One of the biggest misconceptions among newly-minted non-Black allies is that the current global Black Lives Matter mobilization is new or a recent resurgence of the movement. Given the current climate after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others just in this year alone, BLM has gained momentum and support on a scale previously not seen, but because many non-Black folk didn’t have BLM on their radar, it would be easy to miss that those involved with the BLM movement have a long and storied history of marching for change. That is something MSNBC host Joy Reid wants to set straight.“Black Lives Matter—it started during enslavement,” she said on
Late Night with Seth Meyers via video-chat. “Black Lives Matter is an age-old movement that just changes names. It’s been the Civil Rights Movement; it’s been run by SNCC [Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee]; it’s been run by the Southern Christian Leaders Conference; it’s been John Lewis’ movement; it’s been Dr. King’s movement. In 2012, it really launched just as the term Black Lives Matter.”
She explained the "
Herstory" (as BLM refers to it) of the movement which was started by three Black queer women—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi—who launched the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 after the killing of unarmed 17-year-old
Trayvon Martin by wannabe cop George Zimmerman. The TV host recounted that the fatal shooting of a Black boy by a white man who felt he had authority over the neighbourhood had the “flavour” of police brutality akin to the murders of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. “So it launched around the idea of saying, 'You know, you have to think of these young lives as being important.' And why we don’t do that in America is a big problem.”Joy, who hosts
The ReidOut, a new evening political show where she interviews politicians and newsworthy figures about current events, also launched into a brilliant dissection of what makes the 2020 BLM movement feel different from previous years and other moments of mobilization, some even as recently as eight years ago.“The thing that was so different about then and now is that at the time you had a president who was incredibly empathetic to it," she reminded Seth. "He said, ‘If I had a son, he’d have looked like Trayvon,' or, 'I could have been Trayvon.’ You had that empathy in the White House, that desire to embrace the movement, bring them in to the White House, talk to them... but the public was against them! The polling was terrible for Black Lives Matter! White America really rejected this movement.”“Now you have the flip side of that,” she continued. “It’s completely upside down. You have a president who is completely unsympathetic and hostile to Black Lives Matter—hostile to the idea of people kneeling, saying that we want fairness and justice from the police. But the public is now on the Black Lives Matter movement’s side. And that is a huge change!”[video_embed id='1984979']RELATED: Canadian teen shares his experiences with anti-Black racism [/video_embed]Noting that before 2020, white people weren’t really marching and protesting on the front lines of BLM, with some exceptions like
Heather Heyer who lost her life for the movement, now Joy has seen a gaggle of white moms on the front lines in Portland, marching and risking the tear gas cannons just to see justice and equality for everyone. “This is not a niche movement, this is not a Black people concern. This is the public realizing if they’re coming for Black lives, they’re eventually coming for yours.”Her
Late Night appearance certainly demonstrates the reason why the
debut episode of Joy's primetime show took in a whopping 2.6 million viewers—she is a whiz at breaking down topics and explaining them thoroughly. Maybe the powers that be should consider a companion show called “Ode to Joy” just about how great she is.[video_embed id='1973107']BEFORE YOU GO: Michael B. Jordan wants Hollywood to 'commit to Black hiring' [/video_embed]
