The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel peace prize for the way its call for systemic change has spread around the world.
Petter Eide, a Norwegian member of parliament, told USA Today on Saturday that he nominated Black Lives Matter because it is “bringing forward a new consciousness and awareness about racial justice.”
“To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia,” Eide said. “They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice.”
“I find that one of the key challenges we have seen in America, but also in Europe and Asia, is the kind of increasing conflict based on inequality,” Eide said. “Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice.
Eide said Black Lives Matter carries forward the legacy of earlier racial justice movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela won the prize in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their campaigns against racial discrimination in South Africa.
Founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter was seen as the answer to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
The organization would continue to gain attention and become a rallying cry following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014. The 2020 deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor ignited a global Black Lives Matter movement in support of Black Americans and the issue of police brutality, including several here in Westchester County.
We hold the largest social movement in global history. Today, we have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. People are waking up to our global call: for racial justice and an end to economic injustice, environmental racism, and white supremacy. We're only getting started ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/xjestPNFzC
— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) January 30, 2021
“We hold the largest social movement in global history. Today, we have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” Black Lives Matter tweeted on Friday. “People are waking up to our global call: for racial justice and an end to economic injustice, environmental racism, and white supremacy. We’re only getting started,”
Nobel Peace Prize nominations are accepted from any politician serving at a national level, and those submitting have 2,000 words to state their reasoning for selection.
The deadline for 2021 submissions is Monday. A committee will prepare a shortlist of nominations by the end of March, and the winner is selected in October, followed by an award ceremony slated for Dec. 10.
