Black Lives Matter Movement: A Case Study

A necessary and common fight for equality has been one that has survived throughout all of man’s existence. Due to recent racial divide and the product of racial profiling, a movement has risen up to combat these common issues. The most recent and most well-covered is the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even though it has been lauded by some media sources and individuals as the next great movement to champion for civil rights, the Black Lives Matter movement is not the same as the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s nor is it likely to be as successful. If the Black Lives Matter Movement continues with discrepancies in ideology, lack of clear leadership, and trends of hate, the movement is doomed to fail.

In the United States, there has been many cases of Racial injustice. From the beginning of the start of the United States of America it was the injustice to the Native Americans being captured and used for slave labor while their bison be slaughtered for sportsmanship. But this paper is on the specific race of the African Americans. There are many races that have been racially profiled and ostracized by the English people. But the treatment that African Americans have endured even till this day is disheartening. African Americans have gone through enslavement during the early 1600’s to the mid 1800’s. Then the African Americans were obstructed by the Jim Crow laws creating the ‘Separate but Equal” propaganda during the late 1800’s into the 1960’s. After the abolishment of the Jim Crow Laws, people were considered equal until the recent actions of many police officers using deadly force on African American youths in the early 2000’s.

In 2012, a 17 year-old unarmed black boy was gunned down in Florida while walking home from a gas station after getting snacks. The murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL by George Zimmerman received attention around the nation. Zimmerman was eventually put on trial for Martin’s death, but was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter, which began the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. The official website, blacklivesmatter.com, describes it as “an ideological and political intervention in a world where black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folk’s contributions to this society, our humanity and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression” (Black Lives Matter, n.d.). The hashtag quickly transformed into a movement in 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown, John Crawford III and Eric Garner. All three were unarmed black men killed by police who were eventually acquitted for their murders. The Black Lives Matter movement is a call-to-action to encourage people to fight against the racial inequalities endured by black people and stand against the expectations of normality defined by white supremacy. Many have tried to debase this movement by saying that all lives mater and all lives are important. Though the Black Lives Matter Movement may be “pro-black”, it does not mean it is being anti-white or

The Civil Rights Movement from the mid 1950’s to late 1960’s fought for equal rights of People of color in this nation. That movement was successful in pushing for an end to racial segregation and discrimination in the country. Decades later, a new movement is beginning to gain traction in the fights against excess police brutality against People of Color. “Since the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer in 2013 and the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, the phrase "black lives matter" has become a rallying cry for a new chapter in the long black freedom struggle” ( Cooper 2017). The movement has been growing since and more and more after every new case of a person of color being killed by police enforcement. Contemporary anti-racist social movements like Black Lives Matter have had a definitive impact in changing the way people of color are treated, by creating the very important conversation of police brutality against people of color. In order to keep the movement growing, it have has to keep expanding its message of excessive police violence and push for policies that would create better training for law enforcement.

The statement “black lives matter” fueled the start of a movement. When this movement began people were in need of healing when everyone’s morale was low and gave black people in America hope that their lives did matter. Everyone

According to a Guardian study, young African-American men were nine times more likely to be killed by police enforcement than any other American, which recorded a tally of 1,134 deaths in 2015. After many incidents of innocent black people dying by the hands of police enforcement, America is forced to realize important narrative of race and inequality. The Black Lives Matter movement was formed to combat and expose racism and anti-blackness in the United States. Ever since its birth, many have joined the movement; creating and organizing protests, speaking against anti-blackness. But in contrast, many others have criticized BLM, calling it a “terrorist” organization and a hate group. The Black Lives Matter movement being classified as a terrorist or hate group is a misjudge argument and a malevolent narrative.

After what we heard about the brutality of police officers to the African-American community, Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started by there strong women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. The movement first started in 2013, when a police officer brutally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old student in Florida. BLM movement was first started on the social network website Twitter by the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. I heard the whole keynote that was presented by Bobby Vaughn. Actually his last statement had an effect on me “All lives matter, black lives matter, LGBTQ lives matter, muslims lives matter.” It made me realize that it is not only my life or my family’s lives, but also every human being. We need to be treated equally

Sidney Poitier is best known for being the first black actor to win an Academy Award in 1964 (“Biography”). Although he was a great actor, director, and revolutionary for his time, he was more than just another star on film. He would pave the way for the black theater community and also create some of the most challenging interracial movies questioning racial equality later in his career. Born in Miami Florida on February 20th, 1927; Sidney Poitier grew up in the Bahamas and later moved to New York to pursue his dreams of theatre (‘About”).

In May of 2015, Bill Nye gave a commencement speech at Rutger University where he encouraged graduate students to be involved in lifelong social action pertaining to climate change and racial issues. In hopes to encourage the graduating class to vote in the next election to better the country, Nye states:

On social media there was a trending hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, when the riots in Ferguson began in August 2014 over the killing of a young African American male by a white police officer. The African American community made it clear that black lives did matter. They were outraged and upset by the constant police brutality against them that they believed was caused by the underlying of racism. The fact that black

The Black Lives Matter movement is a rally dedicated to “Black Lives”, minorities, who are not treated equally by their community with the intent of causing change in order to have equal justice and opportunities. This movement revolves around the idea of laboratories of democracy because as a community they seek out the injustice and put into question the relation with the issue; thus, allowing the people to support their ideas and convince others that racial injustice exists. Similarly, as a community they are able to build upon an overall understanding on the inequality which prepare the people to question the idea of democracy they have lived by. An excerpt from The Huffington Post inquires the equality demonstrated in the judicial court,

Originating in 2012, the political movement known under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has exploded in size and renown. This movement, which was initially inspired after a police officer was acquitted of all charges after fatally shooting an African American individual, seeks to diminish police brutality against African American individuals and systemic racism particularly in the United States. Sweeping the nation, Black Lives Matter has become an international movement and its influence has only increased with time. On the movement’s official website, the following was written regarding the history of the hashtag-inspired entourage, “#BlackLivesMatter was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year old Trayvon was posthumously placed on trial for his own murder. Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our dehumanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society. Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes.” (http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/). The #BlackLivesMatter movement asserts that racism is still prevalent in modern society and exists not only in passive forms. Instead, racism apparently can be both overt and implicit.

The Black Lives Matter movement has swept across America. It 's branched out with chapters in over 31 cities and held rallies and boycotts across the United States(Sidner). The Black Lives Matter movement started with the outrage of the death of a young man. It continues to take over headlines and raise awareness on police brutality and inequality. However, the movement has met resistance from the All Lives Matter group. This group thinks that Black Lives Matter is a movement to express hatred towards other races. However, statistics, the views of fellow citizens, and the overall purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement, can prove that the movement wasn 't meant to express hate on other races and that we need to support the movement instead of going against it.

“Hands up don’t shoot” is the saying that took off when the frequency of policeman shooting, and or killing unarmed black humans specifically after the Michael Brown incident in 2014 due to the young African American male hands being up and still got shot 6 times . Although this might sound brutal this is not the first incident of police brutality killing unarmed African American people. According to the web text from mappingpoliceviolence.org said “the police killed 1,146 people in 2017, 25% was black people”. The studies show that black people are 3 times more likely to become killed by the police than white people are. Many African American cases has happened but it wasn’t as blown up in the news like Michael Brown, Trevon Martin, and Sandra Bland case did but the other people still need recognition such as: Keith Childress,

Black Lives Matter is being allowed to influence judicial oversight policies for the same police institution it aspires to eradicate, according to The Daily Wire.