Week 9 - Nicholas Suen A01

The beginning of Santos F. Ramos’ article “Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice” describes a protest, from the author's perspective, in which a group of organizers blocked an intersection in order to call attention for the Black Lives Matter movement. (2016) When I first read this article, I was immediately reminded of an incident two years ago when Black Lives Matter activists blocked the Bay Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area. Architects of this incident intended to gather media and public attention to acts of racial injustice against black americans. However, I can honestly say that this event caused me to lose respect for the Black Lives Matter movement, and even made me less willing to support the actions of these activists.

(2016)

Being an San Francisco native, I know from experience that the Bay Bridge is one of primary methods of crossing to either side of the San Francisco Bay. Many commuters use this bridge to travel between work and home. Blocking the Bay Bridge caused an insurmountable amount of traffic, with cars trying to cross the Bay Bridge backed up all the way through the middle of San Francisco. I felt like this was completely unfair to the general public, forcing people to extent their commute time by a few hours at the very least. I understand that the intention of this incident was to call attention to the Black Lives Matter cause, which it was largely successful in doing, however I believe this created a lot of negative attention subsequently demonizing their cause. This kind of public activism can assist in generating conversation and attention for a cause, but I don’t believe it should come at the expense of people of the public. This kind of activism should be directed at people who are responsible or are capable of inflicting change, such as legislators.

Question: Can public activism be detrimental to a cause?

References:

Brennan, C. (2016, January 19). Black Lives Matter protest shuts down Bay Bridge. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/black-lives-matter-protest-shuts-bay-bridge-article-1.2501287

Ramos, S. F. (2016, April 20). Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://enculturation.net/building-a-culture-of-solidarity