We live in a day of age during this growing social media takeover where anything posted on the world wide web is recorded for media analysis at a later date. Mid July in 2013 the twitter icon #BlackLivesMatter was used in a tweet. It was soon after this date that thanks to PRC (Pew Research Center) that we noticed the newly created hashtag burst in popularity. During the summer of 2014, two brutal murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in the hands of local police officers struck America with what they would soon identify as a movement. #BlackLivesMatter following the killings of these two innocent men was mentioned nearly 200,000 times on Twitter reassuring the strength of this soon to notice racial movement.
The understanding of how this trend started and what it means is important to recognize during this time of constant change in media trends. It is important that we American citizens stop turning our back on the increase in murders by police officers. Not only are these officers killing large numbers of people but we are observing a racial tendency between white police officers and african american “suspects” that we should be aware about. “On Dec. 4, one day after a grand jury declined to indict the police officer whose chokehold led to Mr. Garner’s death, #BlackLivesMatter appeared 189,210 times on Twitter. It was mentioned 160,810 times the following day, too.”
The entirety of this article holds its ground with its vast number of data points thanks to PRC. The growth in popularity of the hashtag reminds me of the need for more political thinking throughout society and how we have been talking about this in class. I say this because I recognize a hashtag that i've seen a number of times but question why I didn't push myself to educate on the topic. Will laws be changed in America to take control of violence involving police officers and innocent young Americans?
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