Ten years ago, on July 13, 2013, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was used for the first time to talk about racism and racial inequality in the United States. This followed the acquittal of George Zimmerman in connection with the death of Trayvon Martin.
Martin, a 17-year-old African-American teenager, was shot dead in Florida by Zimmerman, a member of a local neighbourhood watch group. Zimmerman was later acquitted in the case following his defence that he shot the unarmed high schooler in self-defence following a physical altercation between the two.
Zimmerman's acquittal sparked nationwide protests and marked the beginning of the iconic Black Lives Matter movement.
The movement is one of the most resonant fights for social justice in the history of the US. What started as a hashtag created to voice the protests of black people against racist violence is now a national and global movement. Ten years on, let us look at where this movement stands. What has it changed and how far has it come?
Origins
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, more than 44 million #BlackLivesMatter tweets from nearly 10 million distinct users currently exist on X, formerly known as Twitter, today. But all of this started from a post made by activist Alicia Garza on her Facebook account as a response to the acquittal of Zimmerman by the US judicial system. As per various media reports, Garza's friend and activist Patrisse Cullors shared the phrase as a hashtag through one of her posts on X, then Twitter, and launched the online campaign.
Later Garza and Cullors, along with Opal Tometi, another female black activist, created a black-centred political movement and project called Black Lives Matter.
The first post with the phrase blacklivesmatter by Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, co-founders of Black Lives Matter.During the initial stage of the online campaign, the idea resonated mostly with black people in the country.
The movement found momentum in 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Within the span of a month, both Garner and Brown were shot dead by white police officers from their respective cities. These events sparked a domino of marches and protests, which were widely promoted by the BLM campaign.
"Protests took place around the country shortly after Brown's death and in November following a grand jury's refusal to indict the officer for Brown's murder. Protesters in Ferguson were met by a police force armed with military assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, body armour, armoured fighting vehicles, and chemical agents banned in warfare, such as tear gas," mentions Gale in a research article.
The protests under the Black Lives Matter movement gained global attention and it has since played an important role in the fight against police brutality and racism, not just in America, but across the world.
Death of George Floyd and recent peak
The Black Lives Matter movement became familiar to more people in 2020, after the death of George Floyd.
In May 2020, Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for almost ten minutes, though he repeatedly said that he couldn't breathe. Once the video shot by a witness of the incident went viral, it triggered massive protests and demonstrations throughout the US and across the globe.
The protest put the spotlight on similar deaths of black people in America by cops during the time. The unjust deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery also subsequently led to demonstrations across the nation.
In February 2020, Arbery was fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia, after two white men pursued him in a truck, believing he was a suspect in a series of break-ins. A month later, in Louisville, Kentucky, Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was killed during a police raid at her apartment.
In the following months, the movement captured more support. Politicians, celebrities from across the world and sportspersons all came forward and showed their solidarity with the movement.
Even in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, people took to the streets to voice their protests. The New York Times reported that "The recent Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States."
According to polls by Civis Analytics, a data analytics firm, about 15 to 26 million people in the US have participated in the protests over the death of George Floyd. This was just the people who participated in the US.
Today marks two years since the brutal murder of George Floyd. My thoughts and prayers remain with his family and friends, and all those who still feel the pain of this horrific injustice. We must never forget our commitment to rid the world of racism. #BlackLivesMatter always. pic.twitter.com/7PBlNyMRmJ
— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) May 25, 2022Apart from the US, people turned out in large numbers to be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement in other regions, especially in Europe.
On the social media front, a study by Pew Research suggests that nearly half of the 40 million tweets with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag were posted during this period, specifically from May to September.
"And of the nearly 10 million distinct users who have tweeted the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, 6.8 million of them – most of whom had never used the hashtag previously – posted it during that five-month period."
X, formerly Twitter, changed its header to black in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.Post Floyd
Ten years after the movement's launch, Black Lives Matter remains part of public consciousness in the US. But is it as prominent as it was in 2020 or 2021? Does it still have as many supporters?
According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, about half of black adults in the US (51%) support the Black Lives Matter movement. This is, however, less compared to the supporters it previously had. Since June 2020, support for the movement has decreased significantly among adults in the country, especially white people. Back in 2020, 60% of white adults in the country supported the Black Lives Matter movement, but it fell to 50% in 2022 and 42% in 2023.
The study also suggests that most of the supporters of the movement are teenagers.
Racial inequality still continues
The recent fatal shooting of three black people in Jacksonville, Florida, gives us a peek into the current situation in the US -- which is not much different from that before Floyd's death. Race-based hate, discrimination and killings are still a part of society.
In their annual report, the FBI said that hate crimes in the US surged 11.6% in 2021, with the largest number being against African Americans.
"64.5% of hate crime victims in 2021 were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry bias," says the FBI report.
2,233 incidents where African Americans faced bias based on race were reported.
Studies by Statista, a data research and analytics department, show that fatal police shootings in the US have been increasing. Moreover, the rate of police shootings among African Americans is much higher compared to other ethnicities.
According to The Washington Post, African Americans, who account for almost 14 per cent of the nation's population, are killed at more than twice the rate of white Americans. Besides, the majority of them are male (95%).
A new report released this week confirms that black people were the target of more than one-fifth of all hate crimes reported in major US cities.
Backlash and criticism
As the Los Angeles Times noted, Black Lives Matter is a decentralized, yet collective movement of activists around the world, who share a common interest primarily pushing for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
The data from some studies shows that the BLM movement and issues relating to racism were at the forefront in 2020 when people came together to demonstrate because of a collective emotion they shared during Floyd's death.
Experts are of the opinion that nothing changed and we are back to where we were before 2020. One of the main reasons they point out is the backlash received by the movement. A large chunk of people, especially in the US, believe that too much talk about racism and Black Lives Matter diverted attention from other issues that were equally important.
The founders of the movement, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Callors and Opal Tometi, are not involved with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. Cullors stepped down after six years with BLM in 2021 following controversies about the foundation's financial management and her personal assets.
Secondly, there was a predominant view among the racial and ethnic majority in America that Black Lives Matter movement protests are largely violent. Reports of violence amid the George Floyd protests in 2020 in states like Washington and Minneapolis led Americans to see the BLM as a hostile group with no regard for the law. Moreover, articles by right-wing biased media and comments from right-wing leaders especially people like Donald Trump created a narrative that the racial minorities in the US hate white Americans.
However, media critics stated that most of those reports against the demonstrations were exaggerated and they manipulated the amount of violence and other damages caused by the protesters.
