Political Changes: Black Lives Matter Movement

Background Information 

Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was established in 2013 when three black women responded to Trayvon Martin's murder. He was a seventeen-year-old black American and the court acquitted the person who murdered him. In 2015, the rate of black people murdered by law enforcers increased, making BLM to promote its concern and bitterness through Twitter (Leyh, 2020). Its activities increased when black peoples’ murder rose in the US. The rage seen in the protests stemmed from the devaluation of Black lives in all aspects of the American society and the devaluation culminates to merciless killings from white Americans or the police. According to Morris (2021), BLM emerged at a time when millions of black Americans were in jail at an incarceration rate five times higher than that of white Americans. Disparities continue to increase in health, education, employment opportunities, politics, and other social aspects. A century of austerity politics has led to considerable wealth disparities with the current net worth for white families being almost ten times that of black families. In 2014, the first BLM uprising occurred after Eric Garner was suffocated to death while in police custody and Michael Brown gunned down. BLM fueled its peaceful demonstrations after George Floyd murder in Minneapolis. The murder fuelled black Americans’ rage after millions lost their jobs due to the pandemic and were left to rely on government handouts. BLM has caused disruptions in the US to explore racial injustice rooted in the fabric of the society. The movement is decentralized, democratic, and lacks leadership since it aims at collective liberation to eliminate ethnic-centric police brutality and bring down racial inequality hierarchies to attain total liberation of the black people in the US. 

Discussion on Black Lives Matter Movement 

BLM’s task is to eliminate white domination, battle and stand against aggression toward the black population, and help individuals affected by race-sanctioned violence. Initially, the movement sought to create an environment where black people have the power to thrive, connect with others, and share their desire for justice. BLM embraces human rights and seeks the government to acknowledge that civil, political, economic, social, as well as cultural rights are interdependent plus inseparable (Leyh, 2020). The significant BLM approach is empowering communities by being a significant voice in encouraging them to question social institutions and how they are related to race, law, plus power concepts and defy any institution that discriminates against people based on ethnic identity. Racism against black Americans increased during the Trump era after he made racist rhetoric that fueled BLM actions. As a result, BLM campaigned against such rhetoric to ensure that leadership was responsible for uniting Americans. 

Black Lives Matter has evolved to become a mainstream social movement fighting for black people’s freedom from racial profiling and police brutality. A consensus has grown in American society, where discussions on the need to end systemic racism have increased to improve policing and general life status for every American. BLM activists have called for a sharp reduction in police budgets, redirected the funds to social programs, and encouraged increased accountability to law enforcers who kill civilians mercilessly (Real et al., 2020). BLM subjected America to the well organized and successful protests in the US account as demonstrations coincided in all the fifty states and some countries across the globe for two weeks (Real et al., 2020). The protests sparked corporate organizations' support, like WalMart, to pledge their commitment to increase racial equality in their business operations. Other social players acknowledged that the country had failed to listen to the cry against police brutality and systemic racism and encouraged people to unite and protest peacefully. 

The movement used Twitter to encourage people worldwide to join their cause to stand against oppressive regimes that act in the name of democracy. Tillery (2019) conducted a study to evaluate the effectiveness of Twitter in triggering BLM's response to portray anger, sadness, outrage, and despair towards the country's institutions that had no value for black values. Tillery found that Twitter brought people together to contribute to discussions against police brutality and innocent homicides against black Americans (Tillery, 2019). Additionally, Twitter users uplifted BLM as a movement that headed the struggle for human liberties in the frames of race, gender, and sexual identities through different tweets. BLM also urged its followers to pursue disruptive social activities more actively to engage in political behaviors that encourage racial equality (Tillery, 2019). Through Twitter, BLM has become intelligible in resource mobilization as a social movement paradigm in society. 

BLM used peaceful public protests to drive their agenda and encourage people to engage in go-slows and hunger strikes to ensure that the government listens to their issues. However, the movement has resorted to the policy arena. For example, BLM triggered the BREATHE Act adoption, a proposal named from Floyd's and Garner's phrase when the police chocked them to death (King, 2020). The act aimed to reduce the police force, prison, and the justice system funds and redirect them to develop underdeveloped black communities. The act is seen as a tool to facilitate better public solutions rather than funding institutions that increase social stratification and racial discrimination. The BREATHE Act is a product of the 2016 policy podium “the Vision for Black Lives” planned to respond to Brown's, Sandra's, and Castile’s killings by the police (King, 2020). However, Floyd's death fueled the discussions on defunding the police. Different personalities in society responded in solidarity since life is more important than other activities or privileges in life (King, 2020). For example, NBA and MLB players broke their contracts and matched during games to show solidarity against an ethnic-based system aimed at infringing black people’s rights. 

Challenges Black Lives Matter Movement Experiences 

The primary challenge BLM experienced is an unwilling government that overlooks black Americans' suffering. The US government has socialized the law enforcers to act aggressively to any suspicious character in society. Racial discrimination is rooted in US political institutions so that black people are seen as a threat in every social aspect. For example, when Ahmaud Arbery was gunned to death when running in a white locality, his killer was acquitted by the court (Adams, 2020). Social and political institutions are set to protect white Americans while infringing the right to life providing in the US constitution. Thus, BLM has no support from institutions supposed to protect every US citizen. Instead of law enforcers ensuring peaceful protests, the police stir demonstrations using tanks, rubber bullets, and tear gas (Morris, 2021). The government orders militarized response to deal with peaceful people seeking justice, and in the process, more people die and blame it on the protestors. As a result, the US government and law enforcers view BLM as an anti-social movement. Repression is increasing since law enforcers can easily track their discussions on social sites to develop strategies to turn their peaceful protests into unruly ones to give them an excuse to repress the movement's activities. 

Like Civil Rights Movement, social movements in the 20 th century, BLM is dealing with problems in mobilizing resources, organizing mass and peaceful public participation, increasing racial consciousness, responding to repression, and improving social disruption strategies experienced in the 21 st century. Morris (2021) explains that BLM experiences a challenge in achieving the required solidarity and discipline Civil Rights Movement had to institute real change that changed social, political, and economic structure in the US since protesters experience brutal repression. Additionally, the movement largely depends on the internet to debate and select tactics and strategies. The internet has diverse suggestions, and the movement may lack cohesion, coordination, and discipline to succeed or identify a fault in their strategies and correct their course of action. As a result, the movement may lack leadership capacity required to provide a face to the movement to drive social change. 

BLM has lost support as protests reduced after the government decided to take measures against police and individuals involved in the murders. Historically, social movement fame reduces as their activities diminish. To continue increasing their possibility to institute meaningful changes in society, they needed to stay active in spiriting their followers to continue embracing their struggle (Adams, 2020). White American supporters, especially the young generation, have grown in a society that has favored them, and they fail to understand BLM's cause. When they see law enforcers respond with brutality, they evaluate the cause and wonder whether it is worth fighting or suffering for the cause. According to Adams (2020), a lack of accountability and transparency when BLM began privatization has led to disunity since a centralized structure is generally unequal and may not enhance a collective responsibility in all BLM chapters. BLM belongs to everyone, and people willingly support its lobbying activities using the social capital required to strengthen its foundation. Losing its social capital weakens its ability to eliminate police brutality against the black community. 

Conclusion 

Black Lives Matter began as a movement that challenged police brutality against black people in 2014 but has drastically become a social movement that seeks to dismantle racial profiling, police brutality, and racial discrimination in the lives of black Americans. BLM has successfully made political and economic institutions listen after the BREATHE Act was adopted to facilitate defunding police to channel the funds to social programs that will improve black neighborhoods as a beginning to enhance social equality while laming institutions that further racial stratification and discrimination. BLM milestones resulted from constant peaceful protests and social collaboration through Twitter to call upon the black community and other races tired of racial killings to unite against discriminatory institutions. However, BLM experiences challenges in leadership issues since it is considered a movement for all, funding issues, and lack of government support. Despite the challenges, BLM has facilitated a platform where people can engage in discourse to eliminate systemic racism in US society. 

References 

Adams, C. (2020, December 29). A movement, a slogan, a rallying cry: How Black Lives Matter changed America's view on race . NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/movement-slogan-rallying-cry-how-black-lives-matter-changed-america-n1252434 

King, M. (2020, August 28). Black Lives Matter goes big on the policy agenda . Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/28/black-lives-matter-breathe-act-403905 

Leyh, B . (2020). Imperatives of the Present: Black Lives Matter and the politics of memory and memorialization. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 38 (4), 239-245. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0924051920967541 

Morris, A. (2021). From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter . Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-civil-rights-to-black-lives-matter1/ 

Real, J., Samuels, R. & Craig, T. ( 2020, June 9). How the Black Lives Matter movement went mainstream. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-the-black-lives-matter-movement-went-mainstream/2020/06/09/201bd6e6-a9c6-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html 

Tillery, A. (2019). What Kind of Movement is Black Lives Matter? The View from Twitter . Cambridge University Press. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-race-ethnicity-and-politics/article/what-kind-of-movement-is-black-lives-matter-the-view-from-twitter/375801268123BCA397284EFBE36C9F4E#