Alicia Garza, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Some may not know your name,
some may not even know your face,
but almost everyone in America
and around the world knows your work,
because you are one of the cofounders
of Black Lives Matter.
Seven years ago, George Zimmerman was acquitted
for the killing of Trayvon Martin,
and that sparked in you a movement
and an idea that has really sparked now
a movement around the world.
Take me through why the George Zimmerman case
was the catalyst that changed how Alicia saw politics
in her life and in the world.
Well, you know, I've been organizing for a long time now-
it's been almost 20 years--
and so I'm no stranger to police violence or police abuse.
I mean, in my community,
Oscar Grant was murdered by a police officer
just a few blocks from my home.
Uh, and then-- and then, of course, in addition to that,
through my organizing work in Bayview-Hunters Point
in San Francisco,
there was a young man named Kenneth Harding
who was murdered in broad daylight
by police for evading a two-dollar fare.
So that's not the surprising part.
But this one really struck me,
because George Zimmerman was not a police officer.
He was a vigilante who decided
that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin,
who had gone to the liquor store for snacks
during a break in a football game,
didn't belong in the neighborhood that he lived in.
And that hit me in my gut.
I have a brother who's eight years younger than me.
He's six feet tall.
He's growing up in a community
that's not unlike Sanford, Florida.
He's the sweetest kid in the world.
He's never even been in a fight.
But to think that someone like him
could be walking down the street and be considered a threat
just because of the way he looks really just enrages me.
Lots of people get involved
because they are angry or upset or they're hurt,
but there's something that transforms in us
when we become a part of a movement
that transforms it into love.
We do this work because we love ourselves
and our community so much that we believe
that we deserve better, and we certainly do.
It feels like there's a recurring theme
that goes beyond the police in America.
'Cause the police are an issue, yes.
I mean, but that's an issue that, strangely enough,
is-is experienced across the globe,
whether it's in South Africa or Nigeria or even in the U.K.
There is-- there is a common thread
in how police police people of a certain standing in society.
What do you think that tells us
about how Americans or how law enforcement
or how society views a Black life?
Well, I think, very simply, it means
that Black lives don't matter.
Black lives are considered to be valuable in some contexts,
right, like entertainment or culture.
But when it comes to Black people being able
to access the things that we need to live well,
there are several barriers, actually,
that are involved in keeping us from those things,
and a lot of it has to do with white supremacy.
You know, Trevor, before I got on with you tonight,
uh, my-- I was visited at my home by the FBI.
Apparently somebody was recently arrested
on a weapons charge who was affiliated
-with white nationalist groups, and they had my name, -Wow.
alongside a host of other activists' names, on a list.
This is because, of course, we push so hard
to make sure that Black people are treated
-just like everybody else. We're not... -Wow.
We're not organizing for a world
in which Black people are more powerful than anybody else.
It's literally about equalizing the playing field,
and so much of that has to do with power.
Movements are made
to put more power into the hands of more people.
But when you activate movements,
it is threatening to the current status quo.
There are people in this country and around the world
who do not want to see power distributed in this way,
and that's why we fight.
And this movement is so powerful
because there are so many of us,
and it cannot be stopped.
This is what makes it so threatening
to the powers that be.
Last night, during the presidential debates,
we saw that this president used our movement
as a political football.
What's exciting though this time around
is that we have a little more time
and experience under our belts.
And, actually, I talk about the-the lie
that he tried to, uh, propagate last night in the book.
I talk about this incident where there were protesters
who were chanting "pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon,"
and the media and the president immediately moved
to try to attach it to Black Lives Matter.
It's a strategy to distract, to discredit,
and delegitimize something that has won hearts and minds
around the world.
Your book takes a fascinating look at power.
I mean, the-the title, The Purpose of Power,
really digs into it.
You have tangible things that you talk about in the book
that, yes, predominantly Black people need
but, funny enough-- and I-I'm sure you've seen this--
there are many poor white communities in America
who've gone, "Actually, we have those same issues
"and we need to be fighting with Black Lives Matter
for these causes."
Talk me through some of the concrete steps
that you think need to be taken
to improve the lives of all Americans,
especially people who are Black.
I'm really proud of this movement.
And one of the reasons that my book is not a BLM book
is because our story is still being written.
I'm so proud of the movement for Black lives,
which has introduced the BREATHE Act,
which I consider to be our generation's version
of the Civil Rights Act.
That's incredible,
and it represents a-a maturation
and a growth of our movement.
For myself, I started an organization
called the Black Futures Lab
and the Black to the Future Action Fund.
We work specifically
to make Black communities powerful in politics.
We conducted the largest survey of Black people
in America in 155 years,
and we learned a lot about what we experience every day
but also what we want to see for our futures.
-Right. -We took that information
and turned it into a Black agenda for 2020,
which literally is a legislative road map
for how to make Black lives matter
from city hall to Congress.
And the number one issues that people talked about,
for example, were wages
that were too low to support a family,
uh, not having access to quality
and affordable h-health care and housing.
And so that's why we invest--
we invest in our communities
to bring forward the solutions that we all deserve.
We that are closest to the pain know a lot
about what it's going to take to shift it.
Elections are about policies, and that's why we organize.
We don't-- I don't know that I ever want
to have Joe Biden over for dinner, right?
That's not the point of giving him my vote.
The point is to make the kind of terrain
where you can get the things that you need more easily
-and more accessibly. -Right.
And that's what we're organizing people around now.
And I agree with you 100%
that we've got to be clear about the things that we want.
There's a lot of agendas out there
but not a lot of agendas that are actually rooted
in organizing people who are being directly impacted
by the issues that we're talking about.
That has to be the new face of a movement for the 21st century.
Well, I'll tell you this,
I think your book is an amazing gateway into that world.
Um, I was fascinated by it.
I hope everybody else reads it,
because I think it's illuminating
and it has concrete steps that I think just should be taken.
So, thank you so much for joining us on the show.
And, um, congratulations on your journey.
I, uh... I hope to see you again
when you've made the HBO adaptation
of Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me.
That's gonna be really exciting.
Thank you so much for having me tonight.
Anytime.