Marie Mullins GOVT 2305 Civil Rights Act Murders of 1964 Summer of 1964 has been labeled as “Freedom Summer” and changed the lives of many. African Americans had one goal in mind: change their voting rights by registering as many African Americans to vote as possible. Many of the volunteers descended unto Mississippi die to its low percentage of African American voters that were registered in that state. On the night of June 21-22, three workers were shot as close range. Their names were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.
The riots came about due to racial tensions sparked by the acquittal of three officers accused of police brutality against Rodney King following a high speed chase on March 3, 1991. It would be easy to suggest that the Rodney King trial and verdict was the cause of the rioting, considering the immediate reaction to the news. However, although the acquittal of the police officers was the immediate precipitant, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 were the result of many underlying macro social conditions - specifically racism, social Injustice, and poverty. The living conditions in South Central Los Angeles in the years prior to the riots were below average. The per capita income was less than half that of Los Angeles as a whole, and poverty and unemployment rates were more than twice as high.
Centuries ago African-Americans were under deep discrimination from Whites being treated like animals and working for minimal to no pay. African-Americans today like to use their ancestor's pain and suffering to justify themselves during an arrest by a white police officer. This leads to mass imprisonment of blacks which leads to a new social phenomenon of mass imprisonment. “Imprisonment becomes mass imprisonment when is ceases to be the incarceration of individual offenders and becomes the systematic imprisonment of the whole groups of the population...Imprisonment ceases to be the fate of a few criminal individuals, and becomes a shaping institutions for whole sectors of the population” (Garland 2001b, p.2) Blacks are more likely to be arrested if they are experiencing it first hand or have family members in prison. It is very important to realize that blacks are not the only race this happens to.
Rhetorical Analysis: “Jeremy” Rhetoric appeals are used for impacting society. Since the start of the Music Television Channel (MTV), music videos have become a popular means of employing rhetoric to capture, as well as maintain the audience’s attention. After Pearl Jam lead vocalist, Eddie Vedder, read an article printed in a newspaper he sat down and wrote the lyrics to the song, “Jeremy”. This particular article was about a 16 year old boy from Richardson, Texas, who committed suicide. The intentions of this song is to educate the audience, while also describing factual details in the order of which they occurred.
The documentary opens with the 1935 lynching of Reuben Stacy in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It then features recent instances involving the noose in various parts of the United States. This shows the producers point to relate these events and make the audience see the racial meaning of the noose in America. They want the public to realize that hanging a noose is not just a prank but is a really offending act among African-American because of the lynchings during the Reconstruction in the U.S. This movie reveals a sign of regress of our society because, most lynching incidents in America which occurred in public spaces and were usually the result of rape allegations involving black male supposedly assailants and white women who were purportedly their victims has not been seeing as a pure act of cruelty and hated from white supremacist calling for “justice”.
Voter registration coordinator, Rock the Vote (RTV) Age: 23 Passionate about: Making equality a reality rather than just an idealistic dream. Inspired by: Raymond Castellani, founder of the Frontline Foundation, which feeds the homeless people of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. Making a difference by: Coordinating voter registration drives through Rock the Vote, the nonprofit organization that works to engage and empower young people in the political process. Heidi Pendergast's friend, on his way out one night in 2001, was confronted by a group of young people whose shaved heads and reputations identified them as part of a group that liked to beat up people who were "different." On this night, they beat up Pendergast's friend, who happened to be Arab American.
Police Brutality Steven O’Neal Period 5 There is something that has been on the rise ever since 9/11 and not many Americans know what this is, a sad, but true fact. This is police brutality, where cops abuse their power given to them by law, and mistreat/break rules and regulations. Skateboarders, to wood carvers in Seattle, police around the country have mistreated their power. As many of you know, last year the police officer Ian berk knowingly shot a Native American wood carver named john t. Williams. But what most of you probably don’t know, is that this cop got away with murder, the shooting of john Williams was declared unjustified, and a normal citizen with this charge would do anywhere from 25 years to life in prison.
If the incident in Tampa Bay does not show a person racism, this event might. In New York City, an average of seven Latin Americans were killed a year between 1986 to 1989, but in 1990, that number increased greatly. In that year,twenty-three Latin Americans were killed by police gunfire. When asked how he felt about racism being involved in police brutality,Yussuf Naimkly of the University of Regina commented: "Excessive police force against blacks has always been tolerated, because as a formally enslaved minority African Americans are trapped in a cultural context specifically designed to inhibit their development and thus minimize their threat to white hegemony" (C.C. 72) Executive Director of Police Misconduct Lawyers Referral Service Karol Heppe commented, “Brutality against minorities is a daily occurrence in Los Angeles,” she says.
Looking at the numbers, the statistics are astonishing. The article, “Jim Crow Policing”, by Bob Herbert published the New York Times on February 2, 2010 addressed the issue of Racial Profiling in law enforcement in New York. The author finds racial profiling to be unnecessary and an abomination towards mankind/society. There have been other situations such as Mike Brown who was an unarmed black teenager that was shot and killed in 2014, by a white police officer, in St. Louis. There are other cases such as the movie, 42, which
actively surveilled him until the time of his death. Although he was a charismatic and eloquent speaker, his messages of hate of whites negatively affected the public’s view of Muslims. After a falling out with the NoI leadership, a conspiracy to assassinate him was put into motion which culminate in his murder on February 21, 1965 during a lecture he was giving at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. Three members of the Nation of Islam’s New Jersey Chapter were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X. Alex Haley’s “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (which was released nine months after his death) has helped to shape in to a martyr and hero to the black community by revealing the man behind the larger than life persona that was Malcolm X (Mamiya, 2013). In the early nineties hip hop and rap performers began to use the influence of Malcolm X to help usher a modern resurgence of the black power and pride movement.