Natasha Trethewey's Incident

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement is a movement against police brutality. This movement began after 17-year-old boy, Trayvon Martin was fatally shot, and his killer, former police officer, George Zimmerman was acquitted for the crime. (BLACKLIVESMATTER.COM) As Black Lives Matter has continued to make a difference through peaceful protests on a mass scale , such as kneeling during the national anthem at sporting events or peaceful protests after a shooting. Many have claimed that the movement is extremely offensive, against police officers, or that African Americans are claiming superiority over other races, while others continue to support the movement. The fight between Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter continuously strikes violent riots, but the question still stands- what is the Black Lives Matter movement really trying to accomplish?

For decades black Americans have been treated as animals, looked at as if they are monsters, and killed like bugs. Actions like Police brutality and racism is what caused Black Lives Matter. The creation of the Black Lives Matter was a response by the black community to give a voice to black Americans affected by the increase of wrongful deaths due to the law enforcements and vigilantes across the country. This has been going on for so long that it seems like we are stuck in the past. For years, even decades black Americans have had to live the struggle of being equal. Even when things are going good and we think we finally have the same rights, something happened to change that. It is time to shed a light on the real purpose of Black Lives Matter and why they are important to today's society.

According to Central Florida Future “ Black Lives Matter is simply us saying,”Our lives are valid”.It is not the same as “Our lives are more important than yours”(Debouse and Ellison). When this movement was created it's not a movement for Black lives only matter, this movement is bringing attention to African-American lives do matter as well as everybody else's lives. The Christian Science Monitor states “Other supporters point out that responding to “Black Lives Matter” by saying “all lives matter” minimizes the problems faced by black Americans, and undercuts their message”(Fredrikson). Just by saying all lives matter, which they do, but the African-American folks feel they are excluded from all lives matter because if everybody's life did matter police and other people would not be victimizing the blacks as the bad guys. The attention people have brought to this movement is amazing because now more and more people are understanding and learning as to why is movement started and what is the reason they are doing it for. Celebrities such as Beyonce, Snoop Dogg and Stevie Wonder have brought attention to this movement by sharing their opinion on social media, interviews etc. In conclusion, Black Lives Matter has a valid reasoning to be a positive

One brave soul decided to fire back with another new hashtag, All Lives Matter. All Lives Matter was supposed to be a hashtag that would unite our nation rather than tear it apart more, but pPeople have stated how they feel about both hashtags. As black lives matter wants to see where all people are treated equal, it fails with just showing the racial side of the matter, rather than the LGBT, and Mexican, etc. With all lives matter it includes all these people and shows how all of us were created equal and should be equal in everything we do. In the article posted on the blog State Press titled #AllLivesMatter, not just #BlackLivesMatter Lindsay Roberts wrote “It is our civic responsibility to make sure that our government understands that we will not stand for this. Because if we do not, we’re failing every truth we claim to be self-evident.” Whenever a shooting happens, people seem to jump to the defense of the person who was shot or killed based on the color of there skin. They think we discriminate against them because of their color and background. Really, we aren’t trying to be racist when we rush to the fact that they were black. We aren’t exactly saying that it's bad and that black lives matter, we just know for a fact that the color of their skin is black. We aren’t being judgemental towards them and have feelings of hate. People need to stop rushing to the fact that we are judging, when we may be just stating the facts. In the article, I Don't Hate Black Lives If I Don't Rush Judgment On Violence from the Federalist it says“May God rightly judge us for any complacency in unjustified violent deaths, but surely we should not be judged by others for temporarily reserving our judgement on new, highly controversial incidents, either.” Judgement is a problem we have faced for many years. We face judgement in sports, academics, race, sex and life in general. Whether we are the target or the

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)”.

Blue Lives Matter is a pro police movement used to give attention to the police men and women risking their lives and not getting the respect they deserve for their sacrifice. The Blue Lives Matter issue has been spreading around on social media and the news, with the recent killings of police officers. The article, “Why Blue Lives Matter in America” on realclearpolitics by David Clarke, says “Black Lives Matter permeates the mainstream media with it’s false narratives against the police,” and there is a lot of truth in that statement. This issue has been going on for a while when a lot of attention was brought to the questionable killing of a young black man. It’s also been more located to where awareness was brought in the form of protests

2) Although in this day and age, racial segregation is not considered an 'official' problem, and there is no longer seperate lunch rooms and drinking fountains for black and white people. There is an seemingly increasing amount of outrage being expressed by the black community in America. The #BlackLivesMatter is a black empowerment movement, breaking down the walls of insitutaionalised racism and defying the heirachy that dictates white supremacy.

Suspicion that a black person will always have the wrong intention and have a malicious plan when walking around a neighborhood, or whatever the case might be, is unjust and based on prejudice. As more of our black sisters and black brother’s lives are being taken away, the public begins to take this issue more seriously attemting to prevent from any more lives to be taken away by the police force, which is meant to keep us out of harm’s way and make us feel safe. Black lives matter is no longer maintained as a popular hashtag in the media, but it comes to live as a movement. Police brutality creates a black lives matter movement where our society unites to protest, regardless of economic status, religion, race, or sex.

When you hear “Black Lives Matter” someone else will try to refute your argument with “All Lives Matter.” The context of “Black Lives Matter” is not that other lives don’t have worth. The context of “Black Lives Matter” is that the value of black lives remains under assault in the United States. When people say, “Black Lives Matter,” they are acknowledging an important context that involves several centuries of slavery, civil rights, mass incarceration and brutality. It highlights the value of black lives because historically, this country often ignored that value. The problem with saying “All Lives Matter,” it that it ignores the context. There is a difference between saying something is true and something is relevant. For example, it’s like going to a Cancer fundraiser and screaming ‘There are other diseases too!’ Or when a parent says,” I love my son,” you don’t say “What about your daughter? Don’t you love all your children?” When a person says, “Black Lives Matter” we should not say “All Lives Matter.” It is an attempt to diminish the ongoing reality of white supremacy in America. It’s a demeaning way of other people’s stories. And yes, some people associate themselves with #blacklivesmatter have called for police deaths. But the cries of few groups do not invalidate an entire

In the reading of Brent Staples’s essay and viewing of Clint Smith’s Ted Talk, the Black Lives Matter movement is justified. In Brent Staples’s essay, he never directly states the words “black lives matter”, but if it had been a movement at the time, he would have. “The black lives matter movement 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” (blacklives.atter.com/about/). “Black men trade tales like this all the time,” says Staples’ as he talks about one of his reporter friends being mistaken for the killer on a case he was working on. This is just one of the many examples Mr. Staples gives to describe his

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

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.

Some folks say and support “Black Lives” and others, “All Lives”. As time go on, things take a turn ‘for the worse’. The ‘turn for the worse’ is due to the mindset of many people and the mass media. With time should come justice, peace and common ground on what is happening, but what if no one is supportive or have no knowledge of what is to come? The saying of “All Lives Matter” is deleterious and ruinous to the “Black Lives Matter” movement and support and to the black community by deteriorating their beliefs, livelihood, and mentality.

In 2013, a movement called Black Lives Matters was started after George Zimerman was found not guilty of the murder of Trayvon Martin. Many Americans complain again the injustice and rallied together to form the Black lives matter movement. The Black lives matter movement though has many issues within their movement, but the main issue is that the people of the movement are segregating themselves from other races whenever they say the words “black lives matter”. That’s why the phrase “All lives matter” has come about. The term “All Lives matter” is stating that people of this movement care about all people instead of just one color, that the movement does not support the supremacy of a race & Radical Organization, and show that the police force is not discriminative towards any one race.