Society consists of individuals that profess various and often conflicting worldviews and intentions. Communication of people that carry opposing values has the potential to turn into a clash. The Black Lives Matter movement and the perspective of Peggy Hubbard are the indicators of the extent of severity to which the reaction to the divergence of opinions can reach. Even though the ideologies are from the same sphere, the objectives that they strive to accomplish differ. The issues of violence explain the distinction that the Black Lives Matter group raises in comparison with the position of Peggy Hubbard since the ideals they defend are contrary.
The Black Lives Matter movement confronts police violence against black people by organizing decentralized events and mass processions that escalate into major riots and impingements. It is connected with the issue of Afro-American people being killed by police during the arrest process. As a result of the increase in murders, dissatisfaction was transferred to aggressive retaliatory measures. Consequently, the Black Lives Matter idea was transmitted to the form of a protest and, according to Lebron, became “a force demanding change in America” (XI). The fierce resistance of Black Lives Matter adherents responded to physical violence by state authorities concerning individuals that belong to the same race.
Peggy Hubbard is an African American woman and the U.S. Navy veteran, who appeared to be the adversary of the Black Lives Matter movement. She attracted the attention of the entire world’s community after the release of a video in which the woman criticized the apologists of the rebellion and defends the actions of the police. Peggy Hubbard denies the presence of a racial problem and, additionally, defines the followers of the idea of racial equality as “defending criminals” (Paul). She preaches the thought of individual responsibility of the personal social status and rejects the influence of racism on the work of government authorities (Paul). Peggy Hubbard addresses her statements to another issue of violence: the violence of African American criminals fatally injured by police officers during the arrest towards their victims. The woman created the opposite view of police violence and expressed the need to punish criminals according to the law’s severity regardless of race.
Both the Black Lives Matter movement and the position of Peggy Hubbard are reflected in sociological theoretical perspectives. Owing to the fact that the supporters of protest against police violence generate clashes, the conflict theory is considered appropriate as it emphasizes the obligatoriness to combat to vindicate individual interests (Ormerod 16). Alternatively, the protestation of Peggy Hubbard is believed to possess features of the functionalistic approach that advocates intolerant of radicalism stability (Ormerod 13). In addition, the conflict theory is characterized by the struggle for social class, gender, and race parity, whereas functionalism accentuates the significance of the functions that government institutions perform. The Black Lives Matter movement and the perspective of Peggy Hubbard demonstrate the distinction between two opposing sociological theories.
In conclusion, the Black Lives Matter ideology addresses a different from Peggy Hubbard’s opinion issues of violence. In contrast, the proponents of the anti-racist idea protest against the police’s killing of African American people, Hubbard opposes the protection of criminals accused of murdering their victims. The Black Lives Matter concept includes the features of the conflict theory, and the key notions of functionalism reverberate in Peggy Hubbard’s statements.
Works Cited
Lebron, Christopher. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Ormerod, Richard. “The History and ideas of sociological functionalism: Talcott Parsons, modern sociological theory, and the relevance for OR.” Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 71, no. 12, 2020, pp. 1873-1899.
Paul, Joshua. “‘Not Black and White, but Black and Red’: Anti-identity identity politics and #AllLivesMatter.” Ethnicity, vol. 19, no. 1, 2019, pp. 3-19.