police brutality

“Don’t kill my mother!”

We walked down the Avenue with hundreds of people shouting, «Rabble united will never be forgotten», or would it be «Rabble forgotten always united»?, «our fight is every day, against racism and xenophobia». Cláudia Simões, another Black woman beaten, her face destroyed in a rear-naked choke, in which the lion was PSP police officer Carlos Canha who attacked her in front of her desperate daughter, watching her mother's despair. Listening to her mother scream: “He wants to pierce my eye.” Listening to the irascible policeman: “Bite, bite, bite,” “these people don’t know the laws” or “you’ll get hit with a bullet.” And the girl begging: “Don’t kill my mother!”

City

12.06.2024 | by Marta Lança

Jîna ‘Mahsa’ Amini Was Kurdish And That Matters. Say her Kurdish name.

Shortly after Amini’s violent death on 16 September, protests broke out and spread from the Kurdish parts of Iran to the whole country and the world. Demonstrators chanted the Kurdish slogan “jin, jiyan, azadî” – “woman, life, freedom”. But in news reports, particularly Western ones, Jîna Amini’s Kurdish identity has been erased – she is described as an Iranian woman and her ‘official’ Persian name ‘Mahsa’ – which for her family and friends existed only on state-documents –is the one in headlines. Calls to “say her name” echo in real life and across social media but unwittingly obscure Jîna’s real name and, in doing so, her Kurdish identity.

Games Without Borders

18.10.2022 | by Meral Çiçek

Nikkolas Smith: Art Can Help Show That Black Lives Matter. It Can Also Lead to Activism

A lot of my pieces are social experiments to say, “What do you feel when you see this human life?” If your first reaction is to say, “They deserved to die because …,” that says a lot about who you are. I hope my art will speak to those people who are so quick to justify the taking of a human life, so that they think: “Wait. This person should still be on this earth. They deserved better.” Up until now, I’ve been creating art and advocating for Black lives from my perspective, of not wanting me to be pulled over and killed by the police.

Mukanda

14.12.2020 | by Nikkolas Smith

Black Lives Matter Stands in Solidarity with #ENDSARS Movement Against Police Brutality

As Black Lives Matter, we recognize and affirm the sanctity of all Black lives everywhere in the world. Following the murder of an unarmed civilian by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigerian police, young people across Nigeria have held protests denouncing years of brutality, torture, abductions, and killings. The demonstrations mark one of the largest Nigerian protest movements in generations. (...) There is a global movement for Black lives afoot. From the protestors in Cameroon who faced down water cannon and tear gas, to the fierce women in Namibia demanding #Shutitalldown, to the brave Zimbabweans campaigning for the release of Takudzwa Ngadziore, we will not be silenced and we cannot be stopped. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for all Black lives striving for liberation. We stand against all violence inflicted on black communities.