For long, the black Race has existed in America but being prejudged by the white race has caused loss of many black lives and created a feeling of insecurity in the black society.…
In “Why Black Lives Matter Resonates” Leonard Pitts states his belief that Martin Luther King Jr. would be happy with the “Black Lives Matter” campaign because it is beneficial for African-Americans. Pitts writes about the counter campaign, “All Lives Matter,” as being a disgrace to the civil rights movement, and concurring that Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn’t be a part of it. I cannot agree with Leonard Pitts’ conclusion that King would be completely for “Black Lives Matter” and not completely for “All Lives Matter” because I believe if King were here today he would be advocating for equality of all people.…
The thesis of Brent Staples written piece, “ Black Men And Public Space” to me states that in America for a long time, we as black men had to deal with racial issues for a long time in this nations most disgraceful time period, slavery. Feeling like a criminal all the time is not a good feeling, as he stated, a white woman made him feel as if he was a mugger or a rapist and “that being perceived as dangerous is a hazard in itself”. This is a chapter in America’s history I know they wished never happened.…
In “Black Men and Public Space” Brent Staples utilizes anecdotes or stories as a literary technique to convey by prejudice affected him in his career and as a person in his everyday life. Early on in his anecdote, he sets the scene and utilizes descriptive language to evokes a feeling or nervousness and uncertainty from the reader. However, he also creates a situation where the reader feels compassion for him. It is evident that women and men pre-judged him based on his race. Although not everyone can feel sympathetic towards him, the reader should definitely feel compassionate.…
Among all the emotions people have, the most multifarious is fear because fear can be spread much faster than most emotions. Literally, people define fear “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat ”. However, the delusion of endangerment can cause racism of misunderstanding. Particularly, Most people identify fear based on their stereotyping, prejudice and bias. In “Black Men in Public Spaces”, Brent Staples describes how skin color could cause bias in people and how he, a black man , had to moderate his behavior to accommodate them. He uses vivid illustration about the prejudices and unfair judgement…
It all began with Trayvon Martin, a young black man who was shot and killed by officer George Zimmerman. Trayvon was a 17-year-old student who lived in Miami Gardens, Florida. He was fatally shot by Zimmerman back in 2012 and according to CNN, the U.S. Justice Department declared that federal civil charges were not brought against the crimes of George Zimmerman. This being said Black Lives Matter is often misinterpreted by others as a terrorist group that believes that black lives are far more important than any other racial group. The black lives movement is to raise awareness for the equality of the lives of these visible minorities. “Police killed at least 346 black people in the U.S. in 2015” (Mapping Police Violence). This clearly demonstrates how privileged white police officers use their authority to kill defenceless and harmless African Americans. Why should members of the black community have to walk down the streets in fear? Why should members of the black community have to protest for equality in 2016? Why should members of the black community be labelled as “violent” and shot even when unarmed? Modern society has…
In Psychology, “learned helplessness” is considered a mental state where an organism has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even though it may have the power to change the harmful and unpleasant circumstances. American psychologist Martin Seligman has linked this psychological condition to clinical depression and has even considered it a mental illness. Recently in the media, a movement called Black Lives Matter has been nationally recognized. It began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an African-American teenager. Between 2014 and 2016, several African American men have been shot and killed by police officers, which in turn has sparked several Black Lives Matter protests across the country. The Black Lives Matter campaign has transformed from a public outcry into a national movement, for the entire world to see.…
Based on Brent staples talk, the black lives matter movement is justified. It is justified because black male and female lives are very unfair, there are many differences created between people based on their color of skin. In Brent’s essay he states, “After dark on the warrenlike streets where i live, i often see women who fear the worst for me.” The quote from Brent’s essay is an example is an example of a black male doing nothing wrong, doing the same the same thing as everyone else in the town, he’s just walking around minding his own business and he is getting judged for it. In Ted talk is is stated that the saying “Black lives matter” isn’t saying black lives are the only…
To maintain a free society and prosper within our American version, peaceful resistance to laws made by our legislative government are imperative not only to uphold our nation's Constitution but to the people's unalienable right to free speech. The American Republic was conceived in revolution and resistance to legislature. A plethora of the original framers of the Constitution were soldiers and essential leaders of the American Revolution; these citizens fought for our new Republic during the war and absorbed its political ideology. The Declaration of Independence, brought to life by Thomas Jefferson, said that the document was simply an "expansion of the American mind." He wrote that it is the "Right of the people to alter or abolish" any government, and institute a new one that would better secure their safety and happiness, which alludes to a positively-impacted free society we now take pride in today.…
Black masculinity itself is a subject that in the recent years has come under scrutiny for its portrayal of the black male as violent, aggressive and oversexualised and disregarding them as emotional fully realised individuals. Due to the influence of the media in mainstream society these representations have become negative stereotypes attributed to African American men preventing them from truly discovering their identity out of the gaze of white America. With movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement (2013) created in response to the highly publicised killings of African Americans as well as their treatment at the hands of law enforcement ;also the BBDC 'Black Boys Don’t Cry "a project designed to deconstruct the ideals of black…
Futterman, Chaclyn Hunt, and Jamie Kalven offer a unique perspective to the issue of mass incarceration and highlight how police brutality have motivated more youth to join movements like Black Lives Matter. The article focuses on how injustices black people in the United States relating to criminal justice have influenced “young people who insist on remaining visible, on being heard, and on placing issues of police accountability in the larger context of the structural inequalities and exclusion.” This rise in activism within the youth is a result of how the black community is viewed within the criminal justice system. Throughout the article, the authors…
The black lives matter movement is aimed to help a group of people find liberation in society that has kept them silent in the past years. This movement began with the killing of Trayvon Martin and eventually become popular with the series of unfortunate events that came after. Unfortunately many people of these minority communities have become victims of police violence but this has also only helped communities from all over the states come together as one. The purpose of the black lives matter movement is to call for a society that anti-black racism will no longer be tolerated. Community members are torn and disheartened by the structures created in society that has made it okay to judge and discriminate against others because of race or…
As one of the largest grassroots movements in the country, Black Lives Matter is a reaction to the dehumanization of Black people, a call to action against societal and institutional racism, as well as a rebuild of the narrow, conventional liberation movements that too often marginalized women, queer, trans, disabled and undocumented immigrants from within the movement. As such, it does not limit its scope to the alarmingly high poverty, incarceration and extrajudicial killing rates, but it includes grievances specific to those that usually take the back seat in those movements. Black Lives Matter calls for society as a whole to end racial discrimination, to acknowledge the contribution of Black people to it, but also for Black folks and their…
In his article “Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples argues that people change their behaviors due to their assumptions when a Black man is present and I agree with Brent Staples. For instance, when Brent Staples was going to work the security called on him” One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken for a burglar. ”(paragraph 8) I have experienced this before, when I and my aunt went to go get some food there was an African American man walking to get some food and the people quickly rolled their windows up and seem to be really scared.…
In the article Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, the author is writing to inform the reader that people receive stereotypical views based on race. He uses pathos rhetoric to convey the central idea that those being stereotyped face life difficulites and challenges because of these labels. What this means is common stereotypes can become life altering and greatly impact people's lives. The author is trying to generalize facts and events to explain these stereotypical views to those who may have never faced it, or to sympathize with those who have.…