Carl Azor-Final Proposal: Black Lives Matter

            There are many issues within in the United States that can be debated for this project. These topics include social, political or even a topic corrupt corporation that is keeping the top 1% wealthy and leaving no room for a middle class. All of the problems that America is facing right now are important but the Black Lives Matter movement is at the forefront of importance. The Black Lives Matter movement is an activist group that defends all black lives whether it being male, female, or transsexual against anti-Black racism that still exists in our society. This social action not only stands for the African American men and women who are gunned down or mistreated by police, but also speaks for the black queer and transgendered community as well.

The Black Lives Matter movement began amidst the acquittal of George Zimmerman after he was tried for murdering 17 year old Trayvon Martin in cold blood. This sparked the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag on Twitter which resulted in tweets from across the country. Social Media was a big help to the movement because it brought awareness throughout the nation. The Black Lives Matter Movement catapulted around 2014 with the horrifying deaths of both unarmed Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Eric Garner was choked to the death by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo who was trying to arrest Garner for selling loose cigarettes. Fortunately someone recorded the tragic incident showing Garner gasping his last words “I can’t breathe” over and over before passing out. Officer Pantaleo was not even indicted for the murder that he committed on video. NBA superstars such like Lebron James and Derrick Rose supported the Black Lives Matter movement by wearing “I can’t breathe” t-shirts during shoot-around before their games. Later on that year, Michael Brown was gunned down by a Ferguson, Missouri officer named Darren Wilson who also was not indicted for killing an unarmed teenager. This lead to riots throughout Ferguson with the intent of fighting for justice and adding more awareness to the BLM movement.

The BLM movement is so appealing to cover because it has negative attention brought to it by the media, calling the activist group a “hate group” which only preaches about Black lives in America and not standing up for ALL lives. Also, the movement crosses through different genres of entertainment and in sports. Richard Sherman, a defensive back for the Seattle Seahawks, criticizes the movement by saying blacks should not only say “Black Lives Matter” when an officer kills a black male or female. Sherman says that blacks should also say it when blacks kill other blacks because the murder rate within the Black Community is it at an all-time high. The complexity of this social issue needs to be covered throughout the country until it is fixed. I plan on writing a research paper on this issue and I also plan to present a short video clip of the reunion of The Million Man “Justice or Else” March that I will be attending this weekend.

References

http://gothamist.com/2015/07/14/eric_garner_settlement.php

http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/

http://nypost.com/tag/michael-brown