“If those of us who are the most marginalized are safer and more protected, it will improve the lives of everybody.”—Charlene Carruthers, national director of Black Youth Project 100

The Black Youth Project 100 ( BYP100 ), a collective of young Black activists that started in 2013 in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, has been one of the main organizations leading the recent protests around the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald by a white police officer. Windy City Times spoke with leader Charlene Carruthers about the their mission to create justice where there is none.

Windy City Times: Tell us about BYP100.

Charlene Carruthers: We’re a national organization of young Black activists between the ages of 18 and 35 who are committed to getting freedom and justice for all Black people. We do our work through a Black, queer feminist lens, which means that we work very hard to center the most marginalized of the marginalized in the Black community. We carry out our mission through transformative leadership development, public policy advocacy, direct action organizing and civic engagement.

WCT: What does BYP100 support?

CC: We lead and support a number of campaigns around police accountability, living wages, ending mass criminalization and overall economic justice. We support the things that some people may not want to support; we don’t just support the so-called “perfect victim.” We believe that all Black folk in this world should be able to live within their full dignity. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for far too many of us.

 

Read the full interview at Windy City Times.

 

*This article was reposted with permission*