Black Lives Matter Protesters

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.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a loosely‐coordinated, nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality that rose to prominence in late 2014. It takes its name from a hashtag started by three Black feminist activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi but the movement and the hashtag are not identical (Freelon, McIlwain, & Clark, 2016). BLM has achieved national reputation through their online and offline organizing, obtaining extensive news media coverage and glowing references in music and entertainment television. Based on a horrendous incident that sparked a concern for a lot of Black people across the world, the sudden need for a social movement was born called BLM. Black Lives Matter is a national organization working for the validity of Black life and also working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter broadens the conversation and highlight the incidents around state violence to include the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. This referring to the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. According to the article The Murder of Walter Scott, which talks about race and class, “African Americans are less than 13% of the U.S. population yet they are nearly 50% of those killed by the police. North Charleston has a population of 104,000, 47% Black and the police force is 80% white (Miah, 2015)”.

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.

According to my text book, civil disobedience is the voluntarily breaking established laws based on one’s moral belief. I strongly believe that civil disobedience is never justified, regardless of the situation. Yes, something might be wrong according to your morals, but laws are in place to prevent chaos. All these events mentioned; war protesters, anti-abortion activist, Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter Movement, Charlottesville, Confederate statues, so on and so forth has created chaos throughout the United States.

For the Social Justice Action Project, Britnee and I interviewed college students in the Northeast region who revealed their views on the Black Lives Matter Movement, racial injustice, and racial profiling. We had wanted to inform people of what the Black Lives Matter Movement stood for and tackle some of the myths and misconceptions of what the organization represented. In the process, the interviewees have expressed their feelings of how today’s society is blinded by irrational thinking and biased beliefs. This project have made us realize that people often blame the movement of being inconsiderate to all lives matter, relating the movement to the “armed and dangerous” Black Panthers, and the never-ending issues of police-to-black killings.

“We are outraged and heartbroken over today’s verdict,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the N.A.A.C.P. “We stand with Trayvon’s family and we are called to act. We will pursue civil rights charges with the Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state and we will not rest until racial profiling in all its form is outlawed.”

What if you were at your favorite sporting event, watching your favorite player and then they disrespect the nation's flag? Pro athletes are going to far, because the way Colin Kaepernick protested the Black Lives Matter protest was very disrespectful to our nation’s flag. There are many different ways he could’ve protested the matter. Sports should be a time to watch your favorite sports team, not to watch protests.

Civil disobedience is a positive impact on free society. The ability to publicly protest without violence must be protected, like not standing for the pledge of allegiance and national anthem. Many people have decided that not standing for the pledge is a solid show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Their reasoning behind this is that the pledge does not speak truth anymore. The pledge preaches freedom to all citizens, regardless of colour, and with the racism in today's society, many people feel that America is not really a country of freedom.

Since the two police involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, the people involved in the Black Lives Matter Movement brought posters, candles, and instruments to demonstrate that black lives do matter on July 8th and 9th. The largest protest occurred in Atlanta, which had over thousands of men, women, and children where they blocked traffic. Also, outside of the white house in D.C, hundreds of people were protesting, yelling things like “No Justice, no peace,” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Surely, an outrage and protests were sparked during and after the investigation and ruling of the case. Since Missouri’s geographical location resides in the south, where Jim Crow laws originated, racist protests also occurred. During black protests, newscasts adopted the term ‘riots’ and focused explicitly on looting and arsons; ignoring marches of klansmen and arsonists who burnt down Michael Brown Sr.’s church, NBC reports. But, the violence is focused mainly on black people’s ‘riots’. When white people burn cars after the Raiders football team loses the super bowl (SFGate.com, Raider Rage) it is called ‘protests’. The term #BlackLivesMatter was coined, gaining solidarity to fight racism and promote unity in black culture. But, alternatively #AllLivesMatter became coined at the same time. Google trends show by November of 2014 a ratio of 29:0 came up for #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter. But, by December 2014 a ratio of 100:21 became present, #AllLivesMatter being used to silence black protesters. It is similar to the situation of attending a breast cancer research rally, and someone protesting that rally because other diseases exist as well. In a black time of need, some of society did come to lend aid, but many others came to silence and oppress further; in terms of social media, reporting, and even complete silence on the topic.

The event that took place on the 28th of September 2016, was a heinous one in which students, faculty, staff and the community should learn from. The Black Lives Matter protest at East Tennessee State University was made in remembrance of blacks that have been murdered brutally by policemen and other people who believe that the people of color do not matter in the society. The protest took place at the Borchuck plaza and it was a peaceful demonstration which went on for days without disrupting anyone, until on Wednesday when it was reported that a freshman by the name, Tristan Rettke approached the protesters wearing a gorilla mask, barefooted. He had bananas hung on a rope, handling it to the protesters. The stunt pulled by the freshman was in an attempt to provoke the Black Lives Matter protest, apparently he was trying to get a reaction out of them which the protestors did not yield to. If they actually did lash out, then it would have been a different issue on that day. They exercised patience, thoughtfulness and strength while this offensive behavior was carried out by the student (Floyd, 2016).

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.

I do agree that there is resistance still today. Black Lives Matter has been in response to the recent race-related police shootings across America. There have been numerous riots, protests, and memorials held for the many people affected by these devastating actions. Just in the past week there have been a staggering amount of protests, such as Women's Rights and Freedom Marches, held around the world in response to the current political power gained in the United States. Social Media and Internet media have been exploding with the immense amounts of images demonstrating protesters flooding the streets of all major cities. People across the globe protest in order to broadcast their messages. The human spirit is resilient; as long

In summation, we looked at social conflict as it related to class, race and ethnicity, gender, and how it explains the Black Lives Matter Movement. As we examined the literature, we asked how and why did the Black Lives Matter Movement begin? What are the problems with the Black Lives Matter Movement? What does social media have to say about the Black Lives Matter Movement? What is the youth’s culture’s input on the Black Lives Matter Movement? How does the Black Lives Matter movement tie back to the police? And where are we going with the Black Lives Matter Movement post-2016? We focused on whether or not the Black Lives Matter movement had the potential to affect change and have a long-lasting impact on society as a social movement. Therefore,

The Black Lives Matter movement has been renowned for being a shamelessly disruptive movement—and for good reasons. While America was most certainly built through the labors of black bodies, it somehow still needs to be said that ‘yes, black lives do matter’. In a 2015 article for the Huffington Post, Kelly Wickham sarcastically states that “if the Black Lives Matter movement would just be convenient and not disruptive, we wouldn’t be in this turmoil” (Wickham). However, she brings up a very valid point. The entire article addresses points in history in which civil speech has gotten black lives no where—and while there is certainly a time and a place in which to moderate the way in which you speak to others, it’s very easy to see why the Black Lives Matter activists feel as though they “don’t have to ask nicely for anything that is guaranteed to other Americans” (Wickham). Unfortunately, this has had the effect of making many people outside of the movement view the Black Lives Matter movement as aggressive and inappropriate. President Obama, in a town hall meeting in London on April 23, said that those involved in the movement “can’t just keep on yelling at [elected officials]” if they want to see change occur that would act in their favor