She is the special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the nation's leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers in the United States. In her speech, Garza praised the persistence of the Black women who came before her, saying that they laid the foundation for modern activism:[38] "Were it not for black women, there would be no Underground Railroad, no one to campaign against black bodies swinging from trees like strange fruit, there would be no protest songs like the ones that came from the toes, through the womb up, through the lungs and out of the brilliant mind and mouth of Nina Simone. Garza joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance in Oakland, California as its director of special projects. Alicia Garza (born January 4, 1981) is an American civil rights activist and writer known for co-founding the international Black Lives Matter movement. Power also means having the ability to reward and punish and decide how resources are distributed." } Its not useful to make empty statements with no action, she says. Things are pretty dicey over at "Law & Order," NBC's 16-year-old police series. Garza reflects on a lifetime of activism in this 2018 interview with our editor-in-chief. For me, power means getting to make decisions over your own life. Here we are seven years later, and I think what's become clear is that some of the discomfort with this statement is that it forces you to choose sides. Everything, actually. So often folks are marginalized in all the spaces that were in. stylesheet.type = "text/css"; But like all things based on representation, I'm much more interested in what they do with the role, as a result of who is in it, than I am the fact that the first ever (insert the blank) is in the role. [5] In 2004, Alicia came out as queer to her family. She was also recognized on the Politico50 2015 guide to Thinkers, Doers, and Visionaries, along with Cullors and Tometi. [13] Shortly before this, Garza founded Black Lives Matter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Alicia Garza, a labor organizer in Oakland, espouses a type of ecumenical activism. Their advice on how to participate in ensuring freedom for . Previously, she has worked as an editor at Entrepreneur.com, WomansDay.com and Popular Photography magazine. }; fetchBids: function() { That's clearly ridiculous but it could be effective. I do what I can to spend time with people who make me happy, at least three times a week. Langston Hughes. What is your philosophy of the components needed to create actual change? For Garza, whose book The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart was published in October 2020, this moment does feel different. [56], Garza has received the Local Hero award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. I've told myself several times this past year that we're all doing the absolute best we can, and for now, that just needs to be good enough. There would be no America were it not for black women. Four-fifths of the country's most powerful people are white A new analysis by the New York Times found that of the more than 900 officials who head the likes of government, media, finance, and . We did this a lot with President Obama, and I think the results of this were mixed, to be honest. Change is a long arcsometimes it feels like change is right around the corner, and other times it feels like it's farther away than we would like. // page settings Are the Black people in your company assigned roles of diversity officer? // Mars In Aries Possessive, Emma Davies Model Age, Articles W