The National Pan-Hellenic Council held an educational forum focused on the Black Lives Matter movement, collaborating with the FIU Police Department Thursday evening in the hopes of generating a healthy relationship between law enforcement and the community.
It has only been a month since tragedy befell Orlando and now we stand in the face of more deaths that create a shared pain.
Benjamin L. Crump, the attorney for Trayvon Martin, described the late teen’s case as, “The case that introduced the world to Stand Your Ground and the controversy of Shoot First Laws,” during FIU’s College of Law’s fifth annual “Great Legal Storytellers’ event.
When I say “white supremacy systematically oppresses black people,” the response from my white colleagues is almost always “But I’m white and I’m not racist.”
It’s vital that black women have a voice, representation and protection in a society that physically disrespects them and portrays them as hyper-sexualized, loud talking, neck rolling, finger snapping stereotypes.
Yes, it can be weakly argued that FIU has supported Blacks Lives Matter. However, having one forum entitled “Black Lives Matter” in an umbrella series of “All Lives Matter” forums that was held at the Biscayne Bay Campus doesn’t count.
The series, hosted and sponsored by Multicultural Programs and Services and organized by Associate Director Jeffrey McNamee, came under fire for the title, which FIU NOW considered disrespectful to the Black Lives Matter campaign.