2016 Chyenne Buehrig

Professor Thibodeau
ENC Composition
January 25, 2016

The Power of Black Lives Matter an article by Darryl Lorenzo Wellington goes into his views
on the importance of the recent movement Black Lives Matter. He opens by bringing to light that
in the past several years we the American people have been faced with 2 reoccurring themes,
ones we have been faced with before but now new emotions and views on the matters are
surfacing. The 2 themes being class and race are forgotten, basically ignored, until a public
disaster brings them into play. They both still exist and both do matter. Going into detail he
breaks down the two issues, where class can affect the chances one is given in life, and your race
puts you at a certain level in the American nation. Emphasizing how these should be outdated
concepts and shouldnt exist in this modern age, yet here we are.
Moving on to how class works and affects us, its brought to the readers attention a couple of
national outburst that brought our attention the reality of class. Such as the housing mortgage
crisis, opening our eyes to the true difference in class. The middle class saw the line between the
upper class and themselves. Bringing on the Occupy movement and the iconic phrase We are
the 99 percent. The occupiers were indeed the majority of the economic process in the states, it
kept many strong and connected through the fact of being in the same class in a sense. Though
there was a crack in the 99%, something that kept them from their true unity. Race. Because even
though the 99% were at the bottom, who was at the bottom of the bottom? Black Americans.

Darryl suggests, that the question on race is not about how race can matter with a black
president, but how a nation that had that happen can still ignore and brush over the dozens of
black American life issues. When we take a closer look at life issues and discrimination, it
happens mostly with race rather than class.
The Black Lives Matter movement is fueled by the black youth of America, they looked to the
system and saw more than the class flaw, what they saw was the racial oppression and tragedies.
Connecting to the Law, many of the police brutality events and police controlled deaths, and as
these deaths began being dismissed and gone without punishment the outcry grew.
In the article we read that the purpose of Black Lives Matter is to say no more to a world
where the Black lives are shown hostility and ill will, just for being black. Given to us by one of
the founders of Black lives matter Alicia Garza. The foundation was founded after one of the first
national events the murder of Trayvon Martin, social media lit the fire bringing attention to the
organization and what they stand for. Social media plays a huge part in this movement, as it
reaches hundreds and thousands of people and gathers them together for the cause. It gives
another voice, a louder voice at volumes unthinkable before this technological age.
Black lives matter, this is a call coming not only from black youth, but people of all races all
with the aim to eliminate the systematical racism within many people of the law. We are given a
quote from one of the founders on her thoughts on the people who are trying to change black
lives, to all lives. She argues that it would have the movement lose its core and its purpose, the
movement was founded to uproot anti-blackness racism, to fight and put an end to that in law
enforcement.

Darryl finishes by emphasizing how Black lives matter is necessary to fight what we as
Americans have been ignoring for such a long time, that we cannot sweep race issues under the
carpet and believe they are gone. Black lives matter is necessary to wake up our nation, so we
can become aware and hopefully, become stronger as one nation.