Artifact Analysis: Black Lives Matter (January 19th, 2019 assignment)

On January 19th, 2019, I was enrolled in a class that focused on the rhetoric in social movements. My first assignment was to write a blog post analyzing an artifact of my choosing. I chose the Black Lives Matter website. I have been editing and reworking this article because of how long ago it was written. If you wish to read it, you can find the latest edits below.

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BLM is a social movement that dates back to the shocking death of Trayvon Martin. However, the organization has been dated back four years ago (from 2019). Ultimately, the movement wanted to open the floor for discussion in each community about the unnecessary, and sometimes unlawful, deaths of black men, women and children. In addition, the scope of the BLM movement is focused on reformation of the criminal justice system and the communities which it surrounds.

On the BLM Movement website, there is an image of who the movement represents. It’s often misunderstood that BLM only focuses on cis men and women, but they represent all. They encourage diversity, the family unity within the black community, supporting and protecting transgender minorities, and being unapologetically black (to name a few). For some, the argument in the text is that members of these community matter and deserve to live a life free from harm, scrutiny, and discrimination.

According to Aristotle, for an argument to happen, there has to be a well-constructed argument and an audience at the very least. Members in marginalized community mean something; they matter. And just because they look, think, and/or act different from what is considered “socially normal,” they still matter and deserve to live just like anyone else. BLM argues against the rhetoric that BLM wants to divide and separate the communities, while also trying to harm police officers.

The movement’s creation knew the baggage of the intended audience and the extension of each. First, the Black community feeling preyed upon and almost helpless. To hear that children, men, and women were being incarcerated and/or killed with no due process or justice, sparked the desire to expose these injustices and provide community support. There’s a need for social reformation when Black lives are concerned. In addition, based on our history, the community knew and understood that even though racism may not always be front and center, it still exists. Therefore, the movement spoke to those that felt inadequate and ashamed of their skin pigmentation. From this, many movements stemmed encouraging Black men, women, and children, to embrace themselves, their looks, history, and where they come from. Something that some have often felt ashamed of. They also wanted others to know that their celebration of their Blackness was not an effort to diminish anyone else’s pride in themselves. In addition, the problematic and irrational fear that others have against the Black community pushed for the need to spread the encouragement to love the pigmentation of, and in, Black skin, and that their pigmentation is not a threat, contrary to what others have rationalized.

Further, because the movement creators and supporters knew the emotional baggage, they knew how to arrange the argument. This principle is important because Aristotle believed it was one of the most important factors in his three-step structure, to be persuasive. It’s notated that Aristotle suggested that “in making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third, the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.” BLM movement employs this because they needed to appeal to people’s outrage which was already surfacing after the reports centered around the killings of Black individuals. They use persuasive, encouraging, and supportive language to invite people to join the movement and invoke change. They inform people if the issues they’re trying to tackle and the reasons they’re trying to tackle them.

There are specific situations that BLM support and certain situations they do not. For example, Tamir Rice, a young boy shot and killed in Cleveland, Ohio by law enforcement (Article can be read here or here). His story is important to tell, much like Trayvon Martin's and Many others, because of circumstances of the case and how it was handled.

For many cases promoted by BLM, the situational circumstances are imperative because the wrong case or wrong victim (or “victim”) can, and will, corrupt the goal of the movement. The wrong case will cause others to question the motives and purpose of the movement, which then takes away the impact of the argument being presented. Therefore, BLM examines the cases, and does their best to promote and support each victim, their family, and the community surrounding them to provide support, resources, and aid.