Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and Political Opportunities:
Understanding Social Movement Expansion through Political Process Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2021.18Keywords:
collective action, social movement organizations, racial justice protests, resource mobilization, COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, political opportunity, political process theoryAbstract
In the summer of 2020, while mired in the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced an unprecedentedly massive wave of protests led by the Black Lives Matter movement. Given the novelty of this upswell and the lack of a clear precedent thereof, there does not yet exist much scholarly analysis into why and how this movement expanded as significantly as it did or what developmental routes it may take as in the future. My research seeks to remedy this gap by employing the political process theory of social movement activity to interpret how the COVID pandemic increased opportunities for insurgent activity, how Black Lives Matter was in a prime position to take advantage of those opportunities, and how the movement can and should approach its future development to retain the support and leverage it accumulated during the 2020 protests. Through informal qualitative analysis rooted in the political process model, I suggest that COVID led to greater public recognition of institutional maladies in the United States, which Black Lives Matter was able to channel toward protest activity thanks to the low-cost, high-reward membership system inherent in its non-hierarchical structure and tactful use of social media. I then briefly consider different developmental paths that Black Lives Matter may take and assert that carefully implemented attempts at formalization will allow the movement to retain its organizing potential regardless of any volatile external opportunities.
References
References
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06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-
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Barrón-López, L., & Thompson, A. (2020, August 10). Facing bleak November, Republicans
look to stoke BLM backlash. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/10/
elections-republicans-black-lives-matterbacklash-389906.
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Movement in U.S. History. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive
/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html.
Burden, B. C., & Wichowsky, A. (2014). Economic Discontent as a Mobilizer: Unemployment and Voter Turnout. The Journal of Politics, 76(4), 887–898.
Bynum, R., & Balsamo, M. (2020, May 7). Georgia family demands arrests 2 months after son shot dead. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/994021a3502194b552385d925207eae9.
Christensen, D., & Garfias, F. (2018). Can You Hear Me Now? How Communication Technology Affects Protest and Repression. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 13(1), 89–117.
Christiani, L., Clark, C. J., Greene, S., Hetherington, M. J., & Wager, E. (2020, June 29). Masks and Racial Stereotypes in a Pandemic: The Case for Surgical Masks. Available at SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3636540.
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Sociological Review, 76(1), 152–178.
Day, E. (2015, July 19). #BlackLivesMatter: the birth of a new civil rights movement. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement.
Domínguez, D. G., García, D., Martínez, D. A., & Hernandez-Arriaga, B. (2020). Leveraging the Power of Mutual Aid, Coalitions, Leadership, and Advocacy During COVID-19. American Psychological Association. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2020-45461-001.html.
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Feuls, M., Fieseler, C., Meckel, M., & Suphan, A. (2014). Being unemployed in the age of social media. New Media & Society, 18(6), 944–965.
Fisher, D. R. (2020, July 8). The diversity of the recent Black Lives Matter protests is a good
sign for racial equity. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2020/07/08
/the-diversity-of-the-recent-black-lives-matter-protests-is-a-good-sign-for-racial-equity/.
Gerlach, L. P. (1999). Environmental Activism and Opponents. In J. Freeman & V. Johnson (Eds.), Waves of protest: social movements since the sixties (pp. 85–97). Rowman & Littlefield.
Gerlach, L. P., & Hine, V. H. (1970). People, power, change: movements of social transformation. Bobbs-Merrill.
Gould, E., & Wilson, V. (2020, June 1). Black workers face two of the most lethal preexisting conditions for coronavirus-racism and economic inequality. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/.
Hayes, D., & Lawless, J. L. (2015, April 1). As Local News Goes, So Goes Citizen Engagement: Media, Knowledge, and Participation in US House Elections. The Journal of Politics, 77(2), 447-462.
Kaplan, J., & Hardy, B. (2020, May 8). Early Data Shows Black People Are Being Disproportionally Arrested for Social Distancing Violations. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/in-some-of-ohios-most-populous-areas-black-people-were-at-least-4-times-as-likely-to-be-charged-with-stay-at-home-violations-as-whites.
Karma, R. (2020, October 24). The police shooting of Marcellis Stinnette and Tafara Williams,
an unarmed Black couple, explained. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2020/10/24/21531740/fbi-
doj-investigation-waukegan-illinois-chicago-police-killing-jacob-blake.
Kim, C. (2020, June 6). Viral videos of police violence are leading to disciplinary action. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2020/6/6/21282412/protests-viral-videos-police-violence-disciplinary-action-suspension-firing.
King, M. (2020, November 19). Inside Black Lives Matter's push for power. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/17/black-lives-matters-push-power-436916.
Kishi, R., & Jones, S. (2020, October 19). Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020. Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/.
Kochhar, R. (2020, August 26). Unemployment rose higher in three months of COVID-19 than it did in two years of the Great Recession. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/11/unemployment-rose-higher-in-three-months-of-covid-19-than-it-did-in-two-years-of-the-great-recession/.
Koeze, E., & Popper, N. (2020, April 7). The Virus Changed the Way We Internet. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/technology/coronavirus-internet-use.html.
Leonhardt, D., & Leatherby, L. (2020, August 6). The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/coronavirus-us.html.
Linskey, A. (2020, August 18). Democratic convention embraces Black Lives Matter. The
Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-convention-embraces-black-lives-matter/2020/08/18/f1de2ce8-e0f7-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html.
Mannarini, T., & Fedi, A. (2011). Persisting or Withdrawing? An Insight into the Psychosocial Processes Underlying Sustained Engagement. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 22(4), 300–315.
Martin, A., Markhvida, M., Hallegatte, S., & Walsh, B. (2020). Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Household Consumption and Poverty. Economics of Disasters and Climate Change. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41885-020-00070-3.
McAdam, D. (1982). Political process and the development of black insurgency: 1930-1970. University of Chicago Press.
McAdam, D., McCarthy, J. D., & Zald, M. N. (1996). Comparative perspectives on social movements: political opportunities, mobilizing structures, and cultural framings. Cambridge University Press.
McCullough, J. (2020, October 6). Texas police officer arrested on suspicion of murder in fatal
shooting of Jonathan Price. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/06
/jonathan-price-texas-police-killing/.
Meyer, D. S., & Whittier, N. (1994). Social Movement Spillover. Social Problems, 41(2), 277–298.
Miller, F. D. (1999). The End of SDS and the Emergence of the Weatherman: Demise through Success. In J. Freeman & V. Johnson (Eds.), Waves of protest: social movements since the sixties (pp. 303–324). Rowman & Littlefield.
Miroff, N. (2020, April 2). Protective gear in national stockpile is nearly depleted, DHS officials say. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-protective-gear-stockpile-depleted/2020/04/01/44d6592a-741f-11ea-ae50-7148009252e3_story.html.
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Norwood, C. (2020, April 3). Most states have issued stay-at-home orders, but enforcement varies widely. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/most-states-have-issued-stay-at-home-orders-but-enforcement-varies-widely.
Oppel, R. A., Taylor, D. B., & Bogel-Burroughs, N. (2020, May 30). What to Know About Breonna Taylor's Death. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html.
Parker, K., Horowitz, J. M., & Anderson, M. (2020, August 20). Majorities Across Racial,
Ethnic Groups Express Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. Pew Research
Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/
06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-
black-lives-matter-movement/.
Racial Data Dashboard. The COVID Tracking Project. (2020). https://covidtracking.com/race/dashboard.
Ransby, B. (2018). Making all Black lives matter: reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century. University of California Press.
Rutledge, P. E. (2020). Trump, COVID-19, and the War on Expertise. The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6-7), 505–511.
Sanchez, R. (2020, July 9). Americans made 'tremendous sacrifices.' The great reopening of the pandemic summer still got derailed. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/09/us/us-coronavirus-summer-reopening/index.html.
Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(2020). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-
distancing.html.
Staggenborg, S. (1999). The Pro-Choice Movement. In J. Freeman & V. Johnson (Eds.), Waves of protest: social movements since the sixties (pp. 99–134). Rowman & Littlefield.
Tarrow, S. G. (2011). Power in movement social movements and contentious politics (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Tesler, M. (2020, August 19). Support For Black Lives Matter Surged During Protests, But Is
Waning Among White Americans. FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/
support-for-black-lives-matter-surged-during-protests-but-is-waning-among-white-
americans/.
Tilly, C. (1978). From mobilization to revolution. McGraw-Hill.
The Time Has Come to Defund the Police. M4BL. (2020). https://m4bl.org/defund-the-police/.
US House passes 'George Floyd' police reform bill. BBC News. (2020, June 26). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53188189.
Wines, M. (2020, June 27). From 47 Primaries, 4 Warning Signs About the 2020 Vote. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/us/2020-primary-election-voting.html.
Yang, G. (2016, August 11). Narrative Agency in Hashtag Activism: The Case of
#BlackLivesMatter. Media and Communication. https://www.cogitatiopress.com/
mediaandcommunication/article/view/692.
Zurcher, A. (2020, October 7). Trump ends Covid budget stimulus relief talks. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54443057.
Published
2021-07-21
How to Cite
Turillo, D. (2021). Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, and Political Opportunities:: Understanding Social Movement Expansion through Political Process Theory. Pittsburgh Undergraduate Review, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pur.2021.18
Issue
Section
Research
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