Black Lives Matter Analysis

Black Lives Matter is a social activist movement, originating in the African American community, campaigning against violence and injustice towards Black people. George Zimmerman, a man acquitted for killing a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin, triggered a social movement that shook the country to a social eruption. Police brutality, racial profiling, and the killing of African Americans in the last 479 days has caused 1065 Black Lives Matters demonstrations according to Elphrame (chart of demonstration). Seeing more and more demonstrations each day causes some questions. Is the media (print, radio, T.V. Internet, twitter etc.) influencing opinion and behavior about the movement black lives matter and if so what are the opinions it is influencing? …show more content…
According to the New York Medical Examiner Garners’ death was a homicide. During the video, Garner yells out “I can’t breathe” which the media uses as a slogan. In this way the media uses his words as way to say that the NYPD were informed that he was not breathing but because he was black they did not care. The Media, such as twitter, also uses the incident to say because he was African American the police were more violent in handling Eric Garner. I see in this situation the media is being bias towards the situation and not focusing on the entire problem. Why was the man in the situation of being confronted by police to begin with? Once the Eric Garner incident happened, many videos of police brutality were being shown all over social media. Facebook was a huge engine to the social movement as videos would show up, people would comment and repost making the movement grow at a rapid pace. In this situation social media was used to drive the movement and make it grow but still being bias to what the situation as a whole is, it also was showing the police brutality towards African Americans was actually happening more …show more content…
According to the New York Times it quotes “A friend who was walking with Mr. Brown, Dorian Johnson, says the officer opened fire when the young men refused to move from the middle of the street to the sidewalk. He says Mr. Brown’s hands were over his head when the officer fired” (Michael Brown’s Shooting and Its Immediate Aftermath in Ferguson). This incident here fueled the Black Lives Matter movement into a nationwide motion. During a Professional football game at coin toss, the captains held their hands in the sky as a “hands up” motion in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Holding their hands in the sky is supporting the movement by demonstrating that Michael Brown was unarmed and murdered in the middle of the street. During this time Ferguson went into marches and riots, protesting against the police brutality. The Media such as CNN and NBC spent time covering the incident giving the Black Lives Matter movement more coverage and boosting their response. In my opinion Michael Brown and the Police Officer were both in the wrong. The police officer who was doing his job had no right in firing on an unarmed civilian. Brown though, was not complying to what the police officer said. If he would have done what he was asked he might still be alive. I believe what the media says portrays that the police officer fired his weapon because he was racially profiling,

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