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Essay Cultural Theory And Popular Culture
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This document contains my essay for cultural theory & popular culture for which I obtained an 8. the subject is black lives matter
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By: zitavanbaalen • 1 year ago
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(Van ’t Haar, 2020)Juliëtte Marhé
18070787
ES4-2F
Cultural Theory & Pop Culture
, Black Lives Matter
The 30th of October 2020
INTRODUCTION
This essay will talk about the subject discussed in chapter 8 of the book written by John Storey. This
subject is the anti-racism movement called Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is a social
movement that fights for the equality and fair treatment of black people. According to the Oxford
dictionary, racism means ‘’the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race; violent
behaviour towards them’’ (Oxford University, 2020). An anti-racism movement means a movement
that is against that unfairness. Black Lives Matter fights for the fair treatment of black people since
there is a lot of violence against black people nowadays. Due to this police violence against black
people, it is not a surprise the Black Lives Matter has risen.
According to Britannica, Black Lives Matter was originated in the Afro-American community as a
reaction to all the police violence against Afro-Americans. The movement was established in 2012
after George Zimmerman was acquitted for shooting the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. What
happened is the following, George Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin walking in his neighbourhood
and thought that he looked suspicious. He called the police to report this, but even though the police
told George Zimmerman to do nothing, he followed Trayvon Martin, had a discussion with Trayvon
Martin and this let to the fatal shot that killed Trayvon Martin. After this, George Zimmerman
remained free and in the end, he only got charged with second-degree murder. (Britannica., 2020)
The popularity of Black Lives Matter started growing when the 46-year-old George Floyd was killed
by Derek Chauvin who is a policeman. After the death of George Floyd, the hashtags
#blacklivesmatter #BLM #icantbreathe and #GeorgFloyd went viral and within a few hours, the entire
globe knew what happened. Shortly after the death of George Floyd, many black Americans were
protesting against the police but also in other countries people were rising against the police.
Black Lives Matter is connected with this module because it involves race, racism, anti-racism and, in
a way, a cultural study. Black Lives Matter is a branch of cultural studies because Black Lives Matter
focuses on the power inequalities related to race. This is connected with this course since this course
describes and explains different cultural aspects and subjects. Besides that, Black Lives Matter
includes many races. On top of that, Black Lives Matter is a popular culture because it is a culture
that originates from the people rather than imposed upon them by cultural elites and the ‘’above’’. It
is, as a matter of fact, ‘’a culture that is the domain of an ongoing aesthetic debate between
dominant and lower classes’’(Storey, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, 2009). In
this case, the dominant class is the police and the ‘’lower’’ class are black people who are seen as a
lower class because of their skin colour
When we define the culture of Black Lives Matter we need to consider the aspects of culture which
are symbols, heroes, rituals and values. The Black Lives Matter symbol, which is a clenched fist of a
black left hand, can be found everywhere. This symbol means that black people are in protest against
all the violence from policemen against black people. When it comes to heroes, George Floyd can be
seen as a hero since it was his death that ignited the flame of Black Lives Matter. When it comes to
rituals, we need to look at the behaviour and meaning of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was
born as an anti-racism movement so it is only natural that their rituals consist of protesting and
demonstrating against police violence. Finally, Black Lives Matter has a collective value, they do not
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