Systemic barriers to change In the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting, many activists took to the streets of Ferguson to protest the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police across the United States. States. Many criticized these protesters for their tactics, some of which involved violence, calling them "thugs." In these and many other ways, the Black Lives Matter movement is similar to any other movement attempting to bring about large-scale systemic change. Piven and Cloward write: “[I]t is inevitable that beliefs and rituals will reinforce inequalities, making the powerful divine and those who challenge them evil,” just as has happened in this recent movement (1). Sustainable change is difficult to achieve and sustain because of institutional structures that discourage or prevent marginalized groups from making their voices heard. Specifically, change is limited by the lack of representation of marginalized groups and the lack of power of these groups to implement change, which combine with the general difficulty of deviating from the status quo. Since these problems are at a systemic level, systemic reforms must be carried out to ensure that other potential alternatives do not address these concerns and problems, so people have turned to protests and mass movements . Piven and Cloward's argument can also be used to ensure the success of the Black Lives Matter movement; they argue that for mass movements to succeed, “strategies must be pursued to intensify the momentum and impact of disruptive protests at each stage of their emergence and evolution” (37). If organized and well-executed mass movements are combined with future political and electoral reforms, it can be ensured that the voices of the marginalized and oppressed are heard and real change can occur.