Analysis Of The Article 'Black Lives Matter'

Changing the World… Through Violence?

Black Lives Matter: In “Don’t criticize Black Lives Matter for provoking violence. The civil rights movement did, too.” (2015), Simone Sebastian proclaims that the violent methods of Black Lives Matter are completely necessary in order to accomplish their task. Sebastian employs the use of the example of the civil rights movement throughout the article; relating aspects of the two to each other to create a link that will justify her claim because the civil rights movement is widely praised. She asserts that, despite what most think, the movement actually “invited” violence and that it “was critical to the success” of the movement (3). By displaying the movement in this light, Sebastian links it to Black Lives Matter and conveys the idea that the violence today could turn out to have the same effect as the violence that occurred in the civil rights

She cites specific examples where people, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, have thought that Black Lives Matters is wrong to use the actions that they have, and then pairs it with examples of how people thought that the civil rights movement was “too aggressive” (2) to qualify her claim and to show that opinions of a time are not always correct. She describes a poll that showed disapproving views toward King during his time and another poll that shows negative views toward Black Lives Matter and later shows how public views toward King shifted to become more favorable in order to further justify that the two are similar movements and that the actions of Black Lives Matter are the only way anything worthwhile will actually be accomplished. Sebastian takes on an agitated and indignant tone while discussing the movements due to the fact that peaceful protests have had no effect, and, despite that, people still do not realize that violence is