How do you explain the disenfranchisement of southern blacks during the 1890’s? What measures did whites enact to prevent blacks from voting?…
A police-involved shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has begun to make headlines across the world, and because the case is in its very beginning stages, it is a perfect case study in how social media platforms like Twitter have become an Institutional Left manipulation of how a story works. Already, protests have begun in Baton Rouge, and the story is making headlines in the liberal world order mouthpieces like the New York magazine, The Huffington Post, BBC and Al Jazeera.…
extensively analyzes more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times from 1981 to 1991. The incidents include but are not limited to those defined as "police brutality". Lawrence reveals the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and allow police to define most use-of-force incidents, which occur in far greater numbers than are reported, she says. Lawrence explores the dilemma of obtaining critical media perspectives on policing policies. She examines the factors that made the coverage of the Rodney King beating so significant, particularly after the incident was captured on video.…
The importance of making critical evaluations of news stories come to play in the recent story about the Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case. This is a story about a young black teenager and a neighborhood watchman that shot and killed young Trayvon. Many news stations reported the story showing pictures of both of them that had been taken years prior to the actual event. Trayvon’s pictures showed him as an innocent boy and Zimmerman as upset and angry in a much earlier mug shot. The media also showed bias to both these individuals and seemed to be concerned with sensationalism, rather than finding out the true facts in the case. The concern they showed at the time the story broke, appeared to be geared towards selling the story and building the story into a racially motivated incident. The news was not completely clear or accurate and the investigative methods were not sufficient in either depth or breadth. The stories promoted the idea that Trayvon was an innocent young black kid who just happened to be out late at night and that Zimmerman was just looking to act as judge, jury and executioner. The pictures of George Zimmerman seemed to promote prejudice and negative emotions from the audience. They used bias in the news by deliberately ignoring more current pictures of both these individuals. Many of the news channels seemed to deliberately ignore the truth of the story regarding what type of people both Trayvon and George were. A mug shot of a younger angry looking Zimmerman and a more recent picture shows Zimmerman in a dress coat and tie with him clearly smiling shows a distinct disregreard for truthful reporting and bias in reporting. The news clearly chose to ignore any alternative perspectives in regards to this story. The stories focused on accusing Zimmerman of being an angry, trigger happy watchman who took it upon himself to deliver justice without waiting for the police to show…
The civil rights movement of the 1960s and the 1970s transformed not only how ethnic and racial groups identified themselves, but also how the world perceived these actions and identities. Voices that were hardly heard of prior to the 1960s, such as the Native Indian and the Asian American narratives, finally had the platform to demand change. The media of the time was the linkage institution that bridged the social movements to the general public. The media form of newspapers, have the power to either further or suppress the efforts of social justice movements through the diction, tone, and type of evidence being conveyed. In this media literacy analysis, I will compare and contrast the coverage of the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 and the Asian American police brutality protest of 1975 in Chinatown, New York, by…
A cartoon, drawn by Kevin Siers, represents the real life conflict between police officers and the black lives matter movement. In this cartoon, the artist displays two people, one being a police officer, and one being an African American citizen. In this debate there are strong feelings on both sides for different reasons, a quote from the huffington post, “Instead of feeling protected by police, many African Americans are intimidated and live in daily fear that their children will face abuse, arrest, and death at the hands of police officers who may be acting on implicit biases or institutional policies based on stereotypes and assumptions of black criminality” (Boboltz). Another quote from the African American Defense League, “Attack everything in blue except the mail man” (Tuttle). These two quotes shows there is violence involved and in many cases it’s a few out of many that cause an unwanted stereotypes for a whole group.…
Many people believe that police brutality in America is a problem. Others have a different thought on the matter. People believe that it is a problem because of what they see in the news and media. They only see one side of the story, not both sides. People only think that colored people get killed by police officers, but that's not the case at all. People always bring race into the killings and say “The white officer shot the man because he was black”. They don't look at both sides of the story. They only see and know what the media shows them. Some protests in the past turned violent and the police had to come in and control the protesters. Just this year someone was so fed up with cops killing black people that during black lives matter…
As of late more and more attention has been directed towards some unsavory police actions towards the black community. This is in direct relation to A Lesson before Dying. In A Lesson before Dying Jefferson, an uneducated black male is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit and thrown into jail for it. He receives a death sentence and loses all self-worth. In relation to current police brutality incidents some officers have been unjustly killing black citizens and not being sent to jail but instead on paid leave. Many never get convicted of their crimes, even with video evidence, but that only fuels protestors. This has led to a heavy divide between citizens and their police, similar to…
Throughout the years African Americans have struggled with obtaining justice and protecting their rights. However, the conflict seems to be even greater today. In the past decade multiple stories about the unjustified death of an African American has occurred. Police brutality is very popular amongst these cases. In each case the race card was also pulled, causing a lot of controversy between blacks and whites. Violent protests took place and resulted in chaos. Instead of solving the problem these acts created bigger ones.…
The article “The Media Underestimate Police Brutality” by Michael Novick opens with the following expression “Don't trust everything you read in the papers.” This article illustrates how the media portrays police brutality. Novick believes that police brutality is an epidemic and not an aberration. This article contains many well made points, but it is biased, has unsupported evidence, and too many facts that are not needed.…
Daniella Simon, a research journalist at Rutgers University, says that by analysing 105 articles about police brutality, she found that the victims were cast as threats to our society and demonized while the police officers were being subtly glorified by including iconic images of officers and highlighting how the officer was before the shooting. The media will paint a picture of the offender that highlights the ups of their life. “He got his masters degree in education” or “He was a great family man”. The media is essentially victim blaming. They might as well say “How dare you be shot and cost this man his…
In the United States, the media has contributed in the development of various divisions within the black community because it portrays them as criminals (Garner, 2012). Most of them make an honest living and do not want to be associated with every crime that happens across the country. Americans have been made to believe that a crime is based on race. This has affected the fight against racism in the country, as many white Americans argue that they tend to feel unsafe around members of the black community (Colbran, 2014). The misrepresentation by the media has also contributed to the public losing trust in the law enforcement agencies. It has portrayed police officers as incompetent, inhuman, and overly insensitive to the safety of the people they are supposed to…
One of the most dramatic demographic events that had a significant change in America would be the Great Migration. It had to do with the moving of 6 million of African American from the southern hemisphere of the united states to the northern hemisphere around the time of the 20th century. To better explain this event in American history it would be best to start with the chain of events that caused it in the first place. That starting point would have to be the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. This was an announcement that was laid out to say that if any state if not by the start of the 1863 that is in rebellion would have all there slaves declared…
Racial disparities among African Americans aren’t the only problematic race in America. Latinos are also runner up in racial problems. US health racial disparities have been neglected despite the fact that Latino communities range from mixes of all different other races. This researched compared the mortality rate among Latin Americans and other races in the United States. Most Latin Americans are immigrants, so they are unable to receive the best health benefits if even any at all. Most of the disparity has come from mostly birth problems (i.e. low birth weight, maternal infections, and smoking.)Just like the Black race, “weathering” has been a high risk for Latinos. Psychological and environmental stressors cause a high risk of health problems.…
African Americans have fought for their right too vote since they landed on American soil and the film American Blackout reminds us they are still fighting for that right today.…