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Black Lives Matter shows us that black oppression is borderless Black Lives Matter has showed us: the oppression of black people is borderless
(about 1 hour later)
One year after it started, the Black Lives Matter movement continues to dissolve what some have called the “boundaries of blackness” – both within the United States and across borders. This is the enduring legacy of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed black man who was killed on 9 August 2014 by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson. The rage about police violence kicked off a new, borderless kind of politics about the value of black life worldwide. One year after it started, the Black Lives Matter movement continues to dissolve what some have called the “boundaries of blackness” – both within the United States and across borders. This is the enduring legacy of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed black man who was killed on 9 August 2014 by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The rage about police violence kicked off a new, borderless kind of politics about the value of black life worldwide.
Related: Ferguson and beyond: how a new civil rights movement began – and won't end | DeRay McKesson
The movement has erased the imaginary line between “respectability politics”, the concept that if black people are just upstanding enough they won’t experience racism, and the lived experiences of actual black people, destroying the mythology that the only black lives worth protecting are those of idealized, sanitized saints.The movement has erased the imaginary line between “respectability politics”, the concept that if black people are just upstanding enough they won’t experience racism, and the lived experiences of actual black people, destroying the mythology that the only black lives worth protecting are those of idealized, sanitized saints.
Barriers between academia, blackademia, hip-hop, comedy, activism and electoral politics are also coming down as a result of the movement – lines which have long been used to keep powerful black people segregated from one another for pursuing social change in slightly different ways.Barriers between academia, blackademia, hip-hop, comedy, activism and electoral politics are also coming down as a result of the movement – lines which have long been used to keep powerful black people segregated from one another for pursuing social change in slightly different ways.
Especially through Black Twitter and #BlkTwitterstorians, a Twitter hashtag used by young activists to tenured professors, the movement has helped diffuse the porous wall between traditional and social media. The demand for racial justice after Brown’s death initially bypassed professional journalism and saw activists use their own media production to mobilize people. Baltimoreans protesting the killing of Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured during his arrest, or activist Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag, are examples of how social scooped traditional media in advancing public knowledge about injustice.Especially through Black Twitter and #BlkTwitterstorians, a Twitter hashtag used by young activists to tenured professors, the movement has helped diffuse the porous wall between traditional and social media. The demand for racial justice after Brown’s death initially bypassed professional journalism and saw activists use their own media production to mobilize people. Baltimoreans protesting the killing of Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured during his arrest, or activist Bree Newsome taking down the Confederate flag, are examples of how social scooped traditional media in advancing public knowledge about injustice.
The last year has seen the crumbling of borders between African-Americans, Africans and Black Britons, as the movement has linked up with the struggle of black people worldwide. And it’s helped expose on a popular scale that if blackness has no national borders – as Paul Gilroy showed in The Black Atlantic – white supremacy doesn’t, either.The last year has seen the crumbling of borders between African-Americans, Africans and Black Britons, as the movement has linked up with the struggle of black people worldwide. And it’s helped expose on a popular scale that if blackness has no national borders – as Paul Gilroy showed in The Black Atlantic – white supremacy doesn’t, either.
Ever since the concept of race was created just a few hundred years ago through European colonialism and American chattel slavery, black people have been encouraged to believe we are lucky. If black people were left in Africa and not enslaved we were told we were lucky, even if we lived in colonized countries stripped of resources. If we were taken to Europe or the US, we were told we were lucky to have been taken to civilization.Ever since the concept of race was created just a few hundred years ago through European colonialism and American chattel slavery, black people have been encouraged to believe we are lucky. If black people were left in Africa and not enslaved we were told we were lucky, even if we lived in colonized countries stripped of resources. If we were taken to Europe or the US, we were told we were lucky to have been taken to civilization.
But the problems faced by black people worldwide have all been created by racialized capitalism as it formed modern nation states – states which have a vested interest in keeping black people globally from banding together to think about how our struggles are interconnected, and how we can support one another.But the problems faced by black people worldwide have all been created by racialized capitalism as it formed modern nation states – states which have a vested interest in keeping black people globally from banding together to think about how our struggles are interconnected, and how we can support one another.
Black Lives Matter has philosophically disrupted this segregation, sparking marches around the globe with a solidarity that is not just about American police brutality. Last autumn, Palestinian young people visited Ferguson, before black American activists took an historic trip to Palestine last winter, to learn how their lives living under American and Israeli occupations were similar. Then, in May, Ethiopian Israelis invoked “Baltimore Is Here” while fighting back against police abuse and racism in Israel.Black Lives Matter has philosophically disrupted this segregation, sparking marches around the globe with a solidarity that is not just about American police brutality. Last autumn, Palestinian young people visited Ferguson, before black American activists took an historic trip to Palestine last winter, to learn how their lives living under American and Israeli occupations were similar. Then, in May, Ethiopian Israelis invoked “Baltimore Is Here” while fighting back against police abuse and racism in Israel.
If Black Lives Matter can connect black Missourians, Baltimoreans, Palestinians and Israelis, it can cross any border.If Black Lives Matter can connect black Missourians, Baltimoreans, Palestinians and Israelis, it can cross any border.
Black Lives Matter is the reason why Slate’s interactive map, which showed that “the vast majority of enslaved Africans” went not to the US, but to the Caribbean and Brazil, has been shared over 200,000 times on Facebook. Black South American Lives matter, too. There’s a hunger to understand slavery not as an isolated experience of black North Americans relegated to the past – but as the economic engine beneath modern wealth and poverty worldwide.Black Lives Matter is the reason why Slate’s interactive map, which showed that “the vast majority of enslaved Africans” went not to the US, but to the Caribbean and Brazil, has been shared over 200,000 times on Facebook. Black South American Lives matter, too. There’s a hunger to understand slavery not as an isolated experience of black North Americans relegated to the past – but as the economic engine beneath modern wealth and poverty worldwide.
Similarly, when a recent BBC documentary showed how British slave owners were paid the equivalent of millions of pounds to free their slaves, it didn’t only register with Black Britons. It exposed that while the UK ended slavery three decades before than the US and without a civil war, the reasons were not altruistic. This resonated in the US. Reparations have never been paid to the descendants of slaves on US shores – even by corporations like Aetna Insurance, which directly made money off of slaves.Similarly, when a recent BBC documentary showed how British slave owners were paid the equivalent of millions of pounds to free their slaves, it didn’t only register with Black Britons. It exposed that while the UK ended slavery three decades before than the US and without a civil war, the reasons were not altruistic. This resonated in the US. Reparations have never been paid to the descendants of slaves on US shores – even by corporations like Aetna Insurance, which directly made money off of slaves.
Black Lives Matter helps move this kind of history from ivory tower conversation into everyday discourse. It also wants us to see black oppression, and also black joy and humor, as borderless. When the death of Cecil the Lion went viral, it prompted fantastic, satirical critiques of how much more sympathy his death garnered than that of black Americans or Zimbabweans does.Black Lives Matter helps move this kind of history from ivory tower conversation into everyday discourse. It also wants us to see black oppression, and also black joy and humor, as borderless. When the death of Cecil the Lion went viral, it prompted fantastic, satirical critiques of how much more sympathy his death garnered than that of black Americans or Zimbabweans does.
A year after his death, we owe Michael Brown and his family a great deal. His ultimate sacrifice gave the Black Lives Matter movement the voice, language and politics to understand his death as part of a pattern against the value of black lives in Ferguson, in the United States and globally – and it prompted new ways to hold up and cherish black lives affirmatively worldwide.A year after his death, we owe Michael Brown and his family a great deal. His ultimate sacrifice gave the Black Lives Matter movement the voice, language and politics to understand his death as part of a pattern against the value of black lives in Ferguson, in the United States and globally – and it prompted new ways to hold up and cherish black lives affirmatively worldwide.