History UsefulNotes / BlackLivesMatterMovement

** Also parodied in ''TMNT 2'' where a cop has a gun on the turtles and calls them monsters, and Nerd says "Green Lives Matter."

%% This UsefulNotes does not promote any kinds of racism, police brutality, etc. We are strictly against it. Please keep it as friendly and unbiased as possible.

%% Due to an overwhelming controversy surrounding this movement to this day, please make use of the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes is not meant to be Wikipedia, and is primarily meant to talk about how real life ''intersects'' with media.

%%The examples on this list have been alphabetized.

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%% This UsefulNotes does not promote any kinds of racism, police brutality, etc. We are strictly against it. Please keep it as friendly as possible.

%% Due to an overwhelming controversy surrounding this movement to this day, please make use of the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes is not meant to be Wikipedia, and is primarily meant to talk about how real life ''intersects'' with media.

%%The examples on this list have been alphabetized.

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The movement calls for an end not only to the maltreatment of black people at the hands of the justice system (such as overpolicing of minority communities,[[note]]Historically, this has its roots in the end of segregation following the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement; affluent Caucasians who opposed integration moved into suburbs. It also has to do with the War on Drugs, which was ([[https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html according to Nixon chief of staff John Ehrlichman]]) originally conceived to criminalize minority populations and the left, helping to inflate urban crime rates and paint inner cities as ultra-violent, dilapidated and corrupt.[[/note]] police brutality, racial profiling, and unduly harsh prison sentences), but also various policies and institutions that they consider racist. It also calls for changes that could lead to black empowerment and liberation. Besides street demonstrations, activists also work on voter registration and empowerment, advocate for reforming and defunding the police,[[note]]the latter is widely misunderstood; real life cops deal with domestic disturbances, homelessness, mental health, and drug abuse on top of crime, and "defund the police" means redirecting some funds and responsibilities to health and social programs that address these issues at the root[[/note]] and celebrate black success stories.

In contrast to previous years, the BLM movement had a substantial effect on the 2020 political landscape and discourse. Many cities and municipalities passed police reform laws like banning chokeholds, creating civilian first-responder programs to take over non-violent disturbances from police, and appointing independent civilian boards to hold police accountable. States with drug-related ballots passed laws decriminalizing marijuana, putting a dent in the racially-biased War on Drugs. The BLM activist Cori Bush became the first African American representative from Missouri. Yet most significantly, high African American voter turnout that resulted in Democrats winning back the Presidency and US Senate, resulting in UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris becoming the first Black Vice President and Raphael Warnock becoming Georgia's first Black Senator.

%%Due to an overwhelming controversy surrounding this movement to this day, please make use of the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement. Keep in mind that UsefulNotes is not meant to be Wikipedia, and is primarily meant to talk about how real life ''intersects'' with media.

In contrast to previous years, the BLM movement had a substantial effect on the 2020 political landscape and discourse. Many cities and municipalities passed police reform laws like banning chokeholds, reducing/limiting police budgets, and creating independent civilian boards for police accountability. States with drug-related ballots passed laws decriminalizing marijuana, putting a dent in the racially-biased War on Drugs. The BLM activist Cori Bush became the first African American representative from Missouri. Yet most significantly, high African American voter turnout that resulted in Democrats winning back the Presidency and US Senate, resulting in UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris becoming the first Black Vice President and Raphael Warnock becoming Georgia's first Black Senator.

In contrast to previous years, the BLM movement had a substantial effect on the 2020 political landscape and discourse. Many cities and municipalities passed police reform laws like banning chokeholds, reducing/limiting police budgets, and created independent civilian boards to oversee police. States with drug-related ballots passed laws decriminalizing marijuana, putting a dent in the racially-biased War on Drugs. The BLM activist Cori Bush became the first African American representative from Missouri. Yet most significantly, BLM inspired high African American voter turnout that resulted in Democrats retaking Presidency and US Senate with UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris becoming the first Black Vice President and Raphael Warnock becoming Georgia's first Black Senator.

While the long-term effects have yet to be seen, the 2020 BLM movement had a substantial effect on the political landscape. Many cities and municipalities passed police reform laws and created civilian boards to ensure unbiased police accountability. States with drug-related ballots passed laws decriminalizing marijuana, putting a dent in the racially-biased War on Drugs. The BLM activist Cori Bush became the first African American representative from Missouri. Yet most significantly, BLM inspired high African-American voter turnout during the 2020 Presidential Election and 2021 Georgia Senate run-off elections, ensuring that Democrats won both the Presidency and the US Senate with Raphael Warnock becoming Georgia's first Black Senator.

[[redirect:UsefulNotes/BlackLivesMatter]]

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%%The examples on this list have been alphabetized.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_lives_matter_logosvg_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:An official Black Lives Matter logo.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raised_fist.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Raised fist, which is commonly used for Black Lives Matter movement.]]

''Black Lives Matter'' is a social and political movement created in response to police brutality and racially motivated violence against African-Americans in the United States. It arose in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens. The movement is decentralized, meaning there is no single BLM organization or hierarchy; the name is more of a slogan used by an array of activist groups and individuals.

The hashtag [=#BlackLivesMatter=] trended on social media in 2013 after neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman was acquitted for shooting Trayvon Martin, a black teen, in Sanford, Florida, under controversial circumstances. Nationwide protests erupted condemning racially-motivated violence following the widely-covered deaths of two unarmed black men, Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri) and Eric Garner (New York City, New York) a year later. These continued throughout much of the [=2010s=] after more high-profile cases of African-Americans being killed in encounters with law enforcement. "I can't breathe", which were the last words of Garner and were also said by a number of other African-Americans killed in altercations with law enforcement, became a rallying cry. Similarly, after [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] player [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeagueQuarterbacks Colin Kaepernick]] knelt during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality and his call to end institutional racism, "take a knee" also became a signature pose for Black Lives Matter.

The movement calls for an end not only to the maltreatment of black people at the hands of the justice system (such as overpolicing of minority communities[[note]]Historically, this has its roots in the end of segregation following the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement; affluent Caucasians who opposed integration moved into suburbs. It also has to do with the War on Drugs, which was ([[https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html according to Nixon chief of staff John Ehrlichman]]) originally conceived to criminalize minority populations and the left, helping to inflate urban crime rates and paint inner cities as ultra-violent, dilapidated and corrupt.[[/note]], police brutality, racial profiling, and unduly harsh prison sentences), but also various policies and institutions that they consider racist. It also calls for changes that could lead to black empowerment and liberation. Besides street demonstrations, activists also work on voter registration and empowerment, advocate for reforming and defunding the police[[note]]the latter is widely misunderstood; real life cops deal with domestic disturbances, homelessness, mental health, and drug abuse on top of crime, and "defund the police" means redirecting some funds and responsibilities to health and social programs that address these issues at the root[[/note]], and celebrate black success stories.

Despite the protests and several awareness that were made via social media, campaign, etc., the Black Lives Matter movement fell into relative obscurity until 2020 after the breaking news of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was when the death by suffocation of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer Derek Chauvin and a group of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota went viral. The death of George Floyd lead to massive public backlash among all Americans. Celebrities and people of all sizes and contents began to denounce police brutality and systemic racism with some even blasting the current President of the United States for failing to "reduce police brutality and discrimination". As for businesses, most of American Corporates, organizations, TV networks, websites (including TV Tropes) expressed their solidarity via social media and some pledged to donate ranging from a hundred to even hundred million dollars. The NFL publicly apologized for not previously supporting its pro-Black Lives Matter players. Likewise, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] agreed to convert its stadiums into voting centers for lower-income communities after several players, most notably UsefulNotes/LeBronJames, went on strike after the non-fatal shooting of Jacob Blake, which was also recorded. The activism of the movement also became a catalyst for many cultural and media changes that will be mentioned below.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death, it could be due coinciding with the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic closed down many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by systemic racism, thereby leading to heightened tensions. Another major factor is the response of then-President Donald Trump to the protests; Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic and his militarized "law and order" approach, which included deploying the military and at one point ordering the tear-gassing of protestors so he could have photo-op, cost him much goodwill and made it seem like he didn't care about suffering of Black Americans. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

Floyd's (not to mention many other African Americans) death and the subsequent mass protests both in the USA and abroad had an immediate effect on the media industry, itself stalled due to the pandemic; the events brought questions about the types of stories and performers Hollywood chose to elevate to the forefront. Black Lives Matter activists have criticized the media for misleading the public with "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda copaganda]]", a derogatory term used for works that overall portray the police as an exclusively heroic force; civil liberties and due process as primarily protecting criminals and allowing them to continue to harm innocent people, justifying police characters' breaches of them; self-serving police corruption as isolated; and individual moral turpitude (not inequality and social injustice) as the cause of lawbreaking and violence. Police-based reality shows such as ''Series/LivePD'' and ''Series/{{COPS}}'', which put police officers front and center and were accused of portraying communities of color as violent and unsafe, were cancelled. Many network television shows involving police (eg. the CopShow) promised to reexamine these portrayals or announced changes to that effect. In addition, noting an increased demand and new opportunities for black performers, some voice roles for black characters were recast with black voice actors.

While the support for BLM is massive still to this day, the long-term effects of this on mainstream pop culture remain to be seen.

Black Lives Matter itself has inspired many pieces of media, which by and large focus on [[BlackIndex black characters]] directly affected by the problems brought up by the movement. The plots often involve and condemn racial {{profiling}} and PoliceBrutality or feature a MiscarriageOfJustice. These works analyze the roles race and privilege play in the justice system and how police affect society, as well as express anger and hope regarding where we go from here.

See also UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement.
----
!!Depictions and references in media:

[[AC:Comic Books]]
* ''I Am Alfonso Jones'', a graphic novel released in 2017, is about a young Afro-Latino boy who is shot by a cop who mistakes his clothes hanger for a gun. Postmortem, he finds himself on an AfterlifeExpress containing other victims of police brutality as his death adds fire to the BLM movement.

[[AC:Film]]
* Black Lives Matter hangs heavy over ''Film/{{Blindspotting}}'', which was conceptualized after the 2009 Oscar Grant shooting. Collin, a black ex-con, becomes shaken after witnessing a white cop kill an unarmed black man as his best friend starts displaying erratic behavior. At the end, [[spoiler:Collin gets to confront the cop who did it and questions him about the relationship between police and black America, but doesn't get a definitive answer.]]
* ''Film/{{Bright}}'': Early in this UrbanFantasy, Ward's EstablishingCharacterMoment is taking a baseball bat to kill a fairy (implied to be this universe's equivalent of a pest or vermin) and telling his wife that "fairy lives don't matter today." The film is an allegory for racism and Ward's character arc includes being more accepting of his Orc coworker but it's unclear whether there's an "X Lives Matter" movement in this universe or if the phrase was used solely for the audience's benefit.
* The end of ''Film/Da5Bloods'' shows a group of Black Lives Matter activists meeting up and chanting together in their new meeting space [[spoiler: after the surviving Bloods donated part of the treasure to them]].
* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood3'' alludes to the movement in the segment "The Bunker", where the story's protagonist Denton Wilbury, a white supremacist who ends up accidentally shooting himself dead, has a Black Lives Matter sign outside his bunker that has been vandalized to read "My Life Matters".

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AllAmericanBoys'' is about Rashad, a black boy who is brutalized by a police officer, and his white friend Quinn, who at first tries to stay neutral but eventually comes to terms with societal racism.
* ''Literature/TheHateUGive'' and its film adaptation are about a young black girl from a poor neighborhood whose friend is stopped and killed by a white police officer. The event is sensationalized and him demonized, and the neighborhood reacts to the guilty officer's acquittal with protests. The original short story was directly inspired by the 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant, and it grew into a novel following the rise of the BLM movement.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* Creator/DaveChappelle's unorthodox special "8:46", filmed at a private outdoor venue during the pandemic, examines violence against African-Americans, protests, and policing of the black community. The title refers to the eight minutes and 46 seconds Floyd was being suffocated, as well as Chappelle's own time of birth.
-->What are you signifying? That you can kneel on a man's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and feel like you wouldn't get the wrath of God? That's what is happening right now. It's not for a single cop, it's for all of it.
* ''Series/BlackIsh'':
** Black Lives Matter is the topic of the episode "Hope", a BottleEpisode which features the Johnsons in their living room discussing police violence against black people.
** Another episode titled "Age Against the Machine" deals with Dre's conflict with the newer generation over what is considered "the right way" to fight police brutality and institutionalized racism in the age of social media.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'':
** The show has a VerySpecialEpisode about police profiling and the Black Lives Matter movement where Terry (a black man) is accosted by a police officer while walking in his own neighbourhood. He struggles with the humiliation of the event while trying to navigate the political and the moral issues with filing a complaint against a fellow officer. He and his superior officer, the black, gay Holt, end up with a protracted discussion on how to deal with the situation, as Holt realizes that with his own command he needs to step up against such issues. Meanwhile, Jake and Amy have to navigate the delicate minefield of explaining all of this to Terry's young daughters.
** In June 2020 during the height of the BLM protests, series co-creator/executive producer Dan Goor announced that the show canned four "ready to go" episodes and will rework season 8 to address police misconduct.
* ''Series/{{Empire}}'': The Lyons manage to ''exploit'' the movement when patriarch Lucious is thrown in jail. His wife Cookie holds a BLM rally in support of him.
* ''Series/TheGoodWife'': "The Debate" (shot prior to the grand jury decisions regarding the killings of Garner and Brown) references the Ferguson protests as an unarmed black man is killed by a cop in a mall.
* ''Series/LukeCage'':
** The phrase "Black Lives Matter" is given lip-service in Season 1 by antagonist Mariah Dillard, in an attempt to create public sympathy against accusations of corruption.
** The season also involves riots and protests by members of the black community in support of Luke Cage, especially after [[spoiler:Luke is framed for murdering a policeman]].
** Behind the scenes, the movement was acknowledged by the creators as timely, due to Treyvon Martin (who had been a young black man in a hoodie who was shot after being presumed dangerous) and Luke Cage (a [[ImmuneToBullets bulletproof]] black man in a hoodie who is unquestionably heroic). However, they stated that the symbolism, while serendipitous, was not intentional.
* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'':
** One 2016 ''Black Jeopardy'' sketch featured Creator/TomHanks as a Trump supporter who surprisingly ends up [[NotSoDifferent agreeing with the contestants on a lot of the questions]], such as distrusting the government. Then before the sketch ends, the Final Jeopardy prompt is revealed: "Lives That Matter." The implication is that Hanks' character will soon lose his good reputation.
** One recurring sketch depicts a group of SoapboxSadie high school theater kids creating [[StylisticSuck very bad]] political theater. One of their showcases started with all the students kissing each other, before Creator/KateMcKinnon's character turns the audience and says, "How about from now on, less shooting....more kissing?" The (all-white) troupe then shouts "Black lives matter!" The audience doesn't find it effective.
--->'''Creator/KenanThompson''': ''That'' was their Black Lives Matter scene?!
--->'''Creator/VanessaBayer''': I'm pretty sure they all just wanted to kiss each other and then made it about something.
* ''Series/{{Scandal}}'': "The Lawn Chair" is a Ferguson-inspired episode where Olivia grapples with the killing of an unarmed young man by a police officer. She eventually sides with the protestors.
* ''Series/{{Superstore}}'': In the pilot, Bo randomly shouts "Hashtag Black Lives Matter, y'all!" during his proposal rap to Cheyenne. Cue a confused AsideGlance from Garrett (a black man).

[[AC:Music]]
* Music/TheChicks: The music video for the ProtestSong "March March". The first half puts Black Lives Matter alongside other movements such as those for climate action and ending the war in Iraq before focusing completely on BLM by the end, juxtaposing the names of black Americans killed by police officers alongside photos and videos of the various protests.
* Music/{{Macklemore}} and Ryan Lewis: "White Privilege II" grapples with WhiteGuilt in the wake of Black Lives Matter, and how white people can be better allies to a culture and people they continue to exploit.
-->We want to dress like, walk like, talk like, dance like, yet we just stand by
-->We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?
* The "Wake of a Nation" EP from avant-garde BlackMetal outfit Music/ZealAndArdor uses its short runtime to deal extensively with the events surrounding and leading up to the BLM movement, from Tuskegee to George Floyd. The cover dispenses with whatever trace of ambiguity might be left, displaying upon a plain background the powerful symbol of an inverted cross formed by two police batons.
* The album "Carnivore" by Music/BodyCount also contains many relevant themes all throughout, from the AntiPoliceSong "Point the Finger" to the more general ProtestSong "Bum Rush".

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/SpiderManMilesMorales'', the Afro-Latino protagonist Miles Morales can visit a Black Lives Matter mural. Also, whereas the police have a positive working relationship with the white Peter Parker, the police have a more mistrustful and contentious relationship with Miles.

[[AC:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/ApocalypticHorseplay'': The epilogue of the comic showed what the main characters were up to in 2020. Warrence, the horseman of war, headed west after the events of the series. He was present at BLM protests to make sure humanity knew what they were fighting against (in this case, injustice) and wouldn't go overboard on the violence.

[[AC:WebVideo]]
* In Creator/JulieNoike's recurring "Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self" bit, the protests are referenced as additional ways that 2020 has completely gone off the rails. The bit, where a woman explains the current situation to herself a few months prior, takes a turn for the serious when Future Julie first goes into the protests. By the next episode, the Future Julie comes across as exasperated and beaten down due to the fact that killings continued and also offered a TakeThat to perceived "slacktivism."
* ''WebVideo/SomeMoreNews'': Unsurprisingly for a satirical news show, several episodes of ''Some More News'' covered police shootings of black people, the general double standard of dealing with the police while black, and an extended episode covering the 2020 protests highlighting the irony of the police using excessive violence to combat protests about the police using excessive violence. Unsurprisingly due to the show's progressive nature, host Cody is supportive of the protests refers to the riots as "police riots," as in "it's the police who are rioting."

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** During Season 20, Cartman (undergoing an apparent change in character to be more politically correct) wears a "Token's Life Matters" shirt, referring to the [[TokenMinority sole black kid in South Park]].
** The 2015 episode "Naughty Ninjas" alludes to the Michael Brown and Eric Garner protests. In it, Officer Barbrady gets fired after accidentally shooting the Mexican kid David, as the town has no more tolerance for police brutality, despite Barbrady being [[TokenGoodTeammate the only cop in town who]] ''[[TokenGoodTeammate isn't]]'' [[TokenGoodTeammate bloodthirsty]]. The residents of South Park become more anti-police, until the kids' game of ninjas attracts the attention of ISIS and everybody begs the police to come back. Barbrady is the only one who can talk the kids down without violence, [[spoiler:but he gets fired when he accidentally shoots another child in the arm]].
** A subplot in "The Pandemic Special" has the South Park Police Department lose all their jobs as a reference to the protests following George Floyd's death. They become teachers for the newly-reopened school, but resort to the same violence, shooting Token for practically no reason and trying to claim he went to the hospital for the coronavirus and later shooting up the town after the kids escape the school.

!!Other media related to the movement:
* "Alright" by Music/KendrickLamar is sometimes considered the unofficial anthem of the movement, and its hook "We gon' be alright" is a common chant at BLM rallies.
* "Fuck Tha Police" by Music/{{NWA}} is also a common BLM anthem.
* Creator/{{Toonami}} expressed support for the movement in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHfJiZTtGEA one of TOM's speeches]].
-->'''TOM:''' There's been a lot of talk about race lately: "I don't see color", "Racism isn't real", "all lives matter". These words are actually harmful! They steer way from the bigger issue: racism still exists. Discrimination towards people of color still exists. It's up to all of us to recognize that and take action. If you're thinking "Maybe...but not me", you've got some truths to uncover. If you're thinking "This isn't why I watch ''Toonami''", think again. Think about how you can fight against injustice. Think about how you can be a part of an honest conversation about racism, because ''black lives matter'' and will ''always'' matter.
* ''Get up, stand up'' by Music/BobMarley also became a source or inspiration as it is a song about standing up for your rights and fight the oppression.
* During the summer of 2020, to draw attention to the protests against George Floyd's death, several Creator/{{Viacom}}-owned networks aired a public service announcement only consisting of the words "I Can't Breathe" set to the audio of labored breathing, with a number to text at the bottom of the screen to call public officials about police brutality. The PSA runs for precisely eight minutes and forty-six seconds, which is the exact amount of time that officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd's neck. To avoid scaring its younger audience, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} aired a lighter PSA around the same time, which lasted the same amount of time, but consisted of a looping text scroll urging kids to speak out against discrimination. That very text was the [[http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2017/01/nickelodeons-declaration-of-kids-rights.html?_sm_au_=iVVt6R50KTtnQVH74vVRvKQvJQ6BF Declaration of Kids Rights]], which was published in 1990.
-->You have the right to be seen, heard and respected as a citizen of the world.
-->You have the right to a world that's peaceful and an environment that's not spoiled.
-->You have the right to be treated with equality; regardless of race, religion, nationality, sex, personality, grades or size.
-->You have the right to make mistakes without someone making you feel like a jerkhead.
-->You have the right to be protected from harm, injustice and hatred.
-->You have the right to an education that prepares you to run the world when it's your turn.
-->You have the right to your opinions and feelings, even if others don't agree with them.

----

Floyd's (not to mention many other African Americans) death and the subsequent mass protests both in the USA and abroad had an immediate effect on the media industry, itself stalled due to the pandemic; the events brought questions about the types of stories and performers Hollywood chose to elevate to the forefront. Black Lives Matter activists have criticized the media for misleading the public with "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda copaganda]]", a derogatory term used for works that overall portray the police as an exclusively heroic force; civil liberties and due process as primarily protecting criminals and allowing them to continue to harm innocent people, justifying police characters' breaches of them; self-serving misconduct as isolated; and individual moral turpitude (not inequality and social injustice) as the cause of lawbreaking. Police-based reality shows such as ''Series/LivePD'' and ''Series/{{COPS}}'', which put police officers front and center and were accused of portraying communities of color as violent and unsafe, were cancelled. Many network television shows involving police (eg. the CopShow) promised to reexamine these portrayals or announced changes to that effect. In addition, noting an increased demand and new opportunities for black performers, some voice roles for black characters were recast with black voice actors.

Floyd's (not to mention many other African Americans) death and the subsequent mass protests both in the USA and abroad had an immediate effect on the media industry, itself stalled due to the pandemic; the events brought questions about the types of stories and performers Hollywood chose to elevate to the forefront. Black Lives Matter activists have criticized the media for misleading the public with "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda copaganda]]", a derogatory term used for works that overall portray the police as an exclusively heroic force; civil liberties and due process as primarily protecting criminals and allowing them to continue to harm innocent people and cops' breaches of them as justified; self-serving misconduct as isolated; and individual moral turpitude (not inequality and social injustice) as the cause of lawbreaking. Police-based reality shows such as ''Series/LivePD'' and ''Series/{{COPS}}'', which put police officers front and center and were accused of portraying communities of color as violent and unsafe, were cancelled. Many network television shows involving police (eg. the CopShow) promised to reexamine these portrayals or announced changes to that effect. In addition, noting an increased demand and new opportunities for black performers, some voice roles for black characters were recast with black voice actors.

Floyd's (not to mention many other African Americans) death and the subsequent mass protests both in the USA and abroad had an immediate effect on the media industry, itself stalled due to the pandemic; the events brought questions about the types of stories and performers Hollywood chose to elevate to the forefront. Black Lives Matter activists have criticized "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda copaganda]]", a term used for media that overall portrays the police as an exclusively heroic force, misconduct as isolated, and crime (not inequality and social injustice) as the overall problem, for affecting public perceptions of police. ''Series/LivePD'' and ''Series/{{COPS}}'', which put police officers front and center and were accused of portraying communities of color as violent and unsafe, were cancelled. Many network television shows involving police (eg. the CopShow) promised to reexamine these portrayals or announced changes to that effect. In addition, noting an increased demand and new opportunities for black performers, some voice roles for black characters were recast with black voice actors.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_lives_matter_logosvg_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:An official Black Lives Matter logo.]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raised_fist.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Raised fist, which is commonly used for Black Lives Matter movement.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_lives_matter_logosvg_5.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:An official Black Lives Matter logo.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/raised_fist.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Raised fist, which is commonly used for Black Lives Matter movement.]]

The hashtag [=#BlackLivesMatter=] trended on social media in 2013 after neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman was acquitted for shooting Trayvon Martin, a black teen, in Sanford, Florida, under controversial circumstances. Nationwide protests erupted condemning racially-motivated violence following the widely-covered deaths of two unarmed black men, Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri) and Eric Garner (New York City, New York) a year later. These continued throughout much of the [=2010s=] after more high-profile cases of African-Americans being killed in encounters with law enforcement. "I can't breathe", which were the last words of Garner and were also said by a number of other African-Americans killed in altercations with law enforcement, became a rallying cry. Similarly, after [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]] player Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality and his call to end institutional racism, "take a knee" also became a signature pose for Black Lives Matter.

* ''Film/TalesFromTheHood3'' alludes to the movement in the segment "The Bunker", where the story's protagonist Denton Wilbury, a white supremacist, has a Black Lives Matter sign outside his bunker that has been vandalized to read "My Life Matters".

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death, it could be due coinciding with the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic closed down many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by systemic racism, thereby leading to heightened tensions. Another major factor is the response of then-President Donald Trump to the protests; Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic and his militarized "law and order" approach, which included deploying the military and at one point ordering the tear-gassing of protestors so he could have photo-op, costed him much goodwill and made it seem like he didn't care about suffering of Black Americans. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

Despite the protests and several awareness that were made via social media, campaign, etc., the Black Lives Matter movement fell into relative obscurity until 2020 after the breaking news of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was when the death by suffocation of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer Derek Chauvin and a group of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota went viral. The death of George Floyd lead to massive public backlash among all Americans. Celebrities and people of all sizes and contents began to denounce police brutality and systemic racism with some even blasting the current President of the United States for failing to "reduce police brutality and discrimination". As for businesses, most of American Corporates, organizations, TV networks, websites (including TV Tropes) expressed their solidarity via social media and some pledged to donate ranging from a hundred to even hundred million dollars. The NFL publicly apologized for not previously supporting its pro-Black Lives Matter players. Likewise, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] agreed to use its stadiums as voting centers after several players, most notably UsefulNotes/LeBronJames, went on strike following the non-fatal shooting of Jacob Blake, which was also recorded. The activism of the movement also became a catalyst for many cultural and media changes that will be mentioned below.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death, it could be due coinciding with the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic closed down many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by systemic racism, thereby leading to heightened tensions. Another major factor is the callous response of then-President Donald Trump to the protests; Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic and his militarized "law and order" approach, which included deploying the military and driving off protestors with tear gas so he could have photo-op, made him seem callous towards the suffering of Black Americans and in turn made the movement more sympathetic. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

* ''ComicBook/IAmAlfonsoJones'', a graphic novel released in 2017, is about a young Afro-Latino boy who is shot by a cop who mistakes his clothes hanger for a gun. Postmortem, he finds himself on an AfterlifeExpress containing other victims of police brutality as his death adds fire to the BLM movement.

Despite the protests and several awareness that were made via social media, campaign, etc., the Black Lives Matter movement fell into relative obscurity until 2020 after the breaking news of the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was when the death by suffocation of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer Derek Chauvin and a group of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota went viral. The death of George Floy lead to massive public backlash among all Americans. Celebrities and people of all sizes and contents began to denounce police brutality and systemic racism with some even blasting the current President of the United States for failing to "reduce police brutality and discrimination". As for businesses, most of American Corporates, organizations, TV networks, websites (including TV Tropes) expressed their solidarity via social media and some pledged to donate ranging from a hundred to even hundred million dollars. The NFL publicly apologized for not previously supporting its pro-Black Lives Matter players. Likewise, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] agreed to use its stadiums as voting centers after several players, most notably UsefulNotes/LeBronJames, went on strike following the non-fatal shooting of Jacob Blake, which was also recorded. The activism of the movement also became a catalyst for many cultural and media changes that will be mentioned below.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death, it could be due to the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic shutdown production of many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by decades of systemic racism, thereby leading to heightened tensions. Another major factor is the response of then-President Donald Trump to the protests; having previously supported the militant unmasked anti-lockdown activists to re-open the economy, Trump ordered a militarized crackdown on peaceful masked Black Lives Matter protestors and publicly insulted many members on social media, giving the impression that he didn't care about Black people dying from the police and disease. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death, it could be due to the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic shutdown production of many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by decades of systemic racism, thereby leading to tensions among Black communities. Then there is then-President Donald Trump's response to the protests; having previously supported the militant anti-lockdown activists to re-open the economy, Trump ordered a militarized crackdown on the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors and publicly insulted many activists on social media, giving the impression that he didn't care about Black people and in doing so made the movement more sympathetic in the eyes of many citizens. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death could be due to the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic shutdown production of many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been languishing in substandard living standards caused by decades of systemic racism, thereby leading to tensions among Black communities. Then there is then-President Donald Trump's response to the protests; having previously supported the militant anti-lockdown activists to re-open the economy, Trump ordered a militarized crackdown on the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors and publicly insulted many activists on social media, giving the impression that he didn't care about Black people and in doing so made the movement more sympathetic in the eyes of many citizens. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.

As for why Black Lives Matter took off after Floyd's death could be due to the then-ongoing UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. The pandemic shutdown production of many entertainment venues like sporting events, concerts, and theaters so there isn't anything to distract people from the police killings and subsequent protests. Furthermore, COVID-19 disproportionately harms Black communities[[note]]While 1/1200 White Americans have died, 1/800 Black Americans have died.[[/note]], which have already been afflicted by substandard living standards stemming from decades of systemic racism, thereby leading to tensions among Black communities. Then there is then-President Donald Trump's tone-deaf response to the protests; having previously supported the militant anti-lockdown activists to re-open the economy, Trump ordered a militarized crackdown on the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors, giving the impression that he didn't care about Black people and doing so made the movement more sympathetic in the eyes of many. For many, the pandemic disrupted so much of normal life that it became impossible to ignore the movement.