#BlackLivesMatter PGI Micro-Syllabus
This micro-syllabus brings together a broad collection of readings about the Black Lives Matter Movement, police violence, and subsequent Black political responses. The syllabus includes discussions about the origins of Black Lives Matter and how this movement fits in the story of American Political Development. It also covers how the media and elected officials respond to protests around police violence. Additionally, this collection provides insight into how the public has responded to the shootings of unarmed African Americans and Black Lives Matter protests. Moving beyond a focus on the U.S. or the centering on the mind's eye prototypical victim of state-sponsored violence, this collection advances an intersectional analysis of socio-political responses to Black Lives Matter incidents in a broader context. This comprehensive set of essays on political activism, electoral representation, theory, social movements, and media studies offers readers a complex set of ways to understand today's socio-political happenings. The authors of these essays move beyond simplistic constructions of anti-Blackness or racism alone to provide compelling critiques of social and political inequalities that will continue to necessitate Black Lives Matters protests.
The public outcry following the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and Sean Reed in Indiana has given the Black Lives Matter Movement renewed attention. As a nation in mourning and in rage, many Americans are searching for ways to get legislators to enact policies preventing needless tragedies from occurring in the future. Indeed, these essays push us to take seriously thesystemic inequalities and structural impediments to enable state-sponsored violence against Black bodies with little impunity or government accountability. This syllabus provides a primer on cutting edge research conducted on Black Lives Matter for those interested in the development of the movement, reactions to Black Lives Matter, and its broader impact on society. Through building knowledge about Black Lives Matter, we hope to help activists, scholars, and politicians who want to assist in advancing the goals of the movement. This Collection was originally published in 2020.
Edited by
Ray Block, Jr.(The Pennsylvania State University)
Christopher Stout(Oregon State University)
Nadia Brown(Georgetown University)
Guillermo Caballero(Salisbury University)