Racism Leads to Social Movements

Racism is a constant issue going on in America. It does not matter how many years go by, racism is still brought up, fought over, and fought about every day. Over the last few years, many can say racism has gotten worse and needs to be corrected in the world. As an individual, race is seen differently through the eyes of that person. Race may be classified as a social group, gender, skin color, and even the location of the person. When we think about racism it can trigger our memory and relate it to what we have learned in school. Racism goes all the way back to the 1600s, when slavery was a major circulation in America. If you use the current state of lens, you can see that racism today has started a new movement, known as the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement has spread like wildfires to state an issue that needs social justice, which is know the continuation of the Civil Rights Movements. Before this movement took place, racism has been a contemporary racism issue, and has caused issues on college campuses and in America with the meaning of color-blinded racism.

Throughout the decades, Racism has become a huge negative impact in the society. Racism has affected and existed in many cultures and geographic areas through the years. Even though The United States has attempted to take legal action to reduce racism, it is still strong in our society today. To understand why the Black Lives Matter Movement was started, you will need to understand the meaning behind it. This will the lead you to why Color-Blind racism and racial inequality is considered contemporary in America. To conclude my review, the Black Lives Matter has become an issue on college students from the racism being widely spread around campuses.

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BLM Movement

In the United States, racial issues started back when slavery was born. During this time, we call it the Civil Rights era, which is when the Civil Rights movement took place. Rod (2016) mentions that two generations later, it is fitting that some have described the Black Lives Matter protest as the new Civil Rights Movement. Many questions arise on what Black Lives Matter island what it was users for. In 2013, an unarmed African American boy was killed by a white man who was found not guilty. This caused a big issue in the African American communities. White (2016) states that Black Lives Matters as a hostage call-to arms and social movement when a particular set of interesting shifts in politics, technology and the economy combined to produce a renewed focus on societal violence that target African Americans. However, Rod (2016) concludes that the BLM movement was born in 2013 and was indirectly created out of years of anger within the communities of African Americans over the legal systems actions of taking black lives. Black Lives Matter is trying to seek why and how black lives are equal to value of other races in other countries over the past years.

Color-blindness in America

Colorblind racism is the expression of “ideas in the service of power” according to Hermon (2013). Colorblind racism can be broken down into frames, styles, and even stories of the new racism being expressed. Hermon (2013), explains that, the author Bonilla-Silva’s meaning of frames can be broken down into four types that have affected America throughout time. The four frames include abstract liberalism, cultural racism, minimization of racism, and naturalization. Hermon (2013) mentions that Barak Obama is a prime example of color-blind racism in politics for America. Obama is more of a centrist instead of a radical. With Obama being in office, it gave white Americans the bigger hand on racial justice struggles. Rod (2016) explains that many people thought that with Obama becoming the President, that it would be a “post racial” America, but instead the crime and activist for the Black Lives Matter movement had reborn. This has led color-blindness to be a bigger issue on social media, between peers, and on college campuses between different races.

Black Lives Matter Affects College Campuses

The Black Lives Matter has become a movement for college students. Black lives on campuses are being targeted and harassed by the cops on campus due to the color of their skin. White (2016) states that, it was always likely that the protest police violence and brutality occurring off campus would eventually also mobilize against the various manifestations of these different, intersecting violence in university communities. The protesting on campuses are not just happening on the grounds them self, but more college students are sharing a lot of the issues though social media. Social media has allowed the movement to organically grow by sharing videos, observations, and information (Darr, 2019). Many of the teachers and students are losing jobs and education due to the protest on the campuses. White (2016) explains, that he is a teacher on campus, and that if you look deeper into who is teaching lectures in many subjects, that seventy five percent of those teaching are normally white men. This shows that many people of color are being judged on the color of skin and being biased that they do not have the right education to do their job. Many black students are now being threatened they will be killed if they are activist for this movement. This is putting more harm and fear into students who just want the same thing as other races, which is a successful college education.

The Black Lives Matter movement has begun to upraise to a major concern in the world. It seems like it is the civil rights era again and can not seem to be justified properly. More college students and young African Americans are becoming the new target in America. With the protest, color blindness on campuses and even the social media spreads have become the main key to help justify the issues causing the movement to take place. Each author had their own purpose on believes from experience, life and even studies that indicate the truth behind the moment becoming a new movement that seems to have never ended.

Background/History

The Black Lives Matters movement began as a social media hashtag by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullers and Opal Tometi in 2013. This movement was created to bring awareness when a white man, George Zimmerman, was acquitted in the fatal shooting of a young African American boy, Trayvon Martin. After the hashtag started to spread, it now became a global movement. Many people relate the Black Lives Matter movement to the Civil rights movement. However, it was not until 2014 that the momentum of the movement begun to rise. This was due another unarmed African American man who was killed by the police and not found guilty. These events led to many protests throughout America about police brutality on the African Americans. The protest was used to show the injustice and inequality respect issue throughout American in the communities. The protest even took a lot of interest on college students, which led for the protest to happen on the campuses. College students were able to speak their mind, right for justice that is an issue for them on campus, and even talk about how the color-blind racism is affecting them while getting an education. Many students believe that some races are not equal to their race and treat them poorly because of the color of their skin. This has caused a lot of tension on college campuses around the time that Black Lives Matter was being more known. Racial issues on campus have been a huge open issue between students who attend the schools. Many students, however, do not see they are racist, but the way they carry themselves and act has brought color blind racism to the areas. Students tend to have a lot of tension and some students get racial threats from other peers for standing up for what needs to be done. With the meaning of Black Lives Matters, the colorblind racism, and the college campus affects, we can claim that there is a major gap in equality value in America today.

Global perspectives

Global perspective is “the study of the larger world and our society’s place in it” (Macionis, 2018, p. 9). Ever Since the BLM movement was founded in 2013, the movement has grown legs and expanded globally. Many countries, besides just The United States, have recognized the language and political stance that the Black Lives Matter Movement has caused. As the global reverberations stand tall, “Solidarity protests took place in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada” (Tharoor, 2019). This movement has connected different diversities to the cause, and some of these diversities felt they did not connect before but do now. Globally, people are fighting and standing up tall, for the racism to end in America, and even the killings from police. Many countries see America as a place with a unique storyline of police killings of individuals. With these issues, many other countries are helping fight for this to end by pushing what was a moment to a global movement, for the black lives in America.

Future Implications

The Black Lives Matter is strongly supported by the younger generations, more than the older. The young crowd are the ones making the noise and are the ones who have been rejecting the politics due to the way they have handled the coronavirus that has targeted mainly African Americans. “In the absence of leadership on the issues defining their generation, young people are engaged and actively taking charge of their future” (Woodbury, 2020). The major issue with this is that it is now a structural racism issue on the politics side. This impact will and can affect this generation, due to the lack of leadership support. The future implications should not be understated but will result in a major issue in America. Many countries are waiting to see what this is going to cause. However, this can lead to major outcome change for future elections, just based on the support of a movement. Just like the Civil Rights Movement, the acts of the leadership, has changed on how the future generations will take lead on their own, and even affect the voting polls throughout The United States. “If we are to avoid the same pitfalls, our narratives about what I call the digital phase of the long civil rights movement must not be severed from its technological history, where people of color – website designers, software engineers, digital entrepreneurs, and social critics – labored, innovated, and produced a foundation for the movement to continue well into the future” (McIlwain, 2015).

References

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