Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Discusses Clinton, Trump, And Systemic Racism

Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek for their Interview Issue and in a video profile, streaming below.

The discussion ranges from the origin of the movement — a Facebook post Garza wrote following George Zimmerman's acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin — to the 2016 presidential election. "There’s millions of people backing a fascist ideologue," Garza said, referring to Donald Trump, suggesting his emergence is, in part, a political retort to Black Lives Matter. "[I]f Donald Trump is going to be stopped, it has to be by people who he wants to organize saying, 'We’re not standing for that.'”

Garza's views of Hillary and Bill Clinton were far from rose-colored, though. She decried what she saw as their tendency to "use black people for votes" and "photo-ops," and that Clinton's lack of a support for a national $15 minimum wage reveals a gap in the presidential nominee's dedication to the economic justice planks of Black Lives Matter. But Garza did make clear that she would use her influence in the upcoming election: "I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that we are not led by Donald Trump."

Garza also spoke on the lessons she's learned from the Civil Rights movements of the '60s. "One thing is that you cannot underestimate the power of direct action and disruption. The other is that you have to be willing to use many different tools: electoral organizing, community organizing."

Read the entire interview, which includes her thoughts on President Obama, at Bloomberg.