Three women who founded the Black Lives Matter anti-police movement are among the “World’s Greatest Leaders,” according to a new Fortune list of the top 50 world leaders.
In a short profile about the movement that “succeeded where Occupy Wall Street failed,” Fortune describes how “Black Lives Matter has steadily gained momentum since its founding in 2013, when activist Alicia Garza coined the phrase and fellow activist Patrisse Cullors made it a hashtag.
“Alongside Opal Tometi, they created the Black Lives Matter network, which has grown to 28 local chapters, each fighting a range of racial injustices like police brutality and racial profiling.”
The site describes race protests at the University of Missouri as a success, and applauds the group’s disruptive antics at presidential rallies and other political events.
The group’s members have shouted down Democratic presidential candidates like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley. BLM members have left bloodied from protesting Donald Trump events, though they successfully shut down a recent Trump stop in Chicago by threatening violence.
“Last year the movement inspired college students to take up the mantel, with some successes (the system president and chancellor of the University of Missouri resigned over outcry they failed to address campus racism),” according to Fortune.
“They also pushed presidential candidates to address the country’s systemic racism – an issue would-be nominees would probably have preferred to sidestep.”
Atlanta Black Star highlighted BLM leaders making the prestigious Fortune power list, and explains why the group is better than Occupy or the Tea Party.
“In a list of 50 world leaders, artists and business people, the three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement came in 27th on Fortune‘s list of World’s Greatest Leaders. Back in 2012, three Black women created the movement that galvanized the nation,” according to the site.
BLM “is an extension of the 2011 Occupy movement that had a brief stint that year but quickly faded out. That movement was intended to overturn the capitalistic system many of the followers believed to bet the root of issues like the 2008 financial crisis, the housing market crash, and extreme student loan debt,” the site summarized from the Fortune feature.
“The Conversation explains that the Occupy movement and the Tea Party were two movements that stemmed from the 2008 financial collapse but never truly cemented themselves like the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Atlanta Black Star also dismisses critics who view the organization as racist against whites.
“The BLM movement has been subjected to criticism from the far right and many people who believe the term and organization itself is divisive,” according to the site, which quoted Tometi’s recent comments that the group wants a “multiracial democracy that works for all.”
Hillary Clinton was absent from the list, which also included Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
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