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called a love note to Black people: “Black people. I love you. I
love us. Our lives matter. Black Lives Matter.” Garza posted her
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love letter on Facebook, and it attracted immediate attention. In
Southern California one of Garza’s close friends, Patrisse Cul-
lors, shared the message with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. In

New York City another friend, immigration rights organizer Opal
Tometi, was inspired to contact Garza after she saw the post:
“There [was] a lot of rage, a lot of pain, a lot of cynicism. But her
post resonated with me, for a number of
reasons. I think it being explicitly black,
it being a message rooted in love, and “Black people. I love you.
it just felt very hopeful.” Tometi called I love us. Our lives mat- 5
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ter. Black Lives Matter.”
Garza and offered to create a social me-
dia platform called Black Lives Matter, — Alicia Garza, cofounder of
which would utilize the slogan to launch Black Lives Matter
a new civil rights movement.

Valuing Some Lives over Others

The names Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown will forever be
linked through the Black Lives Matter movement. Although the
two young men never met, they shared some things in common
during their tragically short lives—experiences that are common
to millions of other Black Americans in every part of the United
States. Brown and Martin lived in a country where glaring racial
inequality was built into nearly every aspect of their existence.
According to fi gures compiled by the public policy organization
Brookings Institution, the average White family in 2020 held ten
times more wealth than the average Black family. Blacks were
twice as likely as Whites to lack health insurance and three times
more likely to live in poverty. And Black people continue to be
treated with suspicion by authorities whether they are shopping,
going to school, driving, or simply walking down the street.
These problems are commonly referred to as systemic racism.
This term defi nes racial discrimination that is deeply embedded

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