Melina Rachel Reimann (18 September 1972-), also known as Melina Abdullah, was an American Trotskyist academic, Black Lives Matter activist, and the vice-presidential running mate of Justice for All Party presidential candidate Cornel West in 2024.
Biography
Melina Rachel Reimann was born in Oakland, California in 1972, the daughter of a Jewish union organizer and Trotskyist and his Black wife; she was the paternal granddaughter of KPD member Gunter Reimann. She became a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, and she co-founded the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and became a matriarch for the movement in the city. A self-described "womanist", she was detained several times for her activism, including for battery against a police officer. In February 2024, she was criticized for tweets in which she claimed that Taylor Swift's fans were "slightly racist" and said that the Kansas City Chiefs' victory was a "right-wing, white supremacist conspiracy." On 10 April 2024, Justice for All Party presidential candidate Cornel West announced Abdullah as his vice-presidential running mate.