Black Lives Matter will not endorse in 2016

The cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement said the network would not endorse a presidential candidate in 2016. 

Alicia Garza, who describes herself as the network’s co-creator and a director with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, told The Associated Press, “that’s not work we’re engaged in yet.”

{mosads}”Black Lives Matter as a network will not, does not, has not, ain’t going to endorse any candidates,” she told the news service. “Now if there are activists within the movement that want to do that independently, they should feel free and if that’s what makes sense for their local conditions, that’s fantastic. But as a network, that’s not work we’re engaged in yet.”

Garza said that the network could become more involved with candidates in the future but “we’re not there yet.”

“What we’ve seen is an attempt by mainstream politics and politicians to co-opt movements that galvanize people in order for them to move closer to their own goals and objectives,” she said. “We don’t think that playing a corrupt game is going to bring change and make black lives matter.”

She said the network would forge ahead with protests at campaign stops. Stump speeches for Democratic nominees like Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have been interrupted by the chants in the past. Others have engaged with Hillary Clinton on the trail. 

“Sometimes you have to put a wrench in the gears to get people to listen,” she said. 

The movement gaining national attention after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last year but traces its origins to the Florida killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. The movement’s slogan has become widely used, inside and out of the original network founded by Garza and others.