Arguments for and against Black Lives Matter
Black lives matter is an activist movement that gained a following after 2013 once #blacklivesmatter was thrown around social media following the murder of 15 year old unarmed black boy, Trayvon Martin. This group acts as the voice for countless stories of police brutality and misuse of power. Black lives matter was created in order to bring awareness to crimes that were merely brushed aside. However with its good intentions, the black lives matter movement has received criticisms. First that the movement has no kind of organization, second that black lives matter is a shorted for “black lives matter and white lives don’t,” and lastly that this movement is anti-police. Outrageous claims like those …show more content…
Their arguments goes as such: If you are black then your life matters, you are not black therefore your life does not matter. At first glance this argument seems to have a foundation for validity but on closer examination it 's clear that it falls under the fallacy of denying the antecedent. The fallacy of this argument is that being black is not necessary for your life to matter, it 's not an essential quota for being something that matters. If the argument needed to be valid while maintaining the same message, it would be rephrased as such: Only black lives matter if you are not black then your life does not matter. However this is not the case of the movement, nowhere has it ever been stated by the official group that only black lives matter. Therefore while this argument would be valid it would also be unsound because it would now be using a false premise to support its …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, black lives matter does not only focus on police brutality but instead all types of social injustice involving the black community. With the understanding of critical thinking, this other side could realize that the problem is not that police shoot males but that the reasons they give for wanting to shoot them fall under classic examples of stereotyping and forming hasty generalizations of an entire group based on the few notable cases. For example the case of Alva Braziel who was shot dead after police claimed he held a gun up to them. Once body cam video was released by activist Shaun King on his twitter account, it was clear to see that his hands were up. Response to this status was followed: “Another reason why police get stereotyped is because sum departments lie, e.g. Shooting of #Alva Braziel - the video proves his hands were up.” Prejudice of violence among black males lead to the death of a man plus the police’s attempt to cover it up as a defense plea. The problem is that race should not be a relevant property into accesing whether or not a person will be violent. Many variables exists for example schooling, parent involvement, income and more. Using a stereotype as a rationalization for taking someone’s life strengthens the fear behind the stereotype that black men are violent. Prejudice completely
Black lives matter is an activist movement that gained a following after 2013 once #blacklivesmatter was thrown around social media following the murder of 15 year old unarmed black boy, Trayvon Martin. This group acts as the voice for countless stories of police brutality and misuse of power. Black lives matter was created in order to bring awareness to crimes that were merely brushed aside. However with its good intentions, the black lives matter movement has received criticisms. First that the movement has no kind of organization, second that black lives matter is a shorted for “black lives matter and white lives don’t,” and lastly that this movement is anti-police. Outrageous claims like those …show more content…
Their arguments goes as such: If you are black then your life matters, you are not black therefore your life does not matter. At first glance this argument seems to have a foundation for validity but on closer examination it 's clear that it falls under the fallacy of denying the antecedent. The fallacy of this argument is that being black is not necessary for your life to matter, it 's not an essential quota for being something that matters. If the argument needed to be valid while maintaining the same message, it would be rephrased as such: Only black lives matter if you are not black then your life does not matter. However this is not the case of the movement, nowhere has it ever been stated by the official group that only black lives matter. Therefore while this argument would be valid it would also be unsound because it would now be using a false premise to support its …show more content…
Contrary to popular belief, black lives matter does not only focus on police brutality but instead all types of social injustice involving the black community. With the understanding of critical thinking, this other side could realize that the problem is not that police shoot males but that the reasons they give for wanting to shoot them fall under classic examples of stereotyping and forming hasty generalizations of an entire group based on the few notable cases. For example the case of Alva Braziel who was shot dead after police claimed he held a gun up to them. Once body cam video was released by activist Shaun King on his twitter account, it was clear to see that his hands were up. Response to this status was followed: “Another reason why police get stereotyped is because sum departments lie, e.g. Shooting of #Alva Braziel - the video proves his hands were up.” Prejudice of violence among black males lead to the death of a man plus the police’s attempt to cover it up as a defense plea. The problem is that race should not be a relevant property into accesing whether or not a person will be violent. Many variables exists for example schooling, parent involvement, income and more. Using a stereotype as a rationalization for taking someone’s life strengthens the fear behind the stereotype that black men are violent. Prejudice completely