Black Lives Matter Theory

According to Ryan and Gamson (2006), Culture theory emphasizes the importance of movement culture. It argues that in order for social movements to successfully mobilize individuals and create a movement, they must develop an injustice frame. An injustice frame is a collection of ideas and symbols that illustrate how significant a problem is as well as what the movement can do to alleviate it. It provides coherence to an array of symbols, images, and arguments, linking them through an underlying organizing idea that suggests what is essential – what consequences and values are at stake. The theory makes these four critical assumptions about injustice frames:
1. Facts take on their meaning by being embedded in frames, which render them relevant

The problem has been identified as the devaluing of Black life across every context of citizenship. The solution to this problem is to change the policies in place that allow such inequality to permeate the ideals of equality and democracy. People of all races and ethnicities have been called to unite ideas, resources, and in turn create a collective action for change. This movement aims to reframe the idea of Blackness and Whiteness that has been instilled through racist ideology. Black Lives Matter is both a call to action and a response to the ways in which our lives have been

It developed to become a global social movement. It aligned people around the world with a clear view of how America treats Black people. As culture theory assumes, it created a new lens or injustice frame through camera footage, testimonies, and statistics revealing police brutality against Blacks. Facts about racism have taken on new meanings. At the current rate that the mainstream media perpetuates the Black Lives Matter social movement as “domestic terrorism”, social media is asserting that the real criminals in America are the White, often “mentally-ill” or “emotionally disturbed” white males who commit the majority of mass shootings that take place. In the future this will influence the way Americans look at terrorism and crime. Perhaps it will even alter the current methods used to surveillance and patrol Black communities at an exponentially higher rate than more racially diverse communities. This will take the magnifying glass off of Black people, and decrease the effects of racist ideology. The Critical Race Theory, assumes that there should be skepticism towards liberal notions of neutrality and color-blindness that underpin White responses as approaches to challenging ‘race’ issues. This can be exampled through the countermovement, All Lives Matter. CRT places a high value on the use of narrative and storytelling in order to add necessary contextual validity to the seeming