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Racial discrimination within the justice system
James Baldwin and his role in the civil rights movement
Racial discrimination within the justice system
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One aspect of the reading that stuck with me was how the author talked about the normalization of fearing for his body. For most of us, the safety of our body is one of the undeniable constants in our lives. Sure, there may be the fear of illness or injury, but more often than not, those are hypotheticals, greatly overshadowed by immediate concerns, such as trying not to miss the bus or making sure you’ve done your homework. However, for Coates, his self-preservation is a constant priority, with so much of his conscious energy being channeled into street maps and handshakes, both necessary for his survival. It’s this normalizing, I fear, that is the problem within his quest for safety. He fantasizes about an entirely different world where “children …show more content…
Yet, in Coates case, there is little room to do anything but normalize the situation, because the opposite response, the one that just might make a change or bring attention, is one he couldn’t possibly do. The opposite of normalizing is outrage. It’s calling the cops and the courts and the news, it’s saying that this is not ok to be normal, that this fear is not a life, it is merely survival. But as a black man, where the police are against him and the courts will try to jail him, where “everyone has lost a child, somehow, […] to jail” (16), there is no room for outrage. This is where people get trapped, when from an outside perspective, one might ignorantly ask why they didn’t just get out of the situation. I’ve included an image of some of the many black people who were unarmed and shot by the police, some of which Coates mentions in the book, to show just how dangerous it can be to be a person of color in a white world, how the normalizing of fear and the inequities of the justice system just further perpetrate the injustice that so many are living
In Malcom’s speech Malcom brings up a riot in New York City caused by police brutality. Malcom justifies the riots of his peers by saying in his speech “but they gave the impression of hoodlum’s vagrants and criminals, but this is wrong. The landlord is white, the merchant is white, and in fact the entire economy of the Black community is white.” Malcolm uses this ideology to justify the rioters breaking windows and causing trouble in their own community because they are not hurting themselves; however they are hurting the white population by destroying the white’s property. Since the time of the New York riots many other riots have occurred based on the same ideology, some of which have occurred within the last few years. In 2014 the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri sparked riots within the town of Ferguson and unrest throughout the nation. In this specific case it was found that the officer did not kill Brown based on race rather out of self-defense, regardless of the findings by the investigation the people of Ferguson continued to riot. In a more recent incident on April 18th 2015 in Baltimore the riots ensued because a man by the name of Freddie Gray was killed by police days earlier. In this instance the investigation found the killing to have been a murder; never the less, riots still ensued in Baltimore for multiple days protesting police
Ranikine’s addresses the light upon the failed judicial systems, micro aggressions, pain and agony faced by the black people, white privilege, and all the racial and institutional discrimination as well as the police brutality and injustice against the blacks; The book exposes that, even after the abolition of slavery, how the racism still existed and felt by the colored community in the form of recently emerged ‘Micro aggressions in this modern world’. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen explores the daily life situations between blacks and whites and reveals how little offensive denigrating conversations in the form of micro-aggressions were intentionally conveyed to the black people by the whites and how these racial comments fuel the frustrations and anger among the blacks. She gathered the various incidents, where the black people suffered this pain. This shows the white’s extraordinary powers to oppress the black community and the failure of the legal system Rankine also shares the horrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina experienced by the black community, where they struggled for their survival before and post the hurricane catastrophes.
"Skin blemishes made it impossible for me to really enjoy myself. I was always worrying about the way I looked" (Brumberg, p. 87). Woman all around the world share the same problem, they feel unhappy and self-conscious with the appearance of their bodies. In The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, she successfully illustrates the way adolescents begin to change focus from inner to outer beauty in the early 19th and 20th centuries. Through use of personal diaries and historical research, Brumberg shows her readers the physical differences between girls then and now. Brumberg talks about an array of topics in her book – periods, acne, dieting, piercing, virginity, and sexuality. From their roots in the 1800’s through the Victorian era and into modern society the reader gets a glimpse of the way young women evaluate their bodies and turn them into body projects, and is still to this day sweeping the nation more than ever.
Fear resides within all of our souls and our minds in different forms wether it be mind, body, or spirit. Fear can be brought upon by actions, words or ever our mere imagination. Of course as one being younger your imagination can bring along fear that is non existent but, to one it may seem so vivid and tangible. In this Novel by William Golding we come to grasps with many different forms of fear being from the beast, the loss of humanity, and the fear of realization.
In the year 1625, Francis Bacon, a famous essayist and poet wrote about the influences of fear on everyday life. He stated, “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other” (Essays Dedication of Death). Clearly, external surroundings affect perceptions of fear as well as human nature in general. Although C.S. Lewis published the novel, Out of the Silent Planet, over three centuries after Bacon wrote his theory on fear, Lewis similarly portrayed external surrounding to manipulate perceptions of fear. From the first chapter of the novel, Lewis revealed fear to be a weakness that leads to ignorance. It was this ignorance that apparently fueled the cycle of corruption and immorality on “The Silent Planet.” Using the character Ransom to reveal the effect of memory and morality on fear, C.S. Lewis demonstrates that fear is a quality of the “bent” race (humans), and only by eliminating fear in our lives can the human race become hnau.
As the narrator starts, we are able to identify with the “poor young man’s” nervousness as it overcomes his body through hesitation and procrastination. Searching for answers to his thoughts, we are able to learn about the Oxford graduate and understand why he desires money. Though a bright man, Pemberton lets fear take over his body worrying that “his small scholar might prove cleverer than himself.” In many instances in life, we cannot bear being less than someone and are able to prove our strength through knowledge. Through Mrs. Moreen’s ambiguity and Pemberton’s apprehension, we can la...
Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have and you come to us endangered” (82). Coates, now an adult, understood both the love and fear his father had when beating him. Additionally, Coates, from his experiences in his childhood, understood the growing up as an African American male in America is dangerous and unforgiving. Police brutality is the strong arm that America uses to discipline young African American teens who fail to comply with their requests.
The author describes some privileges and power the white people have in the United States. The author's tone here is very pessimistic and pragmatic. She explains that in USA, power is in the hands of majority in context of socio-economic status. She uses the word rage to show the intense side of anger. Power gives a person everything. If a white man gets angry they are given support by government in any situation but if it would be a person of minority groups the scenario might be different. In 2014, a 12 year old boy, Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a white police officer for having a gun which actually turned out to be a toy gun. The police officer was saved from the charges by the statement that he had fear of his life and that was a defense
The author is clear with the content and has no fear of telling the truth just as Malcolm X expressed himself. Malcolm 's character is strong and full of expression good and bad, Malcolm uses every inch of his time to become the exact person he wishes to be and strives to have the knowledge of whatever may be unknown. Malcolm had a love for his heritage history and what is also expressed is that African Americans are not always seen as the problem. There are many points in the book where it speaks of a white man being the “devil” which is a strong word used for the people who are generally always saying that African Americans are the problem and the ones to blame. The authors purpose is to educate the readers is many different ways and does it through every chapter in various amounts of writing, which describes the beauty and content incredibly
“I want to get it right,” he said. “After making the mistake in the last book about how long it takes to get from Toronto to Detroit, I want this one to be watertight. So just go along with me until I’m sure that it’ll work.”” he is portrayed throughout the story to be superior, yet he is killed by his wife with his own plan that he created because he was cheating on his wife with another women. Mrs Coates, starts her story as believed to be less intelligent than her husband but proves the theory wrong by turning his own plan against him, her and her husband have been known to be similar in appearance, and also similar in personality. This makes the story a tad outlandish because if the couple was so similar why would he cheat on her, and why would he plot to kill
She witnessed, “a black man being handcuffed by his car on an empty stretch of road next to a cemetery in Chicago” (6). While this and the Sandra Bland example are two of many more, Biss is trying to prove that white criminals are treated with privilege, rather than experiencing the same kind of treatment someone of color gets, they are given advantages that someone of color would not have, advantages they do not deserve. Biss uses this example in order to prove that the actions of the police are done not out of necessity, but as something that has always happened throughout history, a tradition of some sort, which Coates connects with as
Presently racism in the U.S. is presented through the media’s portrayal of the shooting of African Americans by police officers. This racism can be found in the racial bias that is obvious in media in the present day. In the video “Terence Crutcher’s Police Shooting & Racial Bias in America” by The Daily Show, Trevor Noah mentions that we are “ living in a society where racial divisions are so deeply baked into every part of society that we don’t even notice them anymore” (The Daily Show). By stating this Noah is showing that the racial bias that is shown in many news interviews and media forms is often overlooked and quite often already present. Another example of the racial bias that is set in most Americans can be found in the video “A White Audience is Left Speechless Racism in America” when a lady asks the audience to stand up if they would want to be treated the way African Americans are treated in society. The lady responds to her audiences lack of standing by stating the obvious fact they they are aware of the situation and they do not want that to happen to them, then she asks why they “are so willing to accept it or allow it to happen to others” (YouTube). This shows the fact that people are aware of the way that African Americans are being treated because of racial bias however because the way they are treated is so normalized people aren’t
There were buildings set on fire and stores looted in a cry of anger and the need for social justice. However, these riots caught national and global attention. As King states in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, “.... an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” With Trayvon’s death a term was coined and for a short time “Black Lives Matter” circled the nation. It was not until another child, Michael Brown, was gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson that the term truly caught fire and spread. Three words, fifteen letters hold so much meaning but unfortunately many people of all races only see the surface value of these words. These words go beyond the black lives that seem to only matter to the media. The Oprahs and Michael Jacksons of the world are of equal importance to little Shaniqua and Tommy in Decatur, Georgia and people fail to see that. Jussie Smollett, actor, stated on a visit to NBCBLK that, “You cannot pick and choose when Black lives
Coates is tells his son about achieving The American Dream, the difficulties he seen and experienced due to racism, and unfair/injustice ways. His book shows how racism makes The American Dream difficult to achieve, how the environment we live in affects us and how the roots of black people has an impact on our lives today.
Although her story is about the corrupted system and cruelty towards African Americans, I first thought it was about a rape that occurred and the victim, Sandra Bland. After being pulled over for a routine traffic stop, the young woman Sandra Bland was treated unfairly through the series of events, ultimately leading to her death. The usage of hyperbole throughout the essay are both exaggerations and the truth The author now feels vulnerable during her daily driving routine because of her skin color. She feels white police officers see the wrong meaning in her skin. “In the color of my skin they see criminality, deviance, a lack of humanity.” Authorities can only see the bad and the stereotypes through her skin color without knowing who she actually is as a person. Her vulnerability is both visible and invisible to the average eye. Her personality is altered by the traumatic event. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.”; Gay added to this statement by saying, “It is also tradition to try and destroy the black spirt,” America’s traditions do not include destroying black spirts or bodies, however, America does have a reputation for not respectively treating the black body, especially by authority figures. The destruction of her faith in humanity makes her feel as if she is not a living, breathing soul. “I do not feel alive. I