Black Social Movements

Black Social Movements

From women's rights to civil rights, social movements had and continue to have a significant impact on public policy around the world. One of the most prominent social movements in the late 1960's and early 1970's was the Black Power Movement. This movement not only changed public policy, but transformed African American identity. What exactly are social movements, and what key factors contribute to the development and sustenance of a specific movement? These questions are key to understanding the complexity and the often multi-dimensional paradigms that social movements are made of.

According to Roberta Garner, author of "Contemporary movements and ideologies" a movement is made up of discourses and practices that are designed to challenge and change society. "A movement is constituted by human beings engaged in discourses and practices designed to challenge and change society as they define it" (Garner 3). What are practices and discourses in the context of movements? According to Garner, practices means interacting, which includes talking, writing or engaging in physical violence. "The practices of a movement are those actions that the actors believe will bring about the changes considered desirable" (Garner 3). In addition, discourses refer to saying something, which includes talking, writing or electronically recording ideas and statements. Thus, a discourse is really one specific type of practice. "The discourse of a movement always says something negative about the existing situation as it is defined by the movement" (Garner 3). Another important characteristic of social movements are that they are not institutionalized, meaning, they do not occur on a regular basis, do not persist over time, are not found throughout a society and encounter many social controls to prevent them from taking place. However, although movements are not institutionalized, they use institutionalized means for attaining their goals. Garner uses the example of forming political parties and winning court cases in order to achieve the movement's goals.

Now that we know what a social movement is, what are elements of movement practice? Ideology refers to the discourses of a social movement, or what people think and say. "The ideology is the ideas held by people who see themselves as connected to the movement" (Garner 4). These discourses are a way of looking at reality, but more importantly, they specify what is truly important. "The discourses spell out what the current situation is and why it should be changed. They identify some preferable state of affairs that becomes the goal of the movement" (Garner 4). Garner uses the example of Operation Rescue, which specifies the importance of protecting the fetus. This goal or objective correlates to the movement's recognition of what really matters.