The Dream Defenders was founded in April 2012 after the incident involving a young Black man Trayvon Martin who was killed by a man of Latin origin in Florida. A year after this case, when George Zimmerman was acquitted, the Dream Defenders demanded justice. Their main achievement was that they “had built the groundwork for a movement that would spark thousands of young people in Florida and across the country to take action” [1].
Now this organization is preparing Black and Brown youth to take action and promote safety and security, to advance society “towards healthcare, housing, jobs and movement for all”.
Their main agenda is called Freedom Papers. As far as we can see, these are articles dedicated to particular issues. For instance, Freedom From Poverty, Freedom From Prisons And Police, etc [Picture 2]. They contain historic overview of the issue, some contain accusations towards some institutions, e.g., police, and defense of rights and freedoms.
They call themselves abolitionists - a term for those who wanted to abolish slavery back in 19th century. They practice this abolitionist way “of dealing with conflict and holding people accountable in opposition to the punitive nature of the prison system that treats people as disposable, locks them up and throws away the key” [2].
They also call themselves feminists and socialists, as they highlight the difficulties that Black women face in their everyday life and they are driven by socialist ideals and principles (mainly cooperation and basic human needs of all people).
Thus, we see that racism-born organizations and movements are getting bigger and more and more urgent problems around the world are coming into their field of vision. However, whether this is a way of manipulation to attract as much support and participants as possible or not is up to each of us to decide.
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