The Black Lives Matter Movement

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.

The heated issue of police brutality and police officers violating civil rights has extensively covered media headlines for several years. Hundreds of people are killed every year by police officers, and many of these cases bring up issues of police brutality. More often than not, it is usually a white police officer and an african american offender encounter that sparks media attention. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri is just one of these cases that has caused a major divide in the United States. Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Wilson after an unfriendly encounter in the streets. Those who believe that Officer Wilson made the right decision in shooting Michael Brown, point to the fact that the grand jury chose not to indict him. Although Darren WIlson was not charged after the shooting of unarmed Michael Brown, some people believe that his actions were unlawful and he should have received some sort of punishment for his wrongdoing. Acknowledging all of the facts of the investigation, Officer Wilson did not act properly in the circumstances of the time.

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.

The widely popular and controversial Black Lives Matter Movement not only draws attention to police brutality against black bodies, it also expose institutional racism seen within the public school system. Therefore, this movement becomes a valuable opportunity for both teachers and students to discuss race relations in classroom. So, how can classrooms benefit from and contribute to this movement? Studies show that if classrooms actively engage in relevant social issues teachers can improve the quality of instruction and actually maximizes students’ learning experience (Perlstein, 2002). A successful example of a revolution beginning in the classroom happened at the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School (OCS) established in 1971 (formerly

On August 9, 2014 police officer Darren Wilson heard a call on his radio about a shoplifting in progress. It was then that Wilson proceeded on with his day only to encounter 18-year-old Michael Brown and 20-year-old Dorian Johnson were walking in the middle of the street; both of which matched the description of the call that had occurred earlier. The events of that day resulted in Brown’s death. This ultimately aggravated the citizens of Ferguson, who then protested in an effort to stand up for Brown who they believed was killed while surrendering. Considering all the evidence, the grand jury should not have indicted officer Wilson because the witness statements and the autopsy are in favor of what Wilson had reported.

In spite of the fact that Black Lives Matter sends a clear message that African Americans are being targeted in America, some disagree with the movement's approach and its exclusion of other ethnic groups. Former editor and columnist for USA Today, Barbara Reynolds, uses the Washington Post to share her views toward Black Lives Matter movement. In her article, she expresses "I support BLM's cause, but not its approach." She illustrates on how BLM's approach is remotely defying and disgraceful to proven methods of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's nonviolent tradition. As a former civil rights activist, Reynolds feels like BLM opposes the structure of peaceful protesting in regards to BLM's "demonstration peppered with hate speeches, profanity, and

The Black Lives Matter movement main tool is Social media.Through their usage the movement has essentially used social media effectively to address police brutality cases and political reform.

The final nail in the coffin was when the officer who shot him, Darren Wilson, was not indicted by the jury (“Ferguson riots: Ruling sparks night of violence”). Some people expressed their anger through peaceful protest and marching, but others felt that was not enough to express their rage. The town of Ferguson turned into a war zone. The people were rioting, smashing anything and everything in sight: buildings, shops, and police cruisers. What had started out as a seemingly peaceful form of protest took a turn for the worst and inevitably crossed that very thin line separating activism and domestic

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

Picture yourself being in an African American shoes, you’re walking out of a store and a white off duty police officer accuses you of stealing from the store. As you defend yourself by telling the officer that you did no such thing, this accusation starts becoming violent. As the officer calls for back up, he has you on the ground, you then start realizing that this officer accused you of something you didn’t do, automatically assuming that you did such thing because of your color. (Making you question yourself on why)Why is it that we have people in this world to automatically assume that they have higher priorities than any other race out there in this world just because of their ethnicity. Is it the fact that parents don’t do their job to

“Beneath armor of skin and bone and mind most of our colors are amazingly the same.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Throughout our country’s history we have had many stand for what they believe matters; it would be a tragedy if we stopped now. The Black Lives Matter movement is not a hate group through its foundation, evolution, and definition. Black Lives Matter has received most of its attention in 2016, but it is a movement that has been organized for nearly half a decade.

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.

Black Lives Matter is an international movement, ran by volunteer activists and originates from the African American community. It began in 2013 after many unarmed black men were being unnecessarily killed by police and the media had had enough of it. It frequently holds protest events where many people speak out about police brutality, racial profiling, and racial injustices in America’s justice system. The movement promotes local organization rather than having a national leader, allowing people from all around the country to stand up and speak out. Since the movement began, the deaths of unarmed black people have been blasted all over the media instead of being pushed under the rug by police officials like before. People