I haven't much time to write this, my laptop is about to die, BUT I just finished a paper for my Conflict Resolution class on #BlackLivesMatter and while it isn't perfect (#cramming), I am still very proud of all the research I put into it! There is so much more I want to say, but the paper was limited to ten pages and I have had limited sleep these past few days.
I also want to make clear as the author of this paper that I in no way am trying to speak for #BlackLivesMatter. I am a white female going to school in a city that is known for having a limited diversity. While I speak about the issues at hand; the prejudice, discrimination and blatant lack of value assigned to black lives compared to white lives, I do not live this reality. I come from a place of privilege where I can talk about these things as a person who hasn't really come into contact with people who assign me a lesser value because of my skin tone (my gender, yes, but that's a whole other demon). I respect and admire all the work that is being put into this movement and completely support it myself.
How Black Lives Matter Became A Movement
Conflict Resolution Theories to Support a Change in Race Relations
Megan Blake Keating
Portland State University
The intractable conflict of race relations in America (Burgess).“If lower-power people are continually subjected to harsh treatment, or lack of goal attainment, they are likely to produce organized resistance to the higher-power people” (Wilmot & Hocker, pg. 128). In one line from Wilmot & Hocker’s Interpersonal Conflict, the foundation of the #BlackLivesMatter movement is embodied. When the current system, upheld by the designated power given to police officers to search, arrest and seemingly kill any suspicious individual, was proven to not be working, #BlackLivesMatter was born. Forged from a fire kindled by injustice, this movement has many reasons to be mad.
Founded in 2012 after the murder of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has inspired thousands of individuals across the United States to take a closer look at how fair, or rather biased, their justice system is (Garza). Since then, people have mobilized, actively protesting against unjust deaths of black americans at the hands of police officers. Over the last three years, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has established a narrative that, while imperfect, creates a character set of police departments as the unchecked bad guys, and black americans the victimized minority. This narrative poses a backdrop that many americans felt compelled to doubt prior to the mobilization of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, a racist America; a nation far from having moved beyond racism. This climate, of clear inequality, is even further proven in the statistics that around sixty percent of unarmed citizens killed by police were minorities, despite only around thirty five percent of the United States population being black, hispanic or latino, asian, pacific islander, or native american, combined (US Census).
This structure of characters, setting, morals, and temporal complexity in any conflict narrative, as outlined by Sarah Cobb, effectively shows the basic elements of an issue, and in the case of #BlackLivesMatter, gives a solid foundation for anyone trying to understand what the perspective of this movement is. Naturally, the narrative of the #BlackLivesMatter movement is in conflict with the narrative established by many of the police officers and their respective precincts and unions they are affiliated with. Arguing that they are following through with their duty to “protect and serve,” it is not seen as a racist act to take down a suspect who is threatening a police officer. They claim it is not a matter of race, just of innocence. The values and morals coming into play for the police are black and white, right and white. The fact that it has been shown that the categorization of incidents of black and white regularly apply to the skin color of the suspect in question is something adamantly argued by police officers in question. These “skinny, underdeveloped plots” with “flat characters” externalizes the responsibility of each instance when a black life was taken by a police officer under abnormal circumstances (Cobb). These conflicting narratives of the two parties, moves the issue beyond who is right and wrong, and into the realm of power.
Inherently, the police have designated power given to them by the state that gives them the responsibility to uphold the law, and maintain a level of security. The formal authority possessed by the police is meant to establish a level of credibility and accountability, one that is checked by the people that law enforcement protect. With this designated power comes power currencies in the form of resource control in regards to public safety and useful interpersonal linkages that connects police departments with all aspects of the criminal justice system, something they may be able to utilize when someone they care about is in trouble, or, as we will see soon, when they themselves are under investigation and resolve an incident in which they acted under mysterious circumstance without any consequences. Lastly, they have an expertise currency that manifests in their situational intelligence and handling of dangerous situations. All of these aspects of power that characterize american police departments put them in a position of power over the allegations made against them by the #BlackLivesMatter movement. They not only have the option to claim they did the “right thing” each time they must shot to kill while on the job, but in the recent cases championed by the #BlackLivesMatter campaign, the support for the police was immediate and unwavering. The inherent support that comes with idea that any action taken by a police officer during a dangerous situation was the right one because they were “doing their job,” is so powerful. Such an orientation of power in favor of law enforcement, #BlackLivesMatter argues with accurate precision, is dangerous. People feel very strongly about who should have power, and the ways they can use that power (Hocker, pg. 106).
Up to the point three years ago, when #BlackLivesMatter organized an effective media attention towards the practices of law enforcement officials against minority members of society, this idea of power was all the public support the police needed to feel comfortable with profiling certain american citizens as “dangerous” based on their skin color. Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, even gave great credit to the NYPD’s “Stop and Frisk” practices, which were based on police officers “randomly” deciding to stop and pat down suspicious looking individuals walking in New York City, often using someone’s skin color to decide if they qualified. Even worse, many police officers and captains are in a state of power denial. With each death and abuse of a minority, the claim becomes even more spoken that, the denial more adamant, that there is no racial profiling going on, no racist undertones to the actions taken by police.By denying the very real issue of a racist system, the police are perpetuating the power imbalanace but illegitimizing any conversation to be had on the topic. But, despite their best efforts, the death of Trayvon Martin brought forth the issues being denied, and created an opportunity for #BlackLivesMatter to gain their own power.
While the police possess a domineering type of power, one that makes nearly all their actions legitimate and dissenters look like whistleblowers, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has its own kind of power. Focusing on the effectiveness of the movement to call together people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, and ultimately all races, the communication skills of the organization are rivaled by none. When Freddie Gray was killed in Baltimore while in police custody because of a spinal cord injury sustained while being violently handcuffed and put in the back of a transport vehicle with not safety belt, #BlackLivesMatter responded immediately with a twitter response, protests and dozens of vigils held in honor of another person lost to police actions. After being choked to death because a police officer didn’t believe asthmatic New Yorker Eric Garner when he said he couldn’t breath while being held in a choke hold, BlackLivesMatter responded in record speed, making sure any news outlet reporting on Garner’s death knew that the husband and father of four was doing nothing to deserve being held to the ground for four minutes until his heart stopped and his children lost their dad. Helping spread the word about police on black violence, BlackLivesMatter empowered twelve year old Tamir Rice’s mother talk about her fun-loving son, who was shot on a playground when a white police officer mistook his toy gun for an actual weapon. The expertise that #BlackLivesMatter has shown in regards to spreading their message and inciting action and emotion from the American people, at this point time far outweighs the police’s power. For once there is a power imbalance in favor of those who have suffered at the hands of the institutions that are supposed to be protecting them.
While in the case of the majority of the deaths, such as Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Eric Garner in New York, the victim was innocent, having done little or nothing at all to deserve the death that was brought upon them, one case does not fit so cleanly into this narrative, Michael Brown. Michael Brown did, it seems, act aggressively. He went into a store and stole cigarillos with a friend. After walking some distance, Officer Darren Wilson caught up with him. Moments later, Brown had over eight shots to the body, four of which were from the neck up and Darren Wilson had a patrol SUV with bullet holes and a few injuries consistent with fighting off an attack. No one can agree what happened between that time, some say Wilson shot Brown unprovoked, other claim Brown charged at him first. The facts are that Officer Wilson was responding to a petty theft and the eighteen year old suspect had to pay for it with his life. People were outraged, angry that a young man was deemed so threatening, so dangerous that he had to be shot at twelve times, that he had to be killed. It wasn’t until the Grand Jury’s decision, to not indict Darren Wilson, that people began to riot, to forcibly take the streets. Thanks in part to the direction & promotion, these riots had a clear purpose, and although stores were looted and fires lit, the word was out. “Hands up, don’t shoot” became the metaphor for all unjust police on black shootings, prompted by #BlackLivesMatter supporters to spread like wildfire across the nation. So, you see, with current events, it has become clear the nation is ready for a change, one that is led by the #BlackLivesMatter movement. So while the police remain the possessors of the state's designated power, it seems the #BlackLivesMatter movement has gained its own kind of designated power, that of the american people.
Keeping in mind the power dynamics of this intractable conflict, and the narratives each party tells, it is important to talk about what may seem like a superficial subject, violence. Clearly the killing of innocent lives across the country is violent, but what needs to be address is the systemic, seemingly ingrained way in which it has occurred for hundreds of years. The well respected conflict resolution academic, Johan Galtung, utilizes a specific visual in explaining the aspects of conflict. Using a triangle, each of three aspects of violence is explained; direct, structural and cultural (Galtung). The structural violence, being the process of violence, in this case, is the stereotype in which black americans have been put, socially and economically. “The massive” violence of slavery “over centuries” that has “seep[ed] down and [turned] sediment” is massive structural violence in the form of discrimination (Galtung, pg. 295). This is what is unconsciously driving the police officers to naturally associate black individuals as dangerous, dehumanizing them into an “it,” more akin to an animal that needs to be put down when acting out than an individual that can be reasoned with, a system that echoes black american’s past as degraded human slaves brought to the americans to serve “pale masters” (Galtung, pg. 295). One of the worst types of structural violence against the black community is mass incarceration rates of black men compared to other demographics. Despite making up just over thirteen percent of the United States’ population, black inmates make up over half of the prison population.Along with, the racial separation between the poor black populations and middle class white populations that occur in many communities and the high mortality rate of black men all contribute to structural violence. An example that may be easier to apply would be that white americans who advocate for the #AllLivesMatter movement, do not understand their structural privilege as historically the “master,” and while trying to promote a universal value of all life, in reality show how, because of their privilege, they haven’t had to ever come to the realization that they are not valued any less by society because of their skin color, that not everyone has the right naturally given at birth. They, The second of three types of violence is cultural violence, the outcome or permanence in society. Also known as prejudice, cultural violence “preaches, teaches, admonishes, eggs on and dulls us into seeing exploitation and/or repression as normal or natural” (Galtung, pg. 295). It manifests in the form of associating black males with violence, alienation of black americans in both political parties, and day to day microaggressions and racism actions. Also know as discrimination, cultural violence is extremely difficult to change, as each generation of children are taught by their parents and in school certain ways of thinking that perpetuate it. If you will, it is a “brainwashing” of sorts (Galtung, pg. 293). Lastly, the most, and arguably the only, visible form of violence is direct. Easiest to determine, it is the crux on which the #BlackLivesMatter campaign sits. Fighting to end the direct violence of police brutality, and more specifically the many shootings that have resulted in a black american dying at the wrong end of a police officer’s weapon, direct violence is the superficial result of deep and ingrained structural and cultural violence that has been going on for many years (Galtung, pg. 295). This is why it is so difficult to change the pattern of behavior when it comes to police brutality. Police officers feel justified in making split second decisions on whether a person is a threat by using their skin color, it’s been rooted into their minds and thoughts since grade school, thanks to the cultural facet of the issue, and grow up to act on these beliefs in the form of suspecting those who are darker skinned.
With all this information, it is clear that something in the American mindset and practice needs to change in regards to how race is dealt with by the police. There are two reasons for mediating disputes, according to Kenneth Cloke, to avoid or suppress so that one mollifies the conflict without ever dealing with the underlying issues, a settlement for settlement’s sake, or to transform a conflict, opening up a deeper understanding of the issue, allowing for a dialogue to occur that achieves a level of understanding of all aspects of a conflict, so that a solution can be reached (Cloke, pg. 1). It is this author’s opinion that the police fall under the former, and #BlackLivesMatter the latter. “Conflict can be seen as an expression of the highest level of social and political responsibility; as a necessary byproduct of justice,” this is why it is so important that #BlackLivesMatter is fighting against the violence perpetuated for hundreds of years against black citizens (Cloke, pg.1). It would the ultimate failure if the lives lost are in vain, and this national discussion about race relations and police brutality ends in settlement and not resolution. This is all the reasoning one needs to understand the necessity and nobility of the discussion that #BlackLivesMatter is facilitating.
Works Cited
Burgess, G. & Burgess, H.(2003, November). The Culture of Mediation: Settlement vs. Resolution. Retrieved November 3, 2015, from http://www.beyondintractability.org/
Cloke, K. (2005, December 1). The Culture of Mediation: Settlement vs. Resolution. Retrieved November 3, 2015, from http://www.beyondintractability.org/
Cobb, S., & Portilla, J. (2003). Sarah Cobb. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from http://www.beyondintractability.org/audiodisplay/cobb-s
Hocker, J., & Wilmot, W. (2011). Power: The Structure of Conflict. In Interpersonal Conflict (9th ed., pp. 105-141). New York, New York: McGraw Hill Companies.
Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural Violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 291-305.
USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. (2014). R
