Since Dr. King’s time, racial tensions have risen tremendously in the United States. Everyday there are new headlines about protests and all the violence that occurs with it. In Although we have come a long way since when racism was a major everyday situation, Americans have yet to learn their lessons. Today, there are protest groups such as those for the Black Lives Matters movement that have been using violence to express themselves. The destruction done by protesters include cities being ruined where people of both color and white skin have been dying due. The result of all the violence is jail and prison sentences that can last up to a life time. Living in the United States, the land of equal right opportunity and rights, you can assume …show more content…
There is currently our second civil rights movement going on called “Black Lives Matter”. In John Halstead’s online article, "The Real Reason White People Say 'All Lives Matter '", it is stated that through people saying Black Lives Matter, the response is people saying “All Lives Matter”, implying that because it is said that Black Lives Matter, all other lives do not matter. It is said that “no one was saying ‘All Lives Matter’ before people started saying ‘Black Lives Matter’ so All Lives Matter is a response to Black Lives Matter”. In this letter from a white male to a white community, he says “if you went to a Breast Cancer Awareness, you wouldn’t think of saying ‘Colon Cancer Matters’ or chanting All Cancer Patients lives matter “. So, clearly, All Lives Matter is definitely a response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Halstead discusses that people of non-color face “color-blindness” where they are “able to ignore race”. This is the opposite of those of color because as said in the letter, “they live in a culture that constantly reminds them of their black-ness, which tells them in a million large and small ways that they are not as important as white people, that their lives do not matter as much as white people”. This shows the importance of saying Black Lives Matter because it is not necessarily that not all lives matter but the fact there are some lives that are overlooked and discriminated, causing racial inequality. It can be seen that “no one is questioning whether white lives matter or whether police lives matter but the question of whether Black lives matter is an open question in this country”. This just further shows that there IS racial inequality in America where people of non-color recieve luxury treatments and people of color do
In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. King professes his disappointment with the white moderates for calling him an extremist for his schemes. At first, in paragraph 27, King does not deny the fact-by using anaphora- that there are some Negros who “advocate violence”, but he also asserts that there are even more for “nonviolent protest”(King 28). In making this comment, King urges for people to look at his acts of nonviolent protesting . Indeed the insignificant amount of violence will be more looked upon than the nonviolence; however, there are numerous acts nonvilence that should surpass this. Additionally, in paragraph 31, King states how at first he despised the label but then “gained [...] satisfaction” from it.
According to David Goldberg 's “All Lives Matter” Disregards Race-Based Inequality," blacks in the United States aren’t supposed to completely belong. They are denied decent employment and education, being animalized, criminalized and killed daily. Goldberg makes a crucial point saying, “Black people have represented the country in the highest of ways while being maligned in the most malicious of ways.” He couldn’t be more right. Blacks are athletic, vocally talented, even superior enough to be president of the United States.
As of the year 2016, there are an estimated 324,118,787 people living in America. 324,118,787 people consider themselves to be Americans and 324,118,787 people have decided that America really is worthy enough to be called home. These people, whether they were born within the country or emigrated from another country, comingle in this melting pot of a nation, sharing grocery stores and hospitals and neighborhoods and all the ideologies that make up American society, and each of these people have their own lives and opinions and personal beliefs. All of these people, all (roughly) 324,118,787 of them, fall under the definition of an American – a person who lives in America, because there is simply no other way to define what an American is when
The purpose is to make the audience aware and reflect about how to keep fighting for justice and stop the unacceptable acts of racism. Racism violence has been a persistent theme trough the history of people whose roots are in Africa and live in North America. It reached the climax point when an African-American male conquered to be the president of the United States of America. It was expected to decrease the violence and attacks to the minorities, but the hurtful reality is there have been countless numbers of Black people killed by police or vigilantes. Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, are only the
Alicia Garza: co-creator of the #BlackLivesMatter movement (BLM) advocates that -“Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean your life isn’t important – it means that Black lives, which are seen as without value within White supremacy, are important to your liberation. Given the disproportionate impact state violence has on Black lives, we understand that when Black people in this country get free, the benefits will be wide-reaching and transformative for society as a whole. When we are able to end the hyper-criminalisation of Black people and end the poverty, control and surveillance of Black people, every single person in this world has a better shot at getting and staying free. When Black people get free, everybody gets free.” (The Conversation,2017).
Statement of Purpose In light of recent events and social media uproar, the goal of this argumentative paper is to provide a brief but comprehensive understanding to the concept of the black lives matter movement and slogan. The movement is an affirmation of Black people’s contributions to society, humanity, and their resilience in the face of oppression. (“About,” n.d.) As a result, this paper will critically examine the foundation of the movement and the validity of both sides of the argument and the media’s involvement and several other topics.
On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by former officer George Zimmerman. Instantly media had blown up with headlines involving the tragic fatality. Protests occurred titled as “Black Lives Matter” during the trial of Florida v. Zimmerman. These protests led to distrustful actions toward American government and American Law Enforcement. This protest wasn’t just a segmented time period event, it’s lasted from 2012 to present day and occurs daily and is expanding rapidly.
We the Students Essay Madison Jones Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society. Peaceful resistance opens the eyes of many who may be blind to what’s really going on in the world. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King discusses the increasing acts of violence and hatred towards African Americans in the U.S. King’s usage of raw imagery, pathos, and religious language portray the complicated relationship between the battered Negro and the common white man. King uses savage imagery to exemplify the brutality African Americans were subjected to at the time. King writes, “When you see the vast majority of your twenty million negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society”
In order to achieve true freedom one must discover that you can break unjust laws through peaceful protest. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and “The Speech at The March Washington” by Josephine Baker each article passionately argues about the disadvantages of the black community, the equality and power of education. We must learn to act with patients and not guns we must protect are self’s with a pen and paper not violence. Dr. King once4 said “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is unique in history which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.
High Risk High Reward In certain situations it may be justified for a political leader to bend or break the law for the good of the country. Usually when the average person hears that someone has broken the law, they would immediately assume that it was a bad decision. Although, that may not always be the case. For example if someone were to break into your home, you would then have the right to injure/kill that intruder based on self defense.
But when a man goes into a black community with a sign that says “All Lives Matter” he is warned to get out of the area so nothing bad happens to him but when he ignore the warning his is later chased and has things thrown at him for simply saying all lives matter not just black people. The problem with this is that they do not want the stereotype that makes people fear them but their actions do not back up their words causing people to still be cautions in the presence of black people much like in essay Stapes wrote and much like the during the Civil Rights
In order to further prove that nonviolence is the way to stop racism and gain equality, Dr. King writes: “I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood” (). In this quote, Dr. King once again argues that non violence and peace are the best ways to stop the cycle of violence. The phrase “the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle” shows that even though they are struggling, nonviolence can help them.
The Rodney King riots impacted many people in the United States in many ways, and Matheson and Baade explain one large impact that they
The Black Lives Matter movement has intervened on America’s unjust treatment of African Americans with nonviolent protests, rallies to reach out to the people, and the making of coalitions of Black Americans. Since the Black Lives Matter movement has started the ideal of civil disobedience has changed in the public eye. Civil Disobedience is still relevant in today’s world, but with the historic beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, and other advocates of bettering America, we can discover a better way to find resolutions in violent political conflicts. “Consent of the governed determines if a law is just” was an ideal coined by John Locke, an advocate of America freedom. The ideal says that the people that follow
When you think of Black Lives Matter what do you think? A hate movement? Violence? Well it is in fact none of those things and this article is going to help you understand why. After the murder of Treyvon Martin in the year 2012 the Black Lives Matter movement was created in response to this unjust death.