Online Activism and the BLM Revolution

By Pierce K. Kozlowski

Is Online Activism Effective?

There’s a famous trope that lawyers, when asked any question, often respond with “it depends.” This case is no exception. Whether online activism is effective depends on how someone defines the term “effective.” On the one hand, online activism has hardly produced tangible policy outcomes and there isn’t incredible research linking the two; on the other hand, it has produced profound awareness of either underground or undercovered issues. Take the George Floyd case, for example. Being inebriated on Fentanyl and having a criminal record, Floyd was no saint. But the fact that his death was caused by egregious policing is self-evident from the video and proven in the autopsy report, where “cardiopulmonary arrest” from Chauvin’s “subdual” resulted in his death. Let’s not miss the bigger picture though: it wasn’t that it happened to Floyd, but that it happened unprompted to a Black American. Once again, a person of color is the victim of seemingly prejudiced, vile policing which likely wouldn’t have occurred had he not been a minority. So the unbridled dissemination of his arrest, detainment, and subsequent death caused by Chauvin symbolized the broader racist treatment of all Black Americans at a systemic level – that’s not only how it was perceived, but how it was framed, and buy-in-large by online activism. Thanks to Instagram and Twitter, followed by Facebook, and less so YouTube, closely coupled with digital and legacy Media, this single incident made a frightening technological wave and took the United States by storm. 

What results did this produce? In terms of policy and the like, almost nothing. You’ll recall, the creed of Black Lives Matter is that America is systemically racist, maybe irreparably so, and should be reformed from the inside out, from the top down. That is not to downplay the use of “incremental reforms” from some states, such as banning neck restraints, strengthening rules around body cams, or the many organizations like Innocence Project lobbying to exonerate POC who were wrongly incarcerated and sitting on death row. However, broadscale reforms surrounding the use of rehabilitation rather than incarceration in prisons, better research-based housing and education policy in inner cities, or other major reforms are yet to be seen, much less considered by our elected class (lest one is thinking of the Bernie Sanders and AOC types).

In terms of awareness, Black Lives Matter was breathtakingly successful. They wanted to draw attention to the systemic disadvantage of black Americans with reference to law enforcement, and George Floyd served as the platform by which to voice this. Nearly every person, presuming they weren’t devoutly Republican, either posted a black square, changed their PFP to a black circle, reposted from BLM or BLM-adjacent accounts, began to share every recorded instance of violent policing against Black Americans apart from George Floyd, saw celebrities and politicians speak out against the “systemic racism,” and inspired every other lawn or small business to adorn a BLM flag from May of 2020 to the better part of 2021. With a rapidity seen in almost no other social movement, mass mobilization that somehow rivaled the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines, the wide swaths of peaceful protests from the East Coast to the violent rioting across the West Coast, every person in America knew of Geroge Floyd, a huge proportion were personally affected, and despite worsened race relations in certain parts of the work industry, there’s a new positive conscientiousness around the politics of race and within majority demographics (i.e., straight, middle-class, Caucasians) surrounding privilege at all levels, primarily race, followed by class, followed by gender . . . etc, etc. 

Online Activism isn't Politically, But Culturally Tangible

BLM was not effective at a “systemic” level in passing major reform despite their fight against “systemic” racism, but they weren’t supposed to be. Just as political parties are nothing more than a vehicle for victory, activists are only there to be a facilitator of cultural victory. This is why one of BLM’s founders, Patrisse Cullors, said they were “trained Marxists,” which is to say, “trained organizers.” By identifying a problem, taking the populist strategy and making it the common enemy, forming an Obama-styled coalition of disenfranchised and historically minoritized groups, and disseminating as much testimony and evidence of the grievances felt by that coalition, one can “organize” or orchestrate the change of public opinion (particularly when there are significantly more elements of truth to the narrative then not) – this, BLM did. 

One doesn’t have to directly facilitate systemic change when it can be done through cultural change. An anti-racist activist doesn’t have to struggle to lobby for justice reforms when anthemically informing the public that there needs to be justice reforms, and that this can be accomplished by voting the other way, is more effective. That is exactly why BLM was culturally effective in stamping a new conception into the minds of millions of non-black Americans and how they think about race – as we said, many are more “race-conscious” today than they were prior to Achmed Aubrey, or George Floyd, or Breonna Taylor. This was not due to news media, but mostly to social media and the breeding ground this served as for online activism. To answer the question, yes. If the passion for a particular ideological persuasion, the capacity for the dissemination of that persuasion, and the number of people rallying at the outset for that persuasion are high enough, then online activism may have a chance of doing extraordinarily well in “effectively” changing the cultural landscape and the minds of the people within, as BLM did. Only hopefully, it is for the better. Rather than a Bolshevik revolution, I think we’d all much prefer something closer to a Civil Rights revolution, and perhaps online activism can be the mechanism to bring about those much-needed developments in the future to come. 

How BLM Undermined BLM

Some have said that it's sad that the founder dropped millions on a private home behind the curtain. The only place I'd disagree - if I can even say that - is I found the situation more "pathetic" than "sad." It's ironic that the self-proclaimed "trained Marxist" purchased a multi-million dollar home from donation proceedings. It's a qualm I've always had with BLM. It's why I distinguish between their slogan, their movement, and their organization. The slogan symbolizes the meaning of their mission. The movement inhabits that mission, which is to lessen the severity of police brutality and systemic racism against Black Americans.

The organization, however, is a quasi-activist group that uses the politics of race to parrot bizarre and fringe political theories while corruptly misappropriating funds donated for a movement they claim to take seriously and represent completely. Clearly, they do neither, evidenced by their own website, where they deflected all responsibility for their scandal by labeling all blowback as evidence of "embedded racism," comically rebranding the purchase as the "Creator's House," and absurdly framing it as a "smart, diversified investment" decision - this would all be fine if they were, say, a corporation . . . but they're a non-profit. It's also telling that co-founders Melina Abdullah and Alicia Garza left the organization shortly after being indirectly cross-examined by the Independent as to why they didn't spend those donations towards core issues.

The way they responded speaks more to their Machiavellianism than anything and I'm sure nobody holds respect for an organization that uses civil rights issues as a testing site for selfishly opportunistic behavior that then retroactively defends said behavior. They were a necessary prerequisite for the movement, but they've long since been relevant as an organization. Following their scandal, especially their response, they've lost all legitimacy. Even then, they were questionable when they were focused more on their outré political agenda where anything deviating from their pseudo-Marxist conceptions was somehow racist rather than advocating more fiercely for, say, justice reform. These are harsh words, but the truth matters more than the feelings of those who are still fond of the organization for no reason other than sentiment. And in the case I am incorrect, then as John Locke once said, "set me right." But I hope the reader and I can agree that BLM had its startup on social media and retains its legitimacy as a movement, even if the organization doesn't.

Editor's Note: All sources are hyperlinked in the body of the text.