Alicia Garza

Alicia Garza (aged 34 as of March 4, 2015) is a community organizer and one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter International movement.[1]

Alicia Garza, alongside Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, was inspired to create the Black Lives Matter slogan after going onto social media and seeing that the blame was being put on African Americans rather than institutional racism for the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder trial. Alicia posted her sentiments on Facebook using her slogan Black Lives Matters, when community organizer Opal Tometi placed a hashtag before the slogan, and #BlackLivesMatter was born. [1]

When she created Black Lives Matter, and as of March 2015, Garza was Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance whose members are nannies, housekeepers, caregivers and other domestic workers. [1]

She has denounced certain corporate and mainstream appropriations and adaptations of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and slogan which she believes ignore or contradict the spirit and philosophy behind it, including the "Our Lives Matter" iteration. She has written: "#BlackLivesMatter doesn’t mean your life isn’t important–it means that Black lives, which are seen as without value within White supremacy, are important to your liberation." [2]

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Guynn, Jessica (March 4, 2015). "Meet the woman who coined #BlackLivesMatter". USA Today. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Garza, Alicia. "A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter movement". The Feminist Wire. Retrieved 8 March 2015.