Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

By the time he was 30, Ashley Banjo had spent nearly a decade in the public eye. Having pipped Susan Boyle to the Britains Got Talent (BGT) title with his dance group Diversity in 2009, he completed seven UK arena tours before transitioning back to television, with a slew of judging gigs on television dance shows, including Dancing on Ice, Got to Dance and Dance Dance Dance.

Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the backlash that followed Diversitys appearance on BGT last September. The performance featured backing dancers in riot gear and the image of a white man standing on Banjos neck, a reference to the murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that followed.

To date, it has racked up more than 30,000 complaints to the media regulator Ofcom, earning a spot as one of the top five most complained about moments in UK TV history.

People were very quick to label it the Black Lives Matter performance but I wasnt trying to make a political statement, says Banjo, 33. I wasnt trying to cause reform or change policy, I was just bringing the conversation to a place that is natural for me: a stage. Without the BLM element, he says, it wouldnt have been too political or too sad, or not right for light entertainment. What was wrong is that I brought in Black Lives Matter.

In doing so, he pushed his troupe into unfamiliar, politically charged terrain, and unleashed a torrent of online threats and abuse. As the face of the operation, Banjo became a particular target. On social media, he says, racial slurs were just sitting there untamed in stark contrast to the platforms crackdown on Covid-19 misinformation or women who even hint at showing a nipple.

Banjo holds less resentment against people who expressed disapproval respectfully, including those who complained to Ofcom. Listen, theres a lot of ignorance but I dont think the 30,000 people are racist, he says. Thats such a sweeping generalisation. Probably a lot of those people are racist. But theres a lot of people who felt uncomfortable, or who didnt even see it and complained because their mate in the pub was complaining. Ive had personal conversations with people who have apologised when they realised where they might have gone wrong.

He also received encouragement from a few people he wouldnt normally hear from following the BGT performance: Elton John contacted him, as did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They called when everything was going on, just to check in and offer their support. [Meghan and Harry] understood racism in Britain and what it felt like to have a certain level of backlash In the sea of negativity, it was a huge help.

I meet Banjo on a boat, moored outside an east London studio, where he is being photographed. Weary after a day of trying on outfits, he is now wearing the biggest item of clothing I have ever seen: a fluffy, grey fleece that drowns his heavyweight boxer physique. His dad actually was a heavyweight boxer: Its much harder to dance when youre big, says Banjo, who is 6ft 6in. I was naturally born to be a boxer but dad wasnt having it he said I could put my face to better use.

Banjo was born in Leytonstone, east London, but grew up in Essex. His Nigerian father, Funso, originally moved to Scotland to attend boarding school before settling in Forest Gate, while his mother, Dani, a dance teacher, was born and raised in Ilford. I was in a buggy in the corner of the studio from when I was born, he says. I was a little kid seeing my mum at the front, putting everyone through stretches, being the sergeant major. She has always been that figure in my life, he says of the woman who not only trained him as a dancer, but is still his manager.

At 14, Banjo started teaching dance himself. We were an old-school circus family, he beams. He met his wife, Francesca Abbott, two years later, teaching at his familys Rainham studio. She also now works for Diversity Dance, the management company behind the troupe. As a 20-year-old, knowing that if your ideas arent good enough, your brother, your mum, your wife dont eat, thats a life-shaping responsibility, he says. It was also a responsibility he felt most intensely during the pandemic. Unable to tour, and with a one-year-old and a newborn baby to look after, he says he fell into a dark hole. You cant see any of your family, your businesses and jobs are crumbling around you. It was tough.

As a child, he attended private school in Billericay, Essex, where he was academically successful and also head boy. But, he says, he grew up straddling two worlds: being the only Black kid [at school] before spending his evenings at the dance school where everybodys making ends meet you mix that with being mixed-race, he says. My mums white, my nans white, my wifes white, one of my kids has blue eyes, blond hair. You dont like to think about it because they are my family, but we are not the same.

At school, he experienced his fair share of bullying (I was a young, mixed-race boy who danced and didnt play football) but because he was so much bigger than everyone else, the intimidation was never physical. He remembers an incident where a white pupil approached him bragging about beating up Black and Asian people at the weekend, like as a hobby. If he ever wanted to react violently, his boxer fathers warnings would ring loud in his ears: People might think he was like, Give him the right hook but my dad was the opposite. He always taught us to turn the other cheek.

Banjo says he formed Diversity by accident. In the mid-2000s, the only boy dancing on screen was Billy Elliot and so, feeling embarrassed, he and the other boys at his Rainham dance school would retreat into a backroom to practise their own cool routines. Two years later, they won BGT. It was all organic; Ive never held an audition, he says.

But in 2009, inexperience wasnt the only thing between them and the BGT title: Susan Boyle had already been in The Simpsons, he explains. She was world-famous at that point, which took the pressure off. Diversity, however, won the public vote, leaving a young Banjo to face the disappointed media scrum waiting to greet Boyle. There was press there from around the world: America, Asia it was her crowning moment. From the beginning, the first question was: Why you? But I remember sitting there, thinking: This is going to change my life completely. Banjo took time off from his degree (in physics and biology) to compete on BGT and, 12 years later, has yet to return to it. In a way, I hope I dont but I would also love the chance to finish my degree, he says.

Last summer, Banjo returned to BGT as a judge when Simon Cowell broke his back after falling off an electric bike. The competition is sometimes viewed as one of the softer reality shows, with only three performances demanded of participants in total, but Banjo acknowledges that many of the issues around the exploitation of vulnerable contestants and the lack of psychological support available, both on set and after filming, remain. Youre still exposing ordinary people to the public Diversity have been blessed. Its very rare that big groups win those things; normally, youre on your own. It sounds so dramatic, but it can honestly destroy you. Thats the only way to describe it.

Did he feel any trepidation about working for Cowell, given the recent allegations of bullying and racism on the set of Americas Got Talent, which NBC has denied? Personally, no, he says. Im a sceptic of woke culture to the point where its cancel culture and the speed of allegation is 100 times quicker than the speed of investigation. Its very dangerous to be able to point a finger and change someones life.

His latest project is an hour-long ITV documentary, Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black and White. There will be a lot of assumptions, but I didnt want to poke the hornets nest, he says. Indeed, the show is not quite the journey into the dark heart of British prejudices that you might expect. Rather, he was driven to make the programme after people saying to me, Ive never really thought about racism before or I didnt really know it existed.Im learning too, but I have a platform which means that I can do it with people watching, he says.

His commitment to promoting Black history is also something of a personal crusade: I want to get to a point when it is no longer [considered] Black history, he says. I want this to be stuff that people just learn. In the documentary, this, specifically, is the New Cross fire in 1981, in which 13 young people died in a house fire at a 16th birthday party. No one has ever been charged in connection with the fire, but the slogan 13 dead, nothing said became a rallying cry for political action in part due to the work of activists such as the writer and editor Leila Hassan Howe. Meeting Leila was one of the most educational, eye-opening experiences of my life, says Banjo. The sheer hate was so overt back in the day, to the point where people were being murdered in fires. Were only talking about a generation ago; it cant just evaporate.

Its Banjos name in the title, but the documentary is almost a two-hander with the historian David Olusoga, whose production company, Uplands TV, was involved in making it. I wanted to educate and inspire, says Banjo. But I wanted to come from a place of knowledge and historical context, not finger-pointing and assumption, which is why he was keen to share the screen with the academic.

We wanted to do something about now, and about how the past and the present have combined in this moment were living through, says Olusoga. This is Ashleys story but it was also a moment that millions of people followed and were affected by ... Ashley understands the unique place he occupies in British culture. I think a lot of people are going to see a different side to him in this film.

It clearly irks Banjo that his contentious appearance on BGT has become known as the BLM performance. Weve never given it a title, but I would call it The Great Realisation because thats what happened to me personally. If he had known how much backlash the piece would provoke, would he have tempered his approach? I still would have done it, he says. But I would have been scared.

I didnt intend to be an activist, but somehow here I am, he says. Ive learned to believe in my own choices.

Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black and White, 19 October at 9pm on ITV and ITVHub.

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Ashley Banjo on Black Lives Matter, backlash and reality TV: Im a sceptic of cancel culture - The Guardian

Israel just marked a grim milestone with the killing of 44-year-old Salim Hasarma from the northern village of Ba'ana, the 100th Arab Israeli citizen lost to community violence in 2021 alone. The number of deaths continues to climb.

Why is community violence such an issue?

Violence has been a problem in the Arab community for decades. Unlike in Jewish neighborhoods for example, in Netanya, where Israeli authorities intervened to stop local crime the police have been accused of turning a blind eye to Arab-on-Arab crime.

In addition to police apathy toward the Arab community, lawmakers have also been slow to act. Not only have the authorities failed to investigate killings and bring perpetrators to justice, they have also failed to stem the flow of illegal weapons.

However, the real driving factor behind this epidemic is the high unemployment rate among Israel's Arab community. With some 40 percent of Israels young Arab citizens jobless, the lack of opportunities pushes some into crime and gangs. Easy access to illegal weapons further compounds the situation.

What has the state done?

Only recently has the government started to seriously discuss steps to stem the violence. Israels cabinet has voted to expand police powers to fight crime, including giving police the right to search homes without a warrant. However, this broad expansion of powers would apply only in Arab communities, not Jewish communities.

There have been talks as well about involving Israels Shin Bet security service, which is chiefly used for intelligence and anti-terrorism purposes. Critics say both proposals would undermine the rights of Arab citizens, encourage further enforcement based on ethnic background and reinforce already existing prejudices that portray Arabs as a security risk.

How is the Black Lives Matter movement different from Arab Lives Matter?

Black Lives Matter was founded in the aftermath of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer. The movement aims to bring attention to and eradicate police brutality and systemic violence inflicted on Black communities.

Arab Lives Matter, while also aiming to bring attention to systemic racism, aims to raise public awareness of community violence not at the hands of the police, but due to police inaction.

While the movement says more policing will not solve the core problems, it calls for police action, including taking steps to strengthen relations between the Arab community and law enforcement.

What steps are community leaders and activists calling for in order to effectively reduce violence?

In order to effectively tackle the problem, community leaders and law enforcement must work together to build trust and mutual understanding. More thorough probes into killings that have already taken place, as well as tightening restrictions to make illegal weapons less accessible, would make it more difficult for gangs to thrive.

Ultimately, the biggest obstacle is the governments attitude toward the Arab community as a whole. In addition to placing equal value on the safety of Israels Arab citizens, more investment in the community is necessary. The government must create equal opportunities for education and employment in the Arab community.

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Why is #ArabLivesMatter trending and how is it different from Black Lives Matter? - Haaretz

England and West Indies will be taking the knee to show their support for the fight against racism before they face each other in their T20 World Cup 2021 opening match in Dubai on Saturday. England players had also lent their support to the Black Lives Matter movement in the home series against West Indies last year. (More Cricket News)

ENG vs WI PREVIEW | LIVE STREAMING

Asked why England would be taking the knee along with the West Indies and not in other games, skipper Eoin Morgan said all players feel strongly about the cause. No, I think theres two different points to that. Tomorrow well join the West Indies in taking a knee to show our support in the fight against racism, Morgan said in the pre-match media interaction.

The second part of it is weve always felt that we need something that within our squad and our side that we feel a part of making a change, both locally and nationally and potentially globally."

Explaining the reason behind the move, Morgan said, Our moment of unity we have had at home for quite a period of time has been our piece of cultural development, education, raising awareness within that space, as well, and it's worked for us, and it's progressing nicely and guys are engaged and want to do more.

Unfortunately during this tournament, we're not able to do that. If we could do that every game, we would. But yeah, we're more than happy to take a knee tomorrow. England had a heartbreak against the West Indies in 2016 final held in India. Morgan insisted they are not carrying any scars from that game.

I think some of the biggest disappointments in any career are more learnings than scars. If there were scars we would have lost a lot of players that wouldn't have progressed like they have done over the last four or five years throughout their careers, he said.

I think the development of the side has, I suppose, reinforced that any time we've come up against a side that has beaten us in whatever fashion they have, we've always looked to learn and progress and become a better side.

Morgan, who led England to the 2019 ODI World Cup title, was also asked about emulating former India skipper M S Dhoni who guided his team to both T20 and World Cup trophies. Under Dhoni, India also won the 2013 Champions Trophy.

I think as much as it would to everybody else within the squad. I think the passion and determination or ambition within the squad is quite big, and that grows year on year, so would obviously be a special achievement.

We know how grueling World Cups can be and how hard they can be, not only to go through to latter stages but how gruelling group stage games are and the ebb and flow of a tournament, as well, added Morgan.

Excerpt from:

ENG v WI, T20 World Cup 2021: Black Lives Matter, Teams To Take The Knee - Outlook India

Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse mayoral candidates Ben Walsh and Khalid Bey both said they would amplify the voices of the Black Lives Matter movement if elected as the citys next leader.

Their comments came during a forum on public safety hosted by WCNY. Moderated by David Lombardo, host of the stations Capitol Pressroom, the forum featured all three candidates for mayor: Democrat Bey, Republican Janet Burman and independent Walsh, the incumbent.

Questions mostly derived from a six-part documentary that the station aired earlier this month on policing and police reform.

Walsh called the Black Lives Matter movement critically important to such reform and touted his actions while protesters took to the streets of Syracuse last year, saying he met one-on-one with both activists and police officers.

Weve heard loud and clear from thousands of citizens in the community that they felt that they were not being heard, that they felt that they were not being valued, and thats unacceptable, Walsh said, adding that he wants the city to be a leader in this area.

Burman was less direct, focusing on ways to address the concerns of those involved in the BLM movement without saying she would amplify the cause. She called for a community policing method, with the same officers assigned to smaller precincts, to improve trust between the public and the police.

But Bey, who also advocated for community policing, said BLMs goal is one that deserves attention.

I think were headed in a horrible direction when the preservation of life is going to be political, Bey said. We have to do our best to ensure that everybody is protected.

He compared the difference in videos circulating on the internet of armed white people being arrested safely while unarmed Black people have been shot or otherwise harmed.

One such video shows a now-infamous arrest on Grace Street in May 2019. In the video, a driver is pulled from his car and an officer punches him in the head two or three times. The driver had been stopped for loud music.

Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner defended the officers actions as the necessary result of a suspect who refused a lawful order to leave his vehicle and continued to resist after being pulled from the drivers seat. He said the officers hadnt violated the departments use of force policy a policy that was revised shortly after the incident and has been updated again since.

Bey said he thought the mayor and police chiefs changes to the use of force policy actually made it worse.

Before, our only concern was a closed fist to the face, and we thought that created opportunity for too many injuries, Bey said. But its now been changed to include a host of other things that police officers could potentially do that I think creates a greater chance for injury to citizens.

Bey didnt elaborate on what other actions officers are now permitted to take under the policy.

Walsh defended the policy changes, saying constant review and revision is necessary. He also pointed to de-escalation training provided to officers under his administration as a way to stop the need for use of force in some cases.

Bail reform

Violent crime has emerged as a defining topic of the mayoral race, with the candidates sparring over the statistics. According to data from the Syracuse Police Department, violent crime is up 4% over the same time last year, and homicides are on pace with 2020s record-breaking number. Overall crime is down 12%.

Bey and Burman say violent crime in Syracuse has exploded under the Walsh administration.

The spike in violence has created an environment where so many people feel our city is approaching lawlessness, Bey said.

Walsh said the trend is concerning. He pointed to national trends showing an increase in violent crime across the country since the start of Covid.

But candidates disagreed over whether the rise in violent crime in Syracuse is related to the hot-button issue of bail reform.

In New York, bail reform mandates the automatic release of most people arrested and charged with non-violent crimes. Raise the Age legislation is targeted at juveniles and encourages that more young people even some charged with violent crimes be sent to Family Court instead of criminal court.

Buckner and Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick have both spoken out about the reform measures, linking them to the premature release of violent criminals.

Burman said she thinks younger kids are getting involved in crime because of Raise the Age and that bail reform has handicapped law enforcements ability to keep the community safe.

I think its important that the mayor act as advocate for our citizens and speak up and speak to our legislative representatives about the consequences that these laws have unleashed in our community, Burman said.

Walsh said the intent of the laws is right: We should not be criminalizing poverty; it shouldnt matter how much money you have. That shouldnt determine whether or not you have to stay in jail.

Children make mistakes and deserve second chances, Walsh said. He pointed to his own privilege as a reason hed been given the benefit of the doubt when he made errors in his youth.

Bey said its clear that nonviolent crimes should be treated differently than violent crimes.

He pointed to the cost of housing someone in the Onondaga County Justice Center as a reason to keep fewer nonviolent criminals in jail overnight.

We can do much better by simply empowering and employing people, spending our money that way, Bey said.

The candidates will meet again Wednesday when Syracuse.com hosts at a debate at 6 p.m. View that debate live on this site.

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Call or text Megan Craig at 315-925-7137, email her at mcraig@syracuse.com or send a direct message on Twitter @megcraig1.

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Khalid Bey and Ben Walsh say they would amplify voices of Black Lives Matter if elected - syracuse.com

In a noble gesture to support the Black Lives Matter, the Indian players took the knee moments before their high-octane T20 World Cup 2021 Super 12 clash against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday. (More Cricket News)

IND vs PAK Live Streaming

On Saturday, England cricketers along with their West Indies counterparts took the knee. Sent into bat first, Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma went in the middle before the latter spoke with the rival captain Babar Azam whether they will take the knee or not.

It was no problem for Pakistan skipper Babar as Rahul and Rohit took the knee while the rest of the Indian team did the same just outside the boundary line. Meanwhile, Pakistan players chose to keep their hands on their chest and not knee down.

England players had lent their support to the Black Lives Matter movement in the home series against West Indies last year.

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Black Live Matter: Players Take The Knee Ahead Of IND vs PAK T20 World Cup Tie - Outlook India

A year ago, on Oct. 20, social media was splattered with the blood of Nigerians. Demonstrators had gathered at Lagoss Lekki toll gate to protest the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a violent and abusive arm of the police. Then we saw the live stream of Obianuju Catherine Udeh, better known as DJ Switch, when day turned to night and Nigeria gunned down its own citizens for peacefully protesting police brutality.

Not long before, the West had faced its own reckoning with police violence and racism, as Black Lives Matter protests spread globally following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

But the idea that anti-Black racism was only an issue for nations with White dominance was shattered by the reality of the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. For me, a Nigerian American woman who in 2013 had helped popularize Black Lives Matter and build a network for activists, it was clear that the struggle for justice for Black people was global, and it starts with our right to free speech.

Black activism is not new, and Africans have been mobilizing for justice for generations. Corruption and the violent suppression of dissent in many Black nations remain one of the many vestiges of colonialism. The tentacles of Western influence continue to allow injustice to prevail. The British military has trained Nigerian forces, and the United States has sold the country millions in arms. The laws around policing are colonial in nature, and efforts at reform had failed before the Lekki massacre.

However, when Nigerians mobilized last year during their independence month and used their bodies to create a new narrative about what was possible for their country, something profound shifted. They had spoken out before (many of us are familiar with the activism and music of Fela Kuti), but this time, with #EndSARS, we saw a unified voice. This was what captured the attention of the diaspora and allies around the world.

Crowds of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians ignorant of class, tribe, gender, religion or sexual orientation showed a harmony not seen in decades. They danced and chanted together. Seeing Africans mobilizing in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, was deeply moving and inspiring. Then it was deeply heartbreaking.

Many lives were lost at Lekki. We dont know exactly how many or who exactly within President Muhammadu Buharis government, and within the Lagos states leadership, should be held responsible. But the power of #EndSARS never dissipated.

Nigerian people are still speaking out. Their resilience following the chants Soro soke, or speak louder became clear after the repression. The #EndSARS movement understood that the victims and perpetrators are deeply intertwined, and they wanted to see changes to society that reflected the harmony that the demonstrations showed us was possible.

In solidarity, we used the BLM social media platforms to share updates and content to ensure the diaspora understood what was happening. At Diaspora Rising we took it a step further and kept eyes on #EndSARS for International Human Rights Day. On Dec. 10, we mobilized 60 prominent Black leaders and allies (60 because Nigeria celebrated its 60th year of independence) to call on Buhari to stop the abuse of his citizens for having the audacity to speak out.

Buhari and his government have attempted to lie and even gaslight the hundreds of families who lost loved ones during last years uprisings. Many prominent activists have lost their livelihoods, and others have been forced to flee. Twitter which played a crucial role in the demonstrations is now banned in the country.

But people have found other means to keep speaking loudly soro soke. On Oct. 8, I watched Burna Boy perform in Los Angeles. The Nigerian artists song, 20:10:20, about the Lekki massacre, moved the crowd. We give them many chances/dem fail my people/And when we cry for justice/Them kill my people, he sang. He then called for a moment of silence to honor the lives of those who were taken. In Nigeria, organizations, including Amnesty International and Enough Is Enough Nigeria, are now officially collaborating to ensure well-documented injustices do not go unaddressed. And on Wednesday, many mobilized at public spaces and with car memorial processions, declaring that they will not be silenced. What felt like a devastating and irredeemable blow to the human rights movement a year ago now looks like the beginning for a new Nigeria, and its diaspora, which is now watching closely.

Theres a lot of work ahead. Violence at the hands of the Nigerian government continues, in a nation where only 1 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against covid-19 (the entire continent is only 5 percent fully vaccinated). We must keep working alongside our Nigerian and African siblings for justice in their lands. As Malcolm X once said, As long as we think that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, youll never get Mississippi straightened out. There is enough compassion and connection between our vibrant cultures that we are compelled to remain committed to justice in every context.

Ay0 Tometi is a co-creator of Black Lives Matter and founder of Diaspora Rising.

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A year after #EndSARS in Nigeria, we must remain committed to the global quest for justice for Black people - The Philadelphia Tribune

In the eight years Ive worked in the music industry, career highs have been offset by instances of racism. Ive often been confused with other Black people who work in the industry at events, meetings and panels at a gig one evening, it happened three separate times.

For the first part of my career, I worked in the independent sector, which is not known for its diversity. My isolation as one of the few Black people working in this area was often explained away by my white counterparts: Ive been told that Black people just dont listen to alternative music, but this doesnt explain why white people are overrepresented when working in Black music. When I am asked about my perspectives, Im often then required to do the heavy lifting, as though structural racism is a problem that Black people should fix rather than the white perpetrators of it. When I was starting out in the industry younger, more insecure about my race and attempting to get my bearings in a sea of white faces, my attempts to assimilate were often overwhelmed by a sense of otherness.

A recent study by Black Lives in Music concluded that the majority of Black music industry professionals in the UK experience racism, from racist language to instances of microaggression. The report distinguished between the experiences of music creators and music executives and found that their experiences differed, with 63% of creators witnessed direct or indirect racism rising among professionals to 73%.

These findings will be largely unsurprising for Black people like me working in music. Im not trying to paint a picture of an industry that is always knowingly aggressive and violent. For the most part I enjoy my job, and though there may not be overt incidents of racism every single day, it is persistent and its widely felt by Black people working in music. This piles up, causing mental fatigue that minimises our ability to work at full capacity. A lot of that racism is implied or unsaid. While consciously most white people in the industry may not intend to be racist, instances of unconscious bias and other insidious forms of racism have prolonged effects on us not just on our ability to succeed in our work, but on our mental health. Indeed, 36% of music executives believed that their mental health declined due to the racism they faced. An industry committing to anti-racism must be more aware of this.

The differing experiences of music creators and executives highlighted in the report speaks to an unsettling hierarchy. Black people and especially Black men who are creators experience a relative form of privilege that Black people working behind the scenes in music dont have. Black creators are more often shielded from the worst forms of racism that others experience: since the artists are the ones making everyone money, white people are more likely to be deferential.

Would it be wrong to ask that these artists use their relative power to elevate us all? The report still shows that the effect of racism on creators is still high, so ultimately its on white folk to enact changes, but its interesting to note that many of the race equality initiatives set up in the wake of Blackout Tuesday, the call for the music industry to halt for a day in protest at the killing of George Floyd, were started by Black women, the demographic that the report found to suffer most from mental health issues and to be the most underpaid. The implications of this are enormous. If we want a music industry that is as diverse as its talent, we need to create an environment that isnt hostile to its most undervalued workers.

Last week I hosted a panel at Wild Paths Festival called Anti-racism in the Music Industry One Year On. An audience member noted that anti-racism movements have existed in the music industry long before Blackout Tuesday how then do we know that recent efforts will actually produce lasting change? All of us on stage found it difficult to pinpoint exactly why this time felt different. We all agreed that it was partly because George Floyds murder, the Blackout Tuesday initiative and the waves of Black Lives Matter protests made the urgent issues they raised unavoidable during the isolation of the pandemic. Its hard to know if there will be long-lasting change, and findings like the Black Lives in Music report make it hard for Black people in the industry to be optimistic.

But I get the sense that at no other point in the music industrys history have Black people been able to speak directly to wider audiences about their experiences, particularly in the racism theyve had to endure while making the music they love. Reports like Black Lives in Music are a step further to a greater understanding of those lives, and the work that needs to be done. Now its up to white people to help us implement the change the music industry desperately needs.

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Black music artists should call out racism within our industry. Theyve got the power - The Guardian

UPDATE: Please see a message from the author at the bottom of this article.

Freedom fighters around the globe commemorate July 13 as the day that three Black women helped givebirth to a movement. In the five short years since #Black LivesMatter arrived on the scene thanks to the creative genius of Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometti the push for Black liberation from state-inflicted violence hasevolved into one of the most influential social movements of the post-civil rights era.

Black Lives Matter has always been more of a human rights movement rather than a civil rights movement. BLM's focus has been less about changing specific laws and more about fighting for a fundamental reordering of society wherein Black lives are free from systematic dehumanization. Still, the movements measurable impact on the political and legal landscape is undeniable.

What gets referred to as the Black Lives Matter movement is, in actuality, the collective labor of a wide range of Black liberation organizations, each which their own distinct histories. These organizations include groups like the Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders, Assatas Daughters, the St. Louis Action council, Millennial Activists United, and the Organization for Black Struggle, to name just a few.

Collectively, since 2013, these organizers have effected significant change locally and nationally, includingthe ousting of high-profile corrupt prosecutors. In Chicago, the labor of groups such as BYP100 and Assatas Daughters, among others, led Anita Alvarez who had inexplicably failed to charge police officers who shot at least 68 people to death to lose her re-election bid for Cook County prosecutor. And in Florida, groups like The Dream Defenders and othershelped end Angela Coreys reign as a state attorney. Corey remains infamous forfailing to convict Trayvon Martins killer George Zimmerman while prosecuting Marissa Alexander, a Black woman who didnt hurt anyone when firing a warning shot at her abusive ex-husband.

Podcast: Hear Patrisse Cullors on the Evolution of Black Lives Matter

The BLM movements work certainly doesnt stop there. Students on the ground in Missouri, as part of the #ConcernedStudent1950 movement,helped lead to the resignation of the University of Missouri president over his failure to deal with racism on campus. BLM compelled Democrats to restructure their national platform to include issues such as criminal justice reform, and the movement contributed to the election of Black leftist organizers to public office, such as activist Chokwe Lumumba to mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

The BLMmovements unrelenting work on the issue of police corruption, helped incite the release of four unprecedented U.S. Department of Justice reports that confirm the widespread presence of police corruption in Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson, and Cleveland. Moreover, the Movement for Black Livespublication of awatershed multi-agenda policy platform authored by over 50 black-centered organizations laid bare the expansive policy goals of the movement. The fact that these accomplishments have happened so quickly is an extraordinary achievement in and of itself.

Moreover, the broader cultural impact of BLM as a movement has been immeasurably expansive. BLM will forever be remembered as the movement responsible for popularizing what has now become an indispensable tool in 21st-century organizing efforts: the phenomenon that scholars refer to as mediated mobilization. By using the tools of social media, BLM was the first U.S. social movement in history to successfully use the internet as a mass mobilization device. The recent successes of movements, such as #MeToo, #NeverAgain, and #TimesUp, would be inconceivable had it not been for the groundwork that #BlackLivesMatter laid.

Many have suggested, erroneously, that the BLM movement has quieted down in the age of Trump. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything the opposite is true: BLM is stronger, larger, and more global now than ever before. The success of initiatives such as Alicia Garzas Black Census Project the largest national survey focusing on U.S. black lives in over 150 years and Patrisse Cullorslaunch of the grassroots effort Dignity and Power Now in support of incarcerated people, both exemplify the BLM movements continued impact, particularly in local communities.

The idea that BLM is in a decline stage is false. Instead, what is true is that American mainstream media has been much less willing to actually cover the concerns of the BLM in part because it has been consumed by the daily catastrophes of the Trump presidency. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to assume that BLM is dwindling away simply because the cameras are no longer present. The revolution is still happening it is just not being televised. All throughout the country, BLM organizers are at work in their local communities feverishly fighting for change and relentlessly speaking truth to power.For instance,The Dream Defenders in Florida just released their visionary project The Freedom Papers, and BYP100 just celebrated its five-year anniversary.

Ironically, many of the debates that have come to define the age of Trump, such as the immigration debate, are arguably indirectly influenced by BLM. A notable example: Recently, some congressional Democrats have called for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been violating the rights of undocumented immigrants. What has been missing in much of the mainstream coverage of the ICE debate is an acknowledgment of how the democratic lefts radicalization would not have been possible without the efforts of Black radical grassroots social movements, such as BLM.

Indeed, long before congressional Democrats dared to call for the abolition of ICE, #blacklivesmatter activists pioneered the call for an end of modern policing in America. The language of abolition comes directly from the work of grassroots activists, such asthose in the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Their work helped to revive a long black radical tradition of engaging the rhetoric of abolitionism.

We literally would not even be using the word abolition let alone embracing it as a framework had it not been for the labor of BLM activists. The fact that Democrats are gradually calling for the abolition of ICE is a testimony to the continued impact of BLM as a social movement.

As we reflect on five years of BLM, we would do well to consider the myriad ways that #blacklivesmatter has influenced our contemporary moment and given us a framework for imagining what democracy in action really looks like. Whether it be transforming how we talk about police violence or transforming how we talk about abolitionism, the BLMmovementhas succeeded in transforming how Americans talk about, think about, and organize for freedom.

Frank Leon Roberts is the founder of the Black Lives Matter Syllabus and teachesat New York University.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: An earlier version of this essay inadvertently conflated two important distinctions: Black Lives Matter, the organization, vs. Black Lives Matter, the movement. Black Lives Matter, the organization, is a global decentralized networkwith over 30 chapters across the world. Black Lives Matter, the movement, is a broad conceptual umbrella that refers to the important work of a wide range of Black liberation organizations. Sometimes referred to as the Movement for Black Lives, the achievements of the Black Lives Matter movement would not be possible had it not been for the collective efforts of groups such as Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders, Assatas Daughters, the St. Louis Action council, Millennial Activists United, and the Organization for Black Struggle, to name just a few. This essay is an attempt to celebrate the movement without attributing the movements achievements solely to Black Lives Matter, the organization.

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How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for ...

Once considered radical, Black Lives Matter has gone mainstream. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney recently marched alongside Black, queer, elderly, and millennial allies to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Corporate giants have also joined the cause. Nike, Citi, and Walmart were among the first to hitch their brands to this new wave of antiracist action, joined daily by a growing chorus of business leaders pledging solidarity.

The modern movement for racial justice has been building for years, and it has reached a tipping point with the abhorrent murder of George Floyd and other acts of racial violence toward Black people in America. Black Lives Matter stands at the center of this movement, with a historic opportunity to stop police brutality and advance racial justice. What the movements leaders decide to do next will determine whether or not it takes a significant step forward toward changing policy and attitudes about race in this country.

While its not entirely clear who is leading the movement for Black lives, that doesnt mean it is leaderless. Black Lives Matter officials only rarely appear on cable news or social-media news feeds. The three women who co-founded Black Lives Matter have not occupied center stage during these past weeks of extraordinary protest. To the average person, it might look like no one is in charge.

This strategy is intentional. From the start, Black Lives Matter was committed to being a leaderfull movement leading from the grassroots up by allowing victims, survivors, and people with personal experience to speak out and stand at the front of protest marches. This was a smart decision. We know fromour researchthat the most successful modern social movements embrace this leadership approach, understanding that it is both effective and protective. Without a sole charismatic leader, the movement is less vulnerable to attacks such as the tragic assassinations of civil-rights leaders in the 1960s, most notably the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In addition to being leaderfull, Black Lives Matter shares traits with other successful social movements of our time, most notably marriage equality, antismoking efforts, and gun-rights expansion. The movement to advance racial justice and protect Black lives can deploy these same approaches to gain even more traction.

Embrace a 10/10/10/20 = 50 States Strategy

As the powerful protests against police brutality continue on the streets and in front of TV cameras, Black Lives Matter advocates and their allies are diligently working behind the scenes in decentralized but tightly woven networks to reform government policies at state and local levels. They are advocating, litigating, and negotiating for change in the places where policy and life collide within each of the 50 states. They also are clearly tailoring their approach for each unique political system and cultural milieu.

Advocates for same-sex marriage focused fiercely on policy reform across theU.S. states,acting on what they dubbed their 10/10/10/20 = 50vision for change. They adapted strategies for different regions of the country and set achievable goals for each state: Full marriage in 10 states; civil unions in another 10 states; same-sex-relationship recognition laws in 10 more states; and in the remaining 20 states, repeal of discriminatory laws against members of the LGBTQ community. This meant fighting to protect the first same-sex marriage law in Massachusetts and pushing for such a law in New York while advocating in Texas to repeal antisodomy and other discriminatory laws.

LGBTQ advocates ultimately won marriage equality nationwide in 2015 with the landmark Supreme Court rulingObergefell v. Hodges, but only after decades of activism and advocacy in each U.S. state. Similarly, if Black Lives Matter advocates focus their firepower on state and local policy reform now, while they have the nations attention and empathy they can generate the momentum needed to eventually achieve nationwide changes. But if, instead, the movement pushes for sweeping federal changes too soon, they could squander this historic opportunity.

Change Social Norms, Not Just Government Policies

In this time of extraordinary racial reckoning, public attitudes toward race and police brutality are rapidly shifting. The latestCiviqspolls show that the number of American voters supporting Black Lives Matter grew from 46 percent to 53 percent following George Floyds murder. This attitude shift was triggered by the millions of advocates and allies demonstrating on U.S. streets and worldwide, and likely by the use of police and military force ordered by President Trump and some state and local officials against mostly peaceful protesters.

Pop culture has also influenced attitudes about race at a more accelerated clip in recent years. TV series likeBlackish,movies such asThe Hate You Give,documentaries like13th,and books such asTheNew Jim Crowhave worked their way into the conscience of a growing number of Americans. But pop culture alone cannot change social norms about race or reverse the racist attitudes of people who commit violent and hateful acts toward Black people and who arent watching these films or reading those books. Racists subscribe to a separate canon of content that informs and reinforces white supremacist, xenophobic, populist, and other views.

Racism is a social norm, a cultural attitude, a personal opinion. It cannot be legislated or regulated. But it can be changed. Dismantling deeply rooted social and cultural norms is more challenging than changing laws or regulations. But it is possible, as the fight for marriage equality powerfully demonstrates.

In that movement, reformers deliberately set out to first understand where most people in America stood on same-sex marriage. National polls in the 2000s showed that although a handful of respondents were adamantly opposed to gay marriage, whether for ideological, religious, or other reasons, the vast majority did not have a strong opinion. They werent for it or against it. Many said they didnt understand why gay people wanted to marry. So the Freedom to Marry campaign and its allies set out to convince this silent, if confused, majority of persuadable people to support their cause.

They deftly deployed social-norm-change campaigns centered onlove. Social-media ads showed a lesbian couple raising a son in Massachusetts who was an ice-hockey state champion. Another profiled a straight uncle coming around to the idea of his nephew marrying his partner. The idea was to normalize the idea of same-sex partnerships and marriage.

Focusing on love was a departure from previous LGBTQ campaigns, which centered more on defending rights and protesting discrimination. Similarly, now that Black Lives Matter has earned the empathy of a majority of people in America, they can attract more allies to the racial-justice cause and turn that support into action in statehouses and at the voting booth.

Break From Business as Usual

Whether by choice or by default, companies today are becoming more involved with social movements, with seemingly every corporate CEO now speaking out against racism. This isnt necessarily new, but it can make a difference in shaping cultural norms and attitudes even when some of these efforts fall flat.

In 2015, following a racist incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, the companys CEO, Howard Shultz, deputized his army of baristas totalk about race.The campaign was quickly snuffed by the backlash to this ill-advised (if well-intentioned) idea. But it also put race squarely in front of the consumer, pushing the sensitive issue into more public view.

Long before Starbucks tried to strike up casual conversations about race over a cup of coffee, another leading brand broke ground on this issue in the 1990s. Timberland mounted the novel Give Racism the Boot campaign, running print magazine ads and tagging jackets in its stores with mini-booklets designed to raise customer awareness and discussion. The campaign content was designed in partnership with City Year, a national service organization with a long history of partnership with the company.

These approaches demonstrate how business can be a vector for change, not just a donor to causes or a target of activist ire. Companies play roles in social movements that are much more complex and far-reaching than self-promotional advertisements or corporate statements promising racial solidarity. Corporate leaders who want to demonstrate support with Black Lives Matter can start by reforming internal policies on hiring, retention, promotion, and pay equity, and reviewing their supply chain through a lens of diversity and inclusion, among other ways to takemeaningful action against racism.

How Change Will Happen

Black Lives Matter and its allies are crossing a Rubicon in this moment of racial reckoning. What they do next can determine not just how Black people are policed, but how they are fundamentally viewed and treated by all institutions of society. Beyond protest and policy change, they can deploy success strategies of other 21st-century social movements to further bend the arc of history closer toward racial justice and lasting systemic change.

Leslie Crutchfield is the author ofHow Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Dont. She teaches corporate social responsibility and nonprofit leadership at Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business, where she serves as executive director ofBusiness for Impact.

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Black Lives Matter: From Protests to Lasting Change ...

Demonstrators march in the streets on August 26, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As the city declared a state of emergency curfew, a fourth night of civil unrest occurred after the shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, on August 23. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

Demonstrators march in the streets on August 26, 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As the city declared a state of emergency curfew, a fourth night of civil unrest occurred after the shooting of Jacob Blake, 29, on August 23.

Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year, is suing the city, the county and several law enforcement officers, claiming they condoned the efforts of white nationalists to violently dispel demonstrators protesting a police shooting.

A wave of protests erupted in Kenosha in August of last year following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot multiple times by a white police officer at point-blank range and left paralyzed from the waist down.

At one of the protests, the then 17-year-old Rittenhouse shot and killed two people Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Grosskreutz, who says he lost 90% of his right bicep. Prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with killing the two men and shooting Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse, whose trial has been delayed until November, claims the shootings were in self-defense and has pleaded not guilty.

According to Grosskreutz's federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Thursday, authorities in Kenosha not only knew that armed vigilantes planned to patrol the protest attended by Black Lives Matter supporters, but also encouraged their participation.

"It was not a mistake that Kyle Rittenhouse would kill two people and maim a third on that evening," the lawsuit claims. "It was a natural consequence of the actions of the Kenosha Police Department and Kenosha Sherriff's office in deputizing a roving militia to 'protect property' and 'assist in maintaining order.'"

Grosskreutz says the coordination between authorities and armed citizens like Rittenhouse deprived the protestors of their constitutional right to freedom of speech, endangering them during the demonstration.

"Defendants' open support of and coordination with the armed individuals in the minutes and hours before the shootings deprived Anthony Huber and the other protestors of the basic protections typically provided by police," the lawsuit says. "It was a license for the armed individuals to wreak havoc and inflict injury."

The lawsuit also alleges that the police treated Rittenhouse the way they did because he was white, and that if an armed Black man had offered to patrol the protest, "he most likely would have been shot dead."

NPR reached out to the city of Kenosha and its police department, as well as Kenosha County and its sheriff's office, but did not immediately get a response.

Since the shootings, Rittenhouse has received support from conservative groups and Blue Lives Matter activists. President Trump declined to condemn his actions in the days after the shootings.

The Kenosha Police Department announced in April that Rusten Sheskey, the officer who shot Blake, acted within department policy and wouldn't face discipline. Federal prosecutors said this month that they would not file charges against Sheskey.

Blake has filed a federal lawsuit against Sheskey, accusing him of excessive force.

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Protester shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha is now suing Wisconsin authorities - NPR