In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students from the high school and around the nation has risen up to push back against loose gun laws that allow mass shooting to happen.
Acclaimed author Roxane Gay wrote a two post thread pointing out the difference between these new student activists and the young activists in Ferguson in wake of the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown.
While celebrating all of the survivors of the parkland shooting, Gay writes that the support for BLM activists was not the same, they did not receive the same enthusiasm and the media and celebrities did not show the same level of humanization and worthiness to their cause. For example, actor George Clooney and his wife Amal gave the group $500,000 for their causes.
It is interesting to note the difference in support for the kids in FL versus the kids in Black Lives Matter. I say that with full admiration for the kids in FL, to survive such a trauma and fight for everyone to be safer. But that’s also what was happening in Ferguson and beyond
— roxane gay (@rgay) February 21, 2018
I started to think about this after George Clooney’s announcement. And it isn’t divisive to observe the difference in support from the media, from celebrities, etc. I think the FL kids are fucking awesome but so are the kids in Ferguson and Baltimore and Chicago and more.
— roxane gay (@rgay) February 21, 2018
Nearly two weeks ago, former student 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and took the lives of 17 people. During the shooting, students took to social media to inform family members of their safety, detail their stories and as for help. The student survivors became the flame of a new movement after living through one of the worst mass shootings in recent years– by expert accounts, it is the worst high school shooting since Columbine.
Student Emma Gonzalez has become the face of the movement. There will be several protests that challenge Republicans in power and call out the National Rifle Association.
The National School Walkout will be held March 14 and the March for Our Lives on March 24. Organizers from the Women's March, a group that gained prominence last year for its anti-Trump and pro-female empowerment protests, have called for the 17-minute school walkout, on March 14 at 10 am, one minute for each life lost, Blavity reported.
Even though some conservative voices have criticized the students, they were never called thugs–or worst— like BLM activists.
One user pointed out that BLM attacks both sides for systematic state violence against black people and that may be the difference in comparing the two.
To support BLM you have to acknowledge state violence against marginalized people and the fact that it is systemic . Neo-Liberals don’t want to do that.
— Kendriana Washington (@KendrianaSpeaks) February 21, 2018
