Blog 4: Black Lives Matter

-
Back in 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement began to slowly emerge in the Black community as a hashtag on Twitter to bring attention and promote online discussion on racial profiling and police brutality against Black Americans. Police brutality comes in part from the misconception that a police officer's authority allows brutal conducts without being held accountable for such actions, a belief reinforced by mild disciplinary actions such as being suspended, or even exonerations as in several high-profile cases such as Michael Brown's in Ferguson, Missouri. These notorious cases of Black people being killed by police force propelled #BlackLivesMatter from social media to its development into a broader offline social movement, when the hashtag began to be used to organize protests.

After George Floyd, a Black person who did not resist arrest, died under the callous choke restraint of a police officer, Black Lives Matter has been at the center of the most widespread and persistent protests in the United States. In occasions, violence explodes in the middle of a protest, a situation that has given the authorities the perfect excuse to have militarized police in peaceful marches of Black Lives Matter. Armed and dressed in combat gear, the militarized police presence at demonstrations stand for their power and control over others more vulnerable that should be protected, their uniform minimizes their social responsibility and justifies their actions, and their masks or anything that covers their faces shield them in anonymity to liberate the worst of themselves. Adding to all these, the contribution of someone in the highest power with igniting words such as "thugs" intended to tarnish the protesters, definitely blurs lines between good and evil.

Then, the militarized police reacts in a way that suppresses people's freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of press, and freedom to petition to the government by attacking peaceful protesters with pepper spray, attacking and arresting demonstrators and journalists, firing rubber bullets and tear gas against the crowd. In order to employ militarized police, there should be a clear and present danger of violence, otherwise, its presence creates a chilling effect which means deterring people's freedom of speech and assembly protected by the First Amendment. In seven years, Black Lives Matter gained the support of a majority of American people while the anti-racist protests spread calling for defunding police departments.
Image: https://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/screen_shot_2019-03-28_at_11.58.13_pm.png
Sources:
  • https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1512/black-lives-matter
  • https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/nation/2020/05/28/protests-break-out-around-us-following-death-george-floyd/5278673002/
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-the-black-lives-matter-movement-went-mainstream/2020/06/09/201bd6e6-a9c6-11ea-9063-e69bd6520940_story.html
  • https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Blog: My Online Presence

-
Image
    In almost thirty years, the rise of technology related to media and communication has been impressive. The birth of the World Wide Web started with one site in 1991. Today, the number of available websites reaches over 1.74 billion with 59 percent of the global population as active users. The internet and mobile technology innovations contributed to have in 2020 about 2.95 billion people around the world using social media and yet this number is constantly growing, and an expanding amount of 4.41 billion available apps in Google Play and Apple's App Store combined, and with them, digital technology has prompted a change on norms and the way of life to billions of people.     Actually, the technology of today is so interlocked with us as individuals and as a society that it works as part of ourselves to expand our communication capabilities and outreach potential without frontiers, bringing numerous advantages that impact our culture, lifestyle, economy, education, politics, awa
Read more

EOTO 1: Motion Pictures

-
Image
Introduction     In over one century, motion pictures have transformed the world, developing into the most popular and influential media of the 20th century and beyond, with great impact on cultures, societies, politics, and arts, as motion pictures achieve widespread presence to be viewed not only at movie theatres, but also on television broadcast, streaming services, and digital technology that constantly reach millions of people day after day.     Motion pictures, also called films or movies, became a form of art. Motion pictures emerged at the end of the 19th century and were quickly recognized as perhaps the first truly mass form of entertainment. Movies connect people with appealing stories about shared interests, dreams, or concerns, allowing people to perceive the world and understand others through a combination of art, talent, industry, and technology. The Beginning of Motion Pictures Muybridge & Marey     In the 19th century, motion pictures resulted from experimenting
Read more

Blog 5: The Stifled Opinions of Dissent

-
Image
The voices rarely heard in mainstream news, the thoughts hardly found in the internet search engines or in social media newsfeed, and all types of expressions promoting views that can be perceived as radical, unpatriotic, or overcritical are destined to become the stifled opinions of dissent. These are small factions that defend unpopular principles and viewpoints against the ones of prominent organizations that have extensive power in the government system holding a widespread influence on society. Examples of such voices can be the webpages or social media portals of libertarians, socialists, or American conservatives, or those from anti-war movements particularly in times of war. The question is if the First Amendment protects them. The First Amendment protecting the freedom of expression has been tested in numerous occasions. In times of war or internal social turmoil, people who dare to express ideas that challenge the government have faced repression, censorship, and severe jail
Read more