The word politics comes from the Greek word “polis” which means the community as a whole, an idealistic society. Politicians govern the world, yet their ruling does not contribute to an equal livelihood for all citizens. Over the course of history, politics has played a crucial role in the lives of minorities, and in many cases has hindered their ability to live equally in a world of prejudice.
Politics disrupts the equilibrium between socioeconomic classes in the world because of the restrictions that result from the disproportionate protection of minority interests. There is no equality for minorities politically, socially, and economically because political decisions overwhelmingly determine how they live. In Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton exhibits this central problem for minorities by making his characters in the novel reveal how blacks truly lived in 1948 during this period of segregation and political inequality.
Minority ethnic groups are fewer in number relative to other ethnic groups in the population, and they are often underrepresented in government. The minority group differs by the demographics of each country and the time period. Politicians manipulate laws and regulations to oppress certain minority groups. As seen in Cry, the Beloved Country, the politicians’ only concern is creating legislation that benefits the needs of a select group.
Recently, many states across the United States enacted new voting identification requirements. This new law requires identification be presented when voting. If someone does not have one, they must pay to get an identification just for voting rights. A meeting in Washington revealed that the “laws are intended to prevent African Americans in particular from voting beca...
... middle of paper ...
...ve blacks that have to leave their native land. Later on in book two, the land is in reference to the whites’ partition of South Africa. The land is not depleted, but well tended; the openness and vitality of the land offer a sheer contrast to the depiction contained in book one. Paton symbolically portrays the destruction of the apartheid in the ownership of land.
Examples from history and Alan Paton’s novel show the social injustices that stems from the misrepresentation of ethnic groups in government. Minorities will continue to suffer political injustices day in and day out. In an ideal world, governments would enact policies that aligned with the needs of its constituents. Until this ideology becomes a reality, atrocities like apartheid and economic discrimination will continue to affect minority groups governed by fundamentally misrepresentative governments.
Does the government hold an unbiased opinion regardless of one’s race? Does the government treat everyone the same way and provide the oppressed the same equality that they do to the oppressor? Equality for everyone has always been a huge problem in our society, and this problem is still continuing, be it gender-wise, religion-wise, or race-wise. This book helps us answer this question, because it shows many instances where Peltier has been treated unjustly. From random beatings for no reason to prison guards urinating in his food, the book is littered with instances where his heritage becomes an issue. Although, Peltier compares this problem to colonialism, saying that “When colonized peoples attempt to resist their oppressors and defend themselves, we’re called the criminals. ” (Peltier, 44) It shows how the majority sees the problem with a biased view, and this view obstructs a true equality within our
Throughout American History, people of power have isolated specific racial and gender groups and established policies to limit their right to vote. These politicians, in desperate attempt to elongate their political reign, resort to “anything that is within the rules to gain electoral advantage, including expanding or contracting the rate of political participation.”(Hicks) Originally in the United States, voting was reserved for white, property-owning gentleman
majority, does not advance the cause of minorities in a meaningful way, and needs to be
Cry the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton is a novel inspired by the industrial revolution. Paton describes in detail the conditions in which the Africans were living during this time period, 1946. This story tells about a Zulu pastor who goes into the city in search of his son and siblings who left in search of a better life. The pastor sees this immense city where a ruling white group is oppressing the black population. This novel is more than just a story, but it depicts the effects imperialism and the Industrial Revolution had on South Africa. Although the government has intervened to protect the people, some of these effects are still present in our societies.
Fear and Redemption in Cry the Beloved Country & nbsp; Fear grips all black societies and is widespread not only among black people but also white people. An unborn child will inherit this fear and will be deprived of loving and relishing his country because the greater he loves his country, the greater will be his pain. Paton shows us this throughout this book, but at the same time he also offers deliverance from this pain. This, I believe, is the greater purpose of this book. & nbsp; When Stephen goes to Johannesburg, he has a childlike fear for "the great city" Johannesburg. Khumalo's fears about his family are exactly the same as every other black person in South Africa.
John Adams once said "You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." For many generations, our ancestors have fought for the right to vote. It started with the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which made it mandatory that white schools integrate black children into their institutions. The outcome of the 1964 election was a landslide, favoring the democrats, which broached the issue of civil rights legislation. In 1964 “only 7% of eligible black citizens in Mississippi were registered; in Alabama the figure was 20% (Kernell, et. al 2014, 162). The low voter turnout rate was because people of color were required to take a literacy test. This all changed when President Johnson
One great paradox of human life is the balance between security and independence. Many people would say that they are self-sustaining, that they can make it on their own. The question is not always whether or not they can make it, but what the cost of their security is. Some value their personal freedom more than their security, for others it is the opposite. In “Cry, the Beloved Country” characters often wrestle with this issue. Every character responds uniquely according to their situation. The results are meaningful and give information about who they really are and what they value.
Why We Need Voter ID Laws There have been several occasions throughout America’s history where voter fraud has changed the outcome of an election. For example, “a 2010 Kansas election ended with a one vote margin where 50 of the winning votes were cast illegally by citizens of Somalia (Hans Von Spankovsky).” Another example is when “a 1996 congressional race in California was almost overturned by hundreds of votes cast illegally by noncitizens (Hans Von Spankovsky).” Voter ID laws are a sensible precaution to voting.
When discussing discrimination of minority groups, we need to ensure we look at the past, present and future. Knowledge acts as the platform required to manipulate and present opinions and viewpoints. The world has seen this many time before. The media use its knowledge and people’s ignorance to present a story and spin it in a way that stirs emotions within a communal group. Knowledge has seen that many groups experience the fowl hand of discrimination by utilizing negative information to highlight flaws of a group of people. We have seen this right here in Australia between European settlers and the indigenous. We saw European take what they consider to be ‘normal’ and view something different and implement changes to suit their own set of views. ‘For the first group, a set of popular, religious and scientific beliefs in the inferiority of indigenous peoples was matched by a set of practices of exclusion, control and discrimination tantamount to physical and cultural genocide. (Castle, 1996.) You can also examine the Russian revolution in 1917. The socialist party used the Tsars poor decisions in order to persuade those with a less educated background to overthrow the tsarist regime. We continue to practice this again in our current position. The world's political leaders all have privileged knowledge which can then be used to sway the public's decision and impact not only on their own personal lives, but the lives of
IDs as a valid form of identification, nor can out of state students vote without a valid
In Cry, the beloved country, Alan Paton tells the story of his journey across Africa, his experiences with the colonized Africa, and the destruction of the beautiful, pre-colonialism native land of Africa. Heart of Darkness also tells the story of a man and his experiences with colonialism, but a man who comes from a different time period and a very different background than Alan Paton’s Stephen Kumalo. Although, both Joseph Conrad and Alan Paton portray the colonized areas as very negative, death filled, and sinful places, it is when one analyzes the descriptions of the native lands of Africa that the authors reasons for their disapproval of colonialism are truly revealed. When comparing the writing styles of Alan Paton and Joseph Conrad, their descriptions of the land and the people in both works reveal their different attitudes and views towards colonialism. While Paton and Conrad ultimately oppose colonialism, Paton is concerned with the disappearance of African tribal tradition, whereas Conrad is concerned with the perceived corruption of the white colonists.
The minority rights in a democratic society appear to even out with the majority rule in an unusual way. There are some incidents where the minority may have loss, but on the other hand won. For example, when Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat on that hot Alabama day, she stood up to the majority tyranny. The majority won by putting her in jail, however; the minority prevailed by establishing the civil rights movements.
What is politics? Throughout history, people have participated in politics on many different levels. They may have participated through a direct democracy, in which they directly governed, or they may have participated through a representative democracy, in which they participated by electing representatives. As citizens’, people have participated in politics to attain the things they needed or wanted, the valued things. Participation in politics has been the way that people have a voice and change the things that directly affect their lives. Throughout the course of history, politics has been the competition of ideas; they decide who gets what, when, where and how.
1. In a society that decides things on the basis of majority rule, is there a danger that the majority might ignore the legitimate concerns of minorities? What steps can be taken to protect minority rights?
Bibliography w/4 sources Cry , the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a perfect example of post-colonial literature. South Africa is a colonized country, which is, in many ways, still living under oppression. Though no longer living under apartheid, the indigenous Africans are treated as a minority, as they were when Paton wrote the book. This novel provides the political view of the author in both subtle and evident ways. Looking at the skeleton of the novel, it is extremely evident that relationship of the colonized vs. colonizers, in this case the blacks vs. the whites, rules the plot. Every character’s race is provided and has association with his/her place in life. A black man kills a white man, therefore that black man must die. A black umfundisi lives in a valley of desolation, while a white farmer dwells above on a rich plot of land. White men are even taken to court for the simple gesture of giving a black man a ride. This is not a subtle point, the reader is immediately stricken by the diversities in the lives of the South Africans.