George Floyd and Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter is an international human rights movement, originating from within the African-American community, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people. Black Lives Matter can and will hold protests, speaking out on police brutality, the killing of black people by police, however they also broach on wider subjects such as racial profiling and racial inequlity in the United States criminal justice system.

Black Lives Matter began with the movement of the hashtag ‘#BlackLivesMatter’ on Twitter and social media after the shooting and death of an African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012. The movement became nationally recognised for street demonstrations following the deaths of two African-Americans: Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Black Lives Matter can also be simplified to BLM.

George Floyd

George Floyd was a 46 year old man. On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin in downtown Minneapolis. He was arrested for allegedly using a forged $20 bill and Floyd was also unarmed.

As Floyd was handcuffed, Derek Chauvin; whom was a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on the right side of Floyd’s neck for over 8 minutes. During this Floyd repeatedly states that “I [he] couldn’t breathe” and also called out for his mother. Chauvin dismissed these calls and didn’t stop kneeling on Floyd’s neck. For 2 minutes and 53 seconds, George Floyd became unresponsive and therefore lead to his death and murder.

Videos of this incident then circled around on social media, showing Floyd laying face-down on the ground with Chauvin’s knee on his neck – along with three other officers around. The video shows Floyd’s last words, and then on social media the hashtag ‘#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd’ started trending.

Due to the video trending, along with the hashtag, people all over America started protesting – starting with Minneapolis. They protested in support for Black Lives Matter and that racial inequality and racial profiling was wrong.

Social media has played a big part in the George Floyd case and the Black Lives Matter movement. It shows people fighting for justice – not only for George Floyd – but for every black person who has experienced inequality, police brutality and racism. Social media is useful in getting information across quickly. Twitter started threads on about how people can help – usually signing petitions and donating to fundraisers. Petitions help to get justice and unite communities from all over the world to get the justice needed. Social media has been really helpful and supportive in showing the world what has happened.

After the tragic death of George Floyd, many celebrities spoke out on the current situation and even joined protests. They, the celebrities, have a much wider audience and can help people to encourage them to sign petitions and they can help spread awareness of what is going on.

Other issues raised by BLM & George Floyd

There have been other issues raised following the death of George Floyd that Black Lives Matter is there to raise awareness for the minority that is in need of a voice and let their experiences be heard. People showed their respect for the BLM movement by having the hashtag ‘#blackouttuesday’ where people would post black squares on Instagram – however some people within the black community said this did not help and it was ‘performative’ and it would rather be helpful to share links to petitions instead. Another issue raised was that Derek Chauvin, the police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck was not being charged or held accountable for his actions. Later he was charged with third-degree murder however the hashtag ‘#RaiseTheDegree’ trended on Twitter primarily and then his charge got moved up to second-degree murder. The three other officers at the scene have also been charged.

After seeing what the tweets and the trends can do, along with petitions there were petitions to open another case where a murderer walked free. Breonna Taylor was an EMT who was shot 8 times after police broke down the door to her house in an attempted drugs bust, and the murderer walked away free however the petitions allowed the closed case to be reopened and investigated by the FBI.

Along with this, protests which are peaceful have been disrupted by police who have decided to use police brutality to stop the protests. Many people have been shot with rubber bullets, arrested, tear gassed, and more. Police have also been starting riots and maced a young girl who was not a part of the protests. President Donald Trump responded to this on Twitter by saying “When the looting starts the shooting starts” basically allowing police officers around the USA to shoot anyone who is caught looting.

A statement that trended and sometimes does continue to trend is the hashtag ‘#AllLivesMatter’. This is a racist statement as it is brought up to damage the Black Lives Matter movement. All lives matter, yes however all lives do not have to fight for basic human rights and all lives aren’t oppressed. The phrase ‘All Lives Can’t Matter until Black Lives Matter’ is also brought into the subject. Along with the ‘#AllLivesMatter’ statement, another one trended: ACAB. There is a lot of controversy surrounding ACAB – meaning ‘All Cops Are Bastards’, as some people agree with it and others say that there are good cops / cops who aren’t corrupt. There is also a numerical code for this: ‘1312’.

Media Outlets

Different media outlets have different views on how to share news. Vox News spoke out about it and stated “Minnesota, has sparked protests across the country” on the death and killing of George Floyd. This enables people to see that one action can cause effect elsewhere and can change a whole country. Vox also stated that the protests are peaceful however “some have turned violent” and how some cities in America are violent when the police turn up and raid the peaceful protests. The protests are civil and peaceful until the police show up, therefore getting violent by the authoritarian officers using tear gas (which was declared illegal to use in the battlefield in 1925 by the Geneva Protocol, shortly after World War I) and rubber bullets. However people responded to this by burning buildings and police cars, and looting.

How it links to my media work

This can link to the Beyonce music video for ‘Formation’ where police are holding guns and raid masks towards a young African-American child who is just dancing on the street. This is indicating a notion towards racial inequality. This shows no matter what age someone is, an African-American will experience racial inequality.

My opinion

In my opinion, I will never face any kind of racial inequality or racism because I am white and I am not oppressed. I learn a lot about the BLM movement from Twitter and I educated myself on the topic to learn as much as I can. I helped in many ways, such as signing every petition I came across, and sharing all the necessary information to the relevant places. I feel that the world should come together as a whole and take a stride in the right direction because it’s 2020 and people are now only just realising that people shouldn’t be oppressed by the colour of their skin – or even for their sexuality. However with all the work that’s going on, I feel that this world will change and the young teenagers and young adults will have more of an impact on society rather than the old people – as young people have a chance to stand up for what they believe in and have a chance to fight for what they do believe in.