Black Lives Matter Movement Analysis

Revolution, in any form, is an important - and necessary - concept for a society to consider. Many countries have seen radical changes based on the demands of the people; a large amount of these incidents involved violent resistance against the prevailing authority. However, peaceful protests, while usually an attempt to achieve the same outcome as an outright revolt, have a different effect, are often viewed as morally superior, although they run the risk of being less effective overall. The Black Lives Matter movement seems to be a prominent example of a “revolution”; although somewhat nontraditional, its objective is to amplify the voices of black people, mainly Americans, as well as to expose systematic racism. One of the movement’s hallmarks …show more content…
The movement is decentralized, but purposefully so; one of its co-founders, Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, states that “you can't kill the movement by killing the leader because there are many.” (“The Rise of Black Lives Matter”) In a similar vein, the movement heavily relies on social media to spread the message, which is a powerful and effective way of communication. In addition to being an invaluable organizational tool, the Internet allows for a wider discussion, with more input from various viewpoints, with very little censorship - hence why there are many leaders, in addition to many incarnations of the …show more content…
It is an ideal situation, of course, but it is often a method of silencing valid complaints; when “oppression...is organized,” it is illogical to expect people to be perfectly complacent with a system that actively harms them. (“Civil Disobedience”) BLM was targeted for a number of respectability-based criticisms in July 2015 when groups of protesters, including the co-founders, interrupted rallies for presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump in an attempt to “hold them accountable” as politically powerful people. (“The Revolutionary Aims of Black Lives Matter”) The incidents involving the first two Democratic politicians were particularly fascinating, because they are the movement’s so-called “allies” - yet, the groups picketed them anyway, and received acknowledgement by both candidates. Predictably, the protest at Trump’s rally was broken up and the protesters mocked, demonstrating that, although this was a more obviously necessary place to protest, censorship may be a form of defensiveness; the people involved simply may not want to “humble themselves” to this movement. (“Huckleberry