Alicia Garza Warns of the "Moderate Oppressor"

On February 12, 2016, Alicia Garza, the social activist who created the Twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013, spoke at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium for the 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Convocation. Alicia Garza stated that she has not started a new civil rights movement, but is continuing the work of past giants in the movement, such as Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X.

Alicia read a letter Martin Luther King wrote from Birmingham Jail, which she stated was a less noted letter from the civil rights activist because in it he warns of the oppressive moderate, who claimed to be on the side of civil rights, rather than targeting extremists in the pro segregationist movement. Alicia claimed that those who supported the movement and whom chose not to take action were oppressors since they did not embrace social change.

While not all support the tactics of members of "Black Lives Matter", she claimed the movement is necessary to convince the oppressive moderates to take the action needed to reform the criminal justice system and to create an environment where police brutality is less likely to occur.

Alicia brought up arguments against the phrase "Black Lives Matter" by those who claim "All Lives Matter". Alicia agreed that will lives matter, but the reasoning for the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is due to the disproportionate rate in which blacks are affected by police brutality. Once the proper reforms are made to the criminal justice system, not just blacks, but people of all races will benefit from them. Thus, the "Black Lives Matter" movement has an endgame to benefit all races and will change to "All Lives Matter" once their goals are achieved.