Black Lives Matter is one of the significant social movements affecting the human understanding of race. It is committed to eradicating systemic racism in America. This phenomenon includes, for example, racial prejudice among police officers and judicial injustice against black people. Black Lives Matter involves different branches in more than ten American states. A movement arose after the senseless murder of African American teenager. A year later, a court consisting of five white people and only one black woman acquitted the police officer. The court’s decision caused massive protests from the African American population.
The Black Lives Matter movement is not about individual flaws but the perceived general injustice of the American system, capitalism, and white people’s supremacy. Black Lives Matter and its leaders were definitely part of the American tradition. Their values ​​and beliefs can be traced back to the history of democracy and individual rights founders. The current COVID-19 situation aggravated the Black Lives Matter conflict. In the United States, pandemic-related racial divisions have also exacerbated the general problem. Thirty percent of all infected in the country are people with black skin color (while the black population in the United States is approximately twelve percent).
The Black Lives Matter movement can be described through the relative deprivation theory. According to Ferris and Stein (2020), this theory explains the action of the deprived or oppressed group of people trying to protect their rights. Compared to other groups, black people have been exposed to oppression from the government and society. This social movement is concerned with equalizing the rights of black and white people. Black Lives Matter has contributed to a significant change in the world. Black people try to satisfy their moral and physical needs, which they are deprived of as members of society.
This movement is widely spread worldwide, questioning the current society’s order. People from different countries started to comprehend the scale of the racial problem in America. This movement provoked the discussion about the deprivation of black, empowering people to be tolerant of differences. Thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement, society advanced to a new level of moral development. The necessity of promoting racial and cultural acceptance was highlighted. However, the next step in striving for equality should be governments. The intensity of the protest will not lead America and any other countries towards democracy. It is caused by the fact that each conflicting side is seeking a dictatorship for itself and at least wants to declare their own rights through mass public protests. This global problem requires wiser and large-scale decisions.
Thus, the Black Lives Matter movement has had a significant impact on society. COVID-19 has made visible all the problems, including inequality and injustice, accumulating over the years. In the depths of rejection, people are inclined to endow particular groups with greater advantages. Racism can be considered as part of a self-defense reaction. If white people admit that people with black skin are equal to them, they will find themselves in a tub of unequal in the global world. To solve these inequality issues, superior peoples should be ready to share wealth, mobility, or social capital with the deprived. Some people believe that racial inequality cannot be eliminated entirely because of human nature striving for supremacy over others achieved through comparison. Therefore, the problem of social inequality exists in all countries and must be fought further.
Reference
Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2020). The real world: An introduction to sociology. W.W. Norton & Company.