The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement

(Hashtag) #BlackLivesMatter. Black Lives Matter (BLM). This is a phrase, a hashtag, a saying, a declaration, an affirmation of resistance, and most importantly, a calling for change to the American civilization which is unjust in its treatment of black human beings. This is not a moment, this is a movement, and it is truly an unfortunate witness numerous Americans disregard this outcry for justice. Whether it may largely be the purpose of bigoted racism, in which, one is instilled of the opinion that black people are less than or not equal to, seemingly inferior to other cultures. But besides all of these racist principles, a certain ignorance prevails in the misinterpretation of the black lives matter advocated premise. Many tend to interpret

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)”.

Imagine being black in America, hearing the siren of a law enforcement vehicle, with the flashing lights of red, and blue prevailing though your back window. What do you do? How do you act? Knowing that simple traffic stops like this can turn for the worse with just one false move. Recently, some African Americans, whom was unarmed, was killed by law enforcement officers for absolutely no justifiable reason. Even though the frequency of police officers killing unarmed black men is lower than the past years, social media brings it to light with the visual of the actual footage of these men being killed. These incidents of officers killing unarmed black men have been happening for the longest now; the only thing that change is that now we have camcorders that show us the incidents happening. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the United States, is comparable to the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement but includes diverse motivations and mindsets.

For the past few years, racial tensions have been on the rise. Although many actions have been taken to prevent these conflicts from occurring, African Americans are still being undervalued by the state. As more African Americans are being turned away with little to no assistance from the American government, anger and the desire for change increased among them. When Trayvon Martin’s murderer George Zimmerman was acquitted for his crime, a great number of Americans were furious at the outcome. Three African American women named Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi expressed their view on a Facebook post titled “A Love Note to Black People” and it ends with “Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter” (“Black Lives Matter”). Thus, a new liberation movement for black people was born. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter rapidly spread throughout social media, bringing awareness of the struggles of African Americans. The Black Lives Matter movement is a call to action to eradicate the dehumanization of African Americans that exists in American society. With the constant targeting of African Americans by the police and the unfair treatment in the criminal justice system, the Black Lives Matter movement is a necessity to combat racism.

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.

In today’s society, it is obvious that we still face racism and oppression. Something that we talk about historically happening, such as the civil rights movement, is very alive today. History is in a way repeating itself. Some may counter this argument and say “all lives matter”, but they cannot ignore the disproportionate injustice against African Americans today. If we study the Black Lives Matter movement, we can see that discrimination and oppression still exists, but there are constructive ways to deal with it.

Over 100 years ago, the term slaves arose when blacks were separated from their families and freedom, then consequently forced into hard working labor for the white individuals’ benefit, confiscating all their rights. Approximately 50 years ago, the Civil Rights movement was conducted in order to restore the equal rights under the American law. Currently, those of color are still constantly fighting to regain rights and justice that were seized from them years ago. Roughly around 5 years ago, the Black Lives Matter movement became an active nationwide organization involved to protect the lives of African Americans, all occurring due to the unjustifical death of Trayvon Martin. Unlike other civil rights movements, the Black Lives Matter movement is intended to raise awareness of the police brutality, inequality, and racism which has

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.

It is hard to believe that I knew of Black Lives Matter (BLM), however, I never actually bother to learn what it is—I knew a succinct premise of what the movement is about, but never cared to inquire further on the subject. Nevertheless, attending events like the Brandeis’ Black Lives Matter’s Symposium allowed me to inform myself on different angles about the movement and understand it through a brief historical context and through different mediums and points of view.

In recent years, America has experienced a surge of a new movement which encapsulates the concerns of its minority groups and youth. A prominent issue in American society is the treatment of African-Americans, and how they have become increasingly criminalized and targeted. The Black Lives Matter Movement sprung from the increasing mistreatment of black people by police, i.e. the homicides of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown. Black activists have created the movement and offered their own perspectives of what the movement means to them and the implications it has on American society.

Why is it that black people are the chosen Americans to get their pride and power taken from them out of all the other races in the world? Since October 15, 1966, when the Black Panther Party started, “the Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs” (Baggins). The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was founded in 2012 after the death of Trayvon Martin who was murdered in front of a local corner store by George Zimmerman. Acts like this are still being performed now and the government has not put in hard work to change it. The BLM Movement goes a little deeper than the anger of black people feeling

the activist movement, black lives matter, first plunged into the spotlight during the acquittal of george zimmerman for shooting trayvon martin, an african american teen. since then, the hashtag #blacklivesmatter has been used to protest the systemic racism against black people. in response to this movement, the phrase “all lives matter” has emerged, its supporters dismissing the black lives matter campaign for singling out one race. the use of this phrase by celebrities and politicians has been met with harsh backlash, with good reason. “all lives matter” is an ignorant response, which draws attention away from the racism and violence that black americans face. we say “black lives matter” because black lives are the ones being oppressed right

Determining a new political direction for the entire movement that does not include continuing assimilation would be difficult since so many lesbians/gays/bisexuals (LGB) have already assimilated into the mainstream culture. However, that is exactly what the movement must do. It might seem beneficial to continue to assimilate, but assimilation only serves those who choose to police themselves and others. Even though many within the community have already decided to “integrate,” that does not mean that transgender, queer, and gender-nonconforming people have to as well. Even younger LGB can refuse to accept assimilation.