Most of us remember the day that news came out about the tragic murder of an unarmed African American male by a Caucasian police officer. In 2013, social media began the Black Lives Matter movement by using a hashtag in response to the fatal shooting of seventeen-year old boy named Trayvon Martin. After the non-guilty verdict of the George Zimmer, the public began tweeting about the decision online. A year later, BLM gained attention following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner; two men whose deaths resulted in uproars in the cities where they were killed. The movement was founded by Alicia Garza, who started the campaign with a Facebook post that said, “Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter”. The BLM movement has created a platform to illicit a change for the black community. In the beginning, their mission was to put an end police brutality. Today, the organization practices justice, liberation, and peace for all African Americans. The Black Lives Matter movement: sparked the conversation for the high-profile killings of African Americans, it is a peaceful protest that was negatively portrayed in media outlets, and greatly impacted present day news, social media, and American and how Americans think about police brutality. The Black Lives Matter movement does not exclude those who are not black, instead it focuses on African Americans because their lives are the ones who are in danger.
The impact that BLM has had on social media and in the world has been more positive than negative. It is not exclusive, it is inclusive and open to everyone who is in support of the cause. If white people were being killed at an alarming rate by police officers, I would be glad to support their lives as well as black lives. Just because you support one thing does not mean your in opposition of another. All these years later, since we heard about Trayvon Martin, the movement is active, and the hashtag is still being using all over social media. Caroline Simon reported:
According to a newly released Pew Study, the hashtag has been used nearly 30 million times – an average of 17,003 times per day. (Simon)
Without social media, mostly Twitter, most Americans would not have known about Alton Sterling who was killed in July 5, 2016 or Philando Castile who died on a day after Sterling, or Sandra Bland who died a year before them. Social media is where you find the truth about those cases because the news often tries to dehumanize the victim. Even more so when the victim is not white. For those who are underrepresent in our society as a whole, we can use social media as an outlet or as a way to connect to the things that are happening to people that look like us. Rachel Einwhoner, a sociology professor at Purdue said:
Traditionally people of color in our society have felt that our political institutions do not represent them/ When we have social media people can have a voice. (Simon)
The rise of BLM changed the way African American lived their lives. People of color are “three times ore like to be killed by the police than white people” (“Police). With all the deaths that have happened, there is ever rarely any accountability taken by the police officer. Justice is very rarely served. “90 percent of cases in 2015 have not resulted in any officer(s) involved being convicted of a crime (“Police”). Throughout the entire year of 2017, there were only fourteen days that did not include a death by police (‘Police). African Americans are living in constant fear of this happening. They are scared to being killed. Teenagers who should be living life and worrying about school are focusing on how they could avoid being shot at. Speaking from personal experience, I have a twelve-year old cousin who has been told by his mother: do not wear a hood, do not look suspicious, make sure your hands are visible, and do what you are told if the day ever comes that he interacts with a police officer. This is not a conversation that we should feel we need to have with our children to ensure their safety. Black people as a race are scared to be pulled over or to be found in a setting that they might even be shot at. We are told not to act a certain way in public because we are scared. It is time for that fear to end. I think there is a misconception that mostly white people have with BLM and cops and it is that they hate cops. I can only speak for myself when I say that I do not believe that the movement hates cops, instead it hates that there are police officers around the world that are taking lives away by shooting and are then able to walk with no penalty and get away with it. Black people are angry, and they want change and rightfully so.
BLM brought attention to the public of how African Americans were being killed. Most Americans did not know about the killings or why they were happening until it was seen happening more than once in the news. After George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder to Trayvon Martin, criticisms of the judicial system being prejudiced against Africans Americans arose in the news and social media (Black). Criticism towards the slogan also struck. Some non-black Americans had concerns that the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ overlooks the importance of their lives, which lead to the creation of messages like: Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Although in the grand scheme of things my opinion does not matter, I think that when black people have something of their own there is going to be someone trying to take it away, like when Obama was elected president and he was criticized as not being fit for the position because of the color of his skin. It is clear that their lives mater, but black people are dying, and BLM is saying that as of right now their lives are valid and are what we need to focus on right now. The movement is not saying that the lives of those who are black matter more than the lives of those who are not black. Using the phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ is like “going to a breast cancer walk yelling, “Liver cancer matters, too!” (“Opposing Views”). Another thing that comes with the criticism of the moment is people trying to find a reason why the individual was killed. Things are said like: maybe they were disrespectful or maybe they had a weapon and the officer felt threatened. The thing is, with all the lives lost since 2013 due to police brutality we always hear the same thing. A white cop saying that a black individual had a gun, even if there is never any proof of them having a weapon or the individual would not obey order. When in reality, there is not a justifiable reason to take someone’s life like that. Previous crimes committed do not account as a reason to say that police brutality is okay, or to say that someone deserved to die. A lot of the issues we have in our society have to do with our judicial system and the imbedded racism that has followed our nation 100 years later. Our country literally prospered over the suffering of African Americans and although slavery was abolished, African Americans are still suffering. One could say that we’re are still living in the 1960s, today. Only now it is being done out in the open and no one seems to care enough to illicit a change.
The main opposing view against Black Lives Matter is that is does not care about non-black people (whites, Asians, Hispanics, etc.). Some say that the movement itself is “misleading, racist, and anti-police” (Black).I can see how one could feel that way from an outside perspective, how one could feel excluded. However, it seems pretty bizarre that someone can complain that the race they a part of is not being killed but they still want to be completed. BLM is not a good thing to be celebrated, black people dying is not a good thing. You should be glad non-black are not being killed by cops. It has a lot to do with perspective and what you believe the movement is trying to do. When things like “All Lives Matter” are being said it, you are taking away from the issue at hand and ignoring what is really important, which is that this needs to stop. However, there are things that can be done better, starting with no longer labeling every cop as a bad one.
In conclusion, what started as a hashtag due to an unfortunate situation ended being something that has been present in our country for years and will be further down the line. The Black Lives Matter movement was a begin in the fight to end police brutality and now works to end many other issues like, racial injustice, discrimination, and mass incarceration. BLM has helped the African American community in just starting a conversation that no one seemed to want to have. The conversation that our fellow black Americans were being killed and something needed to be done about it. To many it may seem that peaceful protesting can only do so much, but it does a lot. By simply getting it out on news outlets and exposing the injustices is a step to getting what they want. The movement impacted social media, and not only black people but also non-black people significantly. The Black Lives Matter movement began by focusing on the decreasing number in African Americans lives and became so much more. We have to do better, we just have to. Those whose lives were taken deserve justice. Mothers are losing their sons, and children are losing their fathers. If we do not do something about it now, it is going to be too late when my generation has children of their own. I do not know about you, but a world where you can be killed for the color of your skin, is not a world I want to live in.
Works Cited
"Black Lives Matter." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/RMBGVS336742654/OVIC?u=uscspart_lib&sid=OVIC&xid=15da6290. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018.
“Opposing Views: Black Lives Matter Movement.” Central Florida Future, Central Florida Future, 15 July 2016, www.centralfloridafuture.com/story/opinion/2016/07/15/black-lives-matter-stands-up-social-justice/87005028/.
“Police Have Killed 852 People in 2018.” Mapping Police Violence, mappingpoliceviolence.org/.
Simon, Caroline. “How Social Media Has Shaped Black Lives Matter, Five Years Later.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 July 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/12/black-lives-matter-movement-and-social-media-after-five-years/778779002/.