Mediaboss Marketing

Pam Adams Journal Star education reporter @padamspam

PEORIA From Peorias distinction by an online magazine as the worst city for African-Americans, to mass incarceration and over-policing, to the legitimate white supremacists in the White House, Patrisse Cullors tackled the topics that made a three-word phrase, Black Lives Matter, take hold around the world after George Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

In that moment I witnessed a modern-day lynching.

Cullors, an artist, organizer and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, spoke at Bradley Universitys Renaissance Coliseum on Thursday. About 800 people attended the lecture, as many white people as black people. Almost as many appeared older than 30 as younger. Student groups came from nearby schools, including Illinois State University, Monmouth College, Illinois Central College and area high schools.

Cullors linked earlier Black Lives Matter protests to the more recent Womens March and widespread protests at airports after President Donald Trump issued an executive order restricting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

She urged her audience to resist, organize and build power, whether it involved the Trump administration or local issues on their campuses or their cities. The statistics that plague this city can shift.

The countrys history of inequality and injustice makes it hard for people to imagine how the country can be, she said.

How do we have a conversation that reimagines a country without incarceration? she asked. Public safety is access to food. Public safety is access to housing. Public safety is basic human rights.

Cullors no longer takes questions on her views on the phrase All Lives Matter. Find the responses on Black Twitter or other social media outlets, she said. But she is concerned about efforts to depict Black Lives Matter as a hate group.

The unfortunate reality of white racism is, its a deep fear of black people standing up for themselves, she said. Its simply 'our lives matter.'

Calling it a hate group is coded language that really means black lives don't matter, she added.

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.

Read the original post:
Black Lives Matter co-founder tackles local and national issues in Bradley speech - Peoria Journal Star