The Black Lives Matter movement
The name ‘Black Lives Matter’ signals the unjust killings of Black people by police. Studies show that black people are more likely to be arrested and even killed in the United States than white people. The lives of black people should be valued the same as white people’s lives in America and all over the world. These injustices have been going on for centuries throughout the world, however after one specific event, the people of America and all around the world had enough.
Causes of the protests
The main cause of the Black Lives Matter protests in the Summer of 2020 was the unjust killing of George Floyd. Floyd was a 46 year old African American man who was murdered by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin on the 25th of May, 2020. The Minneapolis Police Department officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for up to eight minutes as three other officers looked on and prevented anyone passing from intervening and stopping them. As well as the killing of George Floyd, there have been many other black people at the hands of white police officers, for example Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman, who was fatally shot in her Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020. She died when three white officers named Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankinson, and Myles Cosgrove from the Louisville Metro Police Department, forced entry into her apartment and fired 32 shots, 6 of them hitting Breonna Taylor and killing her. After occurrences like these, the world needs to change.
Where the protests occurred
Protests began in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota as that is the location where George Floyd was murdered. Word and protests quickly spread nationwide and to over 2,000 cities and small towns in over 60 countries in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Polls that were taken during the summer of 2020, showed that between 15 million and 26 million people had been involved at some point in the protests and fight in the United States, making the Black Lives Matter protests the biggest in the history of the United States. Protests continued to take place until early November 2020.
Violence during the protests
Although the majority of protests were peaceful, there were a lot of riots and damage done by police officers and counter-protestors. There are multiple videos and photos of police using physical force and violence against protestors, for example batons, pepper spray and even rubber bullets. These aggressive police tactics are intended to impose order but instead they are raising the tension and anger of the people involved. People have reported that they were beaten by the police for no reason and a medic station was also destroyed by police for no apparent reason. If the police are using physical force against the people they are supposed to protect, how do they expect protestors to say or do nothing about it?
Deaths from the protests
25 deaths were reported in the U.S after the protests, the youngest being 18 years old and the oldest victim being 77. The 77 year old was an African American man named David Dorn, who was shot by a rioter while he was trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop. His death was streamed on Facebook live. Another shocking death that was recorded on a live video was of a young man named Philando Castile, who was shot by a Minnesota police officer in his car while he was with his girlfriend. The girlfriend live streamed their encounter with the police officer and got the whole event on film. She stated that her boyfriend had been shot “for no apparent reason”. Several African American politicians, including State Senator Zellnor Myrie, President Shannon Hardin and Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce were reportedly pepper sprayed by police. Ghian Foreman, the Chicago Police Board President, was reportedly beaten with batons by police.
The Use of Social Media
Hundreds of social media users and influential people were spreading awareness, information and donation sites on their pages. Multiple videos and pictures were circulating around the internet, showing the tragic behaviour from the police but also how supportive and strong people were when they came together and fought for justice. A 15 year old began a petition called “Justice for George Floyd“, which demanded that all four police officers involved be punished for their actions and charged. This one petition became the largest and fastest-growing in the site’s history, with it reaching over 13 million signatures from people all over the world. Many hashtags were created for all of the social media platforms such as #WalkWithUs, which stood for all the police officers that were against police brutality and was attached to images of police officers on one knee with the protestors. This gave some hope to the protestors. Another hashtag that went around social media was #BlackoutTuesday. This hashtag was part of a movement that involved people posting a black photo with the hashtag. This raised more awareness as it showed the importance of the issue as social media feeds were just filled with black screens.
Outcomes of the Protests
The protests had an impact on nearly every citizen of the United States and touched nearly every strand of society. The murder of George Floyd helped force Americans to face the racial inequality, police brutality and other economic issues that goes on in their country. If it was not for social media, and the video of Floyd’s death, I do not think this would have been as impactful as there was video evidence to prove the disturbing event. There are many active websites people can visit that tell you what you need to do in order to keep fighting this issue. In July, The Washington Post started to run a regularly updated section on their site called “America’s Racial Reckoning: What you need to know.”
There are many sites you can look at that will inform you further on the events of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, however the one I would recommend most is BlackLivesMatter.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_and_controversies_during_the_George_Floyd_protests#Deaths
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