Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and Political Opportunities:

Daniel Turillo

doi:10.5195/pur.2021.18

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, while mired in the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced an unprecedentedly massive wave of protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement. Given the novelty of this upswell and the lack of a clear precedent thereof, there does not yet exist much scholarly analysis into why and how this movement expanded as significantly as it did or what developmental routes it may take as in the future. My research seeks to remedy this gap by employing the political process theory of social movement activity to interpret how the COVID pandemic increased opportunities for insurgent activity, how Black Lives Matter was in a prime position to take advantage of those opportunities, and how the movement can and should approach its future development to retain the support and leverage it accumulated during the 2020 protests. Through informal qualitative analysis rooted in the political process model, I suggest that COVID led to greater public recognition of institutional maladies in the United States, which Black Lives Matter was able to channel toward protest activity thanks to the low-cost, high-reward membership system inherent in its non-hierarchical structure and tactful use of social media. I then briefly consider different developmental paths that Black Lives Matter may take and assert that carefully implemented attempts at formalization will allow the movement to retain its organizing potential regardless of any volatile external opportunities.

Highlights

On May 25th, 2020, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, named George Floyd, was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for eight minutes after arresting him for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill (Ankel, 2020)
Protests erupted across the United States under the unifying cry of “Black Lives Matter” (“BLM”), an umbrella term for the 21st-century movement of interconnected local and national groups organizing against police brutality and for racial justice for Black Americans more generally (Ransby, 2018, p.23)
I seek to postulate the likely impact of the COVID pandemic on Americans’ motivations to partake in public demonstrations prior to the general elections of November 3rd, 2020, as well as how BLM was able to capitalize on these COVID-induced changes and how it may be able to retain its relevance in the political space going forward

Summary

Introduction

On May 25th, 2020, a Black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, named George Floyd, was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for eight minutes after arresting him for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill (Ankel, 2020). Protests erupted across the United States under the unifying cry of “Black Lives Matter” (“BLM”), an umbrella term for the 21st-century movement of interconnected local and national groups organizing against police brutality and for racial justice for Black Americans more generally (Ransby, 2018, p.23). These protests reached an unprecedented scale, spanning 15 to 26 million participants in over 2,400 locations nationwide through the summer and fall of 2020 (Buchanan et al, 2020; Kishi & Jones, 2020). I briefly explore BLM’s options for development past the fall of 2020, arguing that its continued success rests upon the strengthening of its coordinating mechanisms

Literature Review

Method

Background

Conclusion