theroot | Have you seen it?
According to the laws of physics and the principles of nature, nothing disappears into thin air, so it must be around here somewhere. It
was too big and loud to fall between the couch cushions or hide in the
closet, so someone must have stolen it. Someone must have found a way to
silence it. I know there were a lot of people who wished it would
evaporate into the ether or slowly fizzle out, but I’m sure it can’t be all gone.
What happened to Black Lives Matter?
Barely a year ago, #BlackLivesMatter was on the tip of almost every
tongue in the country. It caused such a commotion that America had no
choice but to take notice. Whether they supported it or hated it,
everyone had an opinion of it. It led the evening news. It popped up in
every social media feed.
They argued about it on SportsCenter. Have you seen it lately? I know it hasn’t gone anywhere.
Don’t reduce its existence to a simple hashtag, because it was more than that. It was a living, breathing thing. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I saw it at football games kneeling during the national anthem. I saw it change the entire municipal structure
of the city of Ferguson, Mo. I watched it strut onstage at halftime of
the Super Bowl. It strong-armed police departments into buying body
cameras. It showed up at presidential debates and awards shows. It fueled conversations in every corner of the country about how America treated black bodies.
But
lately, my friends don’t talk about it as much. Is it dead? Is it
asleep? Have we lost interest? Why is it so quiet? Where did it go?
Maybe it was the propaganda.
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