Social Justice

"Then, as now, getting arrested or jailed or associated with criminality in any fashion, whether in a hoodie or a suit and tie, was bound to upset the political establishment. When Black Lives Matter activists blocked traffic and engaged in other acts of mass civil disobedience, many white liberals and older black activists charged that King wouldn’t have approved of the type of disruption these protests caused. While the likes of King and Rosa Parks are now celebrated for their acts of defiance, their protests were no less controversial at the time, even within the civil-rights movement."

"The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has established a fund worth more than $12 million to aid organizations fighting institutional racism, in the wake of the George Floyd protests. On Wednesday, the foundation, which has been influential in the emergence of the broader Black Lives Matter movement, said it was setting aside $6 million in donations to support black-led grassroots organizing groups. Last week, it unveiled a separate $6.5 million fund for its network of affiliate chapters. Beginning July 1, affiliated chapters can apply for unrestricted funding of up to $500,000 in multi-year grants, the foundation announced. The foundation told the AP it has received more than 1.1 million individual donations at an average of $33 per gift since the death of Floyd, a black man who died May 25 pleading for air as a white Minneapolis police officer held a knee to his neck for nearly eight minutes. The surge of financial support adds to roughly $3.4 million in net assets the BLM Global Network had on hand last year, according to a 2019 financial statement of Thousand Currents, the fiscal sponsor which receives donations on the network’s behalf and then releases money to the group."

"Without gainsaying the reality and significance of generalized white support for the movement in the early 1960s, the number of whites who were active in a sustained way in the struggle were comparatively few, and certainly nothing like the percentages we have seen taking part in recent weeks. ... It looks, for all the world, like these protests are achieving what very few do: setting in motion a period of significant, sustained, and widespread social, political change. ... We appear to be experiencing a social change tipping point — that is as rare in society as it is potentially consequential."

"Besides the spike in demonstrations on Juneteeth, the number of protests has fallen considerably over the last two weeks according to the Crowd Counting Consortium. But the amount of change that the protests have been able to produce in such a short period of time is significant. In Minneapolis, the City Council pledged to dismantle its police department. In New York, lawmakers repealed a law that kept police disciplinary records secret. Cities and states across the country passed new laws banning chokeholds. Mississippi lawmakers voted to retire their state flag, which prominently includes a Confederate battle emblem."

"The protests are colliding with... the country’s most devastating pandemic in modern history. “With being home and not being able to do as much, that might be amplifying something that is already sort of critical, something that’s already a powerful catalyst, and that is the video,” said Daniel Q. Gillion, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania... “If you aren’t moved by the George Floyd video, you have nothing in you,” he said. “And that catalyst can now be amplified by the fact that individuals probably have more time to engage in protest activity.”"

"Remove the word black and say 'lives matter'. ... Stop sending mothers back home empty. You can never replace a mother's child. If we want black lives matter, let's make it matter to us. That's the new call."

"Artists have turned boarded-up businesses into powerful Black Lives Matter art. After finishing a mural of George Floyd on Broadway in downtown Oakland, Matt Hunter started painting his second one when The Verge caught up with him. This time, he decided to paint a mural of Breonna Taylor. It took him about three days to finish this monochromatic piece of Taylor depicted as “a new monument for a new future,” he said. “I feel as though there is a cycle of things and we are at a boiling point of ignored pain.” ... Taylor is... surrounded by thousands of people behind her, which he says represent an unstoppable movement to create change and bring justice to all people. The Moon and Sun on each side of her are a reminder that the Earth keeps turning. “Things"

"I was struck again by the importance of language and of words that need to be spoken. Our best teachers, including Audre Lorde among others, have imparted this truth. In the last few months, weeks, and days, I have found myself saying #BlackLivesMatter out loud at various times. It's not that I don't already know that they do. I think that I am trying to speak the words into existence."

"Black Lives Matter has meant so much everywhere, including in Haiti and Palestine, and it strengthens other movements for justice against murder by the state—the human rights defenders in Honduras and Thailand who are being assassinated by corporate agents for defending Indigenous and small farmers’ right to land, for example."

"I'm more optimistic because I see the resistance in the streets, which wasn't there a few weeks and months ago. That's where hope lies. It lies in the streets. And I have got to acknowledge these people. They're mostly young, incredibly courageous, they are out there braving economic misery, arrests, indiscriminate, brutal and often lethal police violence and COVID-19, and they're fighting against injustice and the elites anyway. They're all heroes in my book."

"What we are seeing now in America is about so much more than people just being sick of the police murdering innocent people. It is a generational and class revolt. ... Look at what the Congressional Black Caucus is doing. They are repeating the same kind of tired clichés about police reform we have heard for years. Most people participating in the George Floyd protests know that such reforms are useless. Empty symbolism. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, paints "Black Lives Matter" in 35-foot-tall letters on a street near the White House. But at the same time, she's pushing for a $45 million increase in the police budget and the construction of a $500 million new jail. I don't think people are buying such a performance. I also don't believe that people are buying Pelosi's little kente-cloth, "take a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter" trick either."

"Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is a tool to reimagine a world where black people are free to exist, free to live. It is a tool for our allies to show up differently for us. I grew up in a neighborhood that was heavily policed. I witnessed my brothers and my siblings continuously stopped and frisked by law enforcement. I remember my home being raided. And one of my questions as a child was, why? Why us? Black Lives Matter offers answers to the why. It offers a new vision for young black girls around the world that we deserve to be fought for, that we deserve to call on local governments to show up for us."

"In order to have a legal arrest, you need probable cause to believe that the person committed a crime. ... There is nothing in the law that allows “proactive arrest.”.. It’s the power of the people, and people are in the streets—hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in US cities, and in cities around the world—in support of the Movement for Black Lives, and against police brutality.. ... We can’t rely on the legal system, but it’s a tool that we have to use. ... There is an ACLU lawsuit ... asking for an injunction against these federal agents targeting legal observers, and targeting journalists as well, because the last thing in the world that the Trump administration and his goons want are witnesses, are media that are witnessing what’s happening ... there are lawsuits being filed in support of the real power, and that is the power of the people."

"[One] example of narrative takeover is the Black Lives Matter movement. This is a life-affirming accountability movement to call attention to the violence being perpetrated against Black people. But rather than listening, learning, and believing the stories of injustice, systemic racism, and pain, groups of white people centered themselves with “all lives matter” and “blue lives matter.” There was never a narrative of “white lives and police lives don’t matter” in this movement. This was an attempt to, once again, decenter Black lives and take over the narrative."

"Republicans have racialized poverty, and Democrats have run from poverty. And we’re forcing them to deal with the reality. We are very political, but we’re not partisan... There is not some separation between Jesus and justice; to be Christian is to be concerned with what’s going on in the world. ... It's better to die having fought for justice than to live and stay on the sidelines and to watch injustice have it's way without a challenge."

"Despite warnings from public health officials, new research suggests Black Lives Matter protests across the country have not led to a jump in coronavirus cases. ... A new study, published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, used data on protests from more than 300 of the largest US cities, and found no evidence that coronavirus cases grew in the weeks following the beginning of the protests."

"To truly promote confidence in these vaccines, we must start by acknowledging this history of mistreatment and exploitation of minorities by the medical community and the government. But then we need to explain and demonstrate all that has been done to correct and address these wrongs."

"Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. Black Lives Matter. We see black death all the time, and I don’t know what it was about this, but I know I went home and then I woke up in the middle of the night crying. And I picked up my phone and I started clickety-clacking, right? ... Patrisse and I, we started talking about building an organizing project around state violence."

"We know that young people are the present and the future, but what inspires me are older people who are becoming transformed in the service of this movement. ... I'm inspired by seeing older people step into their own power and leadership and say, "I'm not passing a torch, I'm helping you light the fire.""

"Millions of dollars were raised for the Black Lives Matter Foundation, a nonprofit that is entirely unassociated with the Black Lives Matter movement. In the wake of police brutality protests across the United States, people have been opening their wallets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement — but some have inadvertently been sending their donations to a similarly titled, but entirely unaffiliated, organization. Companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft have reportedly raised more than $4 million for the Black Lives Matter Foundation — a registered nonprofit that is different to the Black Lives Matter Global Network... An estimated $4.35 million was raised for the foundation in the first weeks of June, though much of that was frozen before it could be disbursed.... Google confirmed to People that it learned last week that the foundation was not affiliated with the movement, and subsequently updated its employee-led internal giving campaign to redirect all donated money to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation."

"We now have the conceptual means to engage in discussions, popular discussions, about capitalism... The notion of the prison-industrial complex requires us to understand the globalization of capitalism. Anti-capitalist consciousness helps us to understand the predicament of immigrants, who are barred from the U.S. by the wall that has been created by the current occupant. These conditions have been created by global capitalism. And I think this is a period during which we need to begin that process of popular education, which will allow people to understand the interconnections of racism, heteropatriarchy, capitalism."

"Racism is integrally linked to capitalism... it’s a mistake to assume that we can combat racism by leaving capitalism in place. ... The Industrial Revolution, which pivoted around the production of capital, was enabled by slave labor in the U.S... we have a long way to go before we can begin to talk about an economic system that is not based on exploitation and on the super-exploitation of Black people, Latinx people and other racialized populations."

"When someone like Roger Goodell says “Black lives matter,” even though he did not mention Colin Kaepernick, and even though he may have — he probably did not really mean it, what that means is that the NFL recognizes that it has to begin a new process, that there is a further expansion of popular consciousness."

"I’m really proud of the work we’ve been able to do in the last seven years... What is clear is that Black Lives Matter shares a name with a much larger movement and there are literally hundreds of organizations that do impactful racial and gender justice work who make up the fabric of this broader movement.”"

"I was mostly thinking about building a mass movement that people can be a part of and feel an identity around. I was interested in giving folks like black, poor people who’ve been marginalized, brutalized, an opportunity to have more visibility. Before seven years ago, we could barely get the news to talk about police violence, let alone police death."

"We have to invest in black leadership. That's what I've learned the most in the last few years. ... I think our work as movement leaders isn't just about our own visibility but rather how do we make the whole visible. How do we not just fight for our individual selves but fight for everybody? And I also think leadership looks like everybody in this audience showing up for black lives. ... The movement for black lives isn't just for us, but it's for everybody."

"Grassroots feminists continue to be undermined by single-issue liberals who believe that by breaking a class-entitled glass ceiling—'beating the boys at their own game'—there is some kind of "trickle down" effect on the actual lives of workingclass and poor women and children. This is the same "trickle down" of our share of corporate profit, secured by tax benefits for the wealthy, that has yet to land on our kitchen tables, our paychecks, or our children's public school educations. Social change does not occur through tokenism or exceptions to the rule of discrimination, but through the systemic abolishment of the rule itself."

"Inclusion without power or leadership is tokenism."

"Nothing neutralizes creativity quicker than tokenism, that false sense of security fed by a myth of individual solutions."

"True coalition is not a smattering of tokens. True coalition forms between groups, the premise is that each group has a strong base in a larger community."

"AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) as a socio-political philosophy can be used as a tool to prevent youths from backward classes and Dalit communities from joining the Hindutva brigade."

"I have made five to six visits to Karnataka and after meeting people I have been able to understand the feeling of Karnataka. The feeling of the people of Karnataka is that he (Siddaramaiah) is not an AHINDA leader, but an Ahindu (anti-Hindu) leader."

"There is a city, there is a city whose powers are apparent. Nijin is the city whose powers are apparent. The is the city whose powers are apparent. The mountain rising from the water is the city whose powers are apparent. Its light rises over the secure temple; its fate is determined. There is perfection in the city; the rites of mother Nance are performed accordingly. Its lady, the child born in g, Nance, the lady of the precious divine powers, is now to return."

"I am the mistress, so let my birds assemble for me where the sheaves are gathered! I am Nance, so let my birds assemble for me where the sheaves are gathered! Let the birds of heaven and earth stand at my service! Let every bird without a name bring offerings!"

"A fish is held in her hand as a staff. [...] Fishes are put on her feet as sandals. [...] She has fishes wrapped around her body as a regal garment."

"The runner-fish (kackac) hastens (kac) to her. The gurgur fish makes the sea surge up (gurgur) for her. The flash-fish (jiri) makes the sea sparkle (jir) for her."

"Fishes will grow for her in the sea. Fishes fly around for her like swallows."

"I, the lady, will ride on my boat, I will ride home. I will ride on the prow of the boat, I will ride home." Its canopy of gold and fragrant cedarwood sparkles for her on the sea. Its cabin shines for her like rejoicing moonlight on the sea. "My husband is the tax collector of the sea, Nindara is the tax collector of the sea."

"Upon the water like a large pelican. Stepping onto earth from heaven."

"Nance, sister praised by the Anuna! Mother, beautiful matriarch of Enlil! Nance, delighting in her pelican, erected a lapis lazuli shrine, and set the holy pelican by her feet. [...] She who loves the fishes and birds! [...] You are she who does not belittle! [...] Mistress mother Nance, it is sweet to praise you!"

"She is beer mash, the mother is yeast, Nance is the cause of great things: her presence makes the storehouses of the land bulge and makes the honey [...] like resin in the storerooms. Because of her, there stand vessels with ever-flowing water; because of Nance, the baskets containing the treasures of the Land (𒌦) cover the ground like the silt of the river."

"She is concerned for the orphan and concerned for the widow. She does not forget the man who helps others, she is a mother for the orphan; Nance, a carer for the widow, who always finds advice for the ; the lady who gives protection for refugees. She seeks out a place for the weak. She swells his collecting basket for him; she makes his collecting vessel profitable for him. For the righteous maiden who has taken her path, Nance chooses a young man of means. Nance raises a secure house like a roof over the widow who could not remarry."

"There is perfection in the presence of the lady. Lagac thrives in abundance in the presence of Nance. She chose the cennu in her holy heart and seated Ur-Nance, the beloved lord of Lagac, on the throne. She gave the lofty sceptre to the shepherd. She adorned Gudea with all her precious divine powers. The shepherd chosen by her in her holy heart, Gudea, the ruler of Lagac, placed the lyre Cow-of-Abundance among the tigi drums and placed the holy balaj drum at its side. While sacred songs and harmonious songs were performed before her, the kintur instrument praised the temple. The chief musician played the ibex horn for her: the song 'The house has been granted powers from the abzu, the sacred song of the house of about the princely powers was performed."

"The went into the sacristy and made glittering silver ecde cups ready for her. The temple cook [...] and prepared hot and cold food for her. [...] After the meat had arrived in large bowls and cool water had been brought from the Sirara-canal, after the festival trappings had arrived from Lagac and wine had been brought from the countryside, her great oven which vies with the great dining hall, Nance's shrine of food offerings, was humming."

"The lady, the matriarch of Enlil, Nance, the lady of abundance who lives in in the Land, [...] the child of Enki, acting as a good woman for a good household, is to make the appointments. After she, as a good woman for a good household, has made the appointments, the regular offerings and daily goods of the house arrive unfailingly from the Bursaj."

"May the lady of the right commands and inalienable divine powers, Nance, be praised in all the countries!"

"At new year, on the day of rites, the lady libates water on the holy. [...] On the day when the bowls of rations are inspected, Nance also inspects the servants during the appointments. Her chief scribe Nisaba places the precious tablets on her knees and takes a golden stylus in her hand. She arranges the servants in single file for Nance and then it will be decided whether or not a leather-clad servant can enter before her in his leather, whether or not a linen-clad servant can pass before her in his linen. Any registered and [...] hired person about whom observers and witnesses claim to witness his fleeing from the house will be terminated in his position. [...] The king who always cares for the faithful servants, Haia, the man in charge of registration, registers on a tablet him who is said to be a faithful servant of his lady but deletes from the tablet her who is said not to be the maidservant of her lady. [...] These words are ultimate; nothing is to be added to these rites."

"At Nance's house, the river of the ordeal cleanses a person. [...] No obstinate or threatening utterance shall arise."

"Anyone who [...] his hand and reaches out for something forcefully, and whose hand matches his mouth and who commits violence, who changes a firm foundation or alters a marked out border, who is rushing to the place of oath, [...] who desire something after having acquired something, who does not say "I have eaten" after having eaten, and does not say "I have drunk" after having drunk, and then says, "I will set a bowl before you, I will filter beer for you"; [...] then Nance does not allow him to eat any bread with fat or shining eggs, because of the violation."

"For the lady who cares for all the countries, the queen, mother Nance, sees into their hearts: the orphan, [...] the widow, [...] the waif delivered up to the powerful, the powerful delivered to the powerless, the mother who scolds at her child, the child who talks obstinately to his mother, the younger brother who talks against his elder brother or talks back his his father. [...] Nance sees into the heart of the Land as if it were a split reed."