Black Lives Matter is a major international movement that fights against the discrimination and underrepresentation of Black people. It also tries to eliminate the absence of inclusiveness and the issues that the unwelcoming of diversity creates. The purpose of this paper is to view the Black Lives Matter movement through the lenses of history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences to prove that this issue in diversity outlines slightly different problems when seen from varying perspectives.
History
Viewing an event through the lens of history means analyzing first-hand accounts of experiences, documents about or from that period, artifacts from that era, and photographs to gain a particular and probably independent opinion (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.). The Black Lives Matter Movement was formed in the U.S. in 2013 after a policeman who killed an unarmed African American teenager was acquitted on charges. Almost every year after the foundation of the movement, Black Lives Matter expanded due to the continuation of unfair treatment of Black Americans by White ones. A first-person account of the 2020 protest in Minneapolis allows learning that this movement is initially peaceful, respectful, and optimistic, while police make it seem violent and cruel. According to Abdo (2020), people at that protest were welcoming and patient with each other, and there was even a group of Indigenous people who supported the movement despite the centuries-long violence against them.
Humanities
The humanities are the second lens through which the Black Lives Matter movement can be analyzed. According to Southern New Hampshire University (n.d.), “professionals in the humanities might ask about cultural values and why they matter,” as well as suggest setting aside one’s own values in order to take an objective look at another culture (para. 5). This is one of the movement’s purposes; people want others to set their principles, stereotypes, and ideas aside for a moment and see the essence and value of African Americans and other persons who get discriminated (Lebron, 2017).
Natural and Applied Sciences
It is hard to disagree that natural and applied sciences make commentary on our daily lives. There are two ways that the Black Lives Matter movement can be seen through this lens. First of all, professionals notice that there is a vast underrepresentation of African Americans in most fields of science (“Black Lives Matter in ecology and evolution,” 2020). However, it is always essential to make sure that scientists highlight the contributions of their Black colleagues, without whom the effective development of the various scientific fields is impossible. This is another goal of the discussed movement. Second of all, according to Makgoba (2020), since the COVID-19 outbreak, there has been “the disproportionately high vulnerability and mortality in African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin communities” (para. 1). This is another issue the movement tries to fight against, and it can be seen through the lens of applied sciences.
Social Sciences
Finally, the social sciences study the relationships between people, the essence of societies, and human behaviors (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.). Nowadays, there is still no proper interaction between people, and it is essential to work further in order to make sure that there is always mutual respect, trust, and welcoming between different persons, nations, and cultures. Through the lens of social sciences, it is evident that the movement demands that society starts valuing the humanity, rights, lives, and principles of Black people (Lebron, 2017). There should not be a white privilege, and all humans need to be in collaboration against global problems.
References
Abdo, Z. (2020). A first-person account of a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis turned violent by police. Inside Edition.
Black Lives Matter in ecology and evolution. (2020). Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4, 893–894.
Lebron, C. J. (2017). The making of Black Lives Matter: A brief history of an idea. Oxford University Press.
Makgoba, M. W. (2020). Black scientists matter. Science, 369(6506), 884.
Southern New Hampshire University. (n.d.). IDS the four general education lenses [PDF document].