For and Against #BlackLivesMatter– Opposing Views

Posted on by Jacob Arbittier

#BlackLivesMatter has been a controversial issue since its inception– on one side, the supporters believe it is a way to expose the injustices in police brutality against black people in particular. On the other side, the opposing view is that it’s not inclusive and is discriminatory against other races that aren’t African American. The first three embedded tweets are against #BlackLivesMatter– the first tweet is of the opinion that Stanford University should be ashamed of itself for accepting a Muslim applicant into the school who wrote #BlackLivesMatter on his essay 100 times.

The second tweet is a sarcastic comment that highlights how all lives should be represented, including Blue Lives.

The third tweet is an example of how anti-discrimination can happen, with only African Americans being allowed to attend an event in Philly.

The last three embedded tweets are in support of #BlackLivesMatter– the first of these tweets shows the statistics that proves just being black increases your chances of being shot by a police officer.

The second tweet references the McKinney incident, where a cop in Texas pulled his gun on unarmed black people at a pool party.

The third tweet links to an article and shows a disturbing picture of a young black man whose head was smashed thorough a window by a cop, yet another example of police brutality against the African American race.

2 thoughts on “For and Against #BlackLivesMatter– Opposing Views”

  1. I found this post to be incredibly interesting. I think this post oversimplifies what the #BlackLivesMatter movement really means, it is not solely to just expose injustices in police brutality. Martin Luther King Jr., said it best, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” To me this is what the #BlackLivesMatter movement all about. It is to raise questions and fight injustices for a demographic that has not been supported by the majority. Their issues are often overlooked and lives are deemed less than. While this post does show some accuracies in regard to what people who do not support the movement may think and say through social media, it does not properly represent what the hashtags BlackLivesMatter means to those who support the movement.

    1. Malik, you couldn’t be more right. I completely agree that I oversimplified the BlackLivesMatter movement-coming from a place of privilege, it’s embarrassing to see how that can sometimes shadow my perception of this very important movement. While I may not be affected negatively from this experience, I acknowledge my privilege and will continue to dive deeper into BlackLivesMatter. Injustice anywhere can’t be tolerated. While injustices in police brutality are certainly connected to this movement, it is by far not representative of the whole experience. Thank you for raising my awareness– I need to do much more to educate myself on all aspects of this movement. Ignorance is not acceptable, especially since I’m not affected negatively. If more people acknowledge their privilege and realize that they are a part of the experience (factor causing it), then we might actually start to see some change. Thank you for your response.

Leave a Reply