The Black Life

Black Lives Matter is a movement that has made waves since 2014. I would call blm the present day civil rights movement, as it's a fight for equality for black people. As social media progresses, we find ourselves trending hashtags and certain events, this is the foundation for Black Lives Matter.

After Trayvon Martin, another young black man lost his life at the hands of a police officer and that officer was acquitted, social media took storm. 17 months after the death of Martin, black lives matter became a prominent movement in society. There were marches, protests, and millions of people worldwide fighting for black lives.

Now in 2020, BLM has exploded past the point of being a social media trend or hashtag, there's action. BLM is being called a second wave of the civil rights movement, and for black people the civil rights movement never ended because racism never ended. The advancement of technology has greatly helped in blm protests because more people are able to capture police misusing their power. The number of viral videos posted from people recording police brutality has shot up. Not only have the personal videos helped, but body cam footage has also progressed. Without body cam footage we wouldn't know about what happened to Philando Castile or Eric Garner. Without video evidence we wouldn't know the truth about Trayvon Martin, George Floyd or Sandra Bland.

It is powerful for the community to stand up and fight for black lives especially now that we're in a pandemic. There were over 10,000 arrests for protestors following the death of Floyd, however over 90% of the protests were peaceful, therefore the arrests being in retaliation against blm.

The rate of police brutality among blacks is something that hasn't changed for years. Police officers exert their authority rather than protect their community, and racially stereotype black people. These protests are for something deeper than civil rights and police brutality, it is to bring awareness of the systematic oppression black people face. There is no reason black people are killed by police 3 times more than whites when the population of whites are 4 times larger.

These protests, BLM, fighting are for black lives, which are just as important as white ones. Without yelling and fighting for what's right, there is no resolution.