On August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, eighteen year old Michael Brown and his friend were walking to Brown’s grandmother’s house when they were stopped by a white police officer named Darren Wilson. For no reason besides the fact that Brown was African American, he was shot and killed. Brown was unarmed and did nothing wrong, yet he was shot multiple times. This story is just the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter Movement and why is is still important to this day.
Black Lives Matter is a human rights movement focused mainly on African American youth. Many unarmed people of color have been shot and injured or even killed by white police officers. In recent years, more and more police brutality cases have come into light. Because of social media, stories and videos of police officers mistreating African Americans have become widespread and shared thousands of times. These instances of police brutality have resulted in protests towards certain police departments and the treatment of black people in general. The Black Lives Matter movement has worked to make people safer, especially in the black community and encouraged victims of police brutality to speak up and share their stories.
In our podcast, we plan on discussing several aspects of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a movement which advocates against police brutality, especially toward African American youth. They have gained great prominence because of the impact of social media on their protests, widely publicizing and spreading their movement. The hashtag, #blacklivesmatter, catapulted the movement, allowing all of the world to hear people’s stories of their mistreatments.
Several celebrities have also gotten behind the movement. Colin Kaepernick, the almost infamous NFL player, kneeled during the national anthem as a peaceful protest. Beyonce wore a “black panther outfit” during her Superbowl performance and received a great amount of backlash. Several musicians turned down the opportunity to perform at the Superbowl this past year because of their blacklisting of Kaepernick. All in all, this is a movement which spreads awareness and acknowledges the overall mistreatment of African Americans.