Sociology Essay: Role Of Black Lives Matter Movement In Promoting Civil Rights Of African Americans

Question

Task:
American Government Essay Assignment Guidelines

The Civil Rights Movement was a time dedicated to activism for equal rights and treatment of African Americans in the United States. During this period, many people rallied for social, legal, and political changes to prohibit discrimination and end segregation. Even today, the struggle for the civil rights of African Americans continued to dominate the political landscape. Write a three-page sociology essay (without including the cover and citation page) describing what role if any the Black Lives Matter movement plays to promote the civil rights of African Americans Steps you need to take to write your essay:

1. Develop a claim whether the Black Lives Matter Movement promotes the civil right of African Americans. Ex. BLM does not promote the civil rights of African Americans because……….
   Or
   BLM does promote the civil rights of African Americans because of……………..
2. Support your claim and establish a line of reasoning. Support your claim with accurate and relevant evidence
3. Use elaborate reasoning to explain why your evidence support your claim
4. Use a minimum of three references, out of which one must be a scholarly journal. Scholarly articles are the most credible sources you can find because of the rigorous peer-review process. They are written by people who have studied this subject for many years, and they have been reviewed by other people with similar experience. They are thoroughly researched, which means you can “mine” the article’s bibliography to find other sources that might be useful for your paper.
5. Cite sources using the MLA style: If you use outside sources you must do in text citation for the part of the outside information you used in your essay. In addition, you must also have a list of references in a separate page with full bibliographic information at the end of your essay.

Answer

Introduction

As per the research on sociology essay, it is stated that during the years 1954 to 1968, the Civil Rights Movement began in America. This was a campaign and a political movement which gained prominence in the United States. The aim of this movement was abolishment of the institutional segregation based on race, the disenfranchisement and discrimination across the United States. This American Civil Rights Movement was a phase during which activism reached its zenith in achieving equal treatment and equal rights for the African Americans in the U.S. As per Patnaude et al. (60) the people of U.S rallied during these years for political, legal and social changes for prohibiting segregation and discrimination. In the political backdrop of the U.S, even today the fight for African American rights continues. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) is another social and political decentralised movement which seeks for highlighting discrimination, racism and inequality which is experienced by the black people. In this essay, how far the BLM movement is effective in promoting the civil rights of the African Americans, will be discussed.

Black Lives Matter Movement

According to Issar et al. (69), the BLM movement has gained prominence and attracted media attention in 2020. The BLM movement is a decentralised movement which is significant in the social and political sphere. The BLM movement is playing an important role in the promotion of the civil rights of the African Americans in the U.S. The civil rights refer to the essential and crucial components of a democracy. The civil rights would guarantee that the African Americans have equal protection and equal social opportunities under the prevailing law. These civil rights would be ensured to them irrespective of their religion, their race and any other characteristics. The basic civil rights include the right to vote, the chance of fair trial, the access to public education and eligibility for government services. The BLM movement would assure that the people belonging to the black race would not deprived of their rights or harassed for their colour. No life should be lost due to racial discrimination. The supporters of the BLM movement had come together on 6^th of June, 2020 to protest against the police brutality and intolerance towards the black. As per Reny and Benjamin. (1500) the supporters considered this incident as a racially triggered violence by the police against the black people.

The Black Lives Matter also referred to as George Floyd protest in 2020 includes the series of protests against the police. The protests were against the civil unrest caused by the police. The struggle of the BLM movement and the George Floyd protest is for racial equality. These protests began in Minnesota at Minneapolis in the year 2020 on 26^th May. As opined by Jackson (10) the protests mainly took place in the year 2020. These protests aim at securing the civil rights for the blacks or people of colour. The murder of George Floyd was criticised by the international supporters of BLM. George Floyd was not a known name but the death of this 46-year-old man of African American origin, gained support in favour of black lives from all over the world. This man was killed during the arrest after Derek Chauvin, the officer from the Minneapolis Police Department knelt on George’s neck for about nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The passers-by could not intervene as three other police officers kept a watch. After the death of George, Derek Chauvin and the three other officers were arrested. In the year 2021, on the 20^th of April, the police officer Chauvin was found guilty. His guilt included a series of actions which led to the death of George Floyd. Chauvin was guilty of third-degree murder, second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter. Ilchi, Omeed and James Frank (390) said that Chauvin had been sentenced to an imprisonment of twenty years and six months. This duration of imprisonment could be subject to supervised release once fifteen years are completed, which is the punishment span for second-degree murder on the 25^th of June in 2021.

As per Applewhite (1798), the protest in support of George Floyd started quite a few hours after the murder took place. The incident went viral on the internet when a bystander shared a video. The word of mouth spread the news of this injustice to an African American man. The protests began and the rallies were seen first at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and East 38^th street in Minneapolis. This is the location where the arrest and murder of George Floyd took place. The protests were also seen at various locations in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area at Minnesota. The protests against the murder of George Floyd gained momentum and spread across the nation. It further spread to over two thousand towns and cities in more than sixty nations in support of the movement of BLM. FRENCH (54) stated that the polls during the summer of 2020 gave a rough estimate that around fifteen to twenty-six million people took part at some point in the protests and demonstrations in the U.S. This protest for George Floyd, an extension of the BLM movement is now considered as the largest protest in the history of the U.S.

As per Özbilgin and Cihat Erbil (130), the murder of George Floyd has given a new spur to the Black Lives Matter movement. This global movement aimed at securing the civil rights to the blacks. The protests during the Floyd’s case made the people realise the significance of the civil rights. The life and rights of the African Americans, the blacks need to be protected and safeguarded by ensuring each one of them their basic civil rights. This incident raised the awareness and need for eliminating discrimination and racism from the society. The murder of George could be considered as a social awakening. The aim of the BLM movement is not very different from the civil rights movement of the U.S. The two movements were soured by the death of two blacks. The BLM movement is effectively promoting the civil rights of the African Americans. The blacks still face disparity when it comes to accessing the educational opportunities. The black women and children are deprived from health and medical facilities. As the African Americans are deprived from accessing education, they are lagging behind in their achievements. The BLM movement is trying to safeguard the rights of the blacks. The African Americans should be allowed to apply for government jobs, avail public education and medical care, etc. The right to rule, the right to live, must be guaranteed to the African Americans (Crooks et al, 206). The death of George Floyd and the brutality of Derek Chauvin has raised the consciousness among the global population regarding racial injustice. The world realised that the blacks and the non-blacks need to be aware of racial violence. The people, the supporters of the BLM movement have also raised their voices for increasing the accountability of the police so that such brutal actions could be controlled. The BLM movement has similar objectives as that of the civil rights movement. The campaign is trying to ensure that the black voters are not deprived of their rights (Green et al, 200). The blacks or African Americans should not only increase the number of voters for the U.S, but also get what they deserve. The movement aims at safeguarding the rights of the blacks by making amendments in the legislation. The segregation should stop and the rights must be ensured to the African Americans. The George Floyd protests have strengthened the BLM movement. The suppression of the blacks would be stopped, they would get their due justice and social rights. The discrimination in employment along with the housing practices would also be eliminated. The Civil Rights Movement tried to assure that each individual gets the required justice and legal, social and economic equality. The civil rights should be guaranteed to everyone irrespective of their race, gender, sec, colour and economic status. The BLM movement has specifically concentrated on the marginalised blacks or African Americans. The strength of black power and related campaigns have been magnified after the world stood strong in support of George Floyd. The aim of the BLM movement is to see that the people can live freely with their racial price. The blacks and every other minority should be assured economic empowerment. The cultural and political institutions should incorporate racial justice and tolerance (Bell et al, 40).

Conclusion

The BLM movement aims at ensuring the civil rights for the African Americans. This black lives matter movement is an extension of the civil rights movement of the U.S. This civil rights movement has tried to ensure that the blacks irrespective of their colour. After the death of George Floyd, the black people across the world realised that they need to join hands and stand strong against the whites. The people of non-black origin saw the intolerance and brutality of the white police. The incident of George Floyd gained more momentum and popularity due to the wide spread reach of social media. The people in support of George Floyd protests raised their voices and shared their opinions, not only in person in rallies and marches, but also across social media platforms. The civil rights need to be assured to the blacks. The black women and children should not face deprivation as the civil rights movement and BLM movement has tried to ensure.

References

Applewhite, Derek A. "A year since George Floyd." Molecular biology of the cell 32.19 (2021): 1797-1799.

Bell, Myrtle P., et al. "Making Black Lives Matter in academia: a black feminist call for collective action against anti?blackness in the academy." Gender, Work & Organization 28 (2021): 39-57.

Crooks, Natasha, Geri Donenberg, and Alicia Matthews. "Ethics of research at the intersection of COVID-19 and black lives matter: A call to action." Journal of Medical Ethics 47.4 (2021): 205-207.

FRENCH, KENNETH. "BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS, 2020." Atlas of the 2020 Elections (2022): 54.

Green, Darius A., Brittany A. Williams, and Kyulee Park. "Crisis Counseling for Black Lives Matter Protests." Sociology essay Journal of Mental Health Counseling 43.3 (2021): 198-211.

Ilchi, Omeed S., and James Frank. "Supporting the message, not the messenger: The correlates of attitudes towards Black Lives Matter." American journal of criminal justice 46.2 (2021): 377-398.

Issar, Siddhant. "Listening to Black lives matter: Racial capitalism and the critique of neoliberalism." Contemporary Political Theory 20.1 (2021): 48-71.

Jackson, Sarah J. "Black Lives Matter and the revitalization of collective visionary leadership." Leadership 17.1 (2021): 8-17.

Özbilgin, Mustafa F., and Cihat Erbil. "Social movements and wellbeing in organizations from multilevel and intersectional perspectives: The case of the# blacklivesmatter movement." The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Wellbeing (2021): 119-138.

Patnaude, Laura, et al. "Public emotional response on the black lives matter movement in the summer of 2020 as analyzed through twitter." International Journal of Marketing Studies 13.1 (2021): 1-69.

Reny, Tyler T., and Benjamin J. Newman. "The opinion-mobilizing effect of social protest against police violence: Evidence from the 2020 George Floyd protests." American Political Science Review 115.4 (2021): 1499-1507.