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Black Lives Matter UK have supported the claim made by Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha that taking a knee before each football match is losing its impact.

Most players across all divisions in England have taken a knee since football's return post-coronavirus lockdown in an attempt to show solidarity with the fight against racism and discrimination.

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Zaha had said he felt the gesture was "degrading" and that it was being done to "tick boxes," while Brentford's Ivan Toney has said players are being "used as puppets" in taking a knee and that the gesture allows "people at the top" to rest on the subject.

A tweet from the Black Lives Matter UK page read: "We think Wilfried Zaha has a point. Taking the knee without political action is not enough.

"We are grateful for the symbolic gestures of solidarity but let's not mistake them for real change.

"That is why we are distributing 600,000 ($840,000) to organisations that will fight racism."

There has been an increase in racist abuse received by Premier League footballers on social media in the past months. In fact on Friday, Arsenal issued statement condemning online abuse aimed at midfielder Willian, calling it "another depressing example of what is sadly happening to our players and many others on a regular basis."

"The whole kneeling down -- why must I kneel down for you to show that we matter," Zaha had said on Thursday. "Why must I even wear Black Lives Matter on the back of my top to show you that we matter? This is all degrading stuff.

"When people constantly want to get me to do Black Lives Matter talks and racial talks and I'm like, I'm not doing it just so you can put 'Zaha spoke for us.' Like a tick box, basically.

"I'm not doing any more because unless things change, I'm not coming to chat to you just for the sake of it, like all the interviews I've done.

"All these platforms -- you see what's happening, you see people making fake accounts to abuse Black people constantly, but you don't change it.

"So don't tell me to come and chat about stuff that's not going to change. Change it. All that stuff that you lot are doing, all these charades mean nothing."

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Black Lives Matter UK back Wilfried Zaha comments on taking a knee - ESPN

Its an image many in Rip City are familiar with: Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard arm in arm with protestors, crossing the Morrison Bridge, standing up for Black lives. In a recent episode of the Talkin Blazers podcast, Lillard spoke with Dan Sheldon regarding his experience, according to Lindsey Wisniewski of NBC Sports Northwest.

We were in quarantine and we were just in the house, Lillard told Dan Sheldon on the Talkin Blazers podcast. And you know it was viral, it was protests all over the country, and I was aware of the protests in Portland. Someone invited me to a protest in Lake Oswego, but I think it was like quiet. Nobody was really there, but it was really going down in Portland. Those people have been out there everyday marching. There was hundreds of people...

They were really standing their ground on it.

Lillard knew he had to use his platform to draw attention to the protests, which swept the country following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

Obviously being in the house all day, Im really keeping up with on Twitter and Instagram and Im seeing it, Lillard said. It just got to the point where I didnt want to be another person saying Im using my platform to bring awareness, speaking from the sideline. I wanted to be out there and be present. When I did go and protest, I was proud to be there. I was out there and everyone out there they didnt look at it like Damian Lillard is here. It wasnt an appearance. I think that I was a part of that movement...

There was tension in the air, and I was just proud to be a part of something that was beyond myself.

In a reflection of the moment, the Trail Blazers have expanded their programming around Black History Month. You can read more about that here.

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Blazers Damian Lillard Reflects on Participating in Black Lives Matter Protests - Blazer's Edge

For many Americans, the Black Lives Matter movement nearly eight years since it was founded has become the political, spiritual and cultural apex of the unheard.

The power of Black Lives Matter has really been about being able to both be a protest movement and a movement thats deeply involved in politics, Patrisse Cullors, one of the movements co-founders, told Yahoo News in an interview this month.

Following the acquittal in July 2013 of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin after a brief altercation in Sanford, Fla., three Black women Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Cullors created a movement to combat violence and systemic racism they called Black Lives Matter.

Today it continues to be a voice and vehicle for Black liberation worldwide. In 2020, demonstrations in the name of Black Lives Matter were held in more than 60 countries and six continents to protest the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. In January, the movement was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Black Lives Matter means something different to me every single day, Cullors said. I'm working towards a world that my child can live in freely, that he can feel all his imagination and his dreams that are at his feet. And he won't feel crushed by racism or crushed by the pressures of patriarchy.

For more than seven years, Black Lives Matter has mobilized in the aftermath of the killings of hundreds of Black men, women and transgender people alike.

But with its increasingly elevated profile, Black Lives Matter has also sparked a backlash from politicians and others who consider it a terrorist organization with aims to overthrow the U.S. government.

They called the Black Panther Party and SNCC [the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee] a terrorist organization, Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project and an organizer with the Frontline and the Movement for Black Lives, told Yahoo News. They called the Black radical feminists enemies of the state. Any time you challenge the power structure there is pushback.

Story continues

One of the rising stars of the movement is Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, the first Black congresswoman from Missouri, who came to prominence while protesting in Ferguson, Mo., following the killing of Michael Brown Jr. by police in 2014. The first Black Lives Matter protester to be elected to Congress, Bush says one of her biggest goals is to help defeat the ideology of white supremacy.

Even though I understand that it is not on me nor the Black and brown community to dismantle white supremacy, Bush told Yahoo News in an interview this month. The white community, that's their work, but because we're here, we're going to fight it tooth and nail.

Embraced by much of corporate America IBM, Uber and the NBA are among those that have shown their support Black Lives Matter has become more than a protest movement. Its also an aspirational rallying cry.

The power of this movement is helping young people develop an analysis to name the things that are hurting us, Ufot said. People are learning how to organize and not just be activists. There is a discipline of organizing that is being developed.

The following timeline charts the emergence and development of Black Lives Matter:

2012

On Feb. 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman after a brief altercation in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman had called police and described Martin, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and carrying a bag of Skittles, as a real suspicious guy, but the police dispatcher told him not to approach. Zimmerman, who was carrying a handgun, ignored the instruction and a scuffle broke out with Martin, who was unarmed.

2013

On July 13, 2013, following Zimmermans acquittal, three Black female organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi launched a protest movement they dubbed Black Lives Matter to combat violence and systemic racism. The phrase "Black lives matter" was first used in a Facebook post by Garza after the acquittal; Cullors recognized the power of Garza's words and created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Thus a campaign was born. The movement, according to its website, is an affirmation of the humanity and historical and societal contributions from Black people. The goal of Black Lives Matter, the website states, is to support the development of new Black leaders, as well as create a network where Black people feel empowered to determine our destinies in our communities.

2014

As a slogan, Black Lives Matter grew steadily on social media. As a movement, activists continued to amplify their voices on the streets of America, protesting the police killings of several Black Americans, including John Crawford III, Ezell Ford, Laquan McDonald, Akai Gurley and Tamir Rice. In 2014, two more deaths captured the attention of the country and the world, those of Eric Garner and Michael Brown Jr. In July of that year, Garner, who was accused of selling loose cigarettes, was put in an illegal chokehold by a New York City police officer that killed him. A month later, on Aug. 9, 18-year-old Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson after Wilson responded to reports of a robbery and assault at a nearby convenience store. Several months of nationwide unrest and protests followed both deaths as BLM activists called on the officers involved to be held accountable. Cori Bush, a registered nurse and a pastor in a community near Ferguson, attended BLM demonstrations that lasted for more than a year.

2015

On June 17, 2015, nine Black church worshippers were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., by 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof. On July 13, Sandra Bland, a Black woman, was found hanging in her jail cell in Texas, just three days after she had been stopped and arrested following a traffic stop. With the horror of the Charleston massacre still fresh, an investigation into Blands death left more questions than answers. BLM continued to organize demonstrations throughout the year, specifically drawing attention to the plight of Black women and Black transgender women, who were increasingly becoming victims of deadly violence. By the end of the year, 21 transgender people had been killed in 2015 in the U.S., a record number at the time, and 13 of the victims were Black.

2016

In July 2016, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two Black men, were shot at point-blank range by police officers in separate incidents. Sterling was killed in Baton Rouge, La., by two white officers as they pinned him down. Castile, a licensed gun owner, was killed by an officer in a suburb outside St. Paul, Minn., as he raised his hands after the officer allegedly told him not to move. More than 100 protests around the country followed these killings. Professional athletes also began to speak out. During the ESPY Awards in July 2016, NBA superstars LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony delivered a joint statement about the killings of African Americans by police. In August, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the first NFL athlete to protest systemic racism and police brutality by taking a knee during the national anthem. Other NFL players would later follow his example.

2017

In February 2017, Black Lives Matter put on its first art exhibition. It was held at the Museum of the City of New York and featured work from more than 30 artists to celebrate Black History Month. That August, BLM activists protested at a white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in which Heather Heyer was killed when a man ran her over with his car. Several others were injured in the clashes between white supremacists and counterprotesters.

2018

Black Lives Matter marked five years of fighting systemic racism in 2018 and continued to protest in various cities across America. A Pew study published that year found that by May, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter had been used nearly 30 million times on Twitter since the first instance in 2013.

2019

On Feb. 3, 2019, rapper 21 Savage, whose real name is Shyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors convened a group of more than 60 high-profile celebrities to advocate for him, and the rapper was released on bond 10 days later.

2020

Following the 2020 killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter became a household phrase. Arbery was shot and killed by three white men while jogging in Brunswick, Ga. Floyd was pinned to the ground and had a knee pressed into his neck for more than seven minutes by a Minneapolis police officer for allegedly attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill. Taylor, an EMT, was killed when officers serving a no-knock warrant in Louisville, Ky., broke into the apartment she shared with her boyfriend and opened fire. Each of these deaths sparked international BLM marches. Corporations and elected officials, many for the first time, began to promote the term Black Lives Matter, and murals featuring the slogan began appearing all over the globe.

2021

On Jan. 4, 2021, Rep. Cori Bush was sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Black woman to represent Missouri in that chamber. Bush, who went from an activist in the streets to an activist in Congress, helped bring Black Lives Matter into the mainstream. Later that month, the BLM movement was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work in helping rid the world of systemic racism.

Full interview with Rep. Cori Bush and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors right here on Yahoo News

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A brief history of the Black Lives Matter movement from Trayvon Martin to Nobel Prize nomination - Yahoo Sports

Black Lives Matter UK has announced it is giving 600,000 in funding to grassroots groups across the country, including those that organised last summers anti-racism protests.

The campaign group received 1.2m in donations via a GoFundMe appeal, following widespread protests last summer.

BLMUK is awarding the funds in two phases. The first round has seen just over 169,500 given in small grants to 14 organisations that work to improve Black peoples lives in a racist society and that the campaign group has worked with over the last five years.

The largest recipient of the first round of funding is the United Friends and Families Campaign, which has received 45,000 to set up a peoples tribunal for deaths in custody. Other organisations include the groups behind last summers protest, All Black Lives, Justice for Black Lives, and A Tribe Named Athari.

BLMUK has also given funding to the Northern Police Monitoring Project;Sistah Space, Londons only specialist domestic violence service for women of African and Caribbean heritage; African Rainbow Family, a charity supporting Black and minority ethnic (BME) LGBTQI refugees and asylum seekers; Acts of Love, an African-Caribbean community centre; AZ Magazine, an arts and culture initiative for LGBTQI people of colour; and BME Cancer Communities, a charity that protects the health of BAME and low-income communities affected by cancer, long-term health conditions and Covid-19.

The group has also given money to two international groups: Abahlali, a Black South African shack dwellers movement campaigning against evictions and for public housing; and Sindicato de Manteros de Madrid, a Spanish labour union of people primarily from Black and migrant communities.

Each organisation has either Black or multi-ethnic leadership, BLMUK said.

The second round of funding will take place later this year, where groups will be invited to apply for the remaining funds ringfenced for other organisations.

BLMUK said it will put the remaining 600,000 towards building an anti-racist organisation that can scale up its existing community organising, educational work and direct actions.

Kingsley, an organiser at BLMUK said: We were inspired by the tens of thousands who supported the 2020 protests against racism and wish to send out a massive thank you to every single person that donated to us. These funds are another step in helping to sustain our movements for the future.

Lemara Francis, an organiser at BLMUK, said: State racism is widening inequality, making support for Black workers, youth, the undocumented, women, LGBTQI people and those struggling during the pandemic more urgent than ever. Were excited to be contributing to projects that will aid the vital work being done in these areas and more.

Read more here:
Black Lives Matter UK to give 600,000 in funding to campaign groups - The Guardian

On July 28, 2020, Plaintiff Women For America First filed a Complaint alleging that Defendants' denial of Plaintiff's request to paint a mural similar to New York City's eight "Black Lives Matter" murals deprived Plaintiff of its First Amendment rights .

The surfaces of public streets are not traditional public fora for the dissemination of private speech. Plaintiff argues that public streets are public fora that "have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions." Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum(2009). Plaintiff accordingly concludes that the government must narrowly tailor any content-based restrictions of speech to serve a compelling government interest.

This argument is unavailing. Plaintiff does not seek to congregate and share messages with the public in New York City streets. Plaintiff seeks to paint a message on New York City streets. The United States Supreme Court's characterization of a public street as a place of assembly where citizens can communicate, is undeniably distinct from an endorsement of the use of the face of a streetusually reserved for transportation-related guidanceas a message board for private speech. This conclusion is underscored by Local Law 10-117(a), which prohibits writing, painting and drawing on New York City streets, absent express permission.

As an alternative argument, Plaintiff contends that, by permitting the Murals, Defendants opened up New York City streets as designated public fora and triggered an obligation to permit similar expression of different viewpoints absent a compelling reason for denial. A designated public forum "exists where government property that has not traditionally been regarded as a public forum is intentionally opened up for that purpose." The government, however, does not create a public forumof any variety"by inaction or by permitting limited disclosure." In addition, the government does not create a public forum when it engages in government speech.

Plaintiff has not shown a substantial likelihood of success with respect to this alternative argument because Plaintiff has not shown that the Murals constitute privatenot governmentspeech. "The Free Speech Clause restricts government regulation of private speech; it does not regulate government speech." The government is free to "select the views it wants to express." In doing so, it does not trigger an obligation to permit similar expression of other viewpoints.

"In [Summum,] many factors indicated that park monuments represented government speech, among them, (a) government's historic use of monuments to speak to the public, (b) a tradition of parks selectively accepting and displaying donated monuments, (c) the public's close identification of public parks with the government owning the parkland, and (d) the accepted monuments were meant to and had the effect of conveying a government message."

Even privately contributed monuments can constitute government speech. "Just as government-commissioned and government-financed monuments speak for the government, so do privately financed and donated monuments that the government accepts and displays to the public on government land." For example, in Summum, the Supreme Court found that monuments placed in a public park constituted government speech, even though "many of the monuments were not designed or built by the [c]ity and were donated in completed form by private entities." The Supreme Court rejected the premise that a completed work conveys one messagethat of the creator or donorand that a government must accept that singular message to engage in government speech.

Several of the factors the Supreme Court looked to in Summum and [other cases] apply here. First, markings on public streets have historically been used as a means for the government to communicate with the public. Particularly in light of Local Law 10-117(a), the surfaces of New York City streets are reserved primarily for government communication. As a result, public street markings are likely to be "closely identified in the public mind with the [government]," specifically the DOT.

In addition, the pleadings suggest that Defendants intended the Murals to be government communication. Tweets from the Mayor's office confirm that suggestion. For example, the June 15, 2020, Tweet explains that the "Black Lives Matter" message will be shared all summer and notes that the Mayor's office intends to make the Fulton Street block pedestrians-only and to coordinate with the MTA regarding transit. In addition, the June 19, 2020, Tweet explains that Defendants were "not just painting the words #BlackLivesMatter on streets," and instead, were "sending a message that these are our values in New York City." Finally, Defendants were involved in the creation of, and controlled the content of, the six later murals. For example, Defendants paid for the mural on Fifth Avenue with DOT funds. These factors all strongly support the conclusion that the Murals constitute government speech.

The pleadings suggest that this is not an instance in which Defendants have merely affixed a seal of approval to pass private speech off as government speech. Although Defendants did not create or commission the murals on Fulton Street and Richmond Terrace, the acceptance and preservation of those murals, in combination with Tweets explaining the government's intention to share the message that "Black Lives Matter," suggest that Defendants used these privately donated works to engage in government speech. The focus and clarity of Defendants' message help to underscore this point. Cf. Matal v. Tam (2017) (rejecting the premise that federal trademark registrations constituted government speech, in part because together, the registrations were "incoherent babbling" rather than a concerted government message). Defendants adopted a message of social consequence and disseminated it during a time of social unrest. Black lives matter. It is plainly evident that these wordswhich affirm the value of Black liveshave meaning separate and apart from any organizations or movements of the same name.

Plaintiff also contends that Defendants' conduct is an affront to the First Amendment because the "Black Lives Matter" message is political. Whether the "Black Lives Matter" message has political content is not relevant to the question of whether the Murals constitute government speech. The fact that an elected official, such as the mayor, might seek to communicate a message that is appealing to voters suggests that the Free Speech Clause is serving one of its intended purposes; "the Free Speech Clause helps produce informed opinions among members of the public, who are then able to influence the choices of a government that, through words and deeds, will reflect its electoral mandate."

Because the Murals are government and not private speech, and therefore did not open up the surfaces of New York City streets as designated public fora, strict scrutiny does not apply to the denial of Plaintiff's request to paint its own street mural.

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City's Allowing "Black Lives Matter" Street Painting Doesn't Require It to Allow Other Writings - Reason