{"id":1159,"date":"2021-12-04T08:59:52","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T13:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/extraocadsmhr\/?post_type=chapter&p=1159"},"modified":"2022-02-14T19:45:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T00:45:02","slug":"black-lives-matter-how-far-has-the-movement-come-september-8-2021","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/extraocadsmhr\/chapter\/black-lives-matter-how-far-has-the-movement-come-september-8-2021\/","title":{"raw":"4c. \"Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?\" (Short news article)","rendered":"4c. “Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?” (Short news article)"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction to the article \"Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?<\/a><\/span>\"<\/h1>\r\nBlack Lives Matter started online. It began as a heartfelt tweet by Patrisse Cullors in response to the 2013 shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin: #BlackLivesMatter. From these humble roots, this hashtag sprouted into a truly global phenomenon.\r\n\r\nHowever, like any mass movement, Black Lives Matter has faced challenges as its scope and influence have increased.\r\n\r\nIn their article, \"Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?\" authors Kwasi Konadu and Bright Gyamfi detail the progress this global movement has made as it has become part of the popular consciousness.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?<\/a><\/span><\/h2>\r\nKwasi Konadu and Bright Gyamfi, The Conversation<\/em>, September 8, 2021 8:26am EDT<\/span>\r\n\r\nBlack Lives Matter has been\u00a0called the largest civil movement<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in U.S. history. Since 2013, local BLM chapters have formed nationwide to demand accountability for the killings of dozens of African Americans by police and others. Since the summer of 2020, when tens of millions in the U.S. and around the world marched under the \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d slogan to protest a Minneapolis police officer\u2019s\u00a0murder of George Floyd<\/a><\/span>, the movement has risen to a new level of prominence, funding and scrutiny.<\/em>\r\n\r\nBLM has long been seen as a coordinated yet decentralized effort. Lately, the movement and its leading organizations have become\u00a0more traditional and hierarchical in structure<\/a>.\u00a0Public opinion<\/a><\/span>\u00a0is also changing, as BLM chapters call on the movement\u2019s leaders to be more accountable to its grassroots groups. We caught up with two scholars of worldwide African communities and cultures \u2013\u00a0Kwasi Konadu<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Bright Gyamfi<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 to discuss BLM as both a movement and an organization.<\/em>\r\n
\r\n

What was the original structure of the Black Lives Matter movement?<\/h2>\r\nBlack Lives Matter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>started\u00a0<\/span>in 2013<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>as a messaging campaign. In response to the 2012 acquittal of George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Black teenager Trayvon Martin, three activists \u2013 Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors \u2013 protested the verdict on social media, along with many others.\u00a0<\/span>Cullors came up with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter<\/a><\/span>, which gained widespread use on social media and in street protests.\r\n\r\nOver the next several years \u2013 as Black Lives Matter flags, hashtags and signs became common features of local, national and even international protests in support of Black lives \u2013 this messaging campaign\u00a0<\/span>became a decentralized social movement<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to demand accountability for police killings and other brutality against Black people.\r\n\r\nThe movement\u00a0<\/span>remained decentralized<\/a><\/span>, although some significant, formal BLM-related organizations emerged during this time. For instance, in 2013 Cullors, Tometi and Garza\u00a0<\/span>formed the Black Lives Matter Network<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to facilitate communication, support and shared resources among the dozens of locally organized and led Black Lives Matter chapters that were springing up around the United States.\r\n\r\nIn 2014, the\u00a0<\/span>Movement for Black Lives<\/a><\/span>, or M4BL, formed as a separate but related coalition of dozens of organizations of Black activist and others, including the Black Lives Matter Network.\r\n\r\nIn 2017, the Black Lives Matter Network transformed into the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, co-founded by Tometi and Cullors, who was the executive director until\u00a0<\/span>she stepped down in May 2021<\/a><\/span>. This group describes itself as \u201ca global foundation supporting Black led movements<\/a><\/span>.\u201d\r\n

What\u2019s changed about BLM\u2019s structure since then?<\/h2>\r\nWhile the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation\u00a0<\/span>says it is decentralized<\/a><\/span>, over time it has followed a pattern similar to other social movements driven by individuals and organizations. It has become more of a conventional hierarchical organization,\u00a0<\/span>centralizing its operations and leadership<\/a><\/span>. Its founders have\u00a0<\/span>won awards<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>book deals<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>notoriety<\/span><\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe BLM Global Network Foundation has not developed any publicly known independent source of funding, nor was a decision ever made to rely primarily on grassroots support or small individual donations. As a result, it is dependent on\u00a0<\/span>corporate and foundation money<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to pay for its operations and programs. Amid the George Floyd uprisings in 2020, the BLM Global Network Foundation generated some\u00a0<\/span>US$90 million in donations or grants<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>from corporations and foundations.\r\n\r\nThe Movement for Black Lives, which calls itself decentralized and\u00a0<\/span>anti-capitalist<\/a><\/span>, also raised millions in 2020, including $100 million from\u00a0<\/span>the Ford Foundation<\/a><\/span>.\r\n\r\nAll told,\u00a0<\/span>corporations pledged<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>close to $2 billion to BLM-related causes in 2020, though less is known about pledges for 2021.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, many frontline Black Lives Matters chapters\u00a0<\/span>have struggled to stay afloat<\/a><\/span>. Some key chapters\u00a0<\/span>have begun calling for<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>financial transparency and more democratic decison-making\u00a0<\/span>from national leaders<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>at the BLM Global Network Foundation, as well as a share of the funds the national groups have raised.\r\n\r\nOthers have\u00a0<\/span>disavowed the Black Lives Matter Network and defected from it<\/a><\/span>, focusing on local community fundraising and organizing to support their work.\r\n

How is public opinion about the BLM movement changing and why?<\/h2>\r\nThough the phrase \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d has become a\u00a0<\/span>common sight<\/a><\/span>, the movement is losing public support. According to a new Civiqs survey of 244,622 registered voters, support\u00a0<\/span>for BLM<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>fell from\u00a0<\/span>two-thirds of voters<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in June 2020 to 50% in June 2021.\r\n\r\nSome of this shift may be due to growing public awareness of the movement\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>internal struggles<\/a><\/span>, such as competing visions and competition over scarce resources, as well as questions about whether\u00a0<\/span>some BLM leaders<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>have used donations for personal benefit.\r\n

Is this evolution of Black Lives Matters typical of social movements? Can you give other examples?<\/h2>\r\nTensions and conflicts are part of the evolution of all social movements, including BLM.\r\n\r\nMovements for peoples of African ancestry also face a distinct challenge: They often have to appeal for both\u00a0<\/span>funding and action from<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>the same white power structure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and corporate interests that participate in and benefit from the suffering of Black people.\r\n\r\nFor example, although President Lyndon B. Johnson is remembered for helping pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he routinely referred to the 1957 version of that act as the \u201cnigger bill<\/a><\/span>\u201d in conversations with his Southern white supremacist colleagues.\r\n\r\nAnother example involves the McDonald\u2019s Corp. In 1968, after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., McDonald\u2019s partnered with U.S. civil rights organizations. The company claimed its\u00a0<\/span>African American-owned franchises<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>were carrying on King\u2019s civil rights agenda to empower the Black community.\r\n\r\nAccording to historian Marcia Chatelain<\/span><\/a>, however, instead of enabling economic freedom, McDonald\u2019s has burdened the Black community with low wages, relatively few franchises and high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. McDonald\u2019s has benefited from a devoted African American consumer base, more so because African Americans consume more fast food than any other race,\u00a0<\/span>according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a><\/span>.\r\n\r\nMoney shaping social movements<\/span><\/a>, such as the civil rights movement, is not new. The civil rights movement, including the summer of 1963\u2019s March on Washington, was funded by\u00a0<\/span>white liberal organizations and foundations<\/a><\/span>. In the summer of 2020, BLM protests also generated millions in similar funding. Indeed, the Ford Foundation and the\u00a0Borealis Philanthropy<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>recently formed the Black-Led Movement Fund, which raises money for the Movement for Black Lives.\r\n\r\nMalcolm X, in his analysis of the 1963 March on Washington, brought attention to the\u00a0<\/span>influence white philanthropy and leadership<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>held over \u201cblack\u201d social justice organizations, especially regarding funding that was controlled by the white power structure. Siding with Malcolm\u2019s analysis, James Baldwin also observed, \u201cthe March had already been co-opted<\/a><\/span>.\u201d\r\n

Is it at all clear what structure BLM will or should have in the future?<\/h2>\r\nBased on our research on\u00a0<\/span>civil rights-Black power organizations<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and on\u00a0<\/span>Black internationalism<\/a><\/span>, BLM would benefit from a \u201cstarfish\u201d\u00a0<\/span>organizational structure<\/span><\/a>.\r\n\r\nStarfishlike organizations are decentralized networks with no head. Intelligence is spread throughout an open system that easily adapts to circumstances. If a leader is removed, new ones emerge, and the network remains intact.\r\n\r\nIn the U.S., BLM organizers work through various groups, yet all are tied to centralized hubs, like the Movement for Black Lives coalition. These organizational choices conform to a\u00a0<\/span>spider analogy<\/a><\/span>. Compared to the starfish structure, spiderlike organizations operate under the control of a central leader, and information and power are concentrated at the top.\r\n\r\nIn the wake of the 2020 mass protests against racism after George Floyd\u2019s murder, many Republican-led states proposed\u00a0<\/span>a new wave of draconian anti-protest laws<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to stifle dissent. This suggests that BLM might be more resilient if it followed the starfish approach.\r\n\r\nIn their desire to appeal to a diverse public to end white supremacy, Black Lives Matter\u2019s leaders fail to consider that pervasive anti-Black violence is \u201cthe very engine that powers<\/a><\/span>\u201d white supremacy and makes broad coalitions ineffective.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

Quiz<\/h2>\r\nQuiz on \"Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come?<\/a><\/span>\"<\/strong>\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"96\"]<\/span>\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"97\"]<\/span>\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"98\"]<\/span>\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"99\"]<\/span>\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nTopics\/Keywords\/Tags<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>\r\n