WHY 'BLACK LIVES MATTER' ?

WHY 'BLACK LIVES MATTER' ???

Official Logo of Black Lives Matter

BACKGROUND

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an organized movement favoring non-violent civil disobedience in protest against alleged incidents of police brutality against Afro-American people. An organization known simply as Black Lives Matter exists as a decentralized network with over 30 chapters worldwide, while a larger Black Lives Matter movement exists consisting of various separate like-minded organizations such as Dream Defenders and Assata's Daughters. The broader movement and its related organizations typically advocate against police violence towards black people, as well as for various other policy changes considered to be related to black liberation.
In 2013, the movement began with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in February 2012. The movement became nationally recognized for street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African Americans: Michael Brown—resulting in protests and unrest in Ferguson, a city near St. Louis—and Eric Garner in New York City. Since the Ferguson protests, participants in the movement have demonstrated against the deaths of numerous other African Americans by police actions and/or while in police custody. In the summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter activists became involved in the 2016 United States presidential election. The originators of the hashtag and call to action, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, expanded their project into a national network of over 30 local chapters between 2014 and 2016. The overall Black Lives Matter movement, however, is a decentralized network and has no formal hierarchy.

The movement returned to national headlines and gained further international attention during the global George Floyd protests in 2020 following Floyd's death by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Blacks at demonstration

Black Lives Matter originally used various social media platforms—including hashtag activism—to reach thousands of people rapidly. Since then, Black Lives Matters has embraced a diversity of tactics.

INTERNET and SOCIAL MEDIA

In 2014, the American Dialect Society chose #BlackLivesMatter as their word of the year. Yes! Magazine picked #BlackLivesMatter as one of the twelve hashtags that changed the world in 2014. Memes are also important in garnering support for the Black Lives Matter new social movement. Information communication technologies such as Facebook and Twitter spread memes and are important tools for garnering web support in hopes of producing a spillover effect into the offline world. However, Blue Lives Matter and other opponents of BLM have also used memes to criticize and parody the movement.

By September 2016, the phrase "Black Lives Matter" had been tweeted over 30 million times, and Black Twitter has been credited with bringing international attention to the BLM movement. Using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has helped activists communicate the scale of their movement to the wider online community and stand in solidarity amongst other participants.

Dr. Khadijah White, a professor at Rutgers University, argues that BLM has ushered in a new era of black university student movements. The ease with which bystanders can record graphic videos of police violence and post them onto social media has driven activism all over the world.

On Wikipedia, the WikiProject Black Lives Matter dedicated to coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement was created in June 2020.

Bob Marley, Redemption song

RESPONSES

There have been many reactions to the Black Lives Matter movement. The U.S. population's perception of Black Lives Matter varies considerably by race. The phrase "All Lives Matter" sprang up as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement, but has been criticized for dismissing or misunderstanding the message of "Black Lives Matter". Following the shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, the hashtag Blue Lives Matter was created by supporters of the police.

A few civil rights leaders have disagreed with tactics used by Black Lives Matter activists. Muhammad Ali’s son says his father, who had been the youngest boxer to win the world's heavyweight championship, would have hated Black Lives Matter. He claims that his father, who often gave speeches about civil rights at colleges, would have been sickened by the violence and looting.

HAPPENING NOW, 2020

On February 23, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia. Arbery had been pursued and confronted by two white residents, a father and son, who were armed and driving a pickup truck.

On March 13, Louisville police officers knocked down the apartment door of 26 year old African American Breonna Taylor, serving a no-knock search warrant for drug suspicions. Police fired several shots during the encounter which led to her death. Her boyfriend who was present at the time had called 911 and said, "someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend". Protests were held in Louisville with calls for police reform.

On May 25, Christian Cooper, a black bird watcher at New York's Central Park experienced a confrontation with a white woman after he asked her to put her dog on a leash in the Ramble, a no-dogs-off-leash area. The interaction escalated when the white woman called the police to say that an African American man was threatening her.