Thank you for joining us all tonight. For ideas and action with alicia garza and Chris Jackson. Im negations wreck of a color change, the countrys Largest OnlineRacial Justice organization and appeared introduced nights event. We are partnering with one world to make a virtual space for critical conversation between editor in chief of one world Chris Jackson one of our most powerful organizers and visionaries alicia garza. In 2014 alecia wrote a Facebook Post that change the war and create a movement. It read like people i love you. I love us. Our allies matter. Black lives matter that moment continues today. Tonight alicia and chris will discuss the importance of resistance in resurgence and how they ground the work any vision for collective humanity. I call the change we believe that everyday people are powerful enough to in the practices that are Holding Black people back and harming our country. We Champion Solutions that move us all forward. In the last two weeks we have helped 6. 5 billion people take action for Racial Justice in our country and we are thrilled to be partnering with one world for this important conversation. Without further ado here is Chris Jackson, one world editor and chief to kick us off. Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. I can imagine someone i i would rather be talking to tonight than alicia garza, one of our countries most powerful and influential activist and some who can speak well to this moment. Before we start of what you think color of change for which with us again on this project tonight, and to all the people at penn random house have been so active in getting this all organized. I would like for us to take a short moment of silence for the many tens of thousands of people who we have lost in this pandemic that we are undergoing come people have been disproportionately black and disproportionally brown, native, disabled, elderly and poor and also for all those that weve lost to racially motivated violence, particularly racially motivated violence in the name of the state. Im going to call it three names tonight, ahmed arboretum, Breonna Taylor and george floyd. Join you for a short moment of silence to begin. [silence] and now id like to invite to our virtual stage alicia garza. Hey. Hey. So good to see you. Really good to see you and its good to be seen. So i want to start a conversation out by going back a little bit. I think of moments like this as being, for a lot of people obviously very upsetting and jarring to us but also i think for a lot of people moments awakening. I think about in my own life growing up in new york in harlem in the 70s and 80s, own political consciousness developed most rapidly around some of the most dramatic moments of that, of that comingofage. Normally having to do with proximity of death. There were so many people who were murdered during that time in my neighborhood would also so many people who were lost to Police Violence and those with a first times i was out on the street to protest those deaths. Can you tell us about, i know we worked on this book together for sometime now and so i know so much about your own story one of the interesting things you have always been someone whos been driven towards activism practically from childhood, but there were these Inflection Points like the murder of oscar grant in oakland that really drove an accelerated your commitment. Definitely. I mean for me i actually came up in the Reproductive Justice Movement and got really politicized around the idea that young people, right, could make good decisions about what to do with our bodies. This was a time when bush number one and others were really pushing this narrative in this country around not only like a focus on the family narrative but it was very much about controlling womens bodies. For me, my mother had me and she didnt expect to have the alone. The thing that gave her options is that she had them. She used to talk to me coming up as a young kid and she would tell me, sex makes babies and babies are expensive. I didnt keep any of the birds and bees talk. I didnt get any of that. Its really when i was in college about to be frank i got politicized around Racial Justice. At that time in the late 1990s, early 2000s there was a lot happening in terms of the aftermath of uprisings that shape our entire country. We all watched as rodney king was brutally beaten on video cameras which are not actually popular at that time. And then of course if you fastforward, you fastforward to oscar grant in my community which was just a few blocks from my home. I remember coming home after a new years celebration and turning on the television after midnight and seeing that just three blocks from a house oscar grant had been shot in front of a train full of observers. It just so happen that a young person who was interning at an organization that i worked at was one of the people who caught the entire thing on camera and it actually became a part of the movie. Are these Inflection Points, youre right, when we start to understand that our lives are bigoted as but we also understand that our lives are being shaped by people other than us. We have an opportunity to decide if we think that is right that if we think that is fair, if we think that the ways our lives are being shaped weve is towards wellness and dignity, humanity and wholeness, or whether the ways that our lives are being shaped our leading us towards punishment and criminalization and injustice. And each one of those Inflection Point we get to make a choice about who were going to be. For me at a very young age at 12 years old i decided im going to be somebody who not only tells different stories about one young people are doing. No, teenager not running about having sex like crazy, but there are those of us who are in intimate relationships youre trying to figure out whats best for us and we are being denied the information and resources that we need to make decisions that work for us that we are being denied access that we deserve to desire and pleasure and intimacy by somebody who frankly has a whole different agenda about our bodies and our allies. Do we think thats right or do we think that is wrong . If we think that is wrong what are we going to do about it works for me i got politicized an active in the movement. For others people might shake their head and say, commission of a shame that some people to access to what they need and they move on with her life. But then of course make a minimum was like this where you cant move on with your life. Your everyday normal is interrupted by people have decided to take action and even in those moments you get to make a choice about who youre going to be and what youre going to contribute. Thats really interesting. Part of what i think is, i question that comes to me particularly in his home and listening to your story and thinking that your story as i been doing for sometime now and thinking about my own life is they is the seem to go in these moments where there are these eruptions of visible movement activity. You talked about like what happened with oscar grant in the bay area. Of course black lives matter which formed around a series of events going back to Trayvon Martin and ferguson and so forth. And then you we are again. I would just going in a loop or do you feel like with each one of these things were getting closer to something . Its such a good question, chris, and i should say in writing the book i was like army going, going in a loop or moving forward . I will say that i will see the way that i think about and look at history and look at the present and the connection between the two is that we are not going in circles per se where we end up right where we began. If anything i would imagine its like a spiral, where you are moving in a circle, coming back but not coming back to the place that you started from. You in new place and you can look at where you started and assess the gap in between. No, things are not the same now than [inaudible] ss assessor strategies ad require us to frankly keep pushing forward. I know theres a law [inaudible] black lives matter. People were saying all lives matter and that was the [inaudible] can you hang on one second, alicia . Alicia, can you hear me . One second. Can you hold on . Were having a little bit of a technical difficulty with your can you repeat the last thing you said once again . Thank you. Sure, totally. I wish you saying that in 2013 and 2014 we were pariahs in terms of politics. People would say, we would say black lives matter and people would say all lives matter and those most common response. We were not seen as a legitimate political force. We were not seen as as a movem. We were seen as people who were radicals. Even in her own communities we received as people who were trying to move a gay agenda and interrupt a black agenda, right . Lots of ways in which we are in such a different place than we were then. What do you think im sorry. Go ahead. There is still work to be done. I do want to paint a rosy picture here. Frankly, we are so watching the extrajudicial murders of black people on television because we capture them on cell phone cameras. It is only when there is an outcry that there is any semblance of political will to address it. Were going in a circular pattern in relationship to how we conceive of how we solve this problem once and for all. I do worry that just like in 2014 we cut by the cameras as a result of protests that ferguson leaders are led in relationship to the murder of mike brown. Maybe today what we get is better training or nicer police. But fundamentally theyre still a big challenge that were facing, which is what do we do about the role of Law Enforcement in our communities . Is it enough to have better training or to restrict their practices . Or do we need to narrow the focus and the role of Law Enforcement in the first place . Its an important conversation for america to have right now. For some its an uncomfortable one but i can say seven years ago black lives matter make people uncomfortable, and being uncomfortable is actually good for this country. People were uncomfortable when black people were fighting for the right to be enfranchised. People were uncomfortable when women were fighting for the right to be enfranchised. Look where we have come, right now is starting comfortable to believe that women should have the right to vote. Its not uncomfortable for us to believe that black people should have the right to vote. Does it mean that those rights are not still under attack with absolutely not, but it needs we are in a different place because we have those rights and we are defending them as opposed to needing to create those rights. History is not secure in that way. It is a spiral and i believe really deeply and profoundly that we are closer than we have been before, and that gives me help. That is an encouraging thought. You have this thing in the book where you talk about, you reference a lot this theory about changing common sense, that being the core of a revolution is when you change common sense, the basic premise in society operates from and you can grow something new. Reading today about the Minneapolis Police department or the city council in minneapolis talking about literally like eliminating the police and rebuilding something in its place, which was unimaginable that the major city would be talking about that. Does that kind of thing give you a sense of possibility of what might . Absolutely. I woke up and i saw the article the first thing a bit when it opened my eyes this morning. All i. T. Think of myself is what a time to be alive. The fact that the Minneapolis City Council is not only considering redistributing funds so that we dont address needs that communities have with police for not equipped to address those needs, is incredible and its a conversation that organizes and advocates have been pushing to the better part of 20 years. I can tell you what a a time te alive. I can also say i keep saying things like, you know, the School District in minneapolis saying that their ending their contract with police. What that means for a decade at having police in schools and how to say when not going to do that is very, very powerful. Similarly in los angeles they are moving some of the same proposals. We should remember that when we see things like this it is the result of organizing. It is the result of the pressure that protests build on people to have the political will and the courage to examine new ways of operating. And that is fundamentally what movements can accomplish, and we shouldnt expect that every movement has a strategy on a blueprint that they can hand to you and you can plug into. So much of what movements do is respond to changing conditions, takes the pulse of what communities long for but also what communities are scared of and push the envelope to get closer to what it is that we deserve. We are watching this in real time and its fundamentally incredible, and we must, must, must give most credit to the bad ass organizers in the city would really help to create the conditions to make this happen fn have engaged us to work with them to amplify it. Thats just really a blessing. And so thats a lot of i think what, i mean, i feel like you to offer particularly in your book but also in a model of your life. Is this question of how do you, the original title of your book i think with Something Like how a hashtag became a movement. How was he can take something from being this germ of an idea as it was in 2014 and then of course like to sit 20 years before that people been working towards this kind of reform, how do you keep the pressure on . How do you build from being like a kind of moment to being a movement . Bears a science well, there is a science and an art. From the time when we created the black lives Matter Network which started from a series of social media platforms and grew into a network with chapters all over the world, we didnt have a roadmap. We really relied on instinct and we relied on relationships. We paid attention to is going on and moving in the world. I hope that doesnt feel for sound amorphous but thats literally the secret sauce is who you are in relationship to, what theyre working on it and what you are working on. Also frankly what time it is in the country, right . And your willingness to keep pushing things for. We tried so many things. We held a Conference Call, National Conference calls for people to talk about issues that were of interest for that moment. Our first gathering frankly was a Conference Call that we put together after the killer of mcbride was convicted of murder. We all know in case of vigilante murder and also cases of Police Murder that oftentimes the aggressors are not held accountable. In this particular case he was healthy cattle and he currently sits in jail. That was a victory that was result of organizing. Dream will be mad at me but i will say it anyway. Dream hampton is not only a bad ass organizer, a bad ass writer but also an organizer. She worked with people in michigan to make sure that her death would not go unaccountable for. After that we held a conversation because frankly so much of us come so many of us believe that justice comes from people going to jail. While that might make us feel better, make us feel like they are fitting that we are feeling, the fact of the matter is present and jails are terrible places to be. Prisons and jails cannot rehabilitate people. They cannot bring lies back. They did not address harm. So we held a National Conference call as black lives matter about whether or not ted way for being convicted was justice. We had people in all different sides of the spectrum giving their feedback and input, and those with the types of spaces we really try to create. And from that think we start to build a reputation of creating spaces for people to connect not only online but then moving into 2014 when mike brown was killed, patrisse and darnell had a great idea to organize a freedom ride to ferguson. Another way for people to connect directly to what is happening on the ground. Not only was it intended for people to be able to connect and offer support, but it was also a strategic aspect to it. Frankly, one of the things we heard a lot was that Mainstream Media was telling their own story of what was happening in ferguson. They were telling stories of looters and rioters and unrest and all the images you would see on tv were of tanks and rubber bullets and tear gas. So we organized black immediate to go to ferguson and to be able to tell that story from a black perspective, which made a difference in terms of how the story began to be told from that point forward. Without getting too far into the ferguson conversation because ferguson leaders need to tell the story so i am winking and nodding at you, that might be the next book for one world, but i will say that we let ferguson and didnt think were going to go back but the people who came said they want to keep organizing, and actually forced us to form chapters. We would like we are not prepared for this. They are like, but we are. So you all have already run your mouth. You created this umbrella, so lets go. I just want that story out to say that theres no recipe here. Its really about instinct. Its a Network Tickets about tiny and, frankly, its about being able to move when you just know its right. One of the things that are so beautiful about the way you talk about movements, in the book, not to plug the book again but in the book you do talk about this speedy thats okay. You know, for you, activism was fundamentally a way to connect to other people which i thought was like a beautiful way to begin the story. Its not about some big abstract Political Goals necessary. This is how we connect and we can start to share a vision for the world we want to bring into being. That connection cant just happen online although we are obviously doing a lot of connect online righ