IS THE “BLACK LIVES

MATTER” MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
Panayiotis Antoniades - Nikos Chiotis
LAN 109.1
 WHAT IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT?
 According to the Black live Matters official website, the Black Lives Matter organization has
been formed in order to combat violence and discrimination against member of black
communities by the law enforcement authorities.1
 The organization highlights wider issues that comprise the black communities such as racial
bias and disparities of any sort. 1
 The hashtag #BLACKLIVESMATTER was created in 2013, after the acquittal of George
Zizzerman in the criminal prosecution case of State of Florida v George Zizzerman for the
shooting death of the a black young unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. 14
 The criminal case of Brown v City of Ferguson in 2014 ignited the light for protests and a
necessity for in depth analysis of the law enforcement authorities and criminal justice system
infrastructure. 7, 10, 14
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
This presentation will demonstrate
 the determination of the protestors to their values,
 the systemic oppression
 the social reform that aims to achieve (eliminating disparities, criminal justice system, bias)

19
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
1. Raises awareness about racial injustice and police brutality towards black Americans 1,2,4
 Emerges to the public eye incidents of violence and oppression
 Alerts the people about the broader issues such as racial profiling
 As a result the mazes are disturbed, react and oppose to incidents of racial mistreatment
 Leads to elimination of such misconduct and thus social progression.
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
I. The awareness leads to civil reaction in the form of protests against the law enforcement’s
misbehavior.
 The organization urges the people to stand aside with the black community in the form of
marching, so as to condemn violence and mistreatment.
 The bigger the protests, the superior the power of the effort.

18
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
II. The Black Live Matter movement has raised the bar of accountability in wider range of
matters:
Concerning signs of:
 violations or omissions of Law by the State
 governmental arbitrariness or de- transparency

 The official authorities of the State are constantly held responsible for their conduct and
policies.
 The growth of the movement has proven the demand of the people for transparency and has
affirmed that the negligence of the State towards any source of bias, will not be let
unaccountable.
 IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
III. The eradication of episodes of misconduct by the authorities of the law enforcement and the
awareness that the movement raises on such racially concerning issues,
 educates the general public on such unconventional and inevitably arising fields of social misconduct
 Points out the injustice and mis-oppurtunitties that are systemically being taken away by members of
minorities

 SOCIAL PROGRESSION
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
2. Supports the reform of the American’s criminal justice system, by eliminating the racial
inequalities throughout the operative process (one of its centrals initiatives ) 3,4
 America owns the highest incarceration rate in the world ( 2,3 million) 8

 Aiming to alter faults and errors

 Modernization of the practices will conclude to higher accountability
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
I. Need of higher accountability and reconstruction police practices
 De-escalation training 16

 Racial bias training (unconscious bias training task)16

 Equip the officers with low risk gear, such as tasers etc.
 Example of unjustified violence and brutality have resulted to low accountability
 Mediocre interaction of the law enforcement authorities with the communities
 Inadequate training and equipment, the only alternative remaining is the one of severe weapon for
police officers in order to protect their selves.
High rates of incarceration of black people increase issues such as racial bias and racial profiling

Systemic inadequacies to resolve arrests without collusions,

especially for people of colour.
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
II. Practitioners of criminal justice have been severely influenced based on racial bias
Vivid example that of the death of Brown in Ferguson: 2, 7,10,14
 “Of the 53 commissioned officers in the Ferguson Police Department, four are black.”
 Ferguson, a largely black community is occupied by an all white police force.
 An incident of shot and killing of unarmed black teenager by an armed police officer sparked protests,
because of the general racial tension in Ferguson ( fired twelve times)
 The police officer was not indicted with a crime.
However the US Department Of Justice discovered in March of 2015 “ a severe pattern of racial bias in
the Ferguson Police Department”9,7,14
 IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
 These charts are examples of the methods used in the city of Ferguson by a white law
enforcement authority towards the citizens of the towns.
• Even though examples are not limited and should not be generalized, it is an authentic behavior of
how such misconduct has been applied by authorities of the state. Other examples include such
assaults, tactics, shootings In NYC, Cleveland etc. 8,15,7

5,8, 14
 IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
 Another example of the white supremacy pattern that is valid in the American hierarchy and
criminal justice system are drug sentencing disparities
 ‘’African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, but the imprisonment rate of
African Americans for drug charges is almost 6 times that of whites’’(National Survey on
Drug Use and Health) 12
0.9
12
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4 White Illicit Drug User
0.3 Black Illicit Drug User
0.2
0.1
0
Usage Arrest
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
III. Key segments of the criminal justice system are under funded especially juveniles
 Unsupported youth is often unguided, influenced by “street culture” and surrounding problematic
behavior.
 African American youth is five times as likely as white youth to be detained in any sort of to juvenile
facilities.
 Underfunding such facilities drastically decreases the chances of positive reintegration of the
detained of youth into the workforce and social environment.
 IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
3. Raises awareness about the conditions of socio-economic disparities that
assist to the overcriminalization rates of black people 5,17
 It is of high importance to acknowledge the reasons that increase black adult
incarceration rates.
 The Black Live Matter aims to educate the general public about the systemic
differences that the people of colour are obtained, so as to defect this systemic
oppression through awareness and gradual change.
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
I.Incarceration rates of black adults are increased due to lack of opportunities
in education, workforce, healthcare.
 Racist waves throughout the American society during the mid - late 20 th century had
formed a social infrastructure of racial bias and disadvantages towards people on colour.
 Poverty, unstable family environments, the common effect of influence by the ‘ghetto’
district’ as factors lead to the overcriminalization and tendency towards crime.
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY? Black (and Hispanic) adults make up larger shares of prisoners than of 8

US population
70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Share of US adult population Share of US prison population

White Hispanic Black

IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
Racial self profiling:
II.
 Unsupported youth,
 Members of underprivileged and unfortunate communities
 Black troubled teenagers often portrayed, stigmatized as criminals
 Adaptation to community cliques
 Low self esteem and inadequate education
 Resolve solution while the social infrastructure institutionally racist*

Crime
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
III. Institutional Racism* 1,4,18
 The deficiency of social and political institutions to overlap the social, economical and mostly
in our case racial variances between classes
 Has an impact on commonly underprivileged communities who had fewer opportunities in
gaining goods, wealth and political control etc.
 Disparities in the criminal justice system, as explained before, as a result of long-term
prejudice, disadvantaging, and ignorance 18
IS THE “BLACK LIVES
MATTER“ MOVEMENT
NECESSARY?
So we support the values of Black Lives Matter, so as teenagers such as Michael Brown and
Trayvon Martin do no fear for their life because of their unsupportive social background, race
and the surrounding social stigma
Us, the white commonly privileged race, we should thoroughly endorse such movements in
order to disrupt the hierarchy of racial privilege and ACT.
AND REMEMBER:

Privilege is invisible to those who have it

Michael Kimmel
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Shannon Luibrand, ‘How a death in Ferguson sparked a movement in America’ (CBS News, August 2015) <
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the-black-lives-matter-movement-changed-america-one-year-later > accessed November 2019
2. Tyler Kendall, ‘What's wrong with America's criminal justice system? 6 questions for an expert’ (CBS NEWS, August 2019)
< https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-criminal-justice-system-reform-questions-rachel-barkow-2019-08-02 > accessed November
2019
3. American Civil Liberties Union, ‘Criminal Law Reform (American Civil Liberties Union, October 2019) <
https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform > accessed November 2019
4. The Sentencing Project, ‘Shadow Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System’, (The
Sentencing Project, August 31, 2013)
https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/shadow-report-to-the-united-nations-human-rights-committee-regarding-racial-disparities-in-the
-united-states-criminal-justice-system/
> Accessed November 2019
5. Yolanda Moses,’ Why We Must Talk About Race’ (Sapiens, 17 Feb 2016) <https://www.sapiens.org/column/race/talking-about-race/> Accessed
November 2019
6. Holly Yan, 'Black Lives Matter cases: What happened after controversial police killings’ (CNN, June 27, 2017) <
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/26/us/black-lives-matter-deaths-outcomes/index.html > Accessed November 2019
7. Michelle Ye Hee Lee ‘Yes, U.S. locks people up at a higher rate than any other country’ (The Washington Post, July 7 2015)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/>
Accessed November 2019
8. John Gramlich, ‘The gap between the number of blacks and whites in prison is shrinking’ ( Pew Research Center, April 30, 2019) <
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/ Accessed November 2019
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
9. Jillian Weinberger, Mythili Rao, Kristen Meinzer‚ ‘Race and Criminal Justice: NYC, Ferguson, and Cleveland’ (The Takeaway, December 2014)
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/race-and-criminal-justice-nyc-ferguson-and-cleveland Accessed in November 2019
10. Larry Buchanan, Ford Fessenden, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Haeyoun Park, Alicia Parlapiano, Archie Tse, Tim Wallace, Derek Watkins and Karen
Yourish, ‘What Happened in Ferguson?’ (The NY Times, Aug. 10, 2015)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/us/ferguson-missouri-town-under-siege-after-police-shooting.html Accessed in November 2019
11. German Lopez, ‘What did the Justice Department’s investigation into the Ferguson Police Department find’ (The Vox, January 2016)
https://www.vox.com/2015/5/31/17937860/justice-department-ferguson-police-michael-brown-shooting Accessed November 2019
12. ‘Criminal Justice Fact Sheet’ (NAACP, nd) https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/ Accessed in November 2019
13. "Parents Seek Justice For Unarmed Son's Killing" (CBS Miami. Associated Press. March 10, 2012).
<‘https://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/03/10/parents-seek-justice-for-unarmed-sons-killing/> Accessed November 2019
14. German Lopez, ‘Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris’s controversial Michael Brown tweets, explained (The Vox, Aug 12, 2019 ) <https://
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/12/20801975/elizabeth-warren-kamala-harris-michael-brown-ferguson-tweets >Accessed November
2019
15. Sleek, S. ‘The bias beneath: Two decades of measuring implicit associations’ (2018) 31(2), 11–14 APS Observer <https://
www.psychologicalscience.org/redesign/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Observer-Feb_Interactive.pdf> Accessed in November 2019
16. Hewer, M. "How scientists are blocking bias in the world at large“ (2018) 31(2), 21–23 APS Observer <https://
www.psychologicalscience.org/redesign/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Observer-Feb_Interactive.pdf >Accessed in November 2019
17. Sir William Macpherson, ‘Report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson’ (The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, 24 February 1999) <https://
www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry >Accessed November 2019
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Supportive imagery:

18. https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-matters-2020/
19. https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/FBI_whitesupremacy?source=coc_main_website
20. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/opinion/cuomo-criminal-justice-reform.html