapters banded together to speak out against the organizations lack of financial transparency in November 2020. Earlier this year, New York Magazine revealed that BLMGNF had secretly bought a sprawling $6 million property with donor money. This is sickening and a betrayal to the movement, BLM Chicago wrote on Twitter. Few people knew of the propertys existence, and it was barely used for 17 months, although Cullors threw private parties there and recorded videos for her personal YouTube channel. After I questioned the organization about the house, BLMGNF said the property was intended to be a space for Black creatives to produce content.

The extent the house was used for the personal benefit of those who run the organization raises significant additional legal and tax concerns, said Jeffrey Tenenbaum, a nonprofit lawyer in Washington, D.C., with nearly three decades of experience. According to 990, Cullors reimbursed the organization $390 for her use of the house. Considering the cost of the property and what would be considered a fair market value for its use, Tenenbaum said, That only $390 was paid back to the organization for the use of the house for personal benefits seems fairly egregious on its face. He was also bothered that Cullors served as BLMGNFs sole board member for the fiscal year. Such an arrangement is permissible under Delaware corporate law, where the organization is incorporated, he said, but it remains a big red flag to me from an IRS perspective.

A nonprofit board is supposed to provide impartial oversight, offering guidance that is in the best interest of the charity. Board members are the fiduciaries who steer the organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, begins a description by the National Council of Nonprofits. When BLMGNF announced its new board April 27, it did little to dispel the notion that the organization is run by a small group of insiders. All three members Bowers, Cicley Gay, and DZhane Parker were listed as staff members on an initiative Cullors directed at Reform L.A. Jails, a California nonprofit. Bowers was treasurer for the local political committee, along with being the chief financial officer for another of Cullorss nonprofits. Hes also the treasurer of the BLM political action committee.

During a call with members of the Black media on May 19, Bowers said there are plans to increase the board to nine members and release an independent, external audit to the public on a new transparency webpage the group has set up on its website. We need to keep our community safe and thriving, Gay said during the session, and were going to center transparency as a core value to that work.

Joining the earlier virtual meeting on Monday was YahN Ndgo, a former core organizer of BLM Philly who was involved in the November 2020 schism between city chapters and the national organization. Even though her chapter ultimately received a grant from BLMGNF, Ndgo told me she feels it pales in comparison to the money paid to consultants. Shes especially bothered by the disclosure that Cullors reimbursed the nonprofit $73,523 for a charter flight, which Cullors says she booked because of security and COVID concerns. Ndgo said she finds it disgraceful that Cullors has been enriched by the movement to such an extent that she could spend so much on a plane ride, while Ndgo saw an organizer in the Los Angeles chapter of BLM living out of a tent the last time she visited the city. Its such an extreme and unnecessary expense, she said.

Many of BLMGNFs activities give her grave concern. All of these decisions are completely unprincipled, she said, and organizers are supposed to be driven by principle a hundred percent of the time.

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Black Lives Matters National Organization Opens Its Books

What Does "Black Lives Matter" Actually Mean? Why Saying "All Lives …

Black lives did not matter when they were inhumanely transported like livestock from Africa. Black lives did not matter when they were lynched by the hundreds at the hands of the KKK. Black lives did not matter when they were attacked by dogs as they protested for equal rights.

With the weekly news cycle seeming to, without fail, include the death of at least one black boy at the hands of the police, or the body of a black woman being thrown to the ground by local law enforcement, or a black child being manhandled by the services meant to protect them, my heart sinks as I cling to the desire that black lives will matter.

When Nancy Pelosi, as part of MSNBCs town hall last year, was asked by student Shelly Ward if she supported the Black Lives Matter movement, Pelosis response was an all too familiar Well, I believe that all lives matter. Her statement was to the very obvious disappointment of the young black woman who asked the question, and to the disappointment of an exhausted black community.

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As someone who is constantly bombarded with the howling of but all lives matterand the heated conversations that inevitably followlet me explain. Black Lives Matter is not a term of confrontation or an exclusionary demand. As Columbia Law Professor Kimberle Crenshaw explains, saying black lives matter is simply aspirational; it's a rallying cry for a shift in statistical numbers that show that people who are black are twice as likely to be killed by a police officer while unarmed, compared to a white individual. According to a 2015 study, African-Americans died at the hands of police at a rate of 7.2 per million, while whites were killed at a rate of 2.9 per million.

Anyone who has kept any type of pulse on civil rights and the black human condition in the United States since the transatlantic slave trade would understand the need to emphasize the protection of black bodies. The people who have had the luxury of ignoring this particular issue is the white community, which has had the privilege of not questioningon a large scalewhether the systems they live in are detrimental to their livelihoods, based on their skin color.

But as the Black Lives Matter movement emerged, they were all of a sudden jolted into an awareness of the intersection of race and surviving police encounters. Instead of exploring the reasons why a movement like this would even be necessary, many have a knee jerk reaction. What about me? All lives matter, they cry. Why be divisive and unfair, what about our safety? The point these people miss is that the majority of experiences here in America already tend to center and highlight whiteness and cater to its safety. The country was built to function that way. Its roots of white supremacy and the marginalized concern for people of color has remained.

Today, looking at the gross brutality and murders of black American citizens like Oscar Grant, Michelle Cusseaux, Samuel Dubose, and Jordan Edwards, we are still aspiring to convince you that black lives matter.

But let's get back to the issue of countering Black Lives Matter with the phrase All Lives Matter. I've come to describe this as a collective gaslighting from the white community. Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power (or in this case, keep their own peace), makes a victim question their reality. Why do those who counter black lives matter act as though black people aren't aware of the glaring disproportionate statistics of police brutality, of health care racism, and of mass incarceration? This is our reality. You deciding to ignore it for your own comfort doesn't make it any less true.

If a patient being rushed to the ER after an accident were to point to their mangled leg and say, This is what matters right now, and the doctor saw the scrapes and bruises of other areas and countered, but all of you matters, wouldnt there be a question as to why he doesn't show urgency in aiding that what is most at risk? At a community fundraiser for a decaying local library, you would never see a mob of people from the next city over show up angry and offended yelling, All libraries matter!especially when theirs is already well-funded.

This is because there is a fundamental understanding that when the parts of society with the most pain and lack of protection are cared for, the whole system benefits. For some reason, the community of white America would rather adjust the blinders theyve set against racism, instead of confront it, so that the country can move forward toward a true nation of justice for all.

Let me be clear: our stating that black lives matter doesnt insinuate that other lives dont. Of course all lives matter. That doesnt even need to be said. But the fact that white people get so upset about the term black lives matter is proof that nothing can center the wellbeing and livelihoods of black bodies without white people assuming it is to their demise.

My personal message to those committed to saying all lives matter in the midst of the justice-driven work of the Black Lives Matter movement: prove it. Point out the ways our societyparticularly the systems set in place to protect citizens like police officers and doctors and elected officialsare showing up to serve and protect black lives. Illuminate the instances in which the livelihood of the black community was prioritized, considering the circumstances that put us into less-privileged spaces to begin with. Direct me to the evidence of justice for the bodies discarded at the hands of those in power, be it by unjustified murder, jail cell, poisoned water, or medical discrimination.

These are the things that must be rectified for us to be able to exhale. Until then, I'll be here, my black fist raised with Black Lives Matter on my lips.

Rachel Elizabeth Cargle writes and lectures on things that exist at the intersection of race and womanhood. A native Ohioan, she resides in New York City and is currently a student at Columbia University.

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What Does "Black Lives Matter" Actually Mean? Why Saying "All Lives ...

In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world

Louisville, Kentucky When mass protests erupted in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 28, one of Chanelle Helms biggest worries was for the young people who took to the streets.

Anger had been building over the March 13 police killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Louisvilles West End. Not long after Taylors story gained national attention, the world watched footage on May 25 of George Floyd screaming, I cant breathe and crying out for his mother under the knee of a white police officer before going motionless in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It was not only important for the new people, especially Louisvilles youth, who joined the protest to stay as safe as possible, but also for demonstrators to stay in the streets, Helm, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Louisville, said.

I had to do direct action training with them on the fly, the 40-year-old recalled.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in the citys downtown, demanding justice for Taylor, who was killed when plain-clothes Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers barged into her home in the early morning hours while serving a no-knock warrant.

As the sun went down, tensions rose. Police, dressed in riot gear, fired tear gas and other projectiles. Some protesters destroyed property and set fires. Many people suffered injuries, including seven who were wounded when someone opened fire into the crowd. It was a night that shook Louisville, and for protesters, it was only day one.

Protesters, organisers and activists have gathered in some form on most, if not all, of the more than 200 days since then. The groups sometimes number in the hundreds; other times, only a few gather in a downtown park, renamed by protesters as Injustice Square. The protests often bring people from Black Lives Matter, Louisville Urban League, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and other groups.

Seeing protesters gather day-after-day makes me know that what happens in this part of resistance work and fighting for our freedom, and this continual process of seeing people develop these spaces, that were doing exactly what we need to do, Helm said.

It is a sentiment echoed by Black Lives Matter organisers across the country as they reflect on a year that has brought much pain, but also numerous achievements, and as they chart their priorities moving into 2021.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was founded by three Black women Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi after the acquittal of the man who shot dead 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2013. Since then, #BlackLivesMatter has borne a global network, other organisations and dozens of local BLM chapters across the United States.

Protests under the Black Lives Matter banner have rocked streets in cities big and small. And organisers have sought to to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Building on the work of previous years, Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles (BLMLA), the first chapter of BLM, says the group began 2020 thinking it was going to be an opportunity to usher in more transformative change through Novembers election. But then, the coronavirus pandemic hit, disproportionately affecting Black communities, and BLMLA knew immediately it had to take action.

Weve never been just about ending police violence, but about disrupting state-sanctioned violence against Black people, Abdullah told Al Jazeera by phone. One of the big priorities with the COVID-19 pandemic was really this history and legacy of medical racism.

After initially demanding data that examined how the virus was affecting different communities, BLMLA, along with a coalition of other social justice groups and community leaders, issued the Black Los Angeles Demands in Light of COVID-19 and Rates of Black Death, which laid out policy demands for elected leaders. BLMLA also convened a coalition of groups to create the Peoples Budget, which called for investments to ensure Black residents have resources in light of COVID-19.

Abdullah said that initially, very few elected officials responded to the demands. But then Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, prompting what the organiser called the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, and chapters across the US saw more people want to get involved.

Defund the police has been a mantra for the last five years, but it really became kind of the clarion call of this moment, she said.

The groups have seen successes. In November, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure J, which requires at least 10 percent of the countys locally-generated revenue go to community-focused alternatives to traditional incarceration. The county also voted out District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who BLMLA actively protested against this year.

When US media began to float Mayor Eric Garcettis name as a possible contender for Cabinet post in the incoming Biden administration, Black Lives Matter LA launched daily #BlockGarcetti protests outside his home. Garcetti acknowledged earlier this month that he will not serve in the administration.

The city council also approved a $150 million cut to the Los Angeles Police Department budget, though it falls significantly short of what the Peoples Budget demands.

When US media began to float Mayor Eric Garcettis name as a possible contender for Cabinet post in the incoming Biden administration, Black Lives Matter LA launched daily #BlockGarcetti protests outside his home. Garcetti acknowledged earlier this month that he will not serve in the administration.

Whats really been the priority of 2020 and continues to be our priority as we move into 2021 is really taking advantage of this moment, Abdullah said. We didnt anticipate that everything would change, but as everythings changing, its imperative that we not just kind of tinker around the edges with fundamentally unjust systems, but that we actually take this moment to transform the world in which we live.

That is the goal of Black Lives Matter in Minnesota, said Trahern Crews, a lead organiser with the state chapter.

When Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in May, the city became the epicentre of summer protests.

We wanted to help empower the thousands of people, especially the young people, who protested during those first few days, Crews told Al Jazeera by phone. We wanted to help them organise.

One of Crewss proudest moments was witnessing the solidarity protests that took over hundreds of cities nationwide and around the world in the days, weeks and months after Floyd was killed. At the height of the movement in June, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across Latin America, Europe, Australia and Canada to demonstrate against racial injustice.

Analysing data polling regarding the protests in the US at that time, The New York Times concluded that Black Lives Matter may be the biggest movement in the countrys history.

Not only did Minneapolis protesters take to the streets, but the city also saw an outpouring of support for residents and visitors alike. Activists set up food banks and donation centres with clothing, masks, hand sanitiser and other goods.

A lot of people were suffering, so it was good to see that we were able to help give back, Crews said.

Amid the protests, the city banned chokeholds and neck restraints like the one used on Floyd. Officers are also now required to try to stop improper force by fellow officers. The state passed similar police reform legislation in July.

All four officers involved in Floyds death face charges.

Some promises like a commitment from city leaders to dismantle the Minneapolis police department have stalled in recent months. But BLM Minnesota and other groups have been able to start or reignite conversations around reparations and economic inclusion for Black communities.

That will continue to be a priority, Crews says, moving into 2021. He also said BLM Minnesota will seek to hold Joe Biden accountable when he is sworn in as US president on January 20.

Joe Biden wouldnt have won without the Black people in Detroit, the Black people in Philadelphia, the Black people in Georgia, Crews said. So now its time for him to keep his part of the deal and do something about police accountability in the US and the wealth gap. Its a crisis.

The work of Black Lives Matter chapters has been seen in the streets, legislatures and the ballot boxes of other cities across the US. While the defund the police call has faced criticism from politicians liberals and conservatives alike several cities have made at least modest cuts to their police departments and reallocated some of those funds to community programmes.

Other cities took significant steps in considering reparations for descendants of slaves. California established a task force to make recommendations on reparations. The issue also gained renewed interest at the national level. Confederate symbols and statues came down. Protesters forced businesses, media organisations and other companies to finally recognise and examine institutional racism and develop policies to address it. And many cities enacted police reforms albeit not at the level many would like.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network (BLMGN) also launched a get out the vote effort under #WhatMatters2020. Black voters proved instrumental in Bidens victory in November.

But with all the successes also came setbacks. Ten local chapters wrote an open letter earlier this month, expressing concern with the global network in how recent decisions were made and money has been allocated. BLMGN did not respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment.

According to a Pew study, support for Black Lives Matter surged in June at the height of the protests but fell by September, though the majority of Americans (55 percent) still say they strongly or somewhat support the movement. Among Black Americans, however, support has remained strong.

At the same time, police killings have not stopped. On December 22, an officer killed 47-year-old Andre Hill in Columbus, Ohio. Just weeks earlier, in the same city, a sheriffs deputy killed 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. A Texas officer killed Jonathan Price in October; Dijon Kizzee was killed in Los Angeles in August; Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia, in June.

According to Mapping Police Violence, police have killed at least 1,066 people in 2020. More than 28 percent of those killed were Black, despite African Americans making up only 13 percent of the US population.

Police also responded to those protesting and documenting police brutality with more police brutality. Thousands have been arrested. Many have been injured.

And Black communities are also still reeling from the effects of the pandemic.

That is why Black Lives Matter organisers and others say the protests and work will not stop.

Back in Louisville, Helm says organisers and protesters will continue their work educating residents about the importance of community power. They have seen an outpouring of support, raising millions of dollars for bail funds that have helped support hundreds of protesters facing charges. Black Lives Matter Louisville has also found housing for people in need and built out their operations to better serve the community.

Under pressure, the city leaders agreed to create a civilian review board (though it still needs work, Helm said). They also banned no-knock warrants, but organisers and activists are calling on Kentucky to pass a statewide version of the ban, known as Breonnas Law.

Protesters are also continuing to demand justice for Taylor and her family. This week, the citys interim police chief reportedly served pre-termination papers to two officers in Taylors case: One who sought the warrant and one who fired the bullet that killed the 26-year-old emergency room technician. Another officer has already been fired. But the family demands charges be filed. Anything less than criminal charges here by a competent prosecutor is unacceptable, Taylors family lawyers said in a statement on Wednesday.

Black Lives Matter and similar groups will continue to shake Louisville, and the world, Helm and other organisers said.

We have been abused. The police have come in our home and snatched us from our parents, or snatched our parents or others out of homes. Weve had to visit family members behind bars. Weve had to mourn, even this year, the loss of family members murdered by the state or inter-communal violence but we still do the work, Helm concluded. They want to see broken people do some f*****-up s***. But were not those types of people. Were going to f*** up, but were going to f*** up in a way that gets us free.

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In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement shook the world

What Black Lives Matter Means: The History of the Movement

What is the true meaning of Black Lives Matter? Many are still muddling the powerful message of the global movement.

What Black Lives Matter is and what Black Lives Matter isnt has been feverishly debated since its inception in 2013. What began as a hashtag on social media posts andanti-racism quoteshas snowballed into a global rallying cry in the battle to combat systemic and institutional racism, which became impossible to ignore after yet another series of high-profile police brutality incidents. BLM is now proudly proclaimed and derided. Scrawled on posters. Graffitiedand subsequently defacedon concrete. It hasdivided loved onesand united loved ones. Still, people are searching for the answer. Ask Google, What is the BLM meaning? and youll get 37 million results to sift through.

Black Lives Matter is not only the movement for Black lives now, and its not only the phrase that people can attach to, but its an affirmation that I think goes beyond the organizers of the movement for Black lives, says Camara Jones, MD, PhD, an anti-racism activist and adjunct professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University who is not affiliated with BLM.

If youre here, youre likely looking for answers, whether youre a member of the Black community, youre looking to be an ally in the movement toward equality, or youre wondering what it truly means to be anti-racist. Once youve learned the meaning of BLM, you might also consider makinga Black Lives Matter donationorsupporting these Black-owned businesses.

The BLM message was born in response to police and civilian brutality against Black lives. Simply put, Black lives matterperiod. Just as much as every other race, but not more so than any other race. Still, many non-Black people miss the BLM meaning, says Dr. Jones, because their privilege blinds them. She likens the phenomenon of White privilege to patrons eating in a restaurant, in an allegory she calls Dual Reality: A Restaurant Saga. There are many people whove been born inside a restaurant, sitting at the table of opportunity, eating, and they see a sign that says Open, and do not recognize that that sign is a two-sided, open-closed sign, she explains, because its difficult for any of us to recognize the system of inequity that privileges us. Its a vicious cycle perpetuated by a lack of understanding. Those already eating look outside, seeing hungry, would-be patrons and wondering why they dont simply come inside. Those outside wonder why their side of the sign says Closed when there is plenty of room inside the restaurant.

The phrase Black Lives Matter was born out of a Facebook post from Alicia Garza after the July 13, 2013, acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed Martin, who was returning from a store to a relatives Sanford, Florida, home after buying Arizona iced tea and a pack of Skittles. Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, wrote Garza, to which her pal Patrisse Cullors replied, #blacklivesmatter. Garza, Cullors, and pal Opal Tometi teamed up to form the BLM movement. Today, BLM has ballooned to an international movement with 40 chapters.

Because it is not the truth in this country, says Dr. Jones. It is not the reality of this country that all lives matter. The police-involved murders of Black men and women are proof. So, too, are the inequities that can be found at every level of American society. All we have to do is look at how resources are distributed by so-called race [and] look at the relative safety by so-called race. We can look at who gets the benefit of the doubt and who would be immediately perceived as a threat. We can look at those in whom we invest and in which communities we actively divest. And it is clear that Black lives and Indigenous lives, and Hispanic lives, Latinx lives, are devalued in this country and dehumanized. The harsh truth was laid bare in George Floyds final moments, and thats why the BLMs meaning and newfound stature is so important. What did Derek Chauvin think he was doing? she asks. People said that the way he looked was the way that hunters squeeze the life out of a deer.

The BLM movement raised more than $90 million in 2020 and saw up to 26 million supporters join in protests, making it the largest movement in U.S. history. Dr. Jones says BLM and the BLM meaning became a formidable force in part due to technology. Because of cell phone video and police body cams, people who were born inside the restaurant [of the Dual Reality allegory] could see the reality on the other side. For centuries, weve had these stories, adds Dr. Jones, but now, all of a sudden, the images and the truth of it is barging into those people who have had the privilege of not having to know.

Whats not unique, or anywhere near new, says Dr. Jones, is the struggle of Black people against racism. It is a continuation of struggles of people of African ancestry for centuries, for four centuries, to affirm our humanity. But what is unique is the new generations fight for justice. It is the young people, many of whom may not have studied even the history of the civil rights movement, or may think of that as something old. Some may not have been fully aware of the history, and many of them may have thought that they were the first ones to engage in these struggles around the rights to our humanity, to the recognition of our humanity. So, the thing that makes them different is that its this generations iteration. There has also been some good news in the midst of this ongoing struggle: A number of positive changes have been made since the anti-racism protests began.

You can donate, volunteer, and sign up for events and information via BLMs official website. But there are also other ways to fight alongside the movement. Dr. Jones suggests that Black people and non-Black people alike need to bear witness to the inequities facing Black and Brown peopleand, if necessary, hit the record button, much like how bystanders bravely recorded Chauvin as he and three other cops pinned Floyd to the ground. She says she recently took her own advice when she stuck around after seeing a Black father and child involved in a multi-vehicle crash. No matter how ugly or fraught it may get, she says, stay and bear witness.

RELATED: Small Ways You Can Fight Racism Every Day

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What Black Lives Matter Means: The History of the Movement

Sam Bankman-Fried Admits the "Ethics Stuff" Was "Mostly a Front"

In Twitter DMs, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appeared to admit that his

Effecting Change

The disgraced former head of the crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, built his formidable public persona on the idea that he was a new type of ethical crypto exec. In particular, he was a vocal proponent of "effective altruism" — the vague-but-noble concept of using data to make philanthropic giving as targeted and helpful as possible.

But in a direct message, Vox's Kelsey Piper asked Bankman-Fried if the "ethics stuff" had been "mostly a front."

Bankman-Fried's reply: "Yeah."

"I mean that's not *all* of it," he wrote. "But it's a lot."

Truth Be Told

If the concept of becoming rich to save the world strikes you as iffy, you're not alone — and it appears that even Bankman-Fried himself knows it.

When Piper observed that Bankman-Fried had been "really good at talking about ethics" while actually playing a game, he responded that he "had to be" because he'd been engaged in "this dumb game we woke Westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and everyone likes us."

Next time you're thinking of investing in crypto, maybe it's worth taking a moment to wonder whether the person running the next exchange might secretly be thinking the same thing.

More on effective altruism: Elon Musk Hired A Professional Gambler to Manage His Philanthropic Donations

The post Sam Bankman-Fried Admits the "Ethics Stuff" Was "Mostly a Front" appeared first on Futurism.

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Sam Bankman-Fried Admits the "Ethics Stuff" Was "Mostly a Front"

Former Facebook Exec Says Zuckerberg Has Surrounded Himself With Sycophants

Conviction is easy if you're surrounded by a bunch of yes men — which Mark Zuckerberg just might be. And $15 billion down the line, that may not bode well.

In just about a year, Facebook-turned-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse vision has cost his company upwards of $15 billion, cratering value and — at least in part — triggering mass company layoffs. That's a high price tag, especially when the Facebook creator has shockingly little to show for it, both in actual technology and public interest.

Indeed, it seems that every time Zuckerberg excitedly explains what his currently-legless metaverse will one day hold, he's met with crickets — and a fair share of ridicule — at the town square. Most everyone finds themselves looking around and asking themselves the same question: who could this possibly be for, other than Zucko himself?

That question, however, doesn't really seem to matter to the swashzuckling CEO, who's either convinced that the public wants and needs his metaverse just as much as he does, or is simply just convicted to the belief that one day people will finally get it. After all, he's bet his company on this thing and needs the public to engage to stay financially viable long-term.

And sure, points for conviction. But conviction is easy if you're surrounded by a bunch of yes men — which, according to Vanity Fair, the founder unfortunately is. And with $15 billion down the line, that may not bode well for the Silicon Valley giant.

"The problem now is that Mark has surrounded himself with sycophants, and for some reason he's fallen for their vision of the future, which no one else is interested in," one former Facebook exec told Vanity Fair. "In a previous era, someone would have been able to reason with Mark about the company's direction, but that is no longer the case."

Given that previous reports have revealed that some Meta employees have taken to marking metaverse documents with the label "MMA" — "Make Mark Happy" — the revelation that he's limited his close circle to people who only agree with him isn't all that shocking. He wants the metaverse, he wants it bad, and he's put a mind-boggling amount of social and financial capital into his AR-driven dream.

While the majority of his many thousands of employees might disagree with him — Vanity Fair reports that current and former metamates have written things like "the metaverse will be our slow death" and "Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the metaverse" on the Silicon Valley-loved Blind app — it's not exactly easy, or even that possible, to wrestle with the fact that you may have made a dire miscalculation this financially far down the road.

And if you just keep a close circle of people who just agree with you, you may not really have to confront that potential for failure. At least not for a while.

The truth is that Zuckerberg successfully created a thing that has impacted nearly every single person on this Earth. Few people can say that. And while it can be argued that the thing he built has, at its best, created some real avenues for connection, that same creation also seems to have led to his own isolation, in life and at work.

How ironic it is that he's marketed his metaverse on that same promise of connection, only to become more disconnected than ever.

READ MORE: "Mark Has Surrounded Himself with Sycophants": Zuckerberg's Big Bet on the Metaverse Is Backfiring [Vanity Fair]

More on the Meta value: Stock Analyst Cries on Tv Because He Recommended Facebook Stock

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Former Facebook Exec Says Zuckerberg Has Surrounded Himself With Sycophants

FDA Gives First Go Ahead for Lab Grown Meat Product

The FDA has approved a lab grown meat product from Upside Foods for human consumption, which now only needs USDA approval before being sold to customers.

Meat and Greet

Behold, ethical omnivores: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given a key go-ahead to what could be the first lab grown meat product bound for human consumption in the US.

The decision, a first for cultivated meat in the US, paves the way for Californian startup Upside Foods to start selling its lab-grown chicken product domestically — meaning that now, it only needs approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) before the ersatz chicken can hit restaurant menus.

"The world is experiencing a food revolution and the [FDA] is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply," FDA officials said in a statement. "The agency evaluated the information submitted by Upside Foods as part of a pre-market consultation for their food made from cultured chicken cells and has no further questions at this time about the firm’s safety conclusion."

Upside Foods' products were evaluated via a process in which manufacturers divulge the production process to the agency for review, along with a sample. If everything looks good after inspection, the FDA then sends back a "no further questions" letter to the company.

"We are thrilled at FDA's announcement," said Upside director of communications David Kay in an email to Reuters. "This historic step paves the way for our path to market."

Going Protein

Lab meat like Upside's aren't a plant-based imitation, unlike popular vegan alternatives such as Beyond Burgers. Instead, they're made from real animal cells grown in bioreactors, sparing the lives of actual livestock.

But while at a cellular level the meat may be the same, customers will definitely notice a difference in price. For now, cultivating meat remains an extremely expensive process, so pending USDA approval notwithstanding, it could still be a while before you see it hit the shelves of your local grocer.

To let eager, early customers try out the lab meat, Upside, which already announced its collaboration with Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn last year, will be debuting its chicken at specific upscale restaurants.

"We would want to bring this to people through chefs in the initial stage," CEO Uma Valeti told Wired. "Getting chefs excited about this is a really big deal for us. We want to work with the best partners who know how to cook well, and also give us feedback on what we could do better."

While the FDA's thumbs-up only applies to a specific product of Upside's, it's still a historic decision, signalling a way forward for an industry that's rapidly accruing investment.

Updated to clarify details regarding the FDA's evaluation of the product.

More on lab grown meat: Scientists Cook Comically Tiny Lab-Grown Hamburger

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FDA Gives First Go Ahead for Lab Grown Meat Product

Celebrities’ Bored Apes Are Hilariously Worthless Now

The value of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs has absolutely plummeted, leaving celebrities with six figure losses, a perhaps predictable conclusion.

Floored Apes

The value of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have absolutely plummeted, leaving celebrities with six figure losses, in a perhaps predictable conclusion to a bewildering trend.

Earlier this year, for instance, pop star Justin Bieber bought an Ape for a whopping $1.3 million. Now that the NFT economy has essentially collapsed in on itself, as Decrypt points out, it's worth a measly $69,000.

Demand Media

NFTs, which represent exclusive ownership rights to digital assets — but usually, underwhelmingly, just JPGs and GIFs — have absolutely plummeted in value, spurred by the ongoing crypto crisis and a vanishing appetite.

Sales volume of the blockchain knickknacks has also bottomed out. NFT sales declined for six straight months this year, according to CryptoSlam.

According to NFT Price Floor, the value of the cheapest available Bored Ape dipped down to just 48 ETH, well below $60,000, this week. In November so far, the floor price fell 33 percent.

Meanwhile, the crypto crash is only accelerating the trend, with the collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX leaving its own mark on NFT markets.

Still Kicking

Despite the looming pessimism, plenty of Bored Apes are still being sold. In fact, according to Decrypt, around $6.5 million worth of Apes were moved on Tuesday alone, an increase of 135 percent day over day.

Is the end of the NFT nigh? Bored Apes are clearly worth a tiny fraction of what they once were, indicating a massive drop off in interest.

Yet many other much smaller NFT marketplaces are still able to generate plenty of hype, and millions of dollars in sales.

In other words, NFTs aren't likely to die out any time soon, but they are adapting to drastically changing market conditions — and leaving celebrities with deep losses in their questionable investments.

READ MORE: Justin Bieber Paid $1.3 Million for a Bored Ape NFT. It’s Now Worth $69K [Decrypt]

More on NFTs: The Latest Idea to Make People Actually Buy NFTs: Throw in a House

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Celebrities' Bored Apes Are Hilariously Worthless Now

Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave

According to former Uber engineer Gergely Orosz,

Elon Musk's Twitter operations are still in free fall.

Earlier this week, the billionaire CEO sent an email to staff telling them that they "need to be extremely hardcore" and work long hours at the office, or quit and get three months severance, as The Washington Post reports.

Employees had until 5 pm on Thursday to click "yes" and be part of Twitter moving forward or take the money and part ways. The problem for Musk? According to former Uber engineer Gergely Orosz, who has had a close ear to Twitter's recent inner turmoil, "far fewer than expected [developers] hit 'yes.'"

So many employees called Musk's bluff, Orosz says, that Musk is now "having meetings with top engineers to convince them to stay," in an  embarrassing reversal of his public-facing bravado earlier this week.

Twitter has already been rocked by mass layoffs, cutting the workforce roughly in half. Instead of notifying them, employees had access to their email and work computers revoked without notice.

Even that process was bungled, too, with some employees immediately being asked to return to the company after Musk's crew realized it had sacked people it needed.

According to Orosz's estimations, Twitter's engineering workforce may have been cut by a whopping 90 percent in just three weeks.

Musk has been banging the war drums in an active attempt to weed out those who aren't willing to abide by his strict rules and those who were willing to stand up to him.

But developers aren't exactly embracing that kind of tyranny.

"Sounds like playing hardball does not work," Orosz said. "Of course it doesn't."

"From my larger group of 50 people, 10 are staying, 40 are taking the severance," one source reportedly told Orosz. "Elon set up meetings with a few who plan to quit."

In short, developers are running for the hills — and besides, they're likely to find far better work conditions pretty much anywhere else.

"I am not sure Elon realizes that, unlike rocket scientists, who have relatively few options to work at, [developers] with the experience of building Twitter only have better options than the conditions he outlines," Orosz argued.

Then there's the fact that Musk has publicly lashed out at engineers, mocking them and implying that they were leading him on.

Those who spoke out against him were summarily fired.

That kind of hostility in leadership — Musk has shown an astonishing lack of respect — clearly isn't sitting well with many developers, who have taken up his to get three months of severance and leave.

"I meant it when I called Elon's latest ultimatum the first truly positive thing about this Twitter saga," Orosz wrote. "Because finally, everyone who had enough of the BS and is not on a visa could finally quit."

More on Twitter: Sad Elon Musk Says He's Overwhelmed In Strange Interview After the Power Went Out

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Startup Says It’s Building a Giant CO2 Battery in the United States

Italian startup Energy Dome has designed an ingenious battery that uses CO2 to store energy, and it only needs non-exotic materials like steel and water.

Italian Import

Carbon dioxide has a bad rep for its role in driving climate change, but in an unexpected twist, it could also play a key role in storing renewable energy.

The world's first CO2 battery, built by Italian startup Energy Dome, promises to store renewables on an industrial scale, which could help green energy rival fossil fuels in terms of cost and practicality.

After successfully testing the battery at a small scale plant in Sardinia, the company is now bringing its technology to the United States.

"The US market is a primary market for Energy Dome and we are working to become a market leader in the US," an Energy Dome spokesperson told Electrek. "The huge demand of [long duration energy storage] and incentive mechanisms like the Inflation Reduction Act will be key drivers for the industry in the short term."

Storage Solution

As renewables like wind and solar grow, one of the biggest infrastructural obstacles is the storage of the power they produce. Since wind and solar sources aren't always going to be available, engineers need a way to save excess power for days when it's less sunny and windy out, or when there's simply more demand.

One obvious solution is to use conventional battery technology like lithium batteries, to store the energy. The problem is that building giant batteries from rare earth minerals — which can be prone to degradation over time — is expensive, not to mention wasteful.

Energy Dome's CO2 batteries, on the other hand, use mostly "readily available materials" like steel, water, and of course CO2.

In Charge

As its name suggests, the battery works by taking CO2, stored in a giant dome, and compressing it into a liquid by using the excess energy generated from a renewable source. That process generates heat, which is stored alongside the now liquefied CO2, "charging" the battery.

To discharge power, the stored heat is used to vaporize the liquid CO2 back into a gas, powering a turbine that feeds back into the power grid. Crucially, the whole process is self-contained, so no CO2 leaks back into the atmosphere.

The battery could be a game-changer for renewables. As of now, Energy Dome plans to build batteries that can store up to 200 MWh of energy. But we'll have to see how it performs as it gains traction.

More on batteries: Scientists Propose Turning Skyscrapers Into Massive Gravity Batteries

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Startup Says It's Building a Giant CO2 Battery in the United States

Celebrities Are Officially Being Sued by FTX Retail Investors

The first civil suit against the crypto exchange FTX was just filed, naming FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and 11 of FTX's many celebrity ambassadors.

Welp, that didn't take long. The first civil suit against the still-imploding crypto exchange FTX was just filed in a Florida court, accusing FTX, disgraced CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and 11 of the exchange's many celebrity ambassadors of preying on "unsophisticated" retail investors.

The list of celeb defendants impressive — honestly, it reads more like an invite list to a posh award show than a lawsuit.

Geriatric quarterback Tom Brady and soon-to-be-ex-wife Gisele Bündchen lead the pack, followed by basketball players Steph Curry and Udonis Haslem, as well as the Golden State Warriors franchise; tennis star Naomi Osaka; baseballers Shoehi Ohtani, Udonis Haslem, and David Ortiz; and quarterback Trevor Laurence.

Also named is comedian Larry David — who starred in that FTX Super Bowl commercial that very specifically told investors that even if they didn't understand crypto, they should definitely invest — and investor Kevin O'Leary of "Shark Tank" fame.

"The Deceptive and failed FTX Platform," reads the suit," "was based upon false representations and deceptive conduct."

"Many incriminating FTX emails and texts... evidence how FTX’s fraudulent scheme was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country," it continues. "As a result, American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages."

Indeed, a number of FTX promos embraced an attitude similar to the cursed Larry David commercial. In one, Steph Curry tells viewers that with FTX, there's no need to be an "expert," while a Naomi Osaka promotion pushed the idea that crypto trading should be "accessible," "easy," and "fun."

It's also worth noting that this isn't the first suit of its kind. Billionaire Mark Cuban, also of "Shark Tank" fame, was named in a class action lawsuit launched against the bankrupt lender Voyager in August, while reality TV star Kim Kardashian was recently made to pay a roughly $1.2 million fine for hawking the "EthereumMAX" token without disclosing that she was paid to do so.

The FTX suit, however, appears to be the most extensive — and high-profile — of its kind. And while a fine for a million or two is basically a one dollar bill to this tax bracket, $11 billion, even if split amongst a group of 11 exorbitantly wealthy celebs, is a more substantial chunk of change.

Of course, whether anyone actually ever has to pay up remains to be seen. Regardless, it's still a terrible look, and real people got hurt. If there's any defense here, though? At least they didn't promise to be experts.

READ MORE: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hit with class-action lawsuit that also names Brady, Bündchen, Shaq, Curry [Fox Business]

More on the FTX crash: Experts Say Sam Bankman-fried's Best Legal Defense Is to Say He's Just Really, Really Stupid

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Celebrities Are Officially Being Sued by FTX Retail Investors

"Elon" Plummets in Popularity as a Baby Name for Some Reason

According to BabyCenter's

Big Baby

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's name has clearly lost its luster among the parents of newborns.

According to BabyCenter's review of the data the name "Elon" has cratered in popularity over the last year, dropping from 120 babies per million in 2021 to just 90 babies per million, falling in the popularity rankings by 466 spots.

The name had seen a meteoric rise over the last seven or so years, but is currently falling out of favor big time, plummeting back down to 2019 levels.

The read? It seems like Musk's public reputation has been taking a significant hit.

Name Game

There are countless reasons why Musk could be less popular public figure than he was three years ago.

Especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk emerged as a controversial figure, speaking out against vaccinations and lockdowns. He has also become synonymous with an unhealthy work culture, firing practically anybody standing in his way and forcing his employees to work long hours.

The fiasco surrounding Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter has likely only further besmirched his public image.

For reference, other baby names that have fallen out of fashion include "Kanye" — almost certainly in response to the travails of rapper Kanye West, who's had a years-long relationship with Musk — which fell a whopping 3,410 spots over the last year.

More on Elon Musk: Sad Elon Musk Says He's Overwhelmed In Strange Interview After the Power Went Out

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"Elon" Plummets in Popularity as a Baby Name for Some Reason

Elon Musk Locks Twitter Employees Out Office, Then Asks Them to Meet Him on the 10th Floor

Elon Musk's ownership of Twitter is somehow going even worse than expected amid reports that he's locked employees out of the company's office buildings.

Worst Case Scenario

Elon Musk's Twitter-buying experiment is somehow going even worse than expected, amid reports that he's locked employees out of the company's office buildings.

As reported by Platformer's Zoë Schiffer, an email sent to Twitter staff yesterday evening informed them out of the blue that they wouldn't be able to get into their offices for the rest of the week.

"We're hearing this is because Elon Musk and his team are terrified employees are going to sabotage the company," Schiffer wrote. "Also, they're still trying to figure out which Twitter workers they need to cut access for."

Then, the saga somehow got even stranger today when Musk emailed staff asking them to come to the 10th floor of Twitter's headquarters — which, remember, they'd just been told they were locked out of — for a meeting on the 10th floor.

Ultimatums

All told, the aura of chaos surrounding Twitter since Musk's acquisition late last month has deepened to a comical degree.

News of the office closure, you'll recall, comes not long after Musk issued an ultimatum to the staff who survived his first purge the company's employees, in which he said that if "tweeps" didn't come into the office, they would be effectively tendering their resignations.

Just before the office closure announcement, Musk gave his new employees another apparent threat: that if they are not prepared "to be extremely hardcore" and work long in-office hours, they can cut and run with three months severance.

Unsurprisingly, many Twitter employees have chosen the latter — a move that some described to CNN's Darcy as a "mass exodus."

And in the face of all this contradiction and whiplash, who could blame them?

More on Musk: Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave

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Elon Musk Locks Twitter Employees Out Office, Then Asks Them to Meet Him on the 10th Floor

NASA Tells Astronauts That Tweeting Isn’t As Important as Staying Alive

NASA's astronaut social media handbook just dropped — and they've got some staunch guidelines for safely tweeting on the ISS.

Stayin' Alive

NASA's astronaut social media handbook just dropped — and they've got some staunch guidelines for space tweeting.

As part of a public records request, NASA released to Vox an almost entirely unredacted copy of its current social media handbook for astronauts, and it offers a fascinating look into the agency's policies for the online astronauts it sends to space.

Overall, it's a reasonable document. One particularly interesting detail? It advises astronauts to please lay off of posting when their lives are in jeopardy. Good advice for us all!

Socialing

In a 2018 memo from the Johnson Space Center included in the records provided to Vox, NASA notes that along with not posting for personal or financial gain or exposing state secrets, "social media efforts should always be considered secondary to the safety of the crew and vehicle."

In another section of the guidelines, a slide reminds astronauts that "social media is voluntary and should be considered secondary to safety of mission and crew cohesion."

Politicking

Beyond bodily safety, political discretion is also repeatedly advised in the guidelines — an important detail, given the past and current tensions between the ISS' main players, the United States and Russia.

While some have criticized NASA for doing a bit too much social networking — the agency operates a whopping 700 social media accounts, including on Reddit, Twitch, and LinkedIn — it clearly takes a backseat to onboard safety.

Given how much can go wrong on both a mortal and interpersonal level while floating above the Earth, that's definitely a good thing.

More on the ISS: Amazing Video Shows What the ISS Would Look Like If It Flew at the Height of a Jetplane

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