Shortly after the media projected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as winners of the 2020 election last month, Black Lives Matter sent a letter to the pair congratulating them and asking for a meeting. After all, the group’s support wasn't going to come for free.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said the group wanted “to discuss the expectations that we have for your administration and the commitments that must be made to Black people.”
Biden and Harris wouldn’t have gotten to where they did without the support of black people and BLM’s efforts to mobilize tens of millions of voters. “We want something for our vote,” she said, expressing an interest in being “actively engaged in your Transition Team’s planning and policy work.”
According to a recent BLM Instagram post, however, the group is still waiting.
“On the night of the Biden Harris victory, BLM sent a letter requesting a meeting,” read the description next to a graphic explaining it’s been 32 days and the group has heard nothing.
“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Rep. Cedric Richmond met with several civil rights groups yesterday. We weren’t invited. Black life cannot wait. Creating thriving conditions for Black communities in the 21st century cannot be put on pause.
“As the organization leading the largest global social justice movement, we demand a seat at the table,” the statement continued. “To ignore us—and the 64,000 of you who have signed our petition—is to ignore our generation’s most pressing demands for transformative justice.”
Their post closed by calling on their followers to "let them know you’re waiting too."
State Rep. Vernon Jones said it showed black lives don't really matter to Biden or BLM.
BLM says Biden-Harris have been silent on meeting request. Being right sucks! I told you Black lives don’t matter to ??@JoeBiden? or @blm. They don’t even matter to each other! https://t.co/0svsAemMJX
— Vernon Jones (@RepVernonJones) December 12, 2020