Necessary Connections

Black Lives Matter has transformed public discourse about race, social justice, and inequality through a melding of social media and public protest to bring attention to police killings of Black people and a range of other issues. Black Lives Matter is a diffuse, wide-ranging, intersectional social movement that some influential political figures and media pundits have framed as a violent threat to law and order and even as a terrorist organization. This chapter explores connections among the Black Lives Matter movement, cultural studies, and critical race media literacy and argues that educators, scholars, media creators, and activists working with and toward critical race media literacy should look to BLM as an exemplar of core ideas associated with both cultural studies and critical race media literacy. Utilizing a cultural studies approach to textual analysis, news media stories about BLM are contrasted with the movement’s use of digital media to offer their own representations. Suggestions are offered for critical race media literacy educators in guiding students to resources, approaches, and ways of thinking that encourage critical analysis and the creation of alternative images and stories