Good morning, afternoon, or night. I'm going to share my AP US Politics paper. This paper is not meant to change anyone's mind about anything, this paper is meant to spark friendly debate and I just want to see what other peoples are. I hope you enjoy the read. If yall want my Bibliography I can provide ;P
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“Hands up don't shoot! Hands up don't shoot!”, a Black Lives Matter protestor yelled, ZIP! BANG! A round of tear gas flies by the shouting protestor. It's May 28th, 2020, 3 days after the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis Police. The fairly peaceful BLM protests have turned violent, and are now besieging the 3rd Minneapolis Police Precinct. By the end of the night, the 3rd Police Precinct would be up in flames and its surrounding areas. President Trump would openly voice his thoughts on Twitter after this night, calling the BLM movement “Toxic”, “A symbol of hate”, and “antagonistic against police'', while others rushed to defend BLM. So is BLM toxic, sowing more discord between groups? Or is it a path to social justice and racial equality? Or is it neither?
Before we can answer the question of whether BLM is Toxic or if it's a path to racial justice, we must understand why the BLM movement was created and what it stands for. BLM came into existence in 2013 and is a fairly decentralized, more liberal-leaning, social movement. BLM was first created as a social media hashtag (#blacklivesmatter) in the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal, who fatally shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon George. Since then BLM has grown into 38+ official chapters and is still growing. BLM's original goal, when it was still a social media hashtag, was to do what hashtags did best. To bring attention to a problem that was racial injustice in the court system, BLM co-founder Patiresse Said, “I couldn’t imagine how in 2013 a white-passing person could kill a young boy and not be held accountable. I didn’t want George Zimmerman to be the period to the story.”. Since then its scope has become bigger and its official mission statement is “to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”. BLM, according to, New York Times, maybe one of the, if not THE biggest movements in US history, “Civis Analytics, a data science firm that works with businesses and Democratic campaigns — suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others in recent weeks.”.
So what has BLM done in order to forward its goal towards racial justice? Bringing attention to police brutality is probably its greatest achievement, in doing so this movement gained the power to change how people vote and choose their government officials. This influence over how people think about choosing their government leaders has forced politicians to rethink (or double-down, in President Trump's case) actions and agendas. They have influenced the passing of local legislation such as, “Brianna's Law” in Louisville, which banned “no-knock” search warrants, many cities have also cut-back funding for their local police forces after calls to defund the police (which may or may not be good, depending on who you ask). At the same time, they have also influenced police reforms, with the aforementioned police budget cuts and since George Floyd's death by strangulation, 31 of America’s largest cities have restricted the use of chokeholds. In 2014, after the death of Eric Gardener, New York state repealed bill 50-a, this former law obscured police disciplinary records to the public. In cities such as Dallas, Detroit, ETC have enacted or strengthened “duty-to-intervene” (these kinds of policies existed since 2018, from what I could gather), which required officers to step in when their fellow officers used excessive force. Several confederate monuments or monuments that honored racist/slavers have been removed, either by the government or forcefully removed by protestors. So what has happened to the over 5 million dollars worth of donations that rolled in during the recent BLM protest? No definitive answer has yet been uncovered, although right-wing conspiracy theorists claim that all donations get funneled towards democratic leaders, as BLM used ActBlue.com to help sort donations, that claim has already been debunked.
The Problems with the BLM movement. One of BLM’s greatest strengths, maybe one of its bigger problems, is how open it’s protests are. BLM will accept pretty much anyone that supports BLM in a protest/march. This can cause problems, since it allows anyone to join and can attract some pretty questionable people, like looters and rioters, they can simply say “it was for BLM”, such as the burning and looting of a Target store in Minneapolis. At times BLMs can also be somewhat racist and segregatory, ironic, isn't it? Such as when BLM held a “black only” BBQ, Lisa Duren then said this on FOX news to Trucker Carson, “Boo-hoo-hoo. You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your ‘white privilege’ card to get invited to the BLM’s all-black Memorial Day celebration” (Trucker did go on to berate her, in a very unprofessional way), Lisa was soon fired by Essex County College. When BLM+elements of Antifa took over parts of Seattle and formed CHAZ/CHOP (depending on what timeline you're going off of), they made “Black only” gardens and safe spaces, if it was “white only” gardens or safe spaces, people would be up in arms. Now, I must touch on ACAB. ACAB, while not a part of the BLM they both are quite heavily intertwined, often seen together at marches. ACAB is quite an inflammatory statement and can cause some discourse between people, particularly officers, loved ones of officers, or people that support officers.
So what is public opinion on BLM? Public opinion has waxed and waned for this movement. According to both PewResearch.com and fivethirtyeight.com, support surged when the George Floyd protest began on May 28th, but began to die down as time went on, by November 2020, support for BLM dropped from 67% to 55%. With Republican support dropping 21 percent in November, compared to early June/late May (37 percent supported BLM early June). While Democrats maintained a strong 88 percent support for BLM in November, only dropping 9 percent (early June support was 97%). This data does show that BLM could/has caused divides across partisan lines.
So is BLM a Toxic movement that sows discord between groups? Or is it a path of healing and a path to racial equity? This part, my conclusion, is mostly my opinion. The Black Lives Matter movement has definitely done some good, forcing police departments to rethink officer training, making politicians rethink their agendas (even if at times it's for their greedy gains), and bringing light to police brutality. But, every coin, as shiny as that coin may be, has a flip side. BLM isn’t perfect, at times it can be just as racist as the system that they're fighting against. With instances of reverse-racism (aka, just racism) and the study from PewResearch.com does suggest that among partisan lines, America is quite torn about BLM. Black Lives Matter can definitely be a path to racial equity in the justice system, but at the same time, it isn't without flaws.
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“Hands up don't shoot! Hands up don't shoot!”, a Black Lives Matter protestor yelled, ZIP! BANG! A round of tear gas flies by the shouting protestor. It's May 28th, 2020, 3 days after the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis Police. The fairly peaceful BLM protests have turned violent, and are now besieging the 3rd Minneapolis Police Precinct. By the end of the night, the 3rd Police Precinct would be up in flames and its surrounding areas. President Trump would openly voice his thoughts on Twitter after this night, calling the BLM movement “Toxic”, “A symbol of hate”, and “antagonistic against police'', while others rushed to defend BLM. So is BLM toxic, sowing more discord between groups? Or is it a path to social justice and racial equality? Or is it neither?
Before we can answer the question of whether BLM is Toxic or if it's a path to racial justice, we must understand why the BLM movement was created and what it stands for. BLM came into existence in 2013 and is a fairly decentralized, more liberal-leaning, social movement. BLM was first created as a social media hashtag (#blacklivesmatter) in the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal, who fatally shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon George. Since then BLM has grown into 38+ official chapters and is still growing. BLM's original goal, when it was still a social media hashtag, was to do what hashtags did best. To bring attention to a problem that was racial injustice in the court system, BLM co-founder Patiresse Said, “I couldn’t imagine how in 2013 a white-passing person could kill a young boy and not be held accountable. I didn’t want George Zimmerman to be the period to the story.”. Since then its scope has become bigger and its official mission statement is “to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”. BLM, according to, New York Times, maybe one of the, if not THE biggest movements in US history, “Civis Analytics, a data science firm that works with businesses and Democratic campaigns — suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others in recent weeks.”.
So what has BLM done in order to forward its goal towards racial justice? Bringing attention to police brutality is probably its greatest achievement, in doing so this movement gained the power to change how people vote and choose their government officials. This influence over how people think about choosing their government leaders has forced politicians to rethink (or double-down, in President Trump's case) actions and agendas. They have influenced the passing of local legislation such as, “Brianna's Law” in Louisville, which banned “no-knock” search warrants, many cities have also cut-back funding for their local police forces after calls to defund the police (which may or may not be good, depending on who you ask). At the same time, they have also influenced police reforms, with the aforementioned police budget cuts and since George Floyd's death by strangulation, 31 of America’s largest cities have restricted the use of chokeholds. In 2014, after the death of Eric Gardener, New York state repealed bill 50-a, this former law obscured police disciplinary records to the public. In cities such as Dallas, Detroit, ETC have enacted or strengthened “duty-to-intervene” (these kinds of policies existed since 2018, from what I could gather), which required officers to step in when their fellow officers used excessive force. Several confederate monuments or monuments that honored racist/slavers have been removed, either by the government or forcefully removed by protestors. So what has happened to the over 5 million dollars worth of donations that rolled in during the recent BLM protest? No definitive answer has yet been uncovered, although right-wing conspiracy theorists claim that all donations get funneled towards democratic leaders, as BLM used ActBlue.com to help sort donations, that claim has already been debunked.
The Problems with the BLM movement. One of BLM’s greatest strengths, maybe one of its bigger problems, is how open it’s protests are. BLM will accept pretty much anyone that supports BLM in a protest/march. This can cause problems, since it allows anyone to join and can attract some pretty questionable people, like looters and rioters, they can simply say “it was for BLM”, such as the burning and looting of a Target store in Minneapolis. At times BLMs can also be somewhat racist and segregatory, ironic, isn't it? Such as when BLM held a “black only” BBQ, Lisa Duren then said this on FOX news to Trucker Carson, “Boo-hoo-hoo. You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your ‘white privilege’ card to get invited to the BLM’s all-black Memorial Day celebration” (Trucker did go on to berate her, in a very unprofessional way), Lisa was soon fired by Essex County College. When BLM+elements of Antifa took over parts of Seattle and formed CHAZ/CHOP (depending on what timeline you're going off of), they made “Black only” gardens and safe spaces, if it was “white only” gardens or safe spaces, people would be up in arms. Now, I must touch on ACAB. ACAB, while not a part of the BLM they both are quite heavily intertwined, often seen together at marches. ACAB is quite an inflammatory statement and can cause some discourse between people, particularly officers, loved ones of officers, or people that support officers.
So what is public opinion on BLM? Public opinion has waxed and waned for this movement. According to both PewResearch.com and fivethirtyeight.com, support surged when the George Floyd protest began on May 28th, but began to die down as time went on, by November 2020, support for BLM dropped from 67% to 55%. With Republican support dropping 21 percent in November, compared to early June/late May (37 percent supported BLM early June). While Democrats maintained a strong 88 percent support for BLM in November, only dropping 9 percent (early June support was 97%). This data does show that BLM could/has caused divides across partisan lines.
So is BLM a Toxic movement that sows discord between groups? Or is it a path of healing and a path to racial equity? This part, my conclusion, is mostly my opinion. The Black Lives Matter movement has definitely done some good, forcing police departments to rethink officer training, making politicians rethink their agendas (even if at times it's for their greedy gains), and bringing light to police brutality. But, every coin, as shiny as that coin may be, has a flip side. BLM isn’t perfect, at times it can be just as racist as the system that they're fighting against. With instances of reverse-racism (aka, just racism) and the study from PewResearch.com does suggest that among partisan lines, America is quite torn about BLM. Black Lives Matter can definitely be a path to racial equity in the justice system, but at the same time, it isn't without flaws.