Faith Discourses in the Context of Racial Tension: Black Lives Matter and Its Counter-Narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Black Lives Matter as a racial and social justice movement has been the target of different groups on social media. These counter-movements include hashtags like #AllLivesMatter, #WhiteLivesMatter, and #BlueLivesMatter. These groups can use religious discourses to develop a racial counter-narratives to express their interests. The present study used a reflexive thematic analysis method to examine how tweets using either of these hashtags within one month of the death of George Floyd utilized faith-based arguments as part of a counter-narrative to Black Lives Matter. This analysis revealed three themes including (1) the color-blindness of religion as a racial justice counter-narrative, (2) God, virtues, and White privilege (3), and politics, institutions, race, and religion. Although these themes were presented in Twitter through a narrative that uses an apparent harmless language, they were still found to have a racial purpose that criminalizes, oppresses, and creates racial stereotypes.