- Position1 of 3›
- The BLM organization are good
- Argument‹3 of 3
BLM creates a forum for people to unite against racism
The BLM organization serves as a creative space for American citizens to strategize constructive ways to combat racism in the United States, and at the same time, raise awareness.
The argument
The Black Lives Matter organization is important to American citizens because it provides a place to unite against racism. Additionally, the organization allows its supporters to strategize ways to not only push back against racism but raise awareness concerning racism too. Raising awareness can lead to the formation of new and local organizations as well as calls for structural reform. In small towns like Chambersburg, Virginia, this united activism manifested itself with the formation of an organization known as Racial Reconciliation and having discussions regarding issues such as redistricting reform. The NBA walkout following the shooting of Jacob Blake is another instance that shows the BLM organization's effectiveness in uniting people against racism. As a result of the players walking out on the scheduled basketball game, they were able to affect change since the players were able to negotiate the terms of their return. The action also prompted the NBA to stand with the players in solidarity, raising awareness on the issues of police brutality and racism against black people in statements acknowledging these issues. Since the BLM organization promotes activism against racism, one can argue that the organization’s mere presence inspired the activism demonstrated by the NBA players. This achievement attests to their importance as a societal platform for American citizens to rally against racism.
Premises
Counter-arguments
On the other hand, the Black Lives Matter organization might not provide a forum for uniting against racism. Instead, it may be the case that the organization provides a forum for a different kind of racism. On September 20th, 2020, a BLM supporter, Tatiana Turner, drove her car through a gathering of white people who were clashing with other BLM protesters in response to the death of Breonna Taylor. While the organization focuses on justice for black lives, this appears to alienate white people, and arguably, make them targets of the same kind of violence and racism that black people experience.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] Providing a forum describes what an organisation does rather than delivering a verdict on it, and the premise offers no comparison — the same could be said of any campaigning body, including ones whose aims the argument would reject. [Rejecting P2] The link is asserted rather than traced: a local group forming in one town — misidentified by state in the argument — does not show that the national organisation caused it, and redistricting reform has many origins. [Rejecting P3] The walkout was a decision by players and their union, and the premise claims only that BLM's presence "inspired" it, an attribution it concedes is arguable. Crediting an organisation with actions taken by others is the weakest step here.