On the night of February 26, 2012, a 911 dispatcher received a call from a man by the name of George Zimmerman. The man on the other end said he saw a “suspicious person” in a hood walking in his neighborhood. The dispatcher asked if the man was near him. Zimmerman replied that he was following the individual, to which the dispatched told him to stop. The call ended. Within a few minutes, police arrived to the scene to find Zimmerman and the lifeless body of 17 year old student, Trayvon Martin.
Six weeks after the shooting, amid wide spread media coverage, the case went to court. On June 10, 2013 he was found not to be guilty of man slaughter. A public outcry began, many believing that Zimmerman was let go easily because the teen he had killed was black. Soon after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, #BlackLivesMatter took the internet by a storm. What started as a few tweets soon became one of the biggest racial movements of the decade.
Alicia Garza remembers the moment she heard about the acquittal, “I remember in that moment, sitting with that fact that everybody knew what took place. And despite all that knowledge, testimonials, Trayvon was put on trial for his own death.” Garza took to the web and within days #BlackLivesMatter was a trending topic. According to Gaza, “Black Lives matter affirms the lives of black queer and Trans folk, disabled folks, black undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum.” The purposes of the movement are to end racial profiling, police brutality, and mass incarceration of African American men.
The hash tag gained momentum in August 2014 from the police shooting death of another unarmed black teen, Michael Brown. The disputed circumstances surrounding his death led to riots and demonstrations around the country. #BlackLivesMatter began appearing all over the internet. A media spotlight was shown on the issue. In the following months, many more unarmed men were killed by police. These men and boys included Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and many more.
However, #BlackLivesMatter has received much criticism. Many deem the organization as a “hate group”. These people believe the movement is anti-police and insulting to other races. Such individuals thereby created #AllLivesMatter, in response to the growing Black Lives Matter support. While all lives do matter, #BlackLivesMatter affirms that Black lives are of an equal importance than others in a world in which we are so often shown that they are not. According to Alicia Garza, “Changing Black Lives Matter to All Lives Matter is a demonstration of how we don’t actually understand structural racism in this country.”
It’s amazing how a few tweets could have such an impact on our society. Social media has changed the way we communicate in so many different ways. As we approach the four year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death, we approach the four year anniversary of Black Lives Matter. Trayvon Martin will not die in vain.
