A controversial topic currently circulating throughout the media and society, is professional athletes kneeling during the National Anthem. In my opinion, this is a completely useless, unnecessary action done just for attention.
The United States is not living up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all no matter their race. Athletes are bringing awareness by a peaceful protest, which is protected under the first amendment for those who are oppressed. My cousin, a veteran, has also influenced my view on this situation. Seeing my own family member put their life in danger to save millions of others does not add up to someone kneeling on the sideline during the National Anthem.
I say 'you're doing this because I am black.' They said, 'no, we are not, were black too,' and that was true. These were African-American officers. Even they were racial profiling me, another black man." while most black men don't commit any crime, of men who commit crime, a disproportionately number are African-American.
Throughout history, the failure of the government to protect black people from ruthless enforcement officers, forced blacks to act in their own interests. During the 1930s, the National Negro Congress organized massive rallies against police brutality, the Black Panther was created to stem the tide of police abuse, and in the 1970s the Congress of African Peoples sponsored the “Stop Killer Cops” Campaigns (Fitzgerald, 2007). The list goes on and on of groups and campaigns that African Americans formed to protect themselves from white supremacy and most importantly police brutality. Although some observers claim that racial profiling doesn’t exist, there are an abundance of stories and statistics that document the
In the spring of 1991,” In Los Angeles, California, four Los Angeles police officers that had been caught beating an unarmed African-American motorist in an amateur video an acquitted of any wrongdoing in the arrest.” [“1992 Riot in Los Angeles”] We hear and read about police brutality more than we should. Police brutality is a major problem in our country. Many times it is pushed aside or covered up. Sadly we find that a major reason for all this happens, has to do with racism as well.
The critical flaw in the collective state that Equality capitalizes on to escape lies within its very foundation. Anthem best exemplifies this flaw through Equality’s escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention, as he describes “It was easy to escape the Palace of Corrective Detention. The locks are old on the doors and there are no guards about. There is no reason to have guards, for men have never defied the Councils so far as to escape from whatever place they were ordered to be” (66-67). The Council believes the fallacies it espouses, making it easy for Equality to escape. They believe that no one would ever defy a direct order from them, so they never accounted for the possibility. Another flaw of the collectivist fallacies lies in its inability to match the technological development of Equality. The Council rejects the lightbulb because it “would wreck the Plans of the World Council … and without the Plans of the World Council the sun cannot rise” (74), and by the end of the novel, Equality’s scientific skill advances enough to construct an electric fence around his home in the woods. As Equality says, “[the Council] has nothing to fight me with, save the brute forces of their numbers. I have my mind” (100). No matter what, until the Council begins to accept changes to their “Plans”, Equality’s society will outmatch theirs. The final fallacy weakening the collective state renders itself in the Council’s inability to care for the individual needs of its
Starting in kindergarten, we have allocated thirty seconds of every morning to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I remember hearing the announcement to do the Pledge, and sighing because I had to stand and perform this seemingly pointless task. As a little kid, I didn’t know what the Pledge of Allegiance really meant or why we had to do it. All I knew is that we would be performing the monotonous, fancy sounding, thirty-one worded stanza daily. While it was against the law for teachers to force us to say the Pledge, it was expected. This “patriotism” was assumed of us at a young age, and it was also given with the mindset that we were the best country. Dictionary.com says that the Pledge of Allegiance is a “patriotic vow”, a promise to support and defend their country. Does this mean that saying the pledge suddenly makes me a patriot? Is patriotism
Anthem Argument Essay While reading Anthem, a very collective society was shown. But how different is the life depicted in the book compared to the style of life in America? Is America like the cut throat collectivist society shown in Anthem or is it more individualistic? Overall, America is a more individual society because the First Amendment promotes individualism, people in The United States can choose their own career and our government, which is a democracy, is created through individual ideas and opinions.
Steven Sternberg Mrs. Burns English 1 CP 1 March, 2018 The Flag Protest “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color” (Kaepernick, Colin). The flag protest has been a protest existing for a long time but, recently sparked lots of controversy. Although kneeling during the national anthem may seem disrespectful are often seen as a disrespect to the flag and troops, a inefficient way to promote a cause, and anger many people in shows division in the country, it can show that the ideals of freedom is justified, it generates conversation and awareness about topic, and is a legal form of peaceful protest.
Throughout history, disputes and tensions between law enforcement officials and communities of minorities have endured hostility and violence between each other. Racial profiling has become a “hot topic” for researchers as well as for politicians and by now it is likely that most citizens are at least aware of the common accusations of racial bias pitted against law enforcement (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Communities of color are being discriminated against and racially profiled by white police officers for any suspicion of criminal activities. It has been widely assumed by policy makers and citizens alike that allegations of racial profiling are mostly associated with the policing practices of white officers and their treatment of racial and ethnic minorities (Cochran & Warren, 2013). Also, individuals of minority descent will certainly recognize that they are being racially profiled during a stop that is being conducted by a white police officer.
Recently, there has been much debate over an athlete's right to stand or kneel during the national anthem. The protesting of the national anthem began back in 1968 when two US Olympic track athletes stood during the national anthem with a raised fist to raise awareness of black power during the times of racism and inequality. In Louis Jacobson’s article about the controversy, he stated, “The recent controversy over the national anthem came back up in 2016 when NFL player Colin Kaepernick sat during the anthem before a game.” This problem has filtered down to the high school level. It is against a citizen’s rights to keep him or her from kneeling.
”People should stand for the national anthem for everything because its disrespectful to our veterans, people in the army, and police force; also it’s Americas thing to stand during the National Anthem to show that they are proud. Why do football players kneel during the National Anthem is the question all of America is trying to answer. The football players say they are
Holly Pryle Emily Chappell English 121 22 March 2018 Kneeling for the Anthem Every American child is raised with the knowledge that they were born in a country that by law gives them freedom of self-expression and the right to protest. However, this right does not mean that people must agree with you and in many cases, groups wind up at odds over differing opinions. Over the past few years America has seen many examples of this, most notably football players protesting injustice by kneeling during the anthem.
The Star-Spangled Banner was recognized for official use by the U.S in 1889. Since then it has been something widely respected in the U.S. Recently though people have began kneeling or refusing to stand during the Star Spangled banner. Kneeling during the national anthem should not be allowed. Some athletes have done this as a form of protest in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement. But this is a form of disrespect towards this country and its armed forces. As well as an unnecessary risk, because although others claim that this is a form of peaceful protest many have gotten death threats, and that is not peaceful at all.
Studies have shown that Hispanics were stopped 33%, and African-American were stopped 51%, despite only being 24% (Hispanics) and 26% (African-American) of the community (Gelman, A. et al, 2012). In the other hand Caucasians made up 43.4% of the population, but were only stop and frisk 12.9%(Gelman, A. et al, 2012). Do to the disparity of who was stopped with the use of stop and frisk there were protest by unsatisfied civilians who saw the actions of the police as unfair and unjust. “On June 17, 2012 several thousand protester marched down Manhattan Fifth Avenue from lower Harlem to then Major Michael Bloomberg’s upper eastside townhouse” to protest the policy of the NYPD of stop question and frisk (Francesani, C.,