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Black Lives Matter Making All Black Lives Matter THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION IMPRINT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES The George Gund Foundation has endowed this imprint to advance understanding of the history, culture, and current issues of African Americans. The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies. A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S N O W: C R I T I C A L H I S T O R I E S O F T H E P R E S E N T Edited by Lisa Duggan and Curtis Marez Much of the most exciting contemporary work in American Studies refuses the distinction between politics and culture, focusing on historical cultures of power and protest on the one hand, or the political meanings and consequences of cultural practices, on the other. American Studies Now offers concise, accessible, authoritative, e-first books on significant political debates, personalities, and popular cultural phenomena quickly, while such teachable moments are at the forefront of public consciousness. 1. We Demand: The University and Student Protests, by Roderick A. Ferguson 2. The Fifty-Year Rebellion: How the U.S. Political Crisis Began in Detroit, by Scott Kurashige 3. Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability, by Jack Halberstam 4. Boycott! The Academy and Justice for Palestine, by Sunaina Maira 5. Imagining the Future of Climate Change: World-Making through Science Fiction and Activism, by Shelley Streeby 6. Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty-First Century, by Barbara Ransby Making All Black Lives Matter Reimagining Freedom in the Twenty- First Century Barbara Ransby U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A P R E S S University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2018 by Barbara Ransby Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ransby, Barbara, author. Title: Making all Black lives matter : reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century / Barbara Ransby. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2018008706 (print) | LCCN 2018012421 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520966116 (epub and ePDF) | ISBN 9780520292703 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520292710 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Black lives matter movement. | Black power—United States—History—21st century. Classification: LCC E185.615 (ebook) | LCC E185.615 .R26 2018 (print) | DDC 323.1196/073—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008706 Manufactured in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 When our political activism isn’t rooted in a theory about transforming the world, it becomes narrow; when it is focused only on individual actors instead of larger systemic problems, it becomes short- sighted. We do have to deal with the current crisis in the short term. That’s important. We have to have solutions for people’s real-life problems, and we have to allow people to decide what those solutions are. We also have to create a vision that’s much bigger than the one we have right now. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, cofounder #BlackLivesMatter CONTENTS Overview Introduction 1. Roots and Recalibrated Expectations: Prologue to a Movement 2. Justice for Trayvon: The Spark 3. The Ferguson Uprising and Its Reverberations 4. Black Rage and Blacks in Power: Baltimore and Electoral Politics 5. Themes, Dilemmas, and Challenges 6. Backlash and a Price 7. A View from the Local: Chicago’s Fighting Spirit 8. Political Quilters and Maroon Spaces Conclusion Epilogue: A Personal Reflection Acknowledgments Notes Glossary Key Figures Selected Bibliography OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION The introduction provides a general survey of the Movement for Black Lives (commonly known as the Black Lives Matter Movement), which will be abbreviated throughout the text as BLMM/M4BL. BLMM/M4BL is a far-reaching movement for racial justice and social transformation (2012–17) that was triggered by vigilante and police violence against Black people in the United States. This chapter also introduces the thesis of the book, which argues that the movement is politically and ideologically grounded in the US-based Black feminist tradition, a tradition that embraces an intersectional analysis while insisting on the interlocking and interconnected nature of different systems of oppression; advocates the importance of women’s group–centered leadership; supports LGBTQIA issues; and seeks to center the most marginalized and vulnerable members of the Black community in terms of the language and priorities of the movement. #BlackLivesMatter • State and Vigilante Violence • Black Feminist Intersectional Praxis • Anti-Black Racism CHAPTER 1. ROOTS AND RECALIBRATED EXPECTATIONS This chapter offers short biographical profiles of a handful of BLMM/M4BL leaders and founders and traces the antecedents of the Movement for Black Lives in other feminist- centered and Black radical organizations that have focused on state violence. Key groups and campaigns surveyed include Black HIV/AIDS mobilization of the 1990s; the Black Radical Congress; INCITE! Women of Color against Violence; and the prison abolitionist group Critical Resistance. The election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president, another precursor to the emergence of BLMM/M4BL, is also explored in this chapter, which argues that BLMM/M4BL represents a rejection of “postracialism” and the middle-class “politics of respectability” that surrounded the Obama presidency. Rather, racism for the majority of poor and working- class Black people, despite the election of a Black president, is far from over. Black Radical Congress • Critical Resistance • INCITE! Women of Color against Violence • Prison-Industrial Complex • Barack Obama CHAPTER 2. JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON The 2012 killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin triggered a series of protests and inspired the formation of a number of groups—namely, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), Million Hoodies, Dream Defenders, and the Black Lives Matter Global Network— that played prominent roles in BLMM/M4BL as it evolved. This chapter outlines the origins of those groups, as well as the birth of the Free Marissa Now campaign, which demanded the fair treatment of a woman who was jailed despite her claim of self-defense. Her case demonstrated the important feminist principle that women victims of state injustice should be supported and mourned alongside men. Trayvon Martin • Black Lives Matter Global Network • BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100) • Million Hoodies Movement for Justice • Dream Defenders • Marissa Alexander CHAPTER 3. THE FERGUSON UPRISING AND ITS REVERBERATIONS The August 2014 uprising in Ferguson, Missouri, that followed the police murder of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown is often cited as the catalyst for the emergence of a full- blown, Black-led resistance movement. It reverberated around the world and garnered intensive news and social media coverage. This chapter chronicles the Ferguson protests, the conditions that spawned them, and the organizers and activists who led and sustained them, notably young Black women, some of them queer and many of whom found their feminist sensibilities and politics crystallized by the uprising. Ferguson Uprising • Michael Brown • Organization for Black Struggle • MAU (Millennial Activists United) • Movement for Black Lives • Lost Voices CHAPTER 4. BLACK RAGE AND BLACKS IN POWER The death of Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year- old Black man in police custody, triggered the second major uprising in less than a year’s time. This chapter covers the Baltimore protests, key activist organizations, and the significant fact that half of the police officers and many of the local authorities involved were Black. BLMM/M4BL organizers indicted the system in Baltimore as racist, emphasizing the structural nature of the problems that persisted, irrespective of which individuals were carrying out policy. The chapter concludes with a lesser-known Baltimore story, that of Korryn Gaines. Gaines was a young mother killed by police in her own home, whose death also sparked protests and debates about gender and self-defense. Baltimore protesters and Gaines’s defenders were angry, not only about what occurred in Baltimore but about the cumulative impact of the multiple high-profile police killings of unarmed Black people that had taken place since Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. The chapter also explores how writers and activists have talked about the politics of rage and outrage. Freddie Gray • Korryn Gaines • Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle • Baltimore United for Change CHAPTER 5. THEMES, DILEMMAS, AND CHALLENGES Chapter 5 warns against seeing the movement as monolithic by teasing out and briefly highlighting five distinct but interrelated themes that have arisen as BLMM/M4BL has evolved: the emphasis on “blackness” and Black oppression, as reflected in the slogan “Unapologetically Black”; the role of social media and social media personalities; the youth-centered nature of the movement and the intergenerational politics that have surrounded it; sexism within the movement and new Black feminist and abolitionist-informed practices that seek to hold activists accountable for sexist behavior; and finally the class politics of the movement and leaders’ critique of racial capitalism. Unapologetically Black • Postracialism • Black Twitter • Black Feminism • #SAYHERNAME • #cutthecheck CHAPTER 6. BACKLASH AND A PRICE This chapter touches upon the ways in which BLMM/M4BL has been a target of threats, excessive punishment by the state, and disparaging and defamatory statements from conservative politicians and pundits, as well as how its own internal stresses and losses have jeopardized the movement.
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