Illinois Wesleyan University’s Student Senate welcomed Opal Tometi, a co-founder of the #Black Lives Matter movement, to the campus community Thursday at Hansen Student Center.
Tometi is executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), a national organization advocating for immigrant rights and racial justice with African-American, Afro-Latino, African and Caribbean immigrant communities. A racial justice communications consultant, she has spoken about the work of the Black Lives Matter movement at several colleges and universities across the nation.
The event was part of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s ongoing “3D” series of events on Diversity, Dialogue and Dignity, and also was a Nation(s) Divided? presentation.
Tometi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Masters of Arts degree in Communication and Advocacy. The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she grew up in Phoenix, Arizona where she is a board member of the Puente Movement. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York where she loves riding her single speed bike and collecting African art.
In a press interview this week, Tometi said “I have yet to see a substantive cross-cutting racial justice platform from any of the (presidential) candidates."
“Simply declaring, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ can never be substitute for tangible, transformative policy agendas that offer true solutions from issues from jobs to housing, immigration, education to LGBTQ, health care, mass incarceration and more," Tometi said. "I won’t be satisfied until I see the candidates with a clearly articulated platform; one that demonstrates they understand how race and racism works at a structural level."