As more and more Black Lives Matter protest begin to erupt people start to wonder how exactly it get to this point? Where did it all begin and what is their goal?
The BLM movement is both political and ideological focused on ending systematic racism and is not just based in America, as it is a global movement whose goal is to spread awareness and educate about systematic racism and end it. The movement is direct protest against unarmed black men and women being killed unjustly.
The movement first began after the after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the Trayvon Martin murder back in 2013 in which Trayvon was shot and killed by Zimmerman. After the case, protests erupted across America including famous athletes such as Lebron James and Kobe Bryant wearing “I can't breathe” shirts before their games. Later in 2014, Eric Garner another unarmed black man was choked to death by a New York City police officer.
As a result of the situation the Black Life Matter, was created, and gathered more than 600 people. Then in 2015 an all-time high of 13 transgender black women were killed. The following year in 2016, the deaths of Deborah Danner and Alton Sterling sparked a speech by NBA player Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony before the 2016 ESPYS (yearly sports award show) on race and violence. Also 2016 was the first year that NFL player Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem and continued it throughout the whole season and said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color”.
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This sparked a major uproar across the country as many people had felt that Kaepernick was not only disrespecting the flag, but the people who risk their lives in the military even though it was a former military member who told him to kneel. Even president Trump chimed in by saying that Kaepernick was disrespecting the flag and the men and women fighting for this country.
Fast-forward to 2020, and the killing of unarmed black men and women has not stopped as Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed while Jacob Blake was left paralyzed, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd all have been wrongly killed this year. Many high-profile people and celebrities have brought attention to these killing in many ways such as the WNBA players wearing “say her name” shirts during their warm-up in response to the Breonna Taylor killing. Other celebrities participated in many peaceful protests in response to the George Floyd killing and even television network Nickelodeon going off air for nine minutes the same amount of time an officer had his knee on the neck of George Floyd.
The murder of George Floyd pushed many people fighting for social justice over the edge and sparked many riots in response to his death. It became a global outcry as the riots were not just were the incident happened (Minneapolis) but all-around America and the world people are fighting for the BLM movement and their goal to end social injustice. As more wrongful killings and doing take place people are speaking both louder and more for what they want, and they won’t stop until systematic racism is eliminated, and the murders of unarmed black men and women like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin and many more come to an end.
