Analysis of “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” Social Movement
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Analysis of “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” Social Movement
A social movement is a motivated, organized group that strives to work towards achieving a common goal. “Black Lives Matter” which is a global social movement emerging from the African American group, aimed to campaign against brutality and systemic bias towards the blacks. “Black Lives Matter” was formed from what was termed as discrimination of African Americans in U.S 2013 when Treyvon Martin, African American teen, aged 17-year, was shot by George Zimmerman in 2012 and George was not held responsible for martin death. The movement existent followed various stages of development, such as social media hashtag and street demonstrations before it becomes a famous movement. The movement also had multiple challenges such as counter slogan and movements to prevent its success towards achieving its goals.
BLM stages of development.
Preliminary stage
When George Zimmerman was prosecuted for shooting Trayvon Martin in February 2012, the news was all over on televisions and other social media platforms such as tweeter and Facebook; hence people were aware that an officer had shot an African American teen. In 2013 following George Zimmerman release for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a team of three activists, Alicia, Cullors, and Opal, thought that justice was not done for the 17-year-old African American youth” Garza, Tometi, & Cullors, 2014)”. As a reaction to the discrimination they experienced, Alicia wrote on Facebook “Our Live Matter, Black Lives Matter,” then Cullors responded by “#BlackLivesMatter,” after which Opal commented too, and this is how the movement was formed.
Coalescence stage
The “#BlackLivesMatter” captured the attention of many, and people joined in the fight against police brutality and racial imbalance in the United States criminal justice systems through the “#BlackLivesMatter.” Designers, artists, and cultural workers offered their labour to expand the hashtag beyond the social network to the streets. The movement continued to grow to protect the blacks against police brutality and racial inequity. The movement became nationwide recognized for road demonstrations in 2014 following the death of 18 years old Michael Brown African American who was murdered by Darren Wilson, who was a white police officer. Since 2014, BLM has demonstrated against several African American death by police in the streets and also when in custody. The movement has no formal hierarchy as it is a decentralized network.
Achievements of BLM
BLM movement’s success is countless. The movement has brought a lot of changes in the United States. Though there have been several slogans like “All Lives Matter, “Blue Live Matter,” and “White Live Matter” aimed at diminishing or seizing BML, none of them has succeeded. These slogans are being adopted because the whites are misunderstanding the massage of BML or because they want to continue oppressing the blacks. However, BML remains firm in fighting against the dehumanization of the backs.
Some of the success of BLM is exposing corrupt police officers and judges. The movement has succeeded in exposing the corruption of police officers and judges in Chicago, Ferguson, Cleveland, and Baltimore” Roberts, 2018”. This has led to corrupt police officers and some judges losing their jobs or ranks. BLM played a significant role in the segregation of the president of the University of Missouri, who had gone wrong to deal with racism on the campus.
BLM also was in the front line on the failure of Anita Alvarez re-election as the prosecutor of Cook County. This was because Anita Alvarez was unable to charge a police officer who was believed to shoot more than 68 people to death.
Since the election of Trump, the movement is significantly losing attention, but it is still fighting to remain active in the protection of the blacks against dehumanization.
References
Garza, A., Tometi, O., & Cullors, P. (2014). Herstory of the# BlackLivesMatter movement. Are all the women still white, 23-28?
Roberts, F. L. (2018). How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for Freedom. ACLU. Org.