Social movements are informal individuals, groupings, or organizations focusing on a specific economic, social, or political issue. In essence, social movements push for social changes through the resistance of seemingly bad policies, behaviors, or norms. The most common social movements are civil rights movements, labor movements, environmental movements, and gay rights movements. Since the American Revolutionary War, black people have faced various injustices and inequalities at White supremacists' hand (Dave, Friedson, Matsuzawa, Sabia & Safford, 2020). Over the years, minority groups have formed social movements to fight for their rights. One such movement is the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, a civil rights movement advocating equal treatment among people of different races (Dave et al., 2020). The BLM movement was formed in July 2013, with the founders relying heavily on social media for publicity and advancement of the movement's ambitions. The movement was formed after George Zimmerman, accused of shooting and killing an African-American man Martin Trayvon, 17 years, was acquitted (Dave et al., 2020). The African-American people felt that justice was not served, hence starting this movement to unite all the Americans in advocating for black people's rights in the US.
The BLM movement was founded to fight social injustices and racial inequalities that were subjected to people of African origin in the US. Following a series of police shootings and killings of African-American youths, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, and Patrisse Cullors called for collective action from all the African-American people (Dave et al., 2020). Since its formation in 2013, the movement has participated in several demonstrations against police brutality (Dave et al., 2020). While the movement was formed to counter social injustices, its main role over the years has turned to be the fight against police brutality. After the initial incident involving George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin in 2012, other police brutality cases have emerged, triggering the African-American community to show response. BLM gained widespread recognition in 2014 when two African-Americans, Eric Garner and Michael Brown, died from police brutality (Dave et al., 2020). The deaths sparked demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York. After the Ferguson and NY protests, African-Americans continued demonstrating against police custody deaths or caused by police actions. However, the movement gained global recognition in 2020, when a Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, killed an African-American man, George Floyd (Dave et al., 2020). The killing sparked global outrage into how the police handled people of African origin. In the US, between 15million and 26 million people participated in the protests. In essence, BLM fights against racial inequalities, including police brutality and criminal stereotyping, when dealing with African-American people.
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The BLM movement is organized through social media platforms, with marches, celebrity support, demonstrations, and fundraisers signifying its organization. Since its formation, the movement has relied heavily on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to push for its goals. Adopting the hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, the movement has gained widespread support from music artists, footballers, movie stars, basketball players, among other celebrities (Perrin, 2020). Studies indicate that more than 23% of the American population understood the movement's activities through social media platforms (Perrin, 2020). However, apart from using social media, the movement also uses marches and demonstrations as activism modes. The movement's administrators post any instances of police brutality on social media. Moreover, the administrators also use social media to plan demonstrations or peaceful marches. For instance, after adopting the social media hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2020, the movement started to use social media to inform demonstrators on meeting points and organizations into how they would show solidarity against Floyd's killing. The movement's supporters also post images and real-time videos of the demonstration venues' activities, thus helping garner more support from social media users. Sports leagues, both in the US and other parts of the world, like in Europe, have also shown solidarity with the movement's activities (Perrin, 2020). For instance, the English Premier League players take a knee in solidarity with the movement's activities. Being the most-watched league in the world, BLM gains more social media support.
After the formation of the BLM movement, various anti-BLM movements were formed. All Lives Matter was formed in June 2017 to counter the BLM movement's growing influence among the American people. According to the ALM founders, the BLM supporters only acknowledged the black people's lives as important, forgetting those of the other races. Essentially, the ALM supporters argued that both black and white lives mattered (Dave et al. 2020). The supporters supporting the BLM movement are turning the public against the police, who are also human beings. The founders also argued that the BLM movement was self-centered, only aiming to protect the black people against the whites. They argued that supporting ALM proved that they care about lives, irrespective of color or race. Another key anti-BLM movement was the White Lives Matter (WLM) movement, founded by white-supremacists. According to this movement's founders, if BLM was widely supported even after advocating for one race's rights, WLM was worth equal treatment (Dave et al., 2020). The founders argued that supporting WLM proved that the white people, including the police, deserve respect just like black people. The BLM and WLM have clashed on several occasions, with WLM opposing demonstration bids by the BLM.
I agree with the BLM movement on several attributes but differ with it on some of its activities. The foundation of the movement aimed at educating society in the fight against social inequality and police brutality. I support this movement's role in bringing social equality to the world. However, I disagree with the movement's means of achieving its purpose. Sometimes, the protestors have used excessive force, robbery, and hatred towards the whites. In showing the desire for social equality, the movement must support social justice by respecting all the other races. The movement must also educate its members on the importance of staying focused on the task rather than looting activities that could tarnish its name.
References
Dave, D. M., Friedson, A. I., Matsuzawa, K., Sabia, J. J., & Safford, S. (2020). Black Lives Matter protests, social distancing, and COVID-19 (No. w27408). National Bureau of Economic Research . https://www.nber.org/papers/w27408
Perrin, A. (2020). 23% of users in US say social media led them to change views on an issue; some cite Black Lives Mater. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/15/23-of-users-in-us-say-social-media-led-them-to-change-views-on-issue-some-cite-black-lives-matter/
