Black Lives Matter: An Autoethnographic Account of the Ferguson, Missouri, Civil Unrest of 2014

This paper is an autoethnographic account of the Ferguson Unrest of 2014. The first section is a context-based analysis to understand why Ferguson, Missouri, became a catalyst to ignite national outrage against police brutality. The second central question is to understand what does protest in America look like in the 21st century, particularly through the eyes of the young people who are experiencing these modes of civil resistance for the first time. To get at this question, the researcher draws from many narrative and reflexive accounts of encounters with various interlocutors and locals during two weekends of direct action. As a lens, the author utilizes renowned community organizer Saul Alinsky and neo-Ainsky traditions of issue-generating to analyze the effectiveness of organizers in Missouri. I critique that in an era unlike those in which Alinsky was appropriated [overt/blatant racism and classism] injustices are increasingly more covert, and not the most effective community organizing strategy.