In this re-release of an episode first recorded in July 2019, Jonathan sits down with Alicia Garza, Co-founder of Black Lives Matter and Director of Strategy & Partnerships for National Domestic Workers Alliance, to discuss the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia's work with the Black Futures Lab, and how Democratic Party candidates, campaigns, and elected officials need to be . This isn't unique to President Obama, or any historic first in a role. In 2011, she was elected board chair for Right to the City Alliance/RTTC in Oakland, which fought gentrification and police brutality. I do what I can to spend time with people who make me happy, at least three times a week. Schnall: There is much that must concern and upset you, yet you always convey such a calm and centered demeanor. [3] She graduated in 2002 with a degree in anthropology and sociology. Her inbox is a "whole-ass mess," her movement changed American history, and she believes Fenty Beauty saves lives. We already knew in this [2020 election] cycle that women were going to be the linchpin in deciding which direction this country goes. [1] Alicia Garza is the wife of Malachi Garza . "This is our generation's stamp on a movement that is ongoing." People often look at the magnitude of Alicia Garza's accomplishments and wonder how they can be replicated. When George Zimmerman was infamously acquitted in July 2013, in the murder case of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, activist Alicia Garza famously wrote on Facebook: "The sad part is, there's a section of America who is cheering and celebrating right now. April 2, 2021 Alicia Garza said the Black community should be represented in all facets of society and have their skills highlighted more often. . We see Black communities being engaged . Alicia Garza is an activist, editorial writer and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. She was also featured in the Politico50 guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2015. return null; Black lives matter is so simple and yet so complex. Youve got to start at the top and work your way down. The cancer cells have spread all over her brain". Garza drops gems, rubies and pearls about the history of the Black Lives Matter movement and she explains the importance of voting in this upcoming election. Explore a billion-year-old volcanic mystery on Lake Superior, A journey of the senses through Abu Dhabi, These Lake Superior islands are no place for amateurs, One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. While shes been dedicated to the racial justice movement for years, her work has taken on a new level of prominence in the last 12 months, since she debuted at number 32 on, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, A journey of the senses through Abu Dhabi, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; stop saying we are not surprised. var stylesheet = document.createElement("link"); So many more people have taken this on as theirs and that is where the power lies. This project was the largest survey on Black People since the Reconstruction era of the United States. Activist Alicia Garza coined the phrase "Black lives matter" in 2013 with a Facebook post. Schnall: Right now all the many cracks in our system have been exposed and it seems like we have an opportunity to restructure so much that is not working. [13] The same year, POWER organizers published a book analyzing how capitalism and imperialism were threatening the livelihoods of San Francisco and the Bay Area's working-class communities of color. Supermajority intends to "train and mobilize two million women across America to become organizers, activists, and leaders ahead of the 2020 election" to create a "multiracial, intergenerational movement for women's equality. From her earliest days of advocating for female . Alicia Garza, a cofounder of the Black Lives Matter organization, came to Berkeley Thursday night "to rant for a minute" before settling into a somber talk about BLM today and the urgent need to fight threats ranging from fascism and extra-judicial racial terror to white supremacy. Schnall: In 2020, we faced one challenge after another, all in the background of a global pandemic and ongoing instances of police violence against unarmed Black Americans. In that relief, will we hold the Biden-Harris administration to a new set of standards? var ue_t0=window.ue_t0||+new Date(); Garza: To be honest, there is glaring inequity of Black people overall in sectors and industries, and that has everything to do with the way that racism permeates every aspect of our society and economy. So momentum can be built by unearthing all of the places where that existsand that will take us quite a long time because racism is everywhere, and has been since the beginning of this nation. if (sourcesToHideBuyFeatures[i] == source) q("f", arguments) Previously, she has worked as an editor at Entrepreneur.com, WomansDay.com and Popular Photography magazine. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Can we bring a species back from the brink? In 2008, she married Malachi and took the name Garza, settling in Oakland. We cant be afraid to establish a base that is larger than the people we feel comfortable with. Creating a community of change is no differentto change the way the world functions now, we need people from all different backgrounds, experiences, skills and talents to come together to achieve a common goal. }, Kathleen Davis is Deputy Editor at FastCompany.com. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? //]]> For another, insiders from the show . [21], Garza led the 2015 Freedom Ride to Ferguson, organized by Cullors and Darnell Moore, that launched the building of BlackLivesMatter chapters across the United States and the world. } g = p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; , That means understanding how it is that we elected a sociopath as the President of the United States. An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, the book tells Garzas powerful story and her lessons learned and unlearned from her years of organizing and bringing people togetherand offers new paradigms to guide a new generation of changemakers who want to contribute to a movement and change the world. a gateway [to] urgent debates."Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time Marie Claire Kirkus Reviews In 2013, Alicia Garza . [40], Supermajority was established in the spring of 2019 and is focused on creating political power for American women. What unites them for me is that everyone right now is longing for something different, something better. A.async = !0; [11] A month later on April 30, 2018 Alicia said Moms passed away peacefully earlier today, surrounded by her family. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; 23. "[51] She voted for Bernie Sanders in the California Democratic Primary, but promised to do everything in her power "to make sure that we are not led by Donald Trump", and she voted for Clinton in the general election. try { return cookiePair[1]; Garza says in the 2016 YBCA 100 Summit, a twenty minute interview turned into a four hour conversation, I remember leaving there and saying 'I met my soulmate. Described as "an essential guide", the book tells Garza's story as an activist and shares lessons for future activists.[25]. Black Lives Matters mission, as stated on its website, is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.. gads.async = true; we are the ones we've been waiting for. function(a9, a, p, s, t, A, g) { The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart by Alicia Garza. Garza has been the recipient of many awards for her organizing work, including the Root 100 2015 list of African-American achievers and influencers. "What I know from this last four years is that Trump and his administration is not only not good for black people, but it's not good for our movements." Learn more about the Things are pretty dicey over at "Law & Order," NBC's 16-year-old police series. She has been twice awarded by the Harvey Milk Democratic Club the Bayard Rustin Community Activist Award for her work fighting racism and gentrification in San Francisco. Our lives matter. return true; The statement is uttered . if (window.ue && window.ue.tag) { window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out', ue.main_scope);window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out:mobileWeb', ue.main_scope); } Garza divided the Black Census Project into creating separate studies focusing on the black LGBTQ community as well as the black community's political engagement in the United States. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); } var ue_sid = "563-6386860-4805612"; The co-founder of Black Lives Matter recalls the coffee-making that kickstarted her activism Read an interview with Alicia Garza here Alicia Garza: 'Something about the demand to drop. Garzas extensive experience as an impactful organizer and activist has provided her with valuable insights, lessons and wisdom to share, which is what inspired her to write her new book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. var gads = document.createElement("script"); Cullors, 37, has reportedly purchased four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the U.S. alone, per New York Post, including property in a Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles County for $1.4 million . I try to do things every day that bring me joy or challenge metrying new recipes, for example, or planting the garden for the third time after cabbage moths have gone bananas in it. That is what keeps me hopeful in the midst of despair: learning how to lean in to what it is that I care most about and investing in that vision. An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country's leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter "Excellent and provocative . Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people.Its primary concerns are incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. If I can inspire someone else to be a changemaker, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing: growing the team so that the rate of change can be faster, and so that we can enjoy it in our lifetimes. }); In 2005, the first Walmart in that area opened. } else { This movement crosses so many others, which shows that we can build new kinds of communities where everybody can belong, and where everyone can be valued and where everybody can be powerful. This practice has been used by other movements, such as the #MeToo movement. we are the change that we seek. I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter. There is a pressure to universalize, to make it not matter. Power means being able to determine where resources go, who they go to, where they don't go, and who they don't go to. This is about black women, cisgender, transgender, no gender, disabled, queer, immigrant black women who time and time again keep trying to tell y'all and more than that keep showing y'all. Amplifying 2 million women across the U.S. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); Alicia Garza, L. A. Kauffman. If we dont say what we mean and mean what we say, what are we actually fighting for? she asks. Garza joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance in Oakland, California as its director of special projects. [] Yes all lives, all contributions. The movement has been massively successful in organizing hundreds of thousands of people, and dollars, to fight for ideological and political intervention in a world whereBlack lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise, as the founderswrite of Black Lives Matters herstory.Whats more, it laid the groundwork for todays womens movement, the Womens March, the rise of #MeToo, and other sociopolitical, digitally native social justice movements. [13] She said in an Interview with Vanity Fair: Building economic opportunities in local communities is a better alternative to dealing with crime and violence, than increasing police budgets[13] Her initial project with PUEBLO was to gather community resistance in East Oakland against a proposed Walmart.[14]. She tells Ali Velshi that despite some progress that was made, racism is "everywhere,. }("apstag", window, document, "script", "//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); [8], Garza's editorial writing has been published by The Guardian,[29] The Nation,[30] The Feminist Wire,[31] Rolling Stone, HuffPost and Truthout. It's bigger than hiring Black people to do the diversity work in an organizationit's interrupting the rules and practices that promote our exclusion. window.Mobvious = {}; In the midst of all of the grief and rage and pain, there's a hopefulness. I think that looks like pushing forward this reckoning on race, so that it's not just a moment; it's pushing for that reckoning to be reflected in the rules that govern our lives; and it's pushing for us to not just be at the table but to set the menu. [59], In 2018 Garza was named in the inaugural cohort of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity (AFRE). In 2013, Garza was a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, an activist movement focused on campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards African Americans. a[a9] = { degree in anthropology and sociology in 2002 from the University of California, San Diego. That's clearly ridiculous but it could be effective. Convicting a few cops isn't going to deal with that disease. I dont think any of this stuff is confusing. And that is what drives me to be a part of these movements. Alicia Garza started fighting for change at 12 years old. Curators are realizing that returning looted artifacts isnt closing museumsits opening new doors. [52][53], Garza gave a speech to a crowd of 200 students on the 2020 elections in celebration of Black History Month. googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); . As a Black, queer woman, everything is impacted by who I am in the world, she says. function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { I was so proud that the first ever Black person had been elected Presidentand then I think a lot of us found that being Black in that role wasn't enough. } Alicia Garza, a labor organizer in Oakland, espouses a type of ecumenical activism. Rooted in issues-based campaigns, leadership development and movement building, POWER builds the collective strength of working-class families to control the destinies of their communities and workplaces. In our communities, we have many different kinds of people, from many different backgrounds and experiences, with different skills and talents. As a black queer . Garza is now the 27th most influential African American (behind her counterpart, Patrisse Cullors) on the Root 100, an annual list of black influencers. That doesn't mean we don't hurt, that we don't despair, that there isn't griefthere is all of that. [5] When she showed up to her interview, her interviewer (Malachi) was forty minutes late. She has been twice honored by the Harvey Milk Democratic Club with the Bayard Rustin Community Activist Award for her work fighting racism and gentrification in San Francisco. Alicia Garza writes that real-world power is more important than online followers. [48], While Garza has been critical of Donald Trump,[49] she has also been critical of Barack Obama[50] and Hillary Clinton, saying: "The Clintons use black people for votes, but then don't do anything for black communities after they're elected. Here we are seven years later, and I think what's become clear is that some of the discomfort with this statement is that it forces you to choose sides. Martin was unarmed, carrying only Skittles and an ice tea. Open Translation Project. There would be no America were it not for black women. Two tattoo expos, two weeks and 13 awards later, tattoo artist Daniel Garza is back in Paris and looking forward to his own expo in October. All rights reserved. To create equity, we have to look at the rules that promote inequity in these companies and sectors, and the practices that support and enforce those rules. Garza's work has earned her various honors, including two Harvey Milk Democratic Club Community Activist Awards. I love you. In it, she tackles many subjects from the concept of "All Lives Matter" to the presumptive presidential nominees and the impact the political system has on Black America. [64] In 2022, she was number 40 on the list. But sometimes the pressure to universalize means a pressure not to address systemic injustices, and that has a negative effect on the very communities that those firsts emerge from. I love us. Less than a decade ago it was controversial to say Black Lives Matter. window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { Garza uses the phrase "Black Lives Matter," a term she helped coin, to lift up the Black community all across the world. The chancellor of the University, Chancellor Kohsla, said in a report by UC San Diego news, "Alicia Garzas determination to be a catalyst for change has deeply influenced our campus community, and we are honored to feature her as our Commencement keynote speakerHer commitment to health equity and rights for domestic workers as well as ending police violence, racism and violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people of color has made a significant impact on the lives of many in our nation and around the world[66]. We are a part of the fabric of the society. X27 ; t going to deal with that disease, insiders from brink! That despite some progress that was made, racism is & quot ; everywhere, at 12 old. 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