In the short story, “The Moment Before the Gun Went Off”, written by Nadine Gordimer, many characters are extremely different whether it be from race, class, or gender. Although many of them are left feeling victimized due to an unintended shooting, which leaves this small town in disarray. As a result the community looks down negatively on the apartheid leaders for being racist toward black people. There are many times the narrator leaves us to make assumptions. Due to all of these contributing factors, the narrator can really show all of these scenarios through different lenses. Van der Vyver is the most victimized though, due to an accident in which he is now shamed by the community. Van der Vyver went through a lot in this short story,
Shootings at Kent State University What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia.
The deadliest school shooting to have ever happened in the United States at a high school or grade school, happened less than two years ago. On December 14th, 2012, Adam Lanza, who was twenty years old at the time, shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, four times and then brought firearms to his former grade school Sandy Hook Elementary, and fatally shot twenty children and six adults. Then the shooter put his own gun to his head and fatally shot himself. All of the children were between the ages of six and seven years old, and all six adults who were shot and killed were females who worked at the school. Lanza's father believed that if he were there himself, his son would have had no trouble shooting and killing him too. He also theorized that Adam shot his mother four times for each of them; himself, his mother, his father, and his brother. After the tragedy, the school was torn down and many gun-control debates heated up and schools greatly improved their security to prevent anymore potential attacks. To this day, the motive of Adam Lanza, is still unknown but the effects are still felt in the world today.
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
After reading the essay “The Ghetto Made Me Do It” written by Francis Flaherty, I thought differently about the situation than I had before hearing both sides of this tragic story. My perspective changed from being bias toward Felicia Morgan to feeling a sense of sympathy for her. However, regardless of what defense there is to this story, it does not change how ruthless and tragic this homicide actually was.
McCandless’s family and peers expect him to live life a certain way, to follow the family tradition, however, it is McCandless’s high social standards for himself, and his sharp view of right and wrong, that would define the blueprint of his tragic flaw that caused him to go into the wild. In High School, McCandless would start to show some of his radical ideas about how he could help fix society. McCandless’s high school buddies explained that “’ Chris didn’t like going through channels, working within the system.”’ (113) Instead, McCandless would often talk about leaving school to go South Africa to help end the apartheid. When his friends or adults responded by saying that you are only kids, or you can’t make a difference, McCandless would simply respond “so I guess you just don’t care about right and wrong ‘” (113). McCandless would grow to learn that hi...
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
In the article, Debrabander describes real events in the article that strongly supports the article’s argument and persuades the audience towards his point of view. For example, Debrander starts out the article by explaining the Dunn-Davis case, which was about a man, named Michael Dunn, who decided to “open fire into a car full of black teenagers in a convenience store parking lot” when the teenagers refused to lower the, as Dunn called it, “thug music” (Debrander 1). By starting the article with this event, Debrander is able to show the reader how teenageers are dying from becuase of this law. Since Debrander wants to make the situation feel even more severe, he continues by talking about the Reeves-Oulson case. Next, Debrander describes how a retired policeman, Curtis Reeves, shot Oulson, who was sitting in the movie theater, for texting and throwing...
This insulated environment of race-based protection helps to build white expectations for some sort of racial comfort, leading to what the author calls White Fragility. The concept of White Fragility refers to a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, inducing defensive moves, that might include violence as happened in the context of Marlow’s photograph (DiAngelo 56). The protester in the photo was manifesting his desire for an equal society, where blacks and white could have equal treatment and opportunities, but he was oppressed with violence. By using DiAngelo’s lens, it is possible to affirm that the white cops felt threatened by the possibility of having to face a society where their race was no longer the dominant, and therefore they reacted with violence. The “racial stress” in which the white people are usually protected by the environment of the American society came up and the consequence was the intolerance with which the cops reacted. Besides violence, the reactions might include the display of emotions like fear, guilt, and anger, and behaviors such as silence, argumentation and leaving the situation that induces stress (DiAngelo58). This explains the lack of action of the cops that surrounded the police officer that assaulted the black man, since they acted with silence, another consequence of the racial stress. Therefore, it is now clear that the photograph, which was taken in London and at first glance seems to address a British issue, expands its representation to an American problem, and perfectly reflects the racism that is still present in American popular culture. Clearly, this racism is a consequence of the threat which racial equality would bring for white
One might define the relations between police and community relations in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto to be very discriminating. The start of the film already gives some insight on the issue which the film is trying to portray. A coloured man’s is being harassed because the police do not think that he has ownership for the van to which he claimed he owned. The police were violating his rights and treating him in an impolite manner simply because of the standard that has been set, claiming that all coloured individuals are violent and dangerous. This is also the case because the film has been recorded in the Jane and Finch area; where people are looked down upon and regarded as dangerous, violent and unemployed.
He creates this tone to convey his purpose to the reader which is that prejudice is still an ongoing problem in American society, and that it will never be a thing of the past. Staples gives many personal anecdotes that are very somber; the readers are affected by this because they can emphasize and feel the prejudice that the victim, Brent Staples, faces. Although Staples is never delighted with the positions he is in, he never shows his resentment. In one part of the article, Staples said, “It is not altogether clear to me how I reached the ripe old age of twenty-two without being conscious of the lethality nighttime pedestrians attributed to me.” (Staples, 2). Staples attributes that he knows many people in American society automatically assume that he is a threat to “their” society because of
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
Through the film “In the Heat of the Night” racial tensions are high, but one character, the Chief of Police, Gillespie overcomes racial discrimination to solve a murder. The attitudes that he portrays in the film help us understand the challenges in changing attitudes of Southern white town towards the African Americans living there.
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
While Wilkins was studying at the university, there was a brutal lynching of a black man in Duluth, Minnesota. The episode had a profound effect on the dire...
In Johannesburg, Stephen Kumalo is shocked by things he has never seen before: “Johannesburg mfundisi. He sees great high buildings, there are red and green lights on them, almost as tall as the buildings. They go on and off. Water comes out of a bottle, till the glass is full.”(47). Kumalo is surprised by this new environment. Subsequently, this is the reason Paton chose Stephen as a village person going to the big city of Johannesburg. Stephen gets more surprises of penalties due to injustice as a result of racial conflict. “Many of these rooms were the hide-outs for thieves and robbers, and there was much prostitution and brewing of illicit liquor.”() Kumalo is briefed on the severity of poverty and crime in these areas of Johannesburg. Stephen learns some of the penalties of racial injustice. The racism impacted of the people of the city has caused them to crumble and fall into crime and poverty.