I believe that the system of hashtags is a phenomenal way of connecting statements, ideas, events, and people that all relate to one general topic. It is similar to a Google search in the sense that it allows people to make one search and find things of all formats pertaining to key word(s). The “hashtag” itself is what is known to people generally over the age of 18 as the pound sign, or a number sign. The concept of hashtags began in August of 2007 on Twitter, and took off around 2013.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a movement that originated in 2013 (around the beginning of hashtag popularity), founded by 3 women: Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza. From the BLM twitter page, the organization is “an affirmation & embrace of the resistance & resilience of Black people.”. Although I like this description, I really felt that the statement on the Black lives matter website packed more of a punch:

“We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.” 

This hashtag and its associated organization have been massively circulated across all fields of the internet through social media. Similar to how I came to understand the organization, many people simply cannot or WILL not comprehend the struggles of Black individuals. Some of the disrespectful things I came across under the hashtag were people criticizing the movement with incorrect evidence or straight racial hatred. What I believe to be so utterly sad is that today, more and more racist people have no problem being verbal about their racism, and even more so that their hate speech is allowed under ridiculous “free speech” conditions online. Free speech does not equal hate speech.

#blacklivesmatter relates to many of the topics we’ve covered in this course, most specifically to Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes experiment. To me, the work she did serves as a huge success for passing on important white privilege conversations to skeptics and others who don’t understand her point. The same goes for the BLM movement, in my opinion, where the hashtag provides an easy way to convey their message across multiple social media outlets, spreading vital information of police brutality and other discrimination cases.

I chose to research this hashtag specifically because I hope to enlighten those who do not yet understand the movement. Years ago, I was one of the people who thought the organization was wrong in stating that “Black lives matter”.…I felt personally angered for absolutely no reason and to this day, I still cannot explain why I felt like this. It was not until I came across a photo of a man holding a sign that said: “Of course all lives matter, but we are focusing on the Black ones right now, okay?” that I began to understand. After realizing this and learning about the organization’s purpose, I spread this information to other white people, which is one of the best things a white person can do to assist a movement like this. Making others understand that if they truly believe all lives should matter, then they must be forgetting black people are people. 

 All lives will matter when Black lives matter. 

References:

“BLM: About.” Black Lives Matter, blacklivesmatter.com/about/.

Cullors, Patrisse, et al. “Black Lives Matter.” Twitter, July 2013, twitter.com/Blklivesmatter.

“Why Aren't You Out Here with Us?” Pinterest, bridgie_xoxo, www.pinterest.com/pin/492792384211861716/.