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The first letter arrived in August 2020. Two more arrived this month. All three are from an anonymous sender who claims to be a neighbor.

DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio A Black Lives Matter flag is a symbol of support and pride for a family in a small central Ohio township. But they say their flag is also leading to hate mail, and this isnt the first time.

Out of their concern for their safety, we are not sharing the family's last name. But they still want their story told. They say they will not tolerate this type of hate.

We're an interracial family, we're a Black family, our kids are Black, said Janine. We want them to feel supported, their lives do matter.

A Black Lives Matter flag has been outside Janine and Jeff's Genoa Township home since the summer of 2020. Not long after the flag went up, a piece of concerning mail came in, with no return address, asking them to take the flag down.

And that they walk by our house every day and they were tired of seeing our signs, explained Janine. And they weren't sure if we were a Negro family is the language they used. But it was not welcomed here.

At the time, Janine shared what happened on Facebook to alert her neighbors to this anonymous sender.

For them to actually go to that length of writing a letter, sending it anonymously, to our home where we have our family, our children, it was pretty scary.

However, there was a positive. Neighbors stepped up with their signs, in a show of support.

But then, in the last two weeks, another anonymous letter arrived. It asked them to take their flag down calling the movement "a big scam."

And then another letter, two weeks later, said Janine. It's becoming more of a pattern and it's not at all comfortable or acceptable.

The 3rd letter reads, "take down that [stupid] flag on your house. My dog and me tired of seeing it every day."

Lt. Rich Lyon from the Genoa Township Police department says it's tough to track where the letters are coming from... and because there appears to be no direct threat of violence, there hasn't been a criminal offense.

Janine and Jeff are sharing their story to raise awareness that hate exists close to home.

Your hate is not welcomed. We have the support of our community. They stand with us, said Janine.

I'd even welcome a conversation with somebody rather than anonymous letters being sent to us, I mean I think we can accomplish a lot in this world though communication and one-way communication isn't very helpful, said Jeff.

Janine and Jeff say they've been in touch with Genoa Township Police and police tell them that they'll be on close watch.

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Your hate is not welcomed: Genoa Township couple receive hateful letters over BLM flag - 10TV

What is the true meaning of Black Lives Matter? Many are still muddling the powerful message of the global movement.

What Black Lives Matter is and what Black Lives Matter isnt has been feverishly debated since its inception in 2013. What began as a hashtag on social media posts andanti-racism quoteshas snowballed into a global rallying cry in the battle to combat systemic and institutional racism, which became impossible to ignore after yet another series of high-profile police brutality incidents. BLM is now proudly proclaimed and derided. Scrawled on posters. Graffitiedand subsequently defacedon concrete. It hasdivided loved onesand united loved ones. Still, people are searching for the answer. Ask Google, What is the BLM meaning? and youll get 37 million results to sift through.

Black Lives Matter is not only the movement for Black lives now, and its not only the phrase that people can attach to, but its an affirmation that I think goes beyond the organizers of the movement for Black lives, says Camara Jones, MD, PhD, an anti-racism activist and adjunct professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University who is not affiliated with BLM.

If youre here, youre likely looking for answers, whether youre a member of the Black community, youre looking to be an ally in the movement toward equality, or youre wondering what it truly means to be anti-racist. Once youve learned the meaning of BLM, you might also consider makinga Black Lives Matter donationorsupporting these Black-owned businesses.

The BLM message was born in response to police and civilian brutality against Black lives. Simply put, Black lives matterperiod. Just as much as every other race, but not more so than any other race. Still, many non-Black people miss the BLM meaning, says Dr. Jones, because their privilege blinds them. She likens the phenomenon of White privilege to patrons eating in a restaurant, in an allegory she calls Dual Reality: A Restaurant Saga. There are many people whove been born inside a restaurant, sitting at the table of opportunity, eating, and they see a sign that says Open, and do not recognize that that sign is a two-sided, open-closed sign, she explains, because its difficult for any of us to recognize the system of inequity that privileges us. Its a vicious cycle perpetuated by a lack of understanding. Those already eating look outside, seeing hungry, would-be patrons and wondering why they dont simply come inside. Those outside wonder why their side of the sign says Closed when there is plenty of room inside the restaurant.

The phrase Black Lives Matter was born out of a Facebook post from Alicia Garza after the July 13, 2013, acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed Martin, who was returning from a store to a relatives Sanford, Florida, home after buying Arizona iced tea and a pack of Skittles. Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter, wrote Garza, to which her pal Patrisse Cullors replied, #blacklivesmatter. Garza, Cullors, and pal Opal Tometi teamed up to form the BLM movement. Today, BLM has ballooned to an international movement with 40 chapters.

RELATED: What People Get Wrong About Protesters

Because it is not the truth in this country, says Dr. Jones. It is not the reality of this country that all lives matter. The police-involved murders of Black men and women are proof. So, too, are the inequities that can be found at every level of American society. All we have to do is look at how resources are distributed by so-called race [and] look at the relative safety by so-called race. We can look at who gets the benefit of the doubt and who would be immediately perceived as a threat. We can look at those in whom we invest and in which communities we actively divest. And it is clear that Black lives and Indigenous lives, and Hispanic lives, Latinx lives, are devalued in this country and dehumanized. The harsh truth was laid bare in George Floyds final moments, and thats why the BLMs meaning and newfound stature is so important. What did Derek Chauvin think he was doing? she asks. People said that the way he looked was the way that hunters squeeze the life out of a deer.

RELATED: What Derek Chauvins Conviction Really Means for the Black Community

The BLM movement raised more than $90 million in 2020 and saw up to 26 million supporters join in protests, making it the largest movement in U.S. history. Dr. Jones says BLM and the BLM meaning became a formidable force in part due to technology. Because of cell phone video and police body cams, people who were born inside the restaurant [of the Dual Reality allegory] could see the reality on the other side. For centuries, weve had these stories, adds Dr. Jones, but now, all of a sudden, the images and the truth of it is barging into those people who have had the privilege of not having to know.

Whats not unique, or anywhere near new, says Dr. Jones, is the struggle of Black people against racism. It is a continuation of struggles of people of African ancestry for centuries, for four centuries, to affirm our humanity. But what is unique is the new generations fight for justice. It is the young people, many of whom may not have studied even the history of the civil rights movement, or may think of that as something old. Some may not have been fully aware of the history, and many of them may have thought that they were the first ones to engage in these struggles around the rights to our humanity, to the recognition of our humanity. So, the thing that makes them different is that its this generations iteration. There has also been some good news in the midst of this ongoing struggle: A number of positive changes have been made since the anti-racism protests began.

You can donate, volunteer, and sign up for events and information via BLMs official website. But there are also other ways to fight alongside the movement. Dr. Jones suggests that Black people and non-Black people alike need to bear witness to the inequities facing Black and Brown peopleand, if necessary, hit the record button, much like how bystanders bravely recorded Chauvin as he and three other cops pinned Floyd to the ground. She says she recently took her own advice when she stuck around after seeing a Black father and child involved in a multi-vehicle crash. No matter how ugly or fraught it may get, she says, stay and bear witness.

RELATED: Small Ways You Can Fight Racism Every Day

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What Black Lives Matter Means: The ... - Reader's Digest

News releases | Research | Social science

March 7, 2022

After Black Lives Matter formed in 2013, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, new ways of talking about race gained traction.

A new study co-led by the University of Washington shows how Black Lives Matter protests have changed the way people talk about race.Clay Banks/Unsplash

And with protests sparked by subsequent police killings, such as those of Eric Garner, Philando Castile and George Floyd, the use of and online search for anti-racist terms skyrocketed, indicating a growing common anti-racist lexicon and generating renewed attention to racial justice that continues today.

The growing use of these terms, according to new research, shows how Black Lives Matter has shifted the conversation around racism, raising awareness of issues and laying the foundation for social change. The research, led by Indiana University and the University of Washington, published March 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When protest happens, it changes the way people talk, said lead author Zackary Dunivin, a doctoral student in sociology and complex systems at Indiana University. Black Lives Matter got people to pay attention when people werent paying attention. The protests got people to care, and that has changed the way people are talking and thinking about race.

In the paper, Dunivin and co-author Jelani Ince, an assistant professor of sociology at the UW, show that how people talk about an issue and how often they talk about it can create momentum and bring attention to a cause. They point to civil rights marches, which led to changes in voting and housing rights, and to anti-Vietnam War protests, which helped shift public opinion and led to Congressional hearings.

To evaluate the impact of Black Lives Matter protest, the researchers turned to social media, news coverage and online search engines. They set out to determine how these protests shifted public interest and conversation by examining attention to and use of related terms and topics.

The researchers chose four different publicly available data sources: Google search, Twitter mentions, national news mentions and Wikipedia page visits. They created a list of more than three dozen terms to search for, such as systemic racism, prison abolition and others that are associated with Black Lives Matters themes and the concept of anti-racism.

The study found that during Black Lives Matter protests, people search for these terms up to 100 times more than they did in the weeks prior to the protests. Over time, these spikes in searches for terms related to Black Lives Matter have expanded to include other ideas: In the early years of the study period, searches for police shootings and the names of victims of police homicide were common; in 2020, searches included topics like prison abolition and redlining.

In addition, the study noted the staying power of ideas: Six months after the George Floyd protests in 2020, social media attention to anti-racist ideas was significantly higher than it was before the protests. Daily visits to Wikipedia pages for Black Lives Matter, for example, were around 10 times greater; for systemic racism, 5.5 times greater; and for prison abolition, 1.6 times greater, from August through December 2020, compared to the same period the year before.

As social scientists, we know that change is not an inevitability, but requires persistence from actors over time. This shift in discourse is a reflection of change in the political terrain, Ince said. It shows that the movement is evolving. Its not just a moment, its an accumulation.

Of course, not every search or use of the designated terms indicates support, the researchers said. Data measuring page visits, for example, doesnt capture why someone visited a page it just tracks the visit. Along the same lines, use of a hashtag doesnt necessarily prove a users intent to support a movement. Further data-driven research could pursue those questions, the study points out, and specifically the role of countermovements and rhetoric in association with the use of anti-racist terms.

But what online searches, media coverage and tweets do show, Ince and Dunivin said, is how the issues and terms raised by Black Lives Matter have grown in public awareness over time. And the terms themselves have expanded beyond their connection to specific incidents of police homicide to broader issues of inequality.

While the study didnt link these terms to social change such as votes or policies, it does show how a current movement is building toward that change, the authors said.

Black Lives Matter is providing an alternative route to the social problems society has created, Ince said. These protests arent just trying to make noise, but to reimagine what community can do. This is an attempt to do what should have been done decades ago.

Other co-authors on the study were Harry Yaojun Yan and Fabio Rojas at Indiana University. The study was funded by the Racial Justice Research Fund at Indiana University and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Ince at jince@uw.edu or Dunivin at zdunivin@iu.edu.

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How Black Lives Matter protests sparked interest, can lead ...

Black Lives Matter's history from Trayvon Martin to George Floyd

From Trayvon Martin to George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement continues to highlight Black lives lost to police and racial injustice.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Since the nationwide protestsfollowing George Floyd's murder in summer 2020, misinformation about Black Lives Matter has spread online, ranging from misleading claims about the movement's founderto false assertions about the groups politics.

Anotherclaim surfaced Feb. 15 on Facebook.

BLM burned our cities and destroyed $2B of property. They faced no consequences.Their lawlessness celebrated and excused," reads text in the post, published by a page called The Right View of the United States."So yes, Im absolutely fine with some truckers & farmers clogging roads & bridges for freedom.

The post shows a Feb. 11 tweet fromBryan Dean Wright, an opinion writer and former CIA officer. Combined, the posts accumulated more than 5,000 shares within a week.

The "truckers & farmers"mentioned in the post refer to anti-vaccine mandate protesters in Canada. The protests, colloquially known as the"Freedom Convoy," began in late January after the Canadian government started requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for drivers crossing the U.S. border. Similar movementshave cropped up across the world, with demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions also taking place in Belgium and the Netherlands.

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While the post contains an element of truth, it presents a misleading comparison of the Freedom Convoy and Black Lives Matter protests.

Some reports have estimatedinsurance claims for damagesrelated to the 2020 protests totaled about $2 billion. However, the post is wrong to claimprotesters saw no consequences in fact, over 10,000 protesters were arrested, most for low-level offenses.

USA TODAY reached out to Wright and The Right View of the United Statesfor comment.

Damages caused by the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were estimated to cost $2 billion, a number that could "still go higher," according to a February2021 report published onthe World Economic Forum's website.

The reportwasauthored by the head ofProperty Claim Services, which hastracked protest-related insurance claims for decades. The group found that 2020 protests cost more than any other period of unrest in American history, as the average cost of demonstrations since 1950 has been about $90 million annually.

Other cost estimates support Property Claim Services' $2 billion figure.

Fact check: Posts mislead about crowd size, peacefulness at Canada Freedom Convoy protest

Axios reported inSeptember2020that the Insurance Information Institute, which collects data from Property Claim Services and related firms, estimated that damages could total as much as 2 billion and possibly more.

Contrary to the claim in the post, manyBlack Lives Matterprotesters did face consequences. Estimates vary, but news outlets reported thousands of protesterswere arrested in the months following Floyds death in May 2020.

A June 22, 2020,article from The Washington Post tallied over 14,000 arrests made since May 27.The Hill reported over 17,000 arrests had been made in the first two weeks of protests.

Despite the large number of arrests, The Hill reported most of those protesters were booked not for violent crimes, but for low-level offenses such as violating curfews.Obstructing roadways and carrying open containers were other reasons for the arrests, as well asfailure to disperse.

Some more serious charges were filed as well, however. The Associated Press reportedhundreds were charged with burglary and looting as of June 4, 2020.

In October 2020, researchers writing forThe Washington Post analyzed 7,305 protest eventsand found police made arrests at 5% of them. Only 3.7% of the events involved property damage or vandalism, according to the analysis.

PolitiFactreported in June 2020 that, while protests in several major cities started with violence, most demonstrations across the country were largely peaceful.

Based on our research, we rate PARTLY FALSE the claim that Black Lives Matter protesters caused $2 billion worth of damage and faced no consequences. It's true that, in 2020, protests over Floyd's death were estimated to have caused about $2 billion in damage. But the post is wrong to say demonstrators faced no consequences. News reports indicate more than10,000 protesters were arrested, most for low-level offenses.

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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Fact check: Thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters ...

2020 was the year a once-in-a-generation global pandemic clashed with a global call for racial equality.

In her excellent new book, Through the Lens: The Pandemic and Black Lives Matter, NYU professor Lauren Walsh attempts to understand the historic year through the vantage point of the photojournalists that were on the frontlines capturing a multitude of unprecedented events. Walsh records the emotional toll that came with covering death, destruction, and endemic racism.

The historic Black Lives Matter protests were the largest demonstrations in US history and reverberated globally, Walsh says.

The devastating Covid-19 pandemic, a once-in-a-century disaster, has impacted the entire world. And both situations collided in 2020, forcing photographers into a terrain defined by new ethical, technological, and safety concerns, as well as innovative attacks on press freedom.

Through the Lens features images that range from lockdowns in Shanghai and Wuhan, to protests in Minnesota and Portland.

Her work, Walsh adds, aims to uncover the ethical dilemmas and the risks and challenges visual journalists encounter to bring us the news in pictures.

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How COVID and Black Lives Matter Converged - VICE