The Galtung Triangle - BLM Protests

 The Galtung Triangle - BLM Protests

Over the summer, much of white America was shocked at the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that were taking place in America’s major cities, and even America’s smaller cities. A lot of articles and blog posts were written about why the protests were happening in order to give Americans more ignorant of their history and understanding of the anger among the Black community. Analyzing the conflict through the Galtung Triangle is a good way to understand its roots. 

The primary contradiction behind the BLM protests is the inequality in wealth between white Americans and Black Americans. The racial wealth gap is close to the highest it has ever been. This is a result of America’s history and its systematic oppression of African-Americans. During America’s founding, Africans were brought across the ocean by the slave trade and were then enslaved in Southern cotton plantations and other farms. They were brutally treated there, and slavery was justified with a lot of racist attitudes towards African-Americans, many that are still around today. Because African-Americans earned no money as slaves, white people got an incredible head start when it came to getting wealth. After slavery was the Jim-Crow era, another period marked by the oppression of African-Americans. Black people were denied the opportunities to work certain jobs, usually high-paying ones. They were also denied the ability to buy houses in good neighborhoods, get loans from esteemed banks, and other opportunities that would have allowed them to get wealth. Today, even after Jim Crow laws and slavery, the effects of these laws are still being felt, and African-Americans still have less access to resources, and fewer opportunities to get ahead. 

Attitudes and assumptions are also incredibly important factors to consider when talking about the BLM protests. Outward racism is still prevalent, even if we don’t want to admit it, and internal racism is even wider spread. African-Americans also face discriminatory attitudes, especially by the police. These attitudes are one of the primary factors behind the anger expressed at the BLM protests. The murder of George Floyd was not a one-time event, but more of a representation of all the Black people killed or beaten by police over the years. The discriminatory attitudes held by many police officers towards Black people have created a system of police violence that has gone untreated for too long. 

Finally, the behavior of the government, of protesters, and of police officers is incredibly important to analyze. I already talked about the behavior of police; the killing of George Floyd can stand as a representation. The government, meanwhile, has also contributed to the mistreatment of African-Americans. They passed laws like mandatory minimums and three strikes and you’re out, and they criminalized crack cocaine (the drug of Black and poor people) more heavily than powder cocaine (the drug of rich white people), which disproportionately put African Americans in jail. These behaviors have led to the behavior of the protesters, who are standing up to the system that is hurting them. And although many of the protesters are peaceful, the behaviors, contradictions, and attitudes behind their anger have caused some of them to engage in property destruction. The solution to this anger, however, is clear: deal with the contradictions and deal with the attitudes.