 Black Lives Matter is in the news a lot, but do you know what it is and what its goals are? A quick note here, this is the perfect kind of topic for these videos. We make them so you can get the big picture without doing a ton of research yourself. But at the same time, this is the kind of topic people get into fights about at Thanksgiving. So we're going to try to be really careful. We always base what we say on research, so we'll focus on what we can learn from the movement itself and try to get multiple sources for everything so you can be reasonably confident in what we're telling you. We actually have to start with how Black Lives Matter is organized to even understand what its goals are. Black Lives Matter is a very decentralized movement and started in 2013 as a Facebook post in hashtag, as more people used it to label calls to action and online commentary around police killings of black men. That online network started to be used to organize protests that might include people who didn't participate in any of the online organizing. So different chapters in online groups may use the Black Lives Matter name and not all be doing the same thing or even be connected. One of the founders, if you can say that it has founders, has said that the National Movement doesn't organize everything. They just give a framework for local groups to lead themselves and focus on their own priorities. So people outside and people reporting on it in the media will get confused about who represents the movement and who counts as part of it, which is important when there are different people giving different statements that contradict each other. That's why it's hard to talk about their beliefs as just being one thing. No one person or group is in charge of Black Lives Matter, so it's hard to say that they only believe one thing. There is a bunch of things that different people in Black Lives Matter disagree about as well. And not everyone who uses the term considers themselves part of the movement or it's considered by other activists as a part of the movement. There's no one to approve your application for membership or kick you out. We can talk about what the national group says they believe and also look at some of the chapters to give you an idea, but it won't cover everyone who considers themselves part of Black Lives Matter or everything that's been argued for by individual groups. Now that we've admitted you're not actually getting any answers, this seems like a good time to point out that all sales and anime educate are final. Obviously, the big issue everyone thinks about when they think of Black Lives Matter is the police and the criminal justice system, since the biggest topic of protest has been police killings of Black men. The Black Lives Matter website itself says that 2.8 million Black people locked in cages in this country is state violence, as they put it. The movement for Black Lives describes itself as a collective of organizations representing Black people and is connected to Black Lives Matter and their website has more detailed statements about what policy changes they want made, which they released as part of the election. Their platform related to the police and courts includes no zero-tolerant school policies where students are arrested for breaking school rules, no death penalty, no money charged for bail, no court fees for defendants, meaning the fees you pay when you're charged even if you win or the ones you pay on top of your punishment, not the fines themselves, no using criminal histories and job applications, no deportation for Black immigrants, no mass surveillance of Black communities with things like drones, software to predict crime patterns or cell phone signal grabbers, no military tactics or technology for cops, no prisons run by private corporations, no solitary confinement, no shackling of pregnant women, and more community control over law enforcement. The movement for Black Lives said that they would be starting local campaigns to try and get different individual police departments to change the way they do things, though other people in the Black Lives Matter movement have focused on trying to get politicians to change the law and government regulations or even running for office themselves. Some other activists have said that their goal is really to make all Americans understand what life in America is like for a Black person as a way to change the system. All these different goals just prove the old saying that there is more than one way to skin a cat. Some in the movement have said that they are about more than just police and crime issues, though, and that their goals include addressing many different kinds of injustice. The Black Lives Matter website talks about guiding principles like being unapologetically Black, about supporting Black women, being open to Black families, and being committed to a restorative justice community that can include all people. It also talks about being part of a global Black community, being transgender affirming and being queer affirming, which means that transgender members can freely participate and it's not assumed that anyone is automatically straight, or that being straight is better. The movement for Black Lives list of demands outside of just criminal justice stuff includes a constitutional right to college education for all, more funding for education in Black communities and within the prison system, universal health care, less military spending, less use of fossil fuels, more government job programs, the right for workers to form unions on demand, to break up big banks, to change the tax code to redistribute more wealth from the rich to the poor, more environmental protections, renegotiating trade agreements, support for Black financial institutions, more regulations protecting workers, publicly financing elections and ending corporate donations, as well as super PACs, and universal voter registration that includes former felons and illegal immigrants or undocumented workers, depending on your side of that issue. So there's a lot there. Looking at the chapters, and this is just the ones listed on the Black Lives Matter website, which doesn't include all the groups considering themselves part of the movement, there are 37 around the country plus one in Canada. The Chicago group organized protests to try and get rid of the police superintendent after the shooting of a Black teenager and they also campaign against closing schools in Black neighborhoods. The San Francisco Bay Area group has been part of the campaign to increase the California minimum wage to $15 an hour. The New York City group started a super PAC. If you'd like a reminder of what a super PAC is and what it can do for you, you can check out our videos on campaign finance. The DC Area chapter offers emotional emancipation circles for members to discuss and process the emotional trauma they feel from slavery and anti-Black actions, runs social functions for Blacks only, is putting together a Black Lives Matter curriculum, and organizes protests. And then the Seattle chapter, just one more random example, coordinates protests and charitable collections for things like legal defense and flooding in Louisiana on its Facebook page. So that's a Black Lives Matter. It was probably a little less certain than you were hoping for, but hopefully it helps give you an idea of what the movement's all about. And there you have it. As always, sources are in the description. Please like and subscribe. I'll keep making new videos about twice a month, so if you subscribe, you'll know what new stuff comes out as soon as possible.