FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2025
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BLM Grassroots – California Calls Out the Censoring of Teachers and Students Under the Guise of Stopping Anti-Semitism
Black Lives Matter – California and each of the state’s eight chapters condemn the passage by the state legislature and signing into law by Governor Gavin Newsom of the unconstitutional and undemocratic bill AB 715 and its weak companion legislation, SB 48.
Dubbed by the Santa Barbara Independent as “California’s MAGA in disguise,” AB 715 creates a so-called civil rights office, appoints an “Anti-Semitism Coordinator,” and allows anonymous complaints against students and teachers who speak out in opposition to the genocide in Gaza or the brutal Israeli regime.
AB 715 is unconstitutional, muzzles California teachers, jeopardizes student activists, stands to disproportionately target Muslim and Black educators, and sets up Jewish students for resentment on campuses as it gives them a level of protection no other group enjoys. It will cost cash-strapped California millions in legal fees, as it will certainly be challenged in court.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s shameless hypocrisy is front and center as he has called for defunding universities that give in to Trump’s pledge of fealty to conservatism, while imposing his own authoritarian muzzle on the state’s educators and young scholars. While the Governor cosplays progressive values with his Twitter fingers, he is forcing California schools to fall in line with a Zionist agenda by pushing a fake civil rights law that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, thereby silencing academic discourse and protected free speech.
Black Lives Matter – California and each of the state’s eight chapters condemn the passage by the state legislature and signing into law by Governor Gavin Newsom of the unconstitutional and undemocratic bill AB 715 and its weak companion legislation, SB 48.
Leimert Park, Los Angeles – Black Lives Matter Grassroots now has fifty-two chapters, including three led by imprisoned folks and one in Stockholm, Sweden. The now-international organization, whose mission is to end state-sanctioned violence, convened this past weekend to celebrate twelve years since the founding of the birth of one of the largest racial justice movements in the history of the world and the very first Black Lives Matter chapter on this same spot, Leimert Park (aka Africa Town), the heart of Black Los Angeles. The organization was sprung into being after the murderer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was acquitted by a legal system that never served Black people.
“BLM Grassroots, Local Organizers, Justice Families, and Student Activists Warn of Alarming Trend of Black Students at Predominantly White Institutions BeingTargeted by White Supremacists and Cops.”
