The Radical Inclusiveness of Black Lives Matter
For the nationwide movement against police violence, the news of charges being brought against the six Baltimore officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray has been a welcome development. Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York and an organizer in the Black Lives Matter movement, is cautiously optimistic. “It’s a little bit of a morale booster,” she told me in an interview, “I think that this kind of gave activists in the streets that rejuvenation and that energy they need to continue doing what they’re doing.”
Sarsour was in Asheville, North Carolina earlier this month for the America Healing Conference, a four-day dialogue on racial justice and community healing sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation. There she spoke on the struggle against police brutality and the connections between Arab American and African American experiences at the hands of law enforcement. For the past 14 years, Sarsour, who also heads the National Network for Arab American Communities, has worked tirelessly to fight police brutality and racial profiling against black and brown communities of all backgrounds.