Making the invisible visible: examining Black women in Black Lives Matter

Abstract

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was created by three women in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. Since inception, BLM has gained national attention through its organization of and participation in numerous social movement activities, many of which have been driven by Black women. However, previous research and the persistent existence of racism and sexism indicate that Black women may be marginalized and made invisible within mainstream news media that discusses social movement activities. Mass media continues to be a powerful agent of socialization within society; therefore, it is critical to examine how various forms of media portrays different groups. The current paper examines how newspaper media portrays Black women engaged in Black Lives Matter movement activities. We utilize content analysis to analyze 645 newspaper articles that discuss BLM. We use intersectional inequality along with Patricia Hill Collins' controlling images as guiding theoretical frameworks to analyze our data and interpret the findings. Overall, findings show that Black women are largely invisible within newspaper articles discussing Black Lives Matter. This occurs in a variety of ways, such as focusing on protester response to police violence against Black men and using gender-neutral language when discussing individuals engaged in movement activities. Moreover, findings indicate that newspaper media utilize all of Collins' controlling images in their depiction of Black women in BLM; however, the utilization of controlling images in not equal. We discuss these findings in detail in addition to providing directions for future scholarly research.

Keywords:

• gender
• race
• social movements
• media
• inequality
• Black Lives Matter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle L. Estes

Michelle L. Estes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rowan University. Political Science at Tennessee Tech University. Her main research interests include inequality in the criminal legal system. More specifically, she has been examining the negative consequences that are produced by wrongful convictions.

Adam M. Straub

Adam M. Straub is an Assistant Profession in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rowan University. Broadly, his work focuses on vulnerability, resilience, and risk before and after natural hazards and disasters. Recent research includes the social production of risk in Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane Maria and cultivating resilience in rural Oklahoma.

Maggie León-Corwin

Maggie León-Corwin is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Oklahoma. Maggie uses a multimethodological approach to address the intersection of inequality in human-environment interactions related to hazards and disasters. Her research spans topics such as environmental justice, risk perceptions, societal adaptations, and social movements with a strong social-justice and applied orientation.