Understanding the Role of Black Lives Matter as a Social Movement in Tackling the Case of Systemic Racism in the United States

Abstract

In 2013, a social movement named Black Lives Matter emerged in an attempt to reconstruct the systemic racism in the US. The problem of systemic racism has always been a problem all over the world, and the Civil Rights Movement had emerged in the 1950s to tackle a similar problem in the US and resulted in the elimination of systemic racism at the state elite’s level. This thesis observed the phenomenon of the emergence of BLM the after Civil Rights Movement and aims to analyse the factors of the emergence of the movement, and how it works to reach its goals. This thesis uses the method of narrating the existing phenomena to understand the background concept of the movement. It also uses the method of comparison between characteristics and agendas of the movements with the concept of Traditional Social Movement and new Social Movement and Social movement framing process. It is found that there is a strong correlation between Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter agendas also use similar rhetorical ideas to that of the Civil Rights Movement, while reflecting on its goals.