By Elizabeth Wulfhorst
A movement that began in 2013 after the murder of a young Black man, Trayvon Martin, resurged this spring with the killing of yet another Black man, George Floyd. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has grown since video in May showed a white Minnesota police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Spurred by the Black community, other people of color and allies, the movement has also found a large number of supporters in Generation Z, young people approximately 23 and under, born after 1996.
Members of Gen Z are “digital natives,” according to the Pew Research Center, those who grew up with little or no memory of the pre-smartphone era. And they have used their knowledge of the digital world and social media to communicate about BLM and support protests in cities around the country and the world. They use the internet to their advantage – to publicize, educate and share stories on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. As of July 7, #BlackLivesMatter was used in more than 22 million posts on Instagram, where users share their stories, educational resources, ways to donate and links to petitions. On TikTok, there’s been more than 100,000,000 TikTok likes spread across all posts published under the #BlackLivesmatter hashtag, most of which were provided by Virall.com.
At a June 7 protest, Nupol Kiazolu, 19, the president of BLM Greater New York, said, “Young people have been carrying every single movement we’ve seen across the world, so it’s time for adults to step aside and uplift us. We are not just the future. We are the present.”
Many of those young people live in the Two River area, like Chika Efobi, 17, a first-generation Nigerian-American from Long Branch who uses Instagram to help secure justice for victims of police brutality. She shares “useful information that I come across that will help people understand the systemic racism that’s been embedded in our lifestyles,” Efobi said.
She thinks young people are socially aware because they use the internet to form connections with people across the world, expanding relationships beyond their hometowns, more so than prior generations could at her age. Efobi also thinks Gen Zers are more open-minded than their predecessors.
“It’s easier for us to find information in this age and the world is so issue-ridden that we all have causes we care about,” she said.
Efobi, who throws shot put for the Mater Dei Prep track and field team and plans to pursue a career as a physical therapist for athletes, has attended two Black Lives Matter protests so far. “I also make sure I have the hard conversations with my friends and peers which are absolutely necessary if we want a genuine change,” she said. “Thus far I’ve been fortunate enough to have friends who understand the movement.”
Amber Tanzi, 21, from Middletown, has also attended protests, and “donated, signed petitions, called offices, sent emails, done as much as I can to do my part,” she said.
Tanzi, who said she became socially active after the 2016 presidential election, agreed that access to information has spurred Gen Z’s involvement in the movement. “With a world of news, albeit both accurate or otherwise, right in front of us seemingly at all times, we’re potentially the most well-informed generation of young people to ever exist,” she said. Tanzi cited growing up with events like 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, the 2008 financial crisis and “so many school shootings with no intervention from our government” as the impetus for social activism. “We’re finally exposed to and can comprehend on our own all the cracks in the systems,” Tanzi said.
“And we’re saying ‘Enough is enough.’ If the people in charge don’t seem to care enough, then we must take matters into our own hands.”
Calls to action from Efobi, Tanzi, their peers and others have sparked some change. Though police reform at a national level is still lacking, reform is beginning at local and state levels. “No-knock” warrants have been suspended in many police departments, as have chokeholds, and officers have been fired – and some even charged – for their part in unjust actions against Black Americans.
Local and state governments across the country removed statues, monuments and flags that memorialized historical racism after protests advocated for their removal. Organizations and companies have also taken a stand, firing and removing individuals from positions of power who have exploited or treated BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) employees unjustly. Presidents and CEOs resigned because of prior racist acts and words. Corporations like Disney World and Quaker Oats, major sports organizations, television studios and even musicians have abandoned racially charged products, shows and names.
But systemic racism is most concerning to members of Gen Z and something both Tanzi and Efobi feel they have a chance of combatting and even overcoming. One way to make that happen, according to Efobi, is through education. “I’m a Black girl and I never saw much diversity around me until my sophomore year of high school. That was reflected in the curriculum and classroom conversations,” she said. She experienced firsthand the effects of institutional racism when she tried to explain to a middle school history teacher why saying “all lives matter” was disrespectful. Efobi told her, “You wouldn’t walk into a breast cancer treatment center and announce that there are other types of cancer, nor would you walk into a funeral and say that you’ve lost someone, too.” The teacher told the other students Efobi didn’t know what she was talking about, Efobi said.
In 14 years of schooling, she said there has only been one Black teacher at a school she attended and she was never in their classroom. “Representation is so, so important, especially to young people,” said Efobi. “We need to be able to see people like us. It helps us be able to realize our dreams. There needs to be more diversity in teaching staff.”
She also feels the United States history curriculum in schools is lacking. “We need to learn about the Civil Rights movement and Black advocacy beyond Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks,” said Efobi. As many young people do, she began educating herself about the gaps in her studies, parts of history she feels should be taught to all students. “I believe that us not learning about Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Polynesian, African, Caribbean and LGBT communities is a big contributor to today’s bigotry,” she explained.
Even though she isn’t BIPOC, Tanzi understands Efobi’s experiences with lack of representation. “I am a Jewish, bisexual woman who grew up in a town that didn’t have many resources for those things,” Tanzi said. She believes these facets of her identity allowed her “to not only empathize,” but also “actively fight alongside any group that needed help.”
As a white person, Tanzi feels now is a time for reflection and allyship, not stealing the spotlight from those who truly need it. She said she will continue to educate herself and hopes others do the same.
“There’s still so much left for me to learn and this is a time to be amplifying Black and indigenous, people of color,” she said. “All I can say is that for white people, now is the time to listen, not speak. Support, not direct. And Black lives always have and always will matter.”
The article originally appeared in the July 9 – 15, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
