Moving beyond the rhetoric: a comment on Szetela’s critique of the Black Lives Matter movement

Adam Szetela criticizes Black Lives Matter for being a movement with extremely broad and unrealistic goals. If attention is restricted to what movement leaders say, then the criticism has merit. However, academic researchers have uncovered a wide range of the movement’s outcomes, suggesting that Szetela’s analysis is incomplete. I briefly argue that Black Lives Matter may have notable cultural and political impacts. I also argue that, contra Szetela, that the movement has the opportunity to avoid the obstacles that faced earlier Black nationalist movements.