Sunday, November 05, 2017

US – Black Lives Matter


"Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men, and Hispanic men are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as non-Hispanic white men," says a fact sheet published by The Sentencing Project, adding that people of colour make up around 67 percent of the 2.2 million people in the country's prisons and jails.

These disparities, particularly the killing of African Americans by police, sparked the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, a popular civil rights movement aimed at ending police violence and dismantling structural racism.

A week before the presidential election, police in Paterson, New Jersey, shot an unarmed black man, 41-year-old Larry Bouie, in front of his two sons.

In late September, mass protests broke out in Charlotte, North Carolina, following the fatal police shooting of Terence Crutcher , an unarmed black man.

'White supremacist in highest office'

President-elect Donald Trump has drawn the ire of communities of colour, particularly African Americans, for his lengthy history of racist comments and offensive descriptions of black communities.

Since Trump's electoral victory, protests have erupted in cities and towns across the country, and mainstream media outlets have reported an increase in hate crimes targeting communities of colour, including black communities.

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