Everything you missed when the founders of #BlackLivesMatter came to Cornell

Over 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired a movement that led to genuine progress towards racial equality through nonviolence. His name will forever be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Wednesday, for the 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture at Cornell, the founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement came to speak on campus. It was an honor to attend.

After an opening performance by a capella ensemble Baraka Kwa Wimbo, Rev. Kenneth Clarke, Director of Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) took to the podium with a promise to address the “intersectionality of racism.”

Ryan Lombardi, Vice President of Student and Campus Life, spoke of his conversations with many students about race and racial inequality on campus. “The stories I heard broke my heart, made me angry, and inspired me,” he said, urging Cornell students and the Ithaca community to do better. “We can, better yet, we must.”

Ayisha McHugh ’16 shared a moving reflection on institutional racism in the United States. She praised the creation of the Black Lives Matter Movement. She addressed the black community at Cornell and described the experience of black students attending elite institutions as “the death of a dream” and referred to a “myth” that had been exposed in response to the racial prejudice occurring on a systematic and institutional level. “We were not safe,” McHugh said.

Founders of #BlackLivesMatter Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi as well as Janaya Khan (otherwise known as Future), the International Ambassador for the #BlackLivesMatter Network, took to the stage.

What is the role of language and how does the language of BlackLivesMatter resonate with everyone?

Future said language is everything and it is a way of challenging white supremacy. Black Lives Matter movement offers a new belief system, one that centers around black consciousness and the way Black people view themselves.

One “can crush a power movement but not a consciousness movement,” Future said.

What is the role of love in the #BlackLivesMatter movement?

Alicia Garza said what she truly wanted was more love for Black people because they are not to blame for the broken system of racial inequality in the US and in the world.

“Black people have nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “We didn’t build this system…a system that allows children to be murdered with impunity, a system where a 12 year old in a park can be killed and called a man.”

She added, “Trayvon Martin’s life didn’t matter because he was wearing a hoodie, and that means something.”

It means there is no love for black lives and there should be. To her, love is a way to “challenge there to be change.”

Opal Tometi agreed the movement is fueled by black love.

Why does this movement make us feel and feel differently?

Alicia Garza said #BlackLivesMatter came about as a response to Michael Brown in Ferguson and his death which “galvanized people was because his body laid there for 4 and a half hours in front of his mother’s home, bleeding out without receiving medical treatment….His mother watched her son die.”

That this kind of scene could be allowed in the US was so shocking because it meant that this kind of death could happen to any Black person. That is what led people to feel so deeply about racial inequality in the US and to embark on a self organizing movement.

“What makes us human is our ability to feel and to feel for other humans, not to rationalize,” said Garza.

Future chimed in with an explanation on how allies should comport themselves within the movement. “We can’t grow unless you grow too.”

Future said it’s okay to be wrong sometimes and to be uncomfortable as long as non-black and white allies continue to grow and question their prejudices.

“Whiteness is fragile because it is meant to be invisible,” said Dr. Everley-Bradwell, who moderated the discussion. “And when it is made visible, it can’t stand the scrutiny.”

His words were met with applause.

The last question posed concerned violence.

Immediately, Alicia Garza called to retire the phrase ‘black-on-black crime.”

In Garza’s eyes, the term is simply another way that allows us to not feel for black pain.

“If we’re going to talk about violence, I would like to talk about state violence,” she said. “[The kind of violence that] allows cities without grocery stores exist and the kind of violence that poisons the water systems of certain cities.”

After taking questions from the audience, the lecture concluded by addressing allies and their current role in the movement.

“We are still fighting for the same thing that we fought for 50 years ago, 100 years ago, even 300 years ago,” Future told the audience. “Let’s not fight these same things 50 years from now.

“You will be asked in the future, ‘What role did you play during the #BlackLivesMatter movement?’

“Have an answer that inspires you.”