Keilosha Walker, left, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, puts her fist up during a night rally in honor of Alton Sterling yesterday Gerald Herbert Gerald Herbert

A DEMONSTRATION IN solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the US is to take place tonight in Dublin.

The demonstration has been organised by the Anti-Racism Network Ireland (ARNI) and the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) movements.

It will be held this evening  at the Spire on O’Connell Street at 6.30pm.

The protest has been organised with racial tensions in the US at dangerous levels following the shooting of two black men, Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, by police officers in the US last week.

Anti Racism Network Ireland / Facebook Anti Racism Network Ireland / Facebook / Facebook

The subsequent shooting dead of five police officers in Dallas last Friday morning by a former member of the American armed forces, Micah Johnson, has put the American racial relations on a knife edge.

It later emerged that Johnson, who was eventually killed by a bomb placed by a remote-controlled robot, had told police that he wanted to “kill white people”.

“In 2015, black males aged between 15 and 34 were five times more likely than white males of the same age to be killed by the police,” said Hassan Ould Moctar of ARNI.

It is clear that a black person’s mere existence still represents a threat worthy of extermination, as evidenced by the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Miriam Carey, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Mya Hall, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

Those attending the demonstration are being encouraged to bring placards, banners, and messages of support.

“The devaluing of dark skin also stretches beyond the borders of the US and underpins our indifference to the 10,000 people that have drowned in the Mediterranean since 2014, and to the 5,000 people currently incarcerated in the Direct Provision system here in Ireland,” says Moctar.

We therefore stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and their struggle against deeply ingrained institutional racial prejudice, but also against this international system of white supremacy.

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