Black Lives Matter! A Theoretical Conversation of Power and Conflict in Modern Society

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Social Movements and Race

Abstract

What began a simple tweet, a simple cry to the world to stop killing Black men has started a revolution. In this paper, I explain why Black Lives Matter began, how it can succeed, and if building coalitions with politicians will expedite success for new chapters. I do this by combining Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas of the habitus and doxa, Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and Michel Foucault’s concepts of discipline, surveillance, and the modern prison system. I explain that Black Lives Matter activists continually define and redefine what Black means within themselves, their chapter, and collectively as they navigate different Bourdieusian fields. I, also, describe in a Foucaultian sense, that the Black Lives Matter movement could only have begun with a public execution-style killing like that of Trayvon Martin versus an initial focus on mass incarceration. I, then, incorporate the Afrocentrism of intersectionality and the matrix of domination from Kimberle Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins, respectively, to account for the limitations of Bourdieu’s, Gramsci’s, and Foucault’s positionality. In the decentralized network of activists called Black Lives Matter, understanding the creation of nascent chapter and coalition building is key to understanding the trajectory and opportunities of the movement.

Author

• Emmanuel Cannady, University of Notre Dame