Intro:

• Hook: George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Elijah McClain. Tamir Rice. Eric Garner. These people all have one thing in common: they lost their lives for being black.
• Evidence to the shift: speak on how the media has ramped up coverage about the movement
• Thesis: The Black Lives Matter movement has shifted the globe through creating necessary awareness about the issues of racism and injustices, has become its own political organization, and changed the mindset of countless people about recognizing privileges and inequities all around them.

 

 

Body 1: “Literature review” or a review of the shift

1. Definitions (if necessary)
   1. Black Lives Matter movement: a political and social movement originating among African Americans, emphasizing basic human rights and racial equality for Black people and campaigning against various forms of racism.
   2. racism: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others
   3. police brutality: the unwarranted or excessive and often illegal use of force against civilians by police officers
2. Establish the before/after of the shift — make observations from primary texts i.e. speeches, popular culture, ads, TV shows, magazines, political discourse–debates, highbrow magazine articles (New Yorker, Harpers, Atlantic, etc.)
   1. prior to shift: civil rights movements and segregation, more people having a stigma about people of color and their relation to crime, common microaggressions, celebrities not being called out for racist comments, Kaepernick receiving hate for his peaceful protest
   2. after shift: BLM protests becoming a topic at the 2020 presidential debates
   3. increased black representation in TV commercials and public support in commercials for BLM
   4. entire teams of professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem as a peaceful protest for BLM
3. Discuss sensationalized videos of black deaths and how that should not be the focus/people should share resources rather than keeping watching black people getting murdered on camera

Body 2: Analysis of Causes

1. What reasons do scholars give for the shift?
   1. Info from interview of two civil rights veterans: Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania professor and author of History Teaches Us to Resist, is the former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Michael Steinberg, a professor at the University of Michigan law school and director of its Civil Rights Litigation Initiative, brought dozens of civil rights and police misconduct cases in 22 years with the American Civil Liberties Union :
      1. “This video was so revolting, and so many people watched it for nearly nine minutes, this smug white male officer with his hand in his pocket, carrying out a modern-day lynching,” Steinberg said. “It shocked many white people into realizing that this is not an aberration, this is part of a systemic problem.”
      2. Steinberg: “I’d like to think that if Obama was still president, there would still be protests like this. But so many people have become so enraged with Trump’s phobias and racism, especially among the young white population, they feel like they need to get out in the streets to bring about any sort of change, and just express their anger.”
      3. More info on Why did Black Lives Matter protests attract unprecedented white support?: The cruelty of George Floyd’s killing resonated in the pandemic lockdown
2. What evidence exists to support analysis of the causes?
   1. refer to How Public Opinion Has Moved On Black Lives Matter for statistics and visual aid graphs to reference

 

Body 3: Critique of the shift: What are scholars saying about the consequences/implications of the shift?

1. Possible questions to explore: Is there a consensus or disagreement about the implications of the shift?  What are points of contention? What do these points of contention indicate? How might points of contention be resolved?
   1. There is a general consensus that despite whether all people support BLM now or not, that it is definitely a topic people are more cognizant about on a day-to-day basis and people have formed an opinion on it either in support or rebuttal.
   2. It is very prominent and has reached worldwide support as there were protests in many countries other than the U.S.
   3. Points of contention: the counterargument All Lives Matter which is used to refute the BLM organization’s value
      1. This ALM contention indicates that although the support for BLM has increased, there is still a large sum of people who have strong racial prejudice and do not support Black Lives Matter.
      2. This point of contention might be resolved by demonstrating to and educating people that BLM does not mean that only black lives matter, but rather that it is a true statement that they do matter, since they are so often disregarded, mistreated, and killed for their skin.
2. Possible questions to explore, continued: What is the greater significance of the shift? Why does this shift ultimately matter?
   1. Greater significance of the shift: making steps forward to achieving the goal of racial equality treatment instead of living with racial prejudices. Of course some people are still bigoted and racist, but the BLM movement has been and continues to inspire people to treat the black community with more respect
   2. This shift ultimately matters because it is people’s human, daily life rights that are at stake. Black people should not be afraid to take a walk, purchase something at a store, or sleep in their own home in fear that they might be killed for their skin tone.