Blogger: Isaac Adeyemi
The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 with the use of the hashtag but never really went mainstream until it took the world by storm in may 26 2020 after mass protests around the world were sparked by the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the most widely publicised killing of George Floyd but what but what has the movement actually achieved so far to decide if it was a success I will weigh up the positives and negatives of the movement to come to a conclusion.
The main success of the BLM movement is raising awareness around the world many people were informed about the movement through many avenues from vast media coverage, protests and even public figures declaring their support for the cause publicly including Arianna Grande, Beyonce, Harry styles, LeBron James etc. Another major success is the fundraising many celebrities who stood in solidarity donated to the cause also big cooperation’s like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft donated to the movement. The movement have made upwards of 10.b billion by todays calculations this is a major success regardless of the fact they may not have had access to all that money but accessed most of it.
The Next success was some change in policy in many countries especially the USA most changed were at local level e.g., cities like Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia cut police funding and redirected them funds to other areas like Covid-19 furlough. Many states banned the use of the confederate flag on army bases or on public monuments and other changes happened to entertainment, police, and education at the local level. Other countries also did some things because of the BLM movement e.g., the UK prime minister Boris Johnson created a new commission for enquiries about racial inequality and London mayor Sadiq Khan invited talks about weather some statues should be taken down.
Finally, the BLM movement influenced trail cases notably the arrest then prosecution of Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case.
On the other hand, the BLM movement had many criticisms the main one not condemning violent riots and sometimes encouraging riots in USA frequently included looting burning and vandalism under the guise of BLM small local businesses sometimes owned by black people were victimised. The BLM leaders time and time again failed to condemn the perpetrators and distance their movement from violence. This went as far as bailing out people arrested for violent rioting and even in one case in the USA in Louisville a BLM social activist who attempted to murder the mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg was bailed out by local BLM chapter.
Another big topic that stained the BLM was corruption as BLM was repeatedly accused of poor financial organisation and pocketing funds, families whose grief and suffering were publicised for the cause often received not financial assistance. Fraud rumours led to many major donors like Amazon stopped donating to BLM as they couldn’t see where the money was going also one of the founders Patrise Coulors who claimed she had never been pain by the Movement purchased homes amounting to over 4 million many called for an investigation into the finances which wasn’t followed through and eventually she stepped down from her post. The BLMs call to defund police especially in the highest crime neighbourhoods is also seen as a failure as it believed more police is needed in these areas not less as there is high murder levels etc so many believed this policy would not help the most vulnerable neighbourhoods.
In conclusion I believe the BLM movement has been successful as it has achieved some of the thigs it set out to do like raise awareness, raise money and lead to defunding the police and some change in policy to better treatment of black people. I feel that success has been stained by some of the shortcomings of the movement like not condemning violence sometimes encouraging it and awful management of finances the movement would have been more successful if it was a peaceful and more financially transparent movement.