Ayọ Tometi | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1984-08-15)August 15, 1984 (age 40)[1] |
| Education | University of Arizona (BA) Arizona State University (MA) |
| Occupation(s) | Activist, writer |
| Known for | Black Lives Matter, Black Alliance for Just Immigration |
| Website | www |
Ayọ Tometi (born August 15, 1984), formerly known asOpal Tometi, is an American human rights activist, writer, strategist, and community organizer.[2] She is a co-founder ofBlack Lives Matter (BLM).[3] She is the former executive director of the United States' first national immigrant rights organization for people of African descent, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), working there in various roles for over nine years.[4]
She started as an active community organizer in her hometown advocating for human rights issues. She has campaigned for advancing human rights, migrant rights, and racial justice worldwide. She also worked as a case manager for survivors of domestic violence.
Ayọ Tometi is the daughter ofNigerian immigrants, who hail from the city ofLagos. Her parents are ofYoruba ethnicity and they speak theYoruba andEsan languages.[5] Her great-great-great-grandfather was born in the country ofTogo, and his son, Tometi's great-grandfather was fromCameroon. Tometi's grandfather was born in Cameroon before eventually emigrating to Nigeria. The oldest of three children, Ayọ Tometi has two younger brothers and grew up mostly in the suburbs ofPhoenix, Arizona with other children of immigrants. In addition to Yoruba and Esan, Tometi grew up speakingPidgin English.[5]
Her parents moved from Nigeria to the United States as undocumented immigrants in 1983, the year before Tometi's birth.[6] During her middle school years, they faceddeportation and her mother was unable to return to Nigeria for the burial of her father (Tometi's maternal grandfather) because of the ongoing case.[6] Her parents were eventually successful in defeating their deportation case and able to remain in the United States.[7] Other family and friends of Tometi, including her uncle, also battled deportation during her youth.[8] Tometi's parents later opened a church at which her father is apastor, Phoenix Impact Center in Phoenix, Arizona, that also serves to help new immigrants adjust to life in the United States.[9][5] Tometi visited Nigeria for the first time when she was 17 years old and credits these experiences with shaping her approach to pro-immigration advocacy work.[6][8]
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree inpublic/applied history from theUniversity of Arizona in 2005 and a master's degree incommunication studies, with a specialization in advocacy and rhetoric, fromArizona State University in 2010.[10]
On May 7, 2016, she received an honorary doctor of science degree fromClarkson University.[11] Tometi is a former case manager for survivors of domestic violence and still provides community education on the issue.
After her parents won their deportation case, Tometi began demonstrating with theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She worked as a legal observer at theUS-Mexico border.[7] While studying at theUniversity of Arizona, Tometi advocated againstArizona SB 1070, one of the strictest anti-immigration bills passed in the history of the United States, with the Alto Arizona campaign.[12][6] At the Black-Brown Coalition of Arizona, she also previously held a position as the lead architect.[12] In 2010, Tometi also worked as a spokesperson for the Puente Movement, an immigrants rights group in Arizona.[13]
Tometi, with community organizers,Patrisse Cullors andAlicia Garza, foundedBlack Lives Matter (BLM) in 2013.[7] Originally, Garza wrote a Facebook post in response toGeorge Zimmerman's acquittal in themurder of Trayvon Martin. In a response to the post, Cullors used #blacklivesmatter for the first time. Then, Tometi contacted Cullors and Garza, interested in buying awebsite domain by the same name.[14] The three agreed, and Tometi purchasedBlacklivesmatter.com, established Facebook,Tumblr, andTwitter pages for the movement.[15][16] Tometi contacted numerous other activists in the Black community, alerting them of the new plans and inviting them to join by using the hashtag.[16] Tometi is also credited with selecting black and yellow as the organization's colors, in addition to forming BLM's social media platforms and strategy.[12][6]
After witnessing the unrest inFerguson, Missouri followingMichael Brown's killing, Tometi mobilized 500 community activists for a demonstration she called the "Black Lives Matter Freedom Ride." This event, fueled by social media, ignited a desire to turn Black Lives Matter into a global movement, addressing systemic racism and police brutality. The demonstration consolidated voices and actions, amplifying the movement's message and sparking conversations worldwide.[16]
AfterEric Garner was killed, Tometi organized with a campaign called "Safety Beyond Policing in New York." She is a proponent ofdefunding the police.[17]
From 2011 to 2020, Tometi worked as co- and communications director, prior to becoming the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the first national immigrant rights organization for people of African descent.[10][12] She was working as the executive director of BAJI when she first saw Garza's Facebook post in 2013. In this role, Tometi was responsible for directing staff within the BAJI organizing committees throughoutWashington, D.C.,Phoenix,Los Angeles,Oakland,New York, as well as committees within the South on various initiatives concerning racial justice and immigrant rights in the United States.[12] Her other contributions included leading organizing efforts for a rally for immigrant justice and the first Congressional briefing on black immigrants in Washington, D.C.[12] After the2010 Haiti earthquake, many Haitians were displaced and Tometi led BAJI in securingfamily reunification visas for those affected by the disaster.[12] She also helped start BAJI's partnership withRace Forward's Drop the I-Word campaign.[12]
In 2020, Tometi createdDiaspora Rising, a center focused on cultivating a global Black community, operating mostly on social media.[18]
Tometi also collaborates with the Black Immigration Network and the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights.[12] She has also been a part of theGlobal Forum on Migration and Commission on the Status of Women.[12] She serves on the board of directors for the International Living Future Institute and theAtlantic Fellows for Racial Equity.[12][18]
Tometi has spoken atSusquehanna University, the Facing Race Conference of 2012, theAspen Institute's Ideas Summit, and theGrinnell College Technology and Human Rights Symposium.[19][20][21][22] She has presented at theUnited Nations and has participated with the United Nations Global Forum on Migration and theCommission on the Status of Women.[19] While at The University of Arizona, Tometi volunteered with theAmerican Civil Liberties Union. She is additionally involved with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity[23] and is a member ofTheta Nu Xi sorority. Tometi was invited by theVenezuelan government to be an electoral observer for theparliamentary elections on December 6, 2015. Tometi stated she was "in a place where there is intelligent political discourse" and that the country appears to "have a truly thriving and rigorous democratic system."[24][25]
Tometi has appeared in several media outlets, includingGlamour,[26]Essence,[27]CNN,[28]MSNBC,[29] andBET.[30] Her written works have been published by several media outlets includingThe Huffington Post[31] andTime.[32] Tometi continues to collaborate with communities inLos Angeles,Phoenix,New York City,Oakland,Washington D.C. and communities throughout theSouthern states.
As of December 2021, Tometi lives inBrooklyn, New York City.[12]
A co-founder of the Black Lives Matter campaign is in Caracas for Election Day at the invitation of the socialist government. Opal Tometi was swarmed by government critics on Twitter after posting about the relief she felt being "in a place where there is intelligent political discourse." Some warned her that she was being used, while others drew derisive comparisons to other high-profile Americans who have supported the socialist administration, including Sean Penn and Oliver Stone. Black Lives Matter grew out of the outrage that followed several high-profile police killings of African-Americans in the United States last year. In a statement released by Venezuela's Washington-based public relations consultant, Tometi said that Venezuela appears to "have a truly thriving and rigorous democratic system."
In 2015, a year after violently repressing protests against his rule, Maduro was personally honored at the People of African Descent Leadership Summit in New York City, where he received an award for "his labor in favor of the afro-descendants of the United States." He took a picture with Ayọ Tometi, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter organization. Three months later, Tometi was in Caracas working as an electoral observer for Venezuela's parliamentary elections. "Currently in Venezuela," she tweeted. "Such a relief to be in a place where there is intelligent political discourse." When the opposition to Maduro won a supermajority, she released a statement: "In a significant blow to the progressive and most impoverished sectors of Venezuela and to global allies … the counter-revolutionaries won control of the National Assembly." (Tometi did not respond to a request for comment.)
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