Why BLM week?
The Black Lives Matter at School movement started as a day of action in Seattle during the fall of 2016, when thousands of educators in Seattle came to school on October 19th wearing shirts that said, “Black Lives Matter: We Stand Together.” Hundreds of families and students did too. Many of the shirts also included the message “#SayHerName,” a campaign to raise awareness about the often unrecognized state violence and assault of women in our country.
This action attracted national news, helping it spread to Philadelphia. That city’s Caucus of Working Educators’ Racial Justice Committee expanded the action to last an entire week that year with teaching points around the thirteen principles of Black Lives Matter. Educators in Rochester, New York also held a Black Lives Matter at School day in 2017.
This action attracted national news, helping it spread to Philadelphia. That city’s Caucus of Working Educators’ Racial Justice Committee expanded the action to last an entire week that year with teaching points around the thirteen principles of Black Lives Matter. Educators in Rochester, New York also held a Black Lives Matter at School day in 2017.
BLACK LIVES MATTER WEEK
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is Black Lives Matter?
A: Black Lives Matter is a US-based international movement co-founded by three black women: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The #BlackLivesMatter movement began as a hashtag for Twitter, after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013. It gained momentum after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, the death of Eric Garner, and subsequent events that continue to this day.
Q: What are the goals of “Black Lives Matter”?
A: Justice, an end to all forms of discrimination and the full recognition of human rights for Black people are what the movement includes in its vision for a “New America.” The movement calls upon the United States government to acknowledge structural violence and institutional discrimination and to recognize the full spectrum of human rights and obligations under international law. The focus is an end to police brutality and the murder of people of color and the oppressed, mass incarceration, and a call to demilitarize US police departments.
Q: But don’t “All Lives Matter”?
A: Yes, but at this time in history, a spotlight is being projected onto serious issues of systemic injustice towards black people specifically. Our principles call us to support this cause, without negating the value of other causes. We need to break from the “either/or” mentality and embrace “both/and” understandings. There is no “only” in front of “Black Lives Matter.”
Consider This:
- Nationwide, even though blacks and whites have similar levels of drug use, yet blacks are ten times as likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes. In Maryland, African-Americans represent 90 percent of all those imprisoned for drug offenses.
- African-American youth are 9 times more likely than white youth to be sentenced as adults for the same crime. Prison sentences for black men are about 20% longer than for white men for the same crime.
- There are more blacks under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. - Only 2 states in the U.S. allow people serving time, on parole, or with criminal records to vote. All other states deny one or more of these groups the right to vote.
- As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
- A national study of more than 90,000 schools found that although black children made up only 18 percent of preschoolers, 42 percent of preschoolers who were suspended were black.
- In a study of employment discrimination, resumes with the names Lakesha and Jamal were 50% less likely to get call backs than identical resumes with the names Emily and Brendan.
- The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010. The current gap between wealth for blacks and whites has reached its highest point since 1989. (Adapted with permission from the Cedar Lane UU website, www.cedarlane.org and the UU Church of Annapolis http://www.uuannapolis.org )
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: What is Black Lives Matter?
A: Black Lives Matter is a US-based international movement co-founded by three black women: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The #BlackLivesMatter movement began as a hashtag for Twitter, after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013. It gained momentum after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, the death of Eric Garner, and subsequent events that continue to this day.
Q: What are the goals of “Black Lives Matter”?
A: Justice, an end to all forms of discrimination and the full recognition of human rights for Black people are what the movement includes in its vision for a “New America.” The movement calls upon the United States government to acknowledge structural violence and institutional discrimination and to recognize the full spectrum of human rights and obligations under international law. The focus is an end to police brutality and the murder of people of color and the oppressed, mass incarceration, and a call to demilitarize US police departments.
Q: But don’t “All Lives Matter”?
A: Yes, but at this time in history, a spotlight is being projected onto serious issues of systemic injustice towards black people specifically. Our principles call us to support this cause, without negating the value of other causes. We need to break from the “either/or” mentality and embrace “both/and” understandings. There is no “only” in front of “Black Lives Matter.”
Consider This:
- Nationwide, even though blacks and whites have similar levels of drug use, yet blacks are ten times as likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes. In Maryland, African-Americans represent 90 percent of all those imprisoned for drug offenses.
- African-American youth are 9 times more likely than white youth to be sentenced as adults for the same crime. Prison sentences for black men are about 20% longer than for white men for the same crime.
- There are more blacks under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. - Only 2 states in the U.S. allow people serving time, on parole, or with criminal records to vote. All other states deny one or more of these groups the right to vote.
- As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
- A national study of more than 90,000 schools found that although black children made up only 18 percent of preschoolers, 42 percent of preschoolers who were suspended were black.
- In a study of employment discrimination, resumes with the names Lakesha and Jamal were 50% less likely to get call backs than identical resumes with the names Emily and Brendan.
- The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010. The current gap between wealth for blacks and whites has reached its highest point since 1989. (Adapted with permission from the Cedar Lane UU website, www.cedarlane.org and the UU Church of Annapolis http://www.uuannapolis.org )