The Black Lives Matter Movement began in 2013 by three Black women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The movement started as a social media hashtag in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, whose case and surrounding implications slowly received national attention after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager.
The BLM movement officially established itself as a national movement in 2014, following unrest after the police-involved deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City. In Missouri, demonstrators protested against racial discrimination and the police brutality faced by Black Americans in the United States. Raising awareness and voicing the need for reform was the chief goal of these demonstrations. Another important goal was fighting for change against injustice and to prevent violent scenarios like the respective deaths of Martin, Brown, Garner, (and too many others) in the future.
The BLM movement was catapulted into worldwide spotlight in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police officer, Derek Chauvin. BLM organizers, participants, and supporters sought condemnation for the unjust police killings of Black Americans across the United States. Demonstrations and protests appeared in cities across the country and internationally. The BLM protests starting in 2020, spanned over two years and are recognized as the largest sustained protest movement the country has ever witnessed.
The Black Lives Matter movement started as a simple hashtag which called on the nation to confront systemic racism and police brutality faced by African Americans in the United States. Over the years, the phrase grew to become a national and global movement where BLM activists had a prominent role in the fight for change and solidified the movement into mainstream consciousness and U.S. politics. The protests and demonstrations provided space for difficult, yet necessary conversations about racial justice. The BLM movement drew attention to long-standing issues such as structural inequalities in criminal justice and the ever-pressing need for accountability and reform. It also allowed space and solidarity with other minoritized groups in the United States.
BLM is not a single unified organization. The decentralized structure of the movement was and continues to be misinterpreted by citizens, the government, and law enforcement. Often, the movement is subject to selective framing and opposition, creating severe political and cultural polarization despite BLM movement organizers’ primary goal of stopping violence and injustice.
Social media increased awareness and understanding of the movement while providing a platform for people to share their experiences, educate, demonstrate peacefully, and unite. However, due to the nature of social media platforms, polarization grew not from BLM activists but from the perceptions and reinforced beliefs about race and criminal justice in the United States. For example, the counter phrase “All Lives Matter” was introduced which draws on the erroneous assumption that a focus on Black struggles means the exclusion of others. Media framing and selective coverage were significant in the rise of this polarization as well as skewed perceptions about BLM protests.
Social media gave rise to echo chambers, which became an additional layer of increased polarization surrounding the BLM movement in 2020 and months following. Emotionally and politically charged content could not be avoided due to the continuous cycling of content cultivated by algorithms. Fear and false narratives played heavily on those who were likely to be polarized, framing the BLM movement as extremist. The BLM movement has constantly had to deal with actors trying to push back or diminish the movement’s purpose either due to being misunderstood or disliked, yet the movement continues to fight for equality.
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