The purpose of the black lives matter movement is to earn equality for the black community in the judicial system, workforce, and everyday life. The movement does not conform to only heterosexual African Americans, they support the LGBTQ community and encourage their support in the movement as well. 

A lot of questions and uncertainty have surrounded the black lives matter movement, and it has caused a bit of tension among different races. There has also been an increase in violence between police and African Americans around the country. Due to the murders of people like Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and Trayvon Martin there is major tension from African Americans towards police. On the other hand, there has also been police killed by African Americans, for instance five police officers were killed in Dallas as payback for the black people who have been killed by police per police reports. This caused the creation of terms like all lives matter, blue lives matter, and cops lives matter. 

With these events happening it creates even more of a question of what is the purpose of the movement, if it seems like nothing positive is coming out of it. That is not one hundred percent true though because there are a lot of positives that have come out of the movement, and are still to come. For instance, the movement has helped bring the black community together as a whole. Of course, there are still going to be black on black crimes but the focus of the community is to have less and less of those, and to have justice served against people who have committed crimes against black people like police officers. Another way this has brought the black community together is all the different peaceful rally’s and protest. Anytime the black community can come together and do something positive shows that it is possible for it to always be like that and that can lead to a decrease in violence.

As mentioned earlier a focus for the movement is to end the corruption in the judicial system and for trials to be conducted fairly and justice to be served. In 2012 Trayvon Martin was killed and this was not only where the movement began but another landmark case in American history with a ruling that is often questioned. Trayvon was an African American teenager who was killed by George Zimmerman in claims of self-defense. Zimmerman saw Trayvon walking and claimed that he looked suspicious because he was wearing a black hoodie. Zimmerman was instructed to stay in the car by the 911 operator on the phone but chose to do otherwise. No one really knows what happened because only one person is living to tell the story.

Trayvon was shot and killed and Zimmerman has not served one day in prison even though he was told not to act on the situation and someone is left dead. When the verdict of not guilty was reached there was an uproar across the nation. The story was trending on twitter and social media, every news station was reporting live from the court room, and the story filled newspapers and magazines. This is not the first time that something like this has happened for instance there was Rodney king, Oscar Grant, and Sandra Bland. These people were beaten or killed by police but none of them pleaded guilty to any charges. 

Often it seems as if the only way an officer will not walk free is if the whole incident is caught on video, and even this at time just is not enough. These are the things that the movement wants to change. The movement wants to see justice served to everyone, they feel as if no one should get an exception because of the color of their skin or because they have a badge. 

That leads to another question which is what steps are the movement going to take to accomplish its goals of equality in the judicial system? There is only so much the movement can do since it is outside looking in, but when groups of people come together and protest whether it be on twitter, on a comments box under an article, or by protesting it makes it hard for them to be ignored. When people who are working together to get something accomplished, cannot get it accomplished a whatever is necessary approach may be taken which is what leads to riots and stealing. 

This happened after Michael Brown was killed, the officer received a verdict of not guilty and Ferguson went crazy. It was like the riots in California in the 90’s. Stores were burned down, glass broken, items stolen, and people were arrested. Although this was negative it put pressure on the government because now they realize that these people are serious about what they want and they will do whatever is necessary. 

Through this riot and other protest the black lives matter movement has taken a step in the right direction and now this issues is starting to turn around.  Even things like body cameras have are being worn by police now to make them think twice before taking someone’s life and if anything was to happen people will be able to see exactly what went down. Although the movement has come a long way from 2012 when it started there are still changes that can be made to help the movement grow even more and continue to make an impact. As stated before a lot of people do not know the clear meaning of the movement so this could cause issues if someone is deciding whether they should support it or not. 

For example, the movement is called Black Lives Matter so by reading this one could think do they mean just black lives matter, or do they only support black people, or even are they a group that is violent and radical. By reading just the title alone no one would have the answer to any of these questions, so to fix this when they have protest and rally’s they should not only focus on the issue they are there for, but help explain to the community around them the whole purpose for the group and why they should join. Also, they could use social media as a platform to help spread their message and that is a way they can directly answer any questions anyone has about the movement.

Another way the movement could help make change in society is to expose more issues then ones that people can find out and hear about every day. They should help expose the prison system and make it a larger known fact that more African Americans are in prison then are white people who committed the same crime, or how the prison system is mostly black. Also, the fact that the way the whole judicial system is set up is just basically another form of slavery. Instead of black people being hung for crimes they are now basically hung with getting a 20 or 30-year sentence simply for getting caught with marijuana too many times. Or how once you’re in the system it is set up for you to return to prison with the simple fact that now you are being watched or get in trouble three times. 

The three-strike rule basically puts you away for life but what would anyone do if the only thing they have ever been taught to do it to sell drugs, or steal, or to do whatever they must do to make ends meet. This is the number one reason itself that marijuana is illegal because whether the government wants to say it or not if they were to make it legal then that would cause them to lose a lot of money they make each year off locking someone up for drugs, which for the most part are African Americans. But this all start with the school system and kids that are just pushed a long through the system until they no longer must care for them. It is just one big cycle from there and these are some of the issues that the movement could help make more known.

Another example of how the movement is trying to change this and bring everyone together is joining forces with minimum wage activist across the nation. The movement is combing with the activist to push for fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage across the nation. They are launching their first action on April fourth which is the forty ninth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Their slogan is “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” (Whack 1). This is ironic because around the time king was killed he was working with union workers discussing unfair wages. This is also an ironic time because Donald Trump was just elected president and a lot of people in the movement feel that his administration is hostile when it comes to working with people who are minorities or in the working poor class.

Although there has been a lot of positive examples out of the movement there has still been negative examples like a white supremacist killing an African American Manhattan. An Army veteran named James Harris Jackson was charged with Second Degree Murder and it was also considered a hate crime. He stabbed a man with a sword, and later said he purposely travelled there to kill a black man because it would get media coverage there. This is not the first time that an incident like this has happened, in June 2015 Dylann Roof committed a mass church shooting in Charleston South Carolina. He purposely went into the church to kill black people, who were having a bible study session including elderly people.

Even events that are supposed to be peaceful sometimes turn violent or get out of hand for example at a vigil for an African American who was killed in Manhattan, white supremacist gathered and opposed the people who were there in support for the African American man. It turned into a big shouting match even including people driving by yelling “idiot” and “all lives matter” (Greene 1). This goes a long with the whole subject of the paper which is how the different races are struggling to learn to live with each other in peace instead of in opposition of each other. Time would be one way one would think this issue would be fixed but if that was the case then history would not be basically repeating itself.

A lot of the issues society is dealing with now are a lot of issues the united states struggled with during the original civil rights movement. Yes, a lot of laws and regulations have been created by the government but a lot of these still leave plenty of gaps for society to be able to work their way around the laws to conform to its own ways. Racism is just a cycle that is passed down from generation to generation because no one is born racist. When someone is a child they do not necessarily see color, they judge people by how the treat them and that is the same way society should work.

Unfortunately, everyone is not raised this way. Some are taught how to feel about other races simply by their appearance. Not just by their parents but by how people are portrayed in society like movies and television shows. For example, if an African American is out in public and they have on baggy clothes, or dread locks, or sagging they are automatically assumed to be a thug.  Of course, at times this is true but also a lot of the time it isn’t true.

Outside of black people being stereotyped it happens to every race. For instance, a lot of times people assume south Americans who are working in construction or building houses are illegal immigrants. This is already a big issue in society especially with Donald Trump being elected president and wanting to build a wall to keep immigrants out of the united states. Or even when Caucasians who appear to be wealthy are looked at as stuck up and selfish for not wanting to pay taxes and help the poor. Once again this is true but it is not everyone that acts like that. 

Over the course of this paper I have discussed many topics and issues that the black lives matter movement deals with on a local and national level. From incidents like the riots following the killings of innocent African Americans like Michael brown and Trayvon Martin to the mass church shooting by Dylann Roof. These events were done out of hate simply because the color of someone’s skin was a different color than the color of their skin. I would hope that this would be enough for someone to think to themselves is all this killing, violence, and negativity necessary just because someone looks different than you? If everyone thought this question in their head than there would be a lot less problems and the united states would be an even better place to live.

The movement has not been here long but they also do not plan to go anywhere anytime soon, until the united states has full equality in every aspect of life, not only for African Americans but minorities as a group. The only way this will be accomplished is by the different activities the movement is doing making a difference and people starting to realize that is easier to work together instead of against each other.

In conclusion, the Black Lives Matter movement is something that has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by some Americans since it started. This confusion has caused some tension and racial issues among races, and there has also been violence to go along with that. On the bright side, there has been a feeling of togetherness in the black community that we have not had since the civil rights movement. We are starting to realize that it is a lot easier to get things accomplished when we come together and the only way to change how things are in America is to first change things we can change about ourselves and then we can do what we need to do to change the judicial system, the workforce, and can live a better life. 
