Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement Analysis

The “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” movement emerged in 2013 after the untimely and unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, harmless black man by the hands of neighborhood watch George Zimmerman. It is a civil rights movement that took the media by storm all across America after George Zimmerman was released scot-free from trial. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter agenda is to bring attention to how individuals with darker skin tones tend to suffer more at the hands of police officers and the justice system. With modern age technology, numerous videos have been captured of cases of police brutality against the black community along with media outlets detailing how the the justice system disproportionately affects the black population. This essay

Stage one, punishment and obedience orientation is doing what is right because the individual fears punishment. When concerning Black Lives Matter someone at that stage disregarding race, would not fully be able to comprehend the gist of the BLM movement but would still support it so they can be rewarded by their parental figures. In the second stage of the pre-conventional level, hedonistic orientation, is being able to focus on the need of others. Still not being capable of fully understanding the complete concept of the BLM movement they can grasp the minor details of the movement such as the suffering the black population in addition to being able to sympathize with them. Depending on race/ethnicity of the individual during the pre-conventional level, it can affect how their environment influence their moral views on Black Lives Matter due to it being a call on the violence black people are subjected to at the hand of police offers and the

Stage five, social contract or legalistic orientation is following the course of action that the individual believes is correct even if it does not correspond with the law. According to Kohlberg culture also plays a critical role in this stage. In correlation to Black Lives Matter, that is going out and protesting the innocent lives lost during encounters with police officers such as Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Tamar Rice in addition to acknowledging that a change has to be made in society. In stage six, universal ethical principles orientation, in Kohlberg words are “display a willingness to disobey laws if those laws violate their own moral values” (Cooper, 2018, p.33). That is everyone coming together to raise awareness about the inequality that the black population faces and being willing to take risks and/or break laws to get the message