Black Lives Matter
Balck Lives Matter started as an online campaign to preach racial equality and bring awareness to police brutality to African Americans. The campaign started in the summer of 2013, after George Zimmerman’s acquittal for the shooting death of the black teenagers, Trayvon Martin. The movement began with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and has grown into organized protests and marches against many racial issues.
The Controversy
Many have come to criticize the movement as “inherently racist” and claim it only advocates for one race. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that Black Lives Matter is “inherently racist” and divides people and worsens racial tensions. U.S. perception of the movement is even further dived by race, with a 2015 poll from Pew Research Center finding that 59% of black Americans thought that Black Lives Matter would “be effective, in the long run, in helping blacks achieve equality” and 34% of white Americans thought so.
