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6 - Online Racial Justice Advocacy

from Part I - Organizing and Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2024

By
Melanie Brazzell
Edited by
Brian D. Christens
Brian D. Christens
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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Summary

This chapter examines the past decade of organizing against the carceral state under the banner of “Black Lives Matter” (BLM). It draws on my collaborative research with Color Of Change and the movement for transformative justice alternatives to prison and policing for gendered violence. I look at recent BLM mobilizations through three lenses. One tracks BLM’s macro-level gains for community power at the situational, institutional, and systemic levels. Another documents the micro-level psychological empowerment processes of Black queer feminist approaches that center Black joy, political education, and care for Black women. Lastly, I look at the meso-level organizational settings that bridge individual psychological empowerment and capacity-building with macro-level outcomes like policy changes and culture shifts. Drawing on Han, McKenna, and Oyakawa’s concept of the “prism” (2021), I coin the term “Black prism” to describe organizations like Color Of Change that build political homes to amplify the power of Black constituents.

Keywords

Black Lives Matterracial justiceonline activismColor Of ChangeBlack prismpolitical homescriminal justice reformdefund the policeBYP100Black radical tradition
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Community Empowerment , pp. 162 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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