Black Lives Matter co-founder speaks at VCU

Fadel Allassan
Print News Editor

Before an audience of nearly 1,000 spectators, Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi stressed the importance of activism among at a speech at the Siegel Center last Thursday.

The New York-based writer, strategist and community activist shared with the audience details of the inception of the movement, which she said started with a hashtag after the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent acquittal of George Zimmerman in 2013.

“This was completely a historic moment, a moment where I think our consciousness as a community was shifted,” Tometi said of Zimmerman’s acquittal.

The event was sponsored by the VCU School of Social Work and coordinated by the Black Lives Matter Student-Faculty Collective in the School of Social Work. The Nigerian-American activist commended the school for bringing her on to discuss issues she felt were important.

“What’s so profound about the fact that the school of social work conceived of this evening and put this together is that it allows for us to have a completely different conversation about the issues of our day,” Tometi said. “A conversation that in many ways has been ceded to the right or to folks who see black people and black bodies as a problem.”

Tometi encouraged the crowd to take part in the movement and not “sit on the sidelines” as the movement took place, stressing that those who refused to speak out or take action were only reinforcing the status-quo.

Tometi is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants and attended the University of Arizona. She is the executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration and has had work published by The Huffington Post, Time Magazine and The Root. In 2013, she was listed as a new civil rights leader by the Los Angeles Times and in 2014 she was given the same award by Essence Magazine.

Tometi mentioned that she believed the conversation about racial justice has already begun to take place on VCU’s campus.

In September, prominent black activist and scholar Cornel West spoke in the same stadium, encouraging VCU students and the greater Richmond community to not forget of the days that Richmond still had Jim Crow laws in place.

A month later, a group of dozens of students carried signs and chanted in the compass, outside of Shafer and the commons, urging the university’s administration to address the fact that VCU’s faculty is disproportionately less racially diverse than its student body.

“We are about to engage in a very necessary conversation and I know that this campus has already been deeply engaged in it already,” Tometi said. “So I’m just here as your cheerleader rooting you all on encouraging you all to keep the fight going.”

Lakiyla “Lala” Parker, a senior social work major who is a part of the Black Lives Matter Student-Faculty Collective said she was moved by Tometi’s speech, particularly the points that were made about how everyone can contribute to activism.

“I really liked when she addressed the different forms of action, when she said you don’t have to be a very vocal person or individual to contribute to action,” Parker said. “So often we forget the individuals behind the scenes as well. I think that is very important.”

Print News Editor, Fadel Allassan

Fadel is a sophomore print journalism major. He is fluent in English, French and Sarcasm, and he probably doesn’t like you. Fadel enjoys writing about politics and making people drive him to Cook-Out. // Facebook | LinkedIn

allassanfg@commonwealthtimes.org