(Time) The co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago has rejected an invitation from the White House to sit down for a meeting with President Barack Obama and a group of veteran Civil Rights leaders.
The White House billed the meeting as a first-of-its kind gathering of veteran leaders, young activists, and the leader of the free world. But in an op-ed for Truth-Out.org that was also shared with TIME via email, invitee Aislinn Pulley calls the meeting a "sham" and says it would do a disservice to her greater goals as an activist to participate.
"As a radical, Black organizer, living and working in a city that is now widely recognized as a symbol of corruption and police violence," she writes, "I do not feel that a handshake with the president is the best way for me to honor Black History Month or the Black freedom fighters whose labor laid the groundwork for the historic moment we are living in."
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