Protesting Black Inequality: A Commentary on the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter

ABSTRACT

Using the theoretical scaffold of the relative deprivation theory, we present a commentary that delineates: (a) the 4 stages of social movements (e.g., emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline) and (b) sociopolitical and ethno-generational leadership, networks, narratives and tactics of the Civil Rights Movement compared with the Black Lives Matter. We provide a commentary on the 2 social movements’ precipitating events during the emergence and coalescence stages. Also, the social-psychological pressures of mainstream social justice protest during the bureaucratization and decline stages are explored to highlight the emotional toil that threaten social movements and the lives of its leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Black lives matter
• black social movements
• civil rights
• Movement
• poverty
• relative deprivation