Black lives matter critical overview Presentation 2022

BLACK LIVES
MATTER – A
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

BACKGROUND – SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS AND THEIR PURPOSE
 The term social movement refers to loosely
organized efforts that are undertaken by large
groups of people (Taylor 2016).
 Social movements are undertaken to achieve a
specific goal, be it is a social goal or a political
one (Taylor 2016).
 The purpose of any and every social
movement is to undertake activities pertaining
to social change, to resist a social change or to
undo any particular social change (Pellow
2016).

AIM OF THE STUDY
 The aim of the following study is to present a critical
overview of a social movement that took the internet
by storm of late – the Black Lives Matter, social
movement.
 The study will aim to assess how the value system of
Black Lives Matter, as a social movement, has been
portrayed in the media and whether or not there
exists any bias in this respect.
 To see how the value system of Black Lives Matter has
been impacted by the process of globalization
 To assess how communication tools like social media
have been used to conduct the movement
 To understand the perspective or values of the
initiators of this movement, and its importance

BLACK LIVES MATTER – AN
OVERVIEW
 Black Lives Matter is a global activist
movement.
 Black Lives Matter is a social movement
that originated in the African-American
community in the USA
 The purpose and the objective of Black
Lives Matter as a social movement has
been to campaign against systemic
violence and hatred against the black
people in America (Rickford 2016).

VALUE SYSTEM OF BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 The value system of Black Lives Matter is
based on a desire to bring an end to racism.
 As part of the Black Lives Matter social
movement, regular meetings are held in
protest of the killings of Black people that
take place in police custody.
 Broader issues such as police brutality,
racial inequality and racial profiling are
addressed by Black Lives Matter, as a
movement (Rickford 2016).

VALUE SYSTEM OF BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 Black Lives Matter is a social movement that is greatly
inspired by a civil rights movement that took place in
America prior to this one, the Black Power Movement.
 Some of the well-known protestors of the Black Lives
Matter movement, are seen to distinguish themselves
clearly from the previous generation of African-
American leadership.
 The reason for stepping away from an identification
with the previous leadership lies in the fact that the
present leaders of BLM are averse to a wide range of
middle class traditions like respectability politics,
Democratic Party involvement and church
involvement (Ince et al. 2017).

VALUE SYSTEM OF BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 In the most essential sense of the term, Black
Lives Matter is a present day civil rights
leadership and movement that aims to bring
about a reduction in the violence that is levied
against black people in America.
 The purpose and scope of the movement is to get
all Americans to recognize the importance and the
value of black lives, to treat black people with the
dignity they are entitled to, and to regard them as
equal partners in the citizenship process, instead
of as people who are unequal, marginalized, not
worthy of mainstream affairs, and consequently of
human rights (Ince et al. 2017).

HOW BLACK LIVES MATTER HAS
BEEN PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA
 It is important to talk about the fact that
Black Lives Matter, as a social
movement has been presented without
bias in the media.
 The media all over America and all over
the world, have commended the growth
and expansion of this movement, from
an online social media campaign to a
global movement of a massive scale
(Hope et al. 2016).

GLOBALIZATION AND
BLACK LIVES MATTER
 Black Lives Matter is a movement that
did not remain restricted to the country
of America for too long.
 As such, BLM is a movement that is
global in its scope and purpose, which is
why the tenets of this movement came
to be widely embraced by civil society
actors in other countries of the world,
that are home to a substantive black
population (Hope et al. 2016).

GLOBALIZATION AND
BLACK LIVES MATTER
 The impact of Black Lives Matter as a social
movement came to be felt within the first three to
four months of its operations.
 One of the most crucial features of this movement
was to draw attention of the American public to the
indiscriminate killing of black people that was taking
place in police custody.
 The extra judicial killing of black people by vigilantes
and the police is what the movement is primarily
against, which is why the movement came to be well
accepted not only across the length and breadth of
America, but in other parts of the world as well
(Taylor 2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 Black Lives Matter is a social movement that has made
heavy use of social media in order to preach its
messages to the American public.
 Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag movement on
Facebook and it was then carried out on Twitter as well.
What triggered the movement was the acquittal of
George Zimmerman, who was responsible for shooting
Travyon Martin, a black rights activist, to death.
 The three founders of the movement, namely, Alicia
Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, questioned
how Americans ought to be responding to the
complete devaluation of black lives following the
acquittal of Zimmerman (Carney 2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 The Black Lives Matter as a social
movement is officially seen to have
begun when a note was published on
Facebook, by Alicia Garza, stating, “Our
Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter”
(Carney 2016).
 The two others associated with the
movement then added their support and
the movement is then deemed to have
begun officially as an online campaign
(Taylor 2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 Social media as a platform was used to
communicate the venue and details of
protest movements as and when they
took place
 The first in-person movements officially
began from the year of 2014, and the
details of the same were communicated
regularly via Facebook and Twitter
(Camp and Heatherton 2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 Through the use of social media, the
organizers of Black Lives Matter as a social
movement not only communicated details
about events and proceedings of the same,
but also acquired a substantive fan following
as well.
 By the year of 2016, hundreds and thousands
of black people across America lent their
physical and moral support to the various
events that took place in this country as a
part of the movement (Camp and Heatherton
2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 The extensive use of social media for
promoting the key messages of Black
Lives Matter, led to information about
the movement being spread far and
wide.
 People of every culture and gender,
people of every religion and ethnicity as
seen to exist in America, found some
reason or the other to support Black
Lives Matter, as a social movement
(Pellow 2016).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 As a consequence of the fact that it used social media as a
platform to conduct its campaign activities and messages
and to spread awareness about such campaigns, Black
Lives Movement gained the momentum that it desired.
 Soon, Black Lives Matter was a social movement that was
being followed not only by people of multiple ethnicities
living in different parts of America but all over the world as
well.
 Soon, a global chapter of the movement was formed, that
allowed sympathizers and supporters of the movement to
partake in the online campaigns and activities via social
media, namely through the Facebook and Twitter pages
dedicated to the movement (Taylor 2016).

INCLUSIVITY AND BLACK
LIVES MATTER
 Black Lives Matter was a social movement that in
time, was not just limited to black people living in
America, but people of other ethnicities as well.
The core value system of the movement is based
in inclusivity.
 Intersectionality is something that was embraced
by the Black Rights Movement.
 Black Rights Movement came to endorse the
issues and troubles that were being faced with
other minorities in America such as queer people,
members of the trans-gender community and
women (Hope et al. 2016).

INCLUSIVITY AND BLACK
RIGHTS MATTER
 All the three founders of the movement
know as Black Lives Matter, identify as
women. Garza and cullsor are known to
identify as queer.
 Elle Heams, who is considered to be one of
the founding members of this movement
identifies as trans-gender.
 The rights of all minorities, be they black or
queer or anything else are upheld by BLM
as a social movement (Hope et al. 2016).

SIGNIFICANCE AND VALUE
 The primary significance and value of Black Lives
Matter lies in the fact that it is a movement that
was initiated to bring to light the oppression and
atrocities being committed against the black
people in America (Lebron 2017).
 Through the various messages and virtual
campaigns that the movement undertook on its
social media pages, and also through its in-
person protests and events, the BLM protestors
made it clear that Black rights and black dignity
was to be upheld in America, as also in other
parts of the world (Ince et al. 2017).

CONCLUSION
 Thus, Black Lives Matter is one of the most important social
movements to have taken place in recent times.
 The BLM movement found expression through social media,
from where it made its message known all over America, and
later, all over the world.
 Black Lives Matter is a social movement that came to uphold,
not only the rights and the dignity of African Americans, but
also queer, transgender and women in America and people
belonging to other racial minority groups.
 The key message of Black Rights Matter, is that black people
deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and that their
lives are to be valued, regardless of where in the world they
live and what purpose in society they serve.

REFERENCES
 Camp, J.T. and Heatherton, C. eds., 2016. Policing the planet: Why the policing
crisis led to Black Lives Matter. Verso Books.
 Carney, N., 2016. All lives matter, but so does race: Black lives matter and
the evolving role of social media. Humanity & Society, 40(2), pp.180-199
 Hope, E.C., Keels, M. and Durkee, M.I., 2016. Participation in Black Lives
Matter and deferred action for childhood arrivals: Modern activism among
Black and Latino college students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education,
9(3), p.203
 Ince, J., Rojas, F. and Davis, C.A., 2017. The social media response to Black
Lives Matter: how Twitter users interact with Black Lives Matter through
hashtag use. Ethnic and racial studies, 40(11), pp.1814-1830.
 Lebron, C.J., 2017. The making of black lives matter: A brief history of an idea.
Oxford University Press
 Pellow, D.N., 2016. Toward a critical environmental justice studies: Black Lives
Matter as an environmental justice challenge. Du Bois Review: Social Science
Research on Race, 13(2), pp.221-236.
 Rickford, R., 2016, January. Black lives matter: Toward a modern practice of
mass struggle. In New Labor Forum (Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 34-42). Sage CA: Los
Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
 Taylor, K.Y., 2016. From# BlackLivesMatter to black liberation. Haymarket
Books