Traducción del artículo: ¿Qué es el movimiento “Black Lives Matter”?

En el post de hoy, os traigo el artículo "¿Qué es el movimiento 'Black Lives Matter'?" de el periódico español, LA RAZÓN traducido a inglés, para que la gente que no entienda español, pueda leerlo, ya que en el nos explica un poquito como surgió este movimiento.

What is the “Black Lives Matter” movement?

Inspired by the Black Panthers and Black Feminism of the 80s, it was born in 2013 articulated around a hashtag. Its fight against racism and police brutality crosses borders.

Discrimination against the black population is not new. It is an endemic problem in the United States that is centuries old and in whose fight, since Martin Luther King, numerous activists and social movements have been involved to end it.

The death of African-American citizen George Floyd while in police custody on May 25, 2020, has sparked a wave of protests around the world and has resurrected the "Black Lives Matter" movement to rename the streets of Washington.

Cases of police brutality, especially against the black population, have been the main breeding ground for movements such as the Black Lives Matter (in Spanish: Las vidas negras importan). But how and when did it arise?

Black Lives Matter (also known by the abbreviations BLM; is an international movement that originated within the African-American community.

The movement began in 2013 with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media, after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin because of a shooting. Behind this hashtag, and the founding of the movement, were three leaders of the black community in the United States: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Garza wrote a Facebook post titled "A Love Note to African American People," which said, "Our lives matter, the lives of African Americans matter," to which Cullors replied, "#BlackLivesMatter." Later Tometi gave his support and Black Lives Matter became a successful network campaign.

However, the movement achieved national recognition for its protests after the deaths of two African Americans in 2014: Michael Brown and Eric Garner, leading to protests and riots in Ferguson and New York City. At that time and after the announcement that an investigation against the murderer of Michael Brown would not be opened, the tag would become a trending topic on Twitter.

Since the Ferguson protests, movement participants have spoken out against the deaths of numerous African-Americans from police actions, including those of Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Jonathan Ferrell, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose, Freddie Gray and George Floyd. In 2015, Black Lives Matter began publicly challenging politicians to express their positions on issues of racial discrimination in the United States. The influence of the movement was such that in 2014, the American Dialect Society chose #BlackLivesMatter as its word of the year and in December 2015 Black Lives Matter was nominated for the Person of the Year award from the prestigious Time magazine. Furthermore, numerous political figures and celebrities like Serena Williams or Beyoncé have not hesitated to embrace the movement.

In the case of George Floyd, the motto of ‘Black Lives Matters’ is accompanied by ‘I can’t breathe’, since these were Floyd's last words before losing his life in the hands of Derek Chauvin.

Inspiration and Philosophy

Black Lives Matter was inspired by the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power movement, the black feminism movement of 1980, the Anti-Apartheid movement, the LGBT social movement and the Occupy Wall Street protest.

On their own website they affirm that Black Lives Matter is "a unique contribution that goes beyond the extrajudicial killings of black people by the police and vigilantes" and adopts intersectionality since "Black Lives Matter", they claim, "lives in the Black gays, transgender people, people with disabilities, undocumented black people, blacks with a background, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum. " Its founder, Alicia Garza summed up the philosophy behind "Black Lives Matter" as follows: "When we say Black Lives Matter, we are talking about the ways in which blacks are deprived of their basic human rights and dignity. It is an acknowledgment of black poverty and genocide. "

In their official Twitter profile they call for an end to "systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to be uncontrolled and to take away our lives"

Raised fist, more than a symbol

The raised fist has become its symbol in solidarity, resistance and challenge. It began to be used in 1910 by the labor movements but the most iconic image of the use of the raised fist associated with the fight for civil rights is that of the American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, on the podium of the Olympic Games in Mexico ' 68, each with a black glove in hand. It has now been recovered by the Black Lives MAtter movement.

This movement has not only stayed in the United States but has managed to cross borders and protests are taking place these days in many countries around the world. In Spain, today there are called protests in the main cities.

Fuente: larazon.es

Aprovecho este post también para comunicaros las iniciativas que se han originado en las redes, a partir de este suceso tan terrible. Podéis firmar las peticiones y donar para las diferentes causas. Os agradecería mucho que también las compartierais y este post también. #BlackLivesMatter.

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