Position Paper No.2 : Interest Group or Issue

    

The unfortunate murder of a teenage black male by the name of Trayvon Martin, incited the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. The support and need for the movement have grown over the last few years, which is disheartening as well as encouraging. I chose the word disheartening because as the support and initiative grows it is in part because the murders and racist encounters and continuing to happen even today. In 2013, we mourned the death of Trayvon Martin and today in 2020 we are mourning the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others.

The movement was started by three strong black women by the names of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Since the summer of 2013 they have watched the support and need for their movement grow. There have been countless murders against African Americans that have been brought to the forefront thanks to social media yet many of the killers are not being adequately punished for their actions. In some cases, the killers are law enforcement officers which only further complicates the matters. After the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s murderer, #blacklivesmatter was born. This hashtag and statement was not created to make it seem as though one race was better or more important than another, but it was created in hopes that everyone would finally make the connection that black lives actually matter. No matter their religion, sexual preference, socioeconomic background, or anything else for that matter. The hashtag was created to let everyone know that the injustices against African Americans would not be tolerated. The fact of the matter is when the founders talked about all people being created equal, they were not referring to black lives.

TikTok has been all the rage for all ages since we have spent the majority of 2020 socially distanced from our friends and family. You can find videos of the latest dance craze and vegan dinner recipes all with the swipe of a finger on your “for you page”. Now may even notice that some of your favorite TikTok sensations have the three letters BLM in the biography section at the top of their pages. This trend started some months back after the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor when protest broke out all over the nation, and people were able to see the diversity amongst the supporters of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Many took to social media discussing how they saw many people of other races taking part in the peaceful demonstrations. Some had questions about how they could show their support for the movement in various ways throughout the pandemic we are facing and this is how the concept of posting the movement name under people’s individual social media came about. There were various suggestion given such as donating on the  official BLM website https://blacklivesmatter.com/, self-educating on the injustices that the movement is fighting against, and posting the BLM acronym in your social media biographies if not just to let those you know your support them whether you are a person of color or not but also to help spread the reach of the movement. An example of this would be say you are a 27 year old Caucasian male who supports the BLM Movement, by having the acronym in your biography or discuss or even just repost matter from any BLM official social media the you could be spreading the movement and giving a new perspective to others who may have never seen it explained or expressed that way.

It seems like it was just last week that we saw commercials every hour encouraging people to make sure that they were participating in the census. The Black Lives Matter Movement spent the top of the year encouraging minorities to participate in the census and educating them on what people were eligible to be counted for their households. In many of the lower-socioeconomic areas throughout the country minorities tend to be under-represented and served, so by being accounted for through the census government officials can determine the needs of the people in the specific areas. They also sent out postcards and emails to those subscribers for informational updates from them to remind them to complete the census survey and resources that they could use if they needed additional assistance.

With this being an election year, the movement has been pushing to get people out to the polls to vote. Not only to vote, but to understand the process and what issues each candidate supports and what they are against. Voter education has been a major theme for the Black Lives Matter over the last few months. They have used the social media to update their supporters on the voting deadlines and changes based on the state. Voter suppression and intimidation has been a concern for some, so they also used their social media platform to let voters know their rights as it pertains to voting and to provide despite the long lines and frustration. Now that the President-elect has been announced, the movement is not done with their activism. They are requesting a meeting with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss changes they hope to see over the next 4 years and have taken to social media with a petition. The petition is for signatures of support in hopes of increasing their chances of getting a meeting to ensure that change happens with this new president. I will say that through researching this paper in interest group in particular, I think that the fact that their passion for the movement can be felt through their activism much like their black supporters who live the experience daily.

WORKS CITED 

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/on-tiktok-fighting-racism-requires-a-song-and-dance/

https://time.com/5852534/black-lives-matter-2020-elections-voting/

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/black-lives-matter

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/black-lives-matter-movement-photos-44402442/image-73797621