[Applause]
why is black lives matter important for
the u.s. right now and in the world
black lives matter is our call to action
it is a tool to reimagine a world where
black people are free to exist free to
live it is a tool for our allies to show
up differently for us I grew up in a
neighborhood that was heavily policed I
witnessed my brothers and my siblings
continuously stop and frisk by law
enforcement
I remember my home being raided and one
of the questions as a child I had was
why why us black lives matter offers
answers to the why it offers a new
vision for young black girls around the
world that we deserve to be fought for
that we deserve to call on local
governments to show up for us an anti
blackness and anti black racism is not
only happening in the United States it's
actually happening all across the globe
and what we need now more than ever is a
human rights movement that challenges
systemic racism in every single context
we need this because the global reality
is that black people are subject to all
sorts of disparities and most of our
most challenging issues of our day I
think about issues like climate change
and how six of the 10 worst impacted
nations by climate change are actually
on the continent of Africa people are
reeling from all sorts of unnatural
disasters displacing them from their
ancestral homes and leaving them without
a chance at making a decent living we
also see disasters like hurricane
Matthew which recently wreaked havoc in
many different nations because the most
damage to Haiti Haiti is the poorest
country in this hemisphere and its
inhabitants are black people and what
we're seeing in Haiti is that they were
actually facing a number of challenges
that even preceded this hurricane they
were reeling from the earthquake
they were reeling from cholera that was
brought in by UN peacekeepers and still
hasn't been eradicated this is
unconscionable and this would not happen
if this nation didn't have a population
that was black and we have to be real
about that but what's most heartening
right now is that despite these
challenges what we're seeing is that
there's a network of Africans all across
the continent who are rising up and
fighting back and demanding climate
justice so elysia you said that when
black people are free everyone is free
can you talk about what that means
sure so I think race and racism is
probably the most studied social
economic and political phenomenon in
this country but it's also the least
understood the reality is that race in
the United States operates on a spectrum
from black to white doesn't mean that
people who are in between don't
experience racism but it means that the
closer you are to white on that speck
drum the better off you are and the
closer to black that you are on that
spectrum the worse off you are when we
think about how we address problems in
this country we often start from a place
of trickle-down justice
so using white folks as the control we
say well if we make things better for
white folks then everybody else is going
to get free but actually it doesn't work
that way we have to address problems at
the root and when you deal with what's
happening in black communities um it
creates an effervescence right so a
bubble up rather than a trickle down let
me give an example
when we talk about the wage gap we often
say women make 78 cents to every dollar
that a man makes y'all have heard that
before but those are the statistics for
white women and white men the reality is
that black women make something like 64
cents to every 78 cents that white women
make when we talk about Latinas it goes
down to about 58 cents if we were to
talk about indigenous women if we were
to talk about trans women it would even
go farther down so again if you deal
with those who are the most impacted
everybody has an opportunity to benefit
from that rather than dealing with the
folks who are the not as impacted right
and expecting it to trickle down so I
love the effervescence bubbling up
effervescence like champagne right
champagne and freedom right so you all
have been doing this for a minute and
the last few years have been well I
can't even imagine but I'm sure very
transformative and I know that you all
have learned a lot about leadership um
what do you want to share with these
people about what you've learned about
leadership
Patrice let's start with you yeah we
have to invest in black leadership
that's what I've learned the most in the
last few years
what we've seen is a thousands of black
people showing up for our lives with
very little infrastructure and very
little support I think our work as
movement leaders isn't just about our
own visibility but rather how do we make
the whole visible how do we not just
fight for our individual selves but
fight for everybody and I also think
leadership looks like everybody in this
audience showing up for black lives it's
not just about coming and watching
people on a stage right it's about how
do you become that leader whether it's
in your workplace whether it's in your
home and believe that the movement for
black lives isn't just for us but it's
for everybody so I've been learning a
great deal about interdependence I've
been learning about how to trust your
team come up with this new mantra after
coming back from a three-month
sabbatical which is rare for black women
to take who are in leadership but I felt
it was really important for my
leadership and for my team to also
practice stepping back as well as also
sometimes stepping in and what I learned
in this process was that we need to
acknowledge that different people
contribute different strengths and that
in order for our entire team to flourish
we have to allow them to share and allow
them to shine and so during my
sabbatical with the organization that I
also work with I saw our team rise up in
my absence they were able to launch new
programs fundraise and when I came back
I had to give them a lot of gratitude
and praise because they showed me that
they truly had my back and that they
truly had their own backs you know in
this process of my sabbatical I was
really reminded of this southern African
philosophy of a boon to write like I am
because you are you are because I am and
I realized that my own leadership the
contributions that I'm able to make is
in large part due to the contributions
that they make right and I have to
acknowledge that I have to see that and
so my new mantra is keep calm and trust
the team and also keep calm and think
the team yeah you know one of the things
I feel like I've heard in the context of
the black lives matter movement more
than anywhere else is about being a
leader full movement and that's such a
beautiful concept and I think that's
something that women often bring to the
conversation about leadership is really
the collective piece um what about you
Alicia yeah how many of you have heard
that saying that leadership is lonely I
think that there is an element where
leadership is lonely but I also believe
that it doesn't have to be like that and
in order for us to get to that point I
think there's a few things that we need
to be doing so one is we have to stop
treating leaders like superheroes we are
ordinary people attempting to do
extraordinary things and so we need to
be supported in that way the other thing
that I've learned about leadership is
that there's a difference between
leadership and celebrities right and
there's a way in which we've been kind
of transformed into celebrities rather
than people who are trying to solve a
problem and the way that we treat
celebrities is very fickle right we like
them one day we don't like what they're
wearing the next day and all of a sudden
we have issues right so we need to stop
deifying leaders so that more people
will step into leadership lots of people
are terrified to step into leadership
because of how much scrutiny they
receive and how brutal we are with
leaders and then the last thing that
I've learned about leadership is that
it's really easy to be a leader when
everybody likes you but it's hard to be
a leader when you have to make hard
choices and when you have to do what's
right even though people
are not going to like you for it I'm and
so in that way I think another way that
we can support leaders is to struggle
with us but struggle with us politically
not personally right we can have
disagreements without being disagreeable
but it's important for us to sharpen
each other so that we all can rise so
you all are doing work that forces you
to face some brutal painful realities on
a daily basis what gives you hope and
inspires you in that context I am
hopeful for black futures and I say that
because we live in a society that's so
obsessed with Black Death we have images
of our death and the TV screen on our
Twitter timelines on our Facebook
timelines but what if what if instead we
imagine black life we imagine black
people living and thriving and that that
inspires me what inspires me these days
are immigrants immigrants all over the
world who are doing the best that they
can to make a living to survive and also
to thrive right now there are over two
hundred and forty-four million people
who aren't living in their country of
origin this is a 40% increase since the
year 2000 so what this tells me is that
the disparities across the globe are
only getting worse yet there are people
who are finding the strength and
wherewithal to travel to move to eke out
a better living for themselves and to
provide for their families and their
loved ones and some of these people who
are immigrants are also undocumented
right they're unauthorized and they
inspire me even more because although
our society is telling them you're not
wanted you're not needed here and
they're highly vulnerable
and subject to abuse to wage theft to
exploitation and xenophobic attacks many
of them are also beginning to organize
in their communities and what I'm seeing
is that there's also an emerging network
of black undocumented people who are
resisting the framework and resisting
the criminalization of their existence
and that to me is incredibly powerful
and inspires me every single day Thank
You Elise you so we know that young
people are the present in the future but
what inspires me are older people who
are becoming transformed in the service
of this movement we all know that as you
get older you get a little more
entrenched in your ways it's happening
to me I know that's right
but I'm so inspired when I see people
who have a way that they do things have
a way that they think about the world
and they're courageous enough to be open
to listening to what the experiences are
of so many of us who want to live in a
world that's just and want to live in a
world that's equitable and I'm also
inspired by the actions that I'm seeing
older people taking in service of this
movement I'm inspired by seeing older
people step into their own power and
leadership and say I'm not passing a
torch
I'm helping you light the fire so in
terms of action I think that you know it
is awesome to sit here and be able to
listen to you all and to have our minds
open and shift but that's not going to
get black people free that's right so if
you had one thing you would like this
audience and the folks who are watching
around the world to actually do what
would that be okay uh two quick ones I'm
one call the white house the water
protectors are being forcibly removed
from the camp that they have set up to
defend what keeps us alive and that is
intricately related to black lives so
definitely call the white house
and demand that they stop doing that
there are tanks and police officers
arresting every single person there as
we speak this the the second thing that
you can do is to join something be a
part of something there are groups
collectives doesn't have to be a
non-profit you know what I mean but
there are groups that are doing work in
our communities right now to make sure
that black lives matter so all lives
matter
get involved don't sit on your couch and
tell people what you think they should
be doing go do it with us do you guys
want anything oh that's good
all right so and I think that the
joining something like if you feel like
there's not something where you are
start it like these conversations that
we're having have those conversations
with somebody else and then instead of
just letting it kind of be a talk that
you had actually decide to start
something alright cuz I mean that's what
y'all did what you wanted something and
look what happened oh thank you all so
much
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