In defiant post-election statement, Black Lives Matter urges supporters to 'continue to fight'

National leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have released a statement about the election results.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

last updated 16 November 2016

The Black Lives Matter Global Network issued a statement Tuesday exclusively to Mic, addressing the group's concerns now that Donald Trump is the U.S. president-elect. "Our mandate has not changed: Organize and end all state-sanctioned violence until all Black Lives Matter," the statement reads. The group then encourages its supporters to continue using civic engagement to fight the notion of white supremacy in America:

"We must reckon with the anti-blackness of America's history that led to this political moment. We continue to operate from a place of love for our people and a deep yearning for real freedom. In our work, we center the most marginalized, and look to them for leadership. We fight for our collective liberation because we are clear that until black people are free, no one is free. We are committed to practicing empathy for one another in this struggle — but we do not and will not negotiate with racists, fascists, or anyone who demands we compromise our existence. [...] It is our duty to win, we will continue to fight. And today, like every day before it, we demand reparations, economic justice, a commitment to black futures and an end to the war on black people, in the United States and around the world." [Black Lives Matter Global Network, via Mic]

The group also describes Trump's Election Day victory as what happens when "white people become resentful" of black people and women gaining power. "Last week," the group writes, "that resentment manifested itself in the election of a white supremacist to the highest office in American government." Read the full statement at Mic.

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Ricky Soberano is the social media editor at TheWeek.com. Her writing has appeared in Complex, Nylon, Gothamist, Maxim, and others. Previously she was the culture editor for The Stony Brook Press and contributing editor for The Odyssey. She has a B.A. in multidisciplinary studies in journalism and dance from Stony Brook University and an A.S. in dance from Queensborough Community College. She's lived in Brooklyn her whole life, eats too much ramen, and freelance models, and she enjoys writing about the undiscovered and underreported within the sphere of culture. Follow her on Twitter.