Black Lives Matter

Category: Activism, Black Lives Matter

Last Updated: 10 Aug 2020

Pages: 2 Views: 222

Black Lives Matter is a social movement that focuses on the protesting against the violation of rights in the African-American community. Their mission is to criticize the discrimination and violence many people have towards black individuals. Mistreatment, exploitation, harassment, racism, and violence are among the many abuses black people receive.

There are not any requirements to join this protest group. You only have to strongly disagree with the treatment of African-Americans and you will ’ll find a large group that have that in common. Although many of their members integrants are mostly black, there are a lot of white people within Black Lives Matter. Group members are anyone who wants justice and a change for the black community. This protest group does not have any has no leaders or figures of authority, and that is exactly what they want. They always say: “You can't kill the movement by killing the leader”. They prefer a united group instead of a figure of power who that takes away the main focus of the movement. In spite of that,Although they do have important figures like: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. They were the ones who created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 which led to the formation of the group. DeRay Mckesson and Shaun King are also very important activists in the group. DeRay Mckesson has a very large amount of followers in Twitter that he uses to manifest all his complaints about black discrimination.

Racism in history can be traced back to hundreds of years ago with slaves and the selling of Aafricans for exploitation purposes. Discrimination has always been a matter of trouble and has caused many incidents and raucous protests. For Black Lives Matter, it began in February of 2013. George Zimmerman was accused of shooting and killing a young African-American, Trayvon Martin. After the review of the case, on July 13, Zimmerman was declared not guilty, because he shot the teenager as self defence. Many black people’s rights defendant activists were very angry. This led to Alicia Garza to write a Facebook post titled "A Love Note to Black People" in which she said: "Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter". Then Patrisse Cullors replied: "#BlackLivesMatter," and lastly, when Opal Tometi also added her support, Black Lives Matter was born as an online campaign. Because the movement started as a hashtag, one of their main strategy points is the use of social media. They also protest publicly and form rallies and demonstrations in the hopes of gaining attention. Slogans like “Black Lives Matter” “Hands up, don't shoot” and Die-Ins, which are a form protesting were the participants lie on the floor pretending to be dead, are also part of their strategies.

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