The Black Lives Matter movement has been nominated for a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Petter Eide, a member of Norway’s Parliament, nominated the movement this week, calling it “a very important worldwide movement to fight 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. Black Lives Matter has become a very important worldwide movement to fight racial injustice. They have had a tremendous achievement in raising global awareness and consciousness about racial injustice,” Eide explained during an interview with The Guardian.
The Black Lives Matter movement was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.
Black Lives Matter acknowledged the nomination on Twitter as well, posting, “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 [raised fist].”
Eide also received some negative feedback for his nomination as many Americans have called the movement a terrorist organization.
He addressed those issues with The Guardian too, adding, “If we go 50 years back, those arguments also came up when Dr. Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 — exactly the same arguments. And when twice the (African National Congress) leaders of South Africa received the Nobel Peace Prize, there were also incidents of violence. But you can’t use that as a counter-argument to say Mandela was not working for justice or peace.”
The Nobel Peace Prize winner will be select on in October and the ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 10, 2021.
