#Black lives matter rest in power castro free#

More spiritually, rest in power can additionally imply the hope that the deceased person can now rest, free from earthly oppression. Among people of color and in the LGBTQ community, rest in power indicates such unjust deaths were not in vain, that their legacy is the continued fight for justice-that their deaths have the power to make a meaningful difference. The phrase rest in power rose to prominence in 2014, after the police shooting death of an 18-year-old Black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and the suicide of Leelah Alcorn, 17-year-old transgender girl.īoth of their deaths were seen as the result of systemic oppression of members of minority groups. Rest in power was occasionally used on Twitter in the late 2000s and early 2010s, mainly connected to the death of hip-hop artists and Black musicians. The reporting noted instances of rest in power graffitied to memorialize two young women, the former shot dead and the latter, murdered.

Popik’s research shows rest in power spread in 2005, appearing in reporting from the Bay Area and then Ottawa, Canada. k70s7NoUd9Īccording to etymologist Barry Popik, rest in power was first used in a newsgroup in February 2000 in honor of Mike “Dream” Francisco, an influential graffiti artist in the Bay Area who was killed during a robbery. Rest in power is a variation on rest in peace, commonly abbreviated as RIP and largely based on the Latin requiescat in pace, meaning “may he or she rest in peace.” While originally written on gravestones and wishing a deceased person eternal peace in the afterlife, RIP is now commonly used to respectfully mark the death of a person.

Black lives matter rest in power castro