By In an era where the fight for justice transcends borders and oceans, two communities — Black Americans and Palestinians — have found common ground in their struggles against systemic injustice and brutality. This Black-Palestinian solidarity, rooted in shared experiences of oppression and a relentless quest for dignity, has woven a powerful narrative of unity in the face of adversity.
Particularly poignant was the global outcry following the murder of George Floyd. This event not only galvanized the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement but also resonated deeply with Palestinians, who saw parallels between their fight and the systemic racism faced by Black Americans. Both groups, victims of long-standing injustices that span decades — if not centuries — have stood shoulder to shoulder, offering support, empathy, and solidarity. This alliance underscores a profound understanding: the battle against oppression is universal, and the quest for justice knows no borders.
To bring to spotlight the authentic narratives of the Black-Palestinian solidarity and amplify the voices of Black communities within university campuses, we sat with two students who are joining forces with pro-Palestinians this year.
Alexis Barber is a graphic design/visual arts student at Fullsail University and has been openly advocating for the rights of the Palestinian people through her social media channels. In a world where the fight against oppression and injustice continues to unite disparate struggles, African American and Black communities portray a stellar solidarity with Palestine that stands out as a beacon of shared resilience and mutual support.
Rodney Smith is a doctoral student at Howard University in the Department of African Studies, where he focuses on development & diplomacy, international political economy, and public policy. He speaks to us about the plight of the Palestinian people and draws parallels between their struggles and the struggles faced by the Black people in the world.
It was a breath of fresh air to get students’ perspectives representing nowadays youth of the Black-Palestinian solidarity. Here’s what they had to say.
ZAINAB KHAN [FROM MUSLIM GIRL]: Can you share what initially drew you to support Palestinian rights and how your identity as a Black person influences your perspective on the struggle in Palestine?
ALEXIS BARBER: Unfortunately, I had to learn about the Palestinian struggle on my own at the age of 29 (I am now 30). I was drawn to learn about Palestine because Bisan and Motaz kept appearing on my For You Page on Instagram. Watching their stories and hearing the pain in their voices made it easy for me to speak up for them. It was a no-brainer for me. When you know better, you do better.
RODNEY SMITH: In my collegiate and post-collegiate years in my twenties, I concentrated on learning about the global Black experience and rooting that experience in the continent with the most significant number of Black people in the world — Africa. Those years fortified my understanding of my own identity as a Black African born and raised in the United States in a community of U.S. citizens who descend from enslaved Africans traded in the Western hemisphere and who developed a distinct form of cross-cultural unification amidst overt oppression.
My time in South Africa and in Rwanda emboldened my worldview that oppression is pervasive for Black people but not for Black people exclusively. Reading Black revolutionaries of the 20th century in Africa and Black political dissidents to a U.S. government, I bore witness through their testimonies to ways in which the U.S. purported to promote and to protect human rights while tolerating encroachments and offenses against the rights of U.S. citizens who were termed Negro, Black, and African American as well as members of the 500 nations that predate the United States.
While taking some courses in the Division of Global Affairs in Rutgers Newark, I had time to speak with Palestinian and Egyptian students about our overlapping, yet distinct struggles for true freedom.
I also began to examine the negligence of the world concerning the Rwandan genocide and decided to read as much as I could find on genocide for some time. In 2009, when Israel bombed Sudan, I noticed that there was a difference between the coverage in the United States and Africa. I began to see that, for one reason or another, the U.S. media covers Israel with a preference beyond Palestinian issues, while African news and media share a different perspective.
In speaking with members of the Black Panther community, I finally realized that amongst all revolutionary-minded Black groups within our global communities, there exists an understanding of our interconnected struggles to uproot oppressive forces and the need for solidarity beyond local, national, or regional borders. The families and friends of those humble giants who act politically to organize and to shift policy in each city I’ve been to have been outspoken in the physical and the digital world.
The United States remained so silent about the encroachment against Palestinian land because Israel is a known regional ally to the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
I found them enlightening and also a ground to consider to what extent U.S. citizens, and Black people in particular, are vocalizing concern for Palestinian humans outside of our cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or national identities.
Palestine is part of the global Black experience in reality. The people who have lived in the region include individuals of various lineages who converge through trade faith and language. The Islamic world and its Christian counterpart, and the Israelite world have engaged with Africa since its inception and the peoples of Africa traveled to and from Palestine.
In what ways do you see the historical and current struggles of Black people and Palestinians as interconnected? How does this view shape your approach to solidarity?
A.BARBER: Figures like Malcolm X stood with Palestine. In 1993, Michael Jackson wrote a song called “Palestine Don’t Cry.” Many African Americans are descendants of slaves. My mother is four years younger than Ruby Bridges (the first Black girl to integrate schools).
American history has been whitewashed. Our accomplishments and successful towns have been erased. The same is happening to Palestine and its people. The world watches as they are slaughtered in the streets, including babies in incubators, and does nothing, as it always does.
What specific actions or forms of advocacy have you engaged in to support Palestinian rights? How do you integrate these efforts into your broader commitment to social justice?
A.BARBER: I create graphics and share any content I can on social media. I have signed petitions and sent emails. When I can, I attend protests; if I can’t, I spread the word on social media.
R.SMITH: I believe the discussion on Palestine in the United States requires advocates for Palestinian rights to take a critical view of the stakeholders who lead in the confrontation to those rights and to discern the critical spaces of power-brokering. This leads to advocacy in returning discourse to divestment from Israel at minimum until bombs cease to be dropped on Palestinian land and people in Gaza and the West Bank. It means advocacy for the U.S. government to demonstrate impartiality without regard to race, religion, or creed in all matters that qualify under international criminal law as 1) a crime against humanity; 2) a genocide; 3) ethnic cleansing; and 4) a war crime.
In Palestine, we bear witness to all of the above-mentioned without much need for debate. Still, politically and legally, humans repeatedly lack the will to prosecute genocide for what it means and what it obliges the legal world and the perpetrators.
As a U.S. citizen, I know the obligation of each literate citizen holder to speak the truth in civil society and to promote action within the private sector and the public sector. It looks like education across generations for power brokers exists intergenerationally. It includes continually speaking on the issues in spaces that occupy the minds of the masses of citizens and where information becomes trending news.
My actions are to promote the consideration of divestment from Israel by the United States private sector, which will compel the United States government to change its position within the United Nations and lead the U.S. legislature to enact laws sanctioning Israel and/or to begin reduction of its military contributions to the modern nation of Israel until Israel demonstrates immediate redirection of its approach to Palestine (ceasefire and policy enacted to redress the crimes).
I continue to write in the digital spaces where my networks converge and I openly advocate that the University of Pennsylvania add its name to the list of Universities in the United States that are divesting because the University of Pennsylvania is my alma mater and one of the most significant institutional allies in brokering power for 20th and 21st century Zionism.
What challenges or criticisms have you faced in your advocacy for Palestine, particularly within your community? How have you navigated these challenges?
A.BARBER: I have made friends like Rana from Egypt, who has become like a sister to me. I am blessed to have a community that supports my views and gives me the space to express them. Not everyone has that, but I’m here always for those who need it. I’ve always been vocal and passionate about the things I care about. My stance on Palestine isn’t surprising to those around me.
How do you envision the role of Black-Palestinian solidarity in the broader fight against oppression and injustice? What steps are necessary to strengthen this solidarity from now on?
A. BARBER: I’m still figuring out what I envision for the role of Black-Palestinian solidarity. For now, I want the Palestinian people to be free. I want Lama to grow up and become the fantastic journalist she dreams of being. I want Motaz’s dreams to excite him again. I want Bisan to stop having night terrors and Plestia to celebrate her 22nd birthday, not surrounded by war like her 21st. In the future, the steps to solidarity are simple: sympathy and empathy. The world has become desensitized, and I think once that changes, it will be easier for people to see that just because “it happens” doesn’t mean it should.
The intertwining of Black and Palestinian struggles against oppression is not merely coincidental but deeply rooted in similar experiences of suffering and injustice that span across continents and generations.
The intertwining of Black and Palestinian struggles against oppression is not merely coincidental but deeply rooted in similar experiences of suffering and injustice that span across continents and generations. Both communities have faced systemic dehumanization, displacement, and violence yet have shown remarkable resilience and solidarity in their quests for dignity and freedom.
R. SMITH: The steps that are necessary to expand Black-Palestinian solidarity begin with the African world reconsidering the entire history of Palestine and also with determining whether both the African continent and the Asian continent should be the safe havens for Palestinian refugees more than Western Europe and the Americas.
It also strengthens with Palestinian peoples in the United States joining the movement promoting reparations to the African Diaspora for the enslavement of Africans in the Americas as a redress to the well-documented crimes against humanity delivered unto Black people with systemic impunity, which continue through legitimated means in the present-day United States.
Mutual signaling to each community that the other is seen is essential. Black political activists, religious leaders, and business professionals must simultaneously speak on Palestinian oppression to their constituents to make plain to the masses of Black people that our silence in this matter renders us complicit to a broader judgment that may befall the Western world for turning a blind eye to this genocide, which is televised daily.
While Palestinians need to defend their homeland, they also need a political space from which to build as a Diaspora to remain unified culturally and politically. I believe that the African continent and the Asian continent are naturally the best locations because the ideological foes of our peoples overlap. The same European and North American nations that refrain from showing active support to the Palestinian peoples even amidst an election cycle may not be the ideal locations in which to rebuild, but rather the final blow to intentional cultural preservation.
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