The Impact of Technology on the BLM Movement - Rhea Kochher
Black Lives Matter is an international human rights movement that was
founded in 2013. However, it has started to gain much more prominence and
momentum recently. In the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, people are
increasingly dependent on technology to keep themselves updated on global
news. They say ignorance is bliss, but not knowing only does more harm than
good.
Around the end of May, George Floyd’s video was released to the public
through social media. Through numerous shares of the video on various social
media platforms, awareness of this act of systemic racial oppression spread like
wildfire. In the video, a white police officer was kneeling on Floyd’s neck
while Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. The white police officer
refused to remove his knee, which resulted in the unfortunate death of George
Floyd.
The video received a lot of attention and caused many people to prepare for
action and organize protests. On Instagram, many shared information on statistics
about systemic racial oppression, links to petitions, and fundraising sites. There
was widespread discussion all over various social media platforms including
Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. Despite the fact that there is an ongoing
pandemic, many showed their support and allegiance to the black community by
organizing protests, spreading awareness on social media, raising funds, and
signing petitions. The pandemic did not stop people from connecting,
communicating and empathizing with one another. Why?
The answer is technology. Through technology, people were able to
pressure the charges of police officer Derek Chauvin. Initially, he was charged
with third degree murder, but after many signatures on petitions, his charge was
changed to second degree murder. Second degree murder means that the killer
inteneded to kill the victim while third degree murder means that the killer
intended to harm the victim, but not kill him/her. A petition was made to send a
clear message to the senator and the governor of the state of Minneapolis to
prosecute the officer fairly by charging him with second degree murder. These
petitions were constantly being shared on almost every social media platform,
allowing hundreds of thousands of people to take action, even if they were
quarantined at home.
With the scroll of a cursor and the click of a button, anyone not living under
a rock could have found out about the recent news of George Floyd’s death.
However, his death was only the beginning of serving justice. Technology does
not allow solely one person to be the beholder of valuable information. Anything
can be easily shared on instagram...like I said – wildfire.
Now, people are bringing up important stories of other African Americans
mistreated by the justice system. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah Mcclain,
Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, and many other important people’s stories are now
being brought to light, and justice is now being demanded. Technology unites
people in standing up for a cause together; a cause that is not being kept a
secret, but being yelled through a virtual megaphone.