“Where is your humanity?” can be read on a large sign poking from the vast crowds of the police brutality protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Humanity seemingly has been hiding closely behind a colorblind criminal justice system. A criminal justice system is set in place to create and maintain racial inequality in nearly every way Americans move through society. As a result, the Black Lives Matter organization has been the epicenter of roaring public opinion about racial inequality, police brutality, and systemic racism against Black Americans across the United States.
In the past decade, police brutality and crimes against African Americans have gained media attention and have developed into a humanitarian crisis. A spark was ignited the day George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was brutally suffocated to death by a white police officer in Minneapolis Minnesota. That spark would lead to possibly the largest most influential civil rights movement to date, the Black Lives Matter protests. Black Lives Matter, also known as BLM, was founded in response to the unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin in 2013. BLM is an organization and movement that is self-described as fighting for freedom, liberation, and justice. The murder of George Floyd ignited a mass movement known today as Black Lives Matter. Floyd’s death occurred as a result of a white police officer’s brutally mishandling Floyd's arrest during a body inspection. Since Floyd's murder, police brutality cases against African Americans have come more to the public’s attention. Systemic racism has also been a growing concern among the public as studies and research have shown that African Americans are the least likely to thrive and benefit from living in the United States.
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Despite the initiation of BLM having been founded fairly recently, the acts of violence that led to its creation have been occurring since the birth of America. The true meaning of Black Lives Matter stems from its extensive history. Since the early ages of colonization, white Europeans have discriminated against, incriminated, enslaved, and targeted African descendants. Documentation from the early colonization of the Americas shows that white European settlers forcibly migrated people from Africa in hopes of growing the new population. Throughout the 17th century, European settlers turned to enslaving Africans as they thought it was a cheaper labor source than having white workers or servants. The history of why Africans were brought to America by force is key to understanding why the system we live in today in the United States is set out to not be in favor of Black Americans. Due to the extensive history of the United States, and although slavery was abolished, my argument here is to voice that the system in which the U.S. was founded and built does not and will not benefit people of color.
The Black Lives Matter protests have gained mass media attention throughout the entire world. Since the protests in the United States, other countries like the United Kingdom also had their own BLM protest, calling for recognition from their government. The media has portrayed BLM protests in various ways, right wing media portrays the protest as a call for action against systemic racism while left-wing media portrays the protest as grotesque and unnecessary. As of recently, the Black Lives Matter protests have peaked at nearly half a million people in most locations. Negative media coverage began when one BLM protest quickly turned into a riot, violence broke out, crime was at an all-time high, and looting was seen everywhere. Despite these negative actions, Black Lives Matter has stood for nothing more than an end to police brutality and systemic racism.
Black Lives Matter is an initiative to bring awareness to the systemic racism that is present today. The mass movement done in protest hopes to bring focus on the police brutality that is on the rise and other hardships that African Americans are put through. BLM has gained incredible amounts of support from everyone, varying age and race. Acknowledgment of such horrendous acts against African Americans in the United States has brought humanity together to fight for what is right.
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