BLM Trending: What Do Our Students Think?

Story By: Hannah Brown

2020 has been a very long year.  It has shed light on topics that, while relevant in the past, were often pushed into the background.  This year saw a large increase in Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in May.  

A convenience store employee in Minneapolis, Minn had called 911 after Floyd had used a counterfeit bill.  Once Floyd was in custody Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes, taking Floyd’s life.  Chavin did not remove his knee even once Floyd had lost consciousness.  He was later charged with manslaughter. A video taken of Floyd’s arrest and death soon circulated in  major news outlets and on social media.

Black Lives Matter began all the way back in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin.  Martin had been walking home from a convenience store when he was shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who claimed he shot Martin out of ‘self-defense.’  The 17-year-old was unarmed carrying only a juice and a pack of Skittles. Zimmerman had pursued the teen even after being advised not to by dispatch. 

Since then Black Lives Matter has come and gone from the spotlight.  While many believe it will fade out once more until another act of violence, others are hopeful that it will remain in the foreground as our nation moves forward into a new presidency.  

A social media storm began to brew as the world watched the killings of many people of color: Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson. Black Lives Matter began trending on many platforms.  People began marching in the street, there were riots and everyone started choosing a side.  

Blue Lives Matter began trending as well.  As many people began to voice frustration at the idea of defunding the police or support for their local boys in blue.

Sophomore Sophia Nichols believes the summer quarantine may have had a role in this pattern. She also stated that, “Race relations are always tense during election years and quarantine gave us nothing to distract us from that polarization.”

As senior Paige Dudley explained:

“These topics have become an extreme conversation starter recently. I think both sides have very strong views towards this topic and tend to want to share those views…I think both movements have always been a thing, but now they’re both on the rise.”

As Dudley stated many people have formed their opinions on these movements.

Junior Vanessa Romero takes the issue very seriously.

“I’ve grown up as a Mexican. I hear a lot of jokes about my race. I get called Dora and get told that I should jump back across the border. I think about how many things I hear and times that number by 10…how many times people of color have been made fun of or have been called racist slurs?” Romero questioned.

Romero also believes that people of color “get a bad rep.”

“It isn’t fair that they all have to suffer due to one negative news report,” she said.

Nichols supports the Black Lives Matter movement but worries discrimination against other ethnicities is being ignored.

“It is very important that we uplift black lives after all of the trauma many of them have endured in this country and others due to racism. However, I would say an equally important thing to me right now is Muslim men and women being persecuted. I am concerned that we will be too distracted with this movement to actually help those people,” explained Nichols.

While Dudley supports Blue Lives Matter she agreed with Nichols stating “I can’t support an organization that singles out one race.”

Sophomore Kenney Brooks had a different take on the topic stating he believes while mainly Liberals support Black Lives Matter, it is a Pro-Life issue.

“It’s more than a slogan.  The phrase Black Lives Matter is about actual people’s lives mattering,” Brooks explained. 

Junior Kelsey Kwiatkowski instead supports Blue Lives matter and believes cops are an important part in our society. 

“Just because a handful of them are bad does not mean they are all bad. [The majority] of them have good intentions and truly want to better their community. It would just be like saying all black people are criminals. They most certainly aren’t but there is always the handful, but that handful should not represent a whole group,” Kwiatkowski explained.

Junior Dakota Copeland believes “the Black Lives Matter movement is more of a fear movement than anything.”

Sophomore Carlee Copeland Par thinks “[Blue Lives Matter ] is a stupid rebuttal towards Black Lives Matter. It implies that blue lives at one point did not matter, whereas black lives were treated like nothing for hundreds of years.”

Carrie Young agreed, adding that “blue lives DO NOT EXIST!”

 “I’ll tell you why, a badge is something you can take off after an 8-12 hour shift, you can take your blue shirt off, you can take the bullet proof vest off, you can get out of the police car, you can be a regular person,” Young argued. “But people of color CANNOT take their skin off, they don’t have a bulletproof vest.”

Copeland sides with Blue Lives Matter because he sees cops “targeted by so many and hated.”

Brooks, who has a close family member who is a police officer can see this, but explains it isn’t the only problem. During a protest this summer Brooks’ family member was on duty. 

“My entire family was worried sick for him the entire night…Now just imagine what it is like every day for black parents to just let their kids go to the store. They do not know if they will get killed by the police or harassed by the police, or by anyone else, just because of the color of their skin.”

“[Cops]  are the ones who need our love and support,” Copeland argued.

Young disagrees as she believes that “predominantly black people are targeted by police over racial motives.” 

Freshman Kason LaMont believes Blue Lives Matter is “just a weapon against BLM [that] didn’t really have a meaning just like ‘all lives matter.’”

As the 2020 election took over the news and new trends flood our social media, many believe the BLM trend has run out of fuel.  

Lamont shares this fear.

 “I hate how for a lot of people BLM was a trend and now that their feed has gone back to normal they’ve basically forgotten about it,” Lamont stated.

When it comes down to it The EHS student body voiced a number of strong opinions relating to these movements.  Out of the 100+ students that shared their thoughts, 64.1% supported Black Lives Matter and 35.9% supported Blue Lives Matter.  Over 90% would rate these movements as issues that are important to them.