Black Lives Matter nominated for Nobel peace prize

A Norwegian lawmaker nominated Black Lives Matter, the global racial justice movement, for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

In his nomination letter, Petter Eide, a Socialist Left member of the Storting, Norway’s parliament, wrote that he nominated Black Lives Matter “for their struggle against racism and racially motivated violence.”

“BLM’s call for systemic change have spread around the world, forcing other countries to grapple with racism within their own societies,” he continued.

The movement began after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer in 2013 and reached a new peak in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, Eide wrote.

Eide cited Black Lives Matter’s “online platform to provide activists with a shared set of principles and goals,” saying the grassroots movement “comprises many views and a broad array of demands.”

Eide noted that the Nobel committee has twice awarded the peace prize to antiracist South Africans — Albert Luthuli in 1960 and Nelson Mandela in 1993.

“Awarding the Peace Prize to Black Lives Matter, as the global strongest force against racial injustice, will send a powerful message that peace is founded on equality, solidarity, and human rights, and that all countries must respect those basic principles,” Eide said.

“Sometimes the committee have been very brave,” Eide said via email to NBC News, pointing to 1964 and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winners Martin Luther King Jr. and Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident, saying that Black Lives Matter will be “among the favorites.”