In this newest video from Franchesca Ramsey and her Decoded series with MTV,  she debunks four of the most popular (very distracting and often false) myths about the Movement for Black Lives.

Working at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality almost always means dealing with detractors hellbent on proving that your social issue is unimportant, off base and otherwise useless. The Movement for Black Lives is a perfect example of how people who do not support the work will come up with literally any reason to discredit it.

In the video, Ramsey explains the mathematical problems behind the term “Black on Black crime” and even why it is inaccurate to assume that people who care about Black lives don’t care about anyone else’s lives. It is clear the video should be really helpful for people who are outside the Movement or don’t understand it at all. While this is a great effort, it also seems a bit tragic that people could be organizing for this effort for so long and people still be so clueless as to what all this work is about.

In the end, it is great to see Ramsey putting together projects like these to educate others. Hopefully, it will help push the Movement forward.

Watch the full video below:

Photo: YouTube screenshot

Author

  • Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others. Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.