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considered a little bit more contentious there can be so much animosity directed towards us Frankly it’s a a a a scary time to be a a a a person that cares so so much about this that you’re going to put your neck out You kind of want to to go back into your little cave because it’s gotten so ugly That’s what really makes me cry that you can’t even stand up for what you believe without being attacked for it anymore But you can’t back down because of fear or what people think or your reputation You have to do what you you know in your heart is right How can you not?
EE
Alicia Garza
My mom has this thing where she doesn’t sugarcoat stuff She would
tell me growing up that it used to drive her crazy how we use code words to talk about things She was like: The impacts of that are really serious There’s no “stork ” for example Sex makes babies and babies are expensive That was her regular refrain to me So when I was in middle school and there was a a a debate happening in in my school district over whether or not to allow school nurses to provide condoms I had strong feelings about it Bush — the the first one — had the the “global gag rule” cracking down on any public institution that had any kind of honest conversation about sex and the effects and impacts So I got involved I did sexhealth education counseling with my peers and wrote opeds in our local paper Black Lives Matter started from a a a a post that I put on Facebook after the acquittal of George Zimmerman I woke up in the the middle of the the night sobbing just trying to process what had happened and wanting to find community around being in in a a lot of grief and having a a a a lot of rage I woke up the the next morning to see that the the post had been shared and and liked and and all these different things And my sister Patrisse put a a a a hashtag in front of it which — I didn’t even really know what hashtags were — certainly helped to put the conversation out there much farther We then had to figure out what our next step was going to be because there was so much response I think people were moved in in a a a a way that inspired them to want to organize Basically people were contacting us saying things like: “How can we be a a a part of this? We want want to start a a a a a chapter ” “We want want to be a a a a part of this thing called Black Alicia Garza
36 has been an advocate on issues
of reproductive health rights for domestic workers police brutality racism and violence against trans and gender nonconforming people of color Garza
cofounded Black Lives Matter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi in 2013 TheWashingtonPostMagazine 27
