A Norwegian legislator has actually chosen Black Lives Matter, the worldwide racial justice motion, for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
In his election letter, Petter Eide, a Socialist Left member of the Storting, Norway’s parliament, composed that he had actually chosen Black Lives Matter “for their struggle against racism and racially motivated violence.”
“BLM’s call for systemic change have spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies,” he continued.
The motion started after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013 and reached a peak in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis policeman, Eide composed.
Eide mentioned Black Lives Matter’s “online platform to provide activists with a shared set of principles and goals,” stating the grassroots motion “comprises many views and a broad array of demands.”
Eide kept in mind that the Nobel committee has actually two times granted the peace reward to antiracist South Africans — Albert Luthuli in 1960 and Nelson Mandela in 1993.
“Awarding the Peace Prize to Black Lives Matter, as the global strongest force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity, and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles,” Eide stated.
“Sometimes the committee have been very brave,” Eide stated through e-mail to NBC News, indicating the 1964 peace reward winner Martin Luther King Jr. and Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, the 2010 winner. Eide included that Black Lives Matter will be “among the favorites” when the winner is revealed in December.
