Officer Richard F. Webb was a white police officer working in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Richard graduated from the Police Academy of Chicago back in 1994. He was born and raised in Southside Chicago, a gang infested neighborhood. Buildings with chipped paint and shattered windows towered over the streets littered with garbage. Every corner was scattered with young black men, bodies imprinted with symbols of their respective gangs. The smell of cigars and alcohol hung heavily in the air. This part of Chicago was regarded as “Chi-Raq”. The Webb family was the one white family in all of Southside.…
Just Walk On By In 1986, a 35 year old Brent Staples published Black Men and Public Spaces in Ms. Magazine. Through several personal experiences and analysis he discusses the causes and effects of the dangerous perception of black men. Displaying both perspectives of a white peoples’ fears, and a black man’s reaction, his essay opened the discussion for greater understanding. More importantly he reveals the mutual danger when “fear and weapons meet and they often do in urban America”, the “possibility of death” is likely for either side.…
As Marquette University’s Mission Week focusing on “Racial Justice: Black, White, and the Call of the Church” comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the meaning of racial justice, as well as how to properly engage in this difficult topic in the city of Milwaukee. I had the opportunity to expand my knowledge while viewing the film Milwaukee 53206, which focuses on one of our community’s poorest zip codes as well as the nation’s most incarcerated zip code. The social ills of this area are not just a result of one issue, but multiple issues within the community including the average yearly income, socioeconomic status, quality of life and family relationships, and other social determinants.…
“A Report from Occupied Territory” by James Baldwin paints a vivid picture of the relationship between blacks and white police officers in the 1960’s. This article exposes the lack of social tolerance for the negro during this time. In the article, Baldwin states “… the police are simply the hired enemies of this population. They are present to keep the Negro in his place and to protect white business interests…” This statement reflects the bitterness many black people felt towards policeman during this time.…
Something that I thought about while reading these chapters was, in essence, what it meant to “mass distribute” a thing like “justice.” More pointedly speaking I wondered not only what defines “justice,” or who; and not only what it means “to keep the peace” in a neighborhood (for that matter)—but how the practice of doing so can be institutionalized and mass distributed through a police force, as was discussed around the beginning of this section of Ghettoside. ---------------------- I wondered all this, namely because of the fact that the author talked about how police officers were being sent to “high crime” areas, whether or not a crime had been reported. They were sent to these areas to “be proactive” and “suppress,” and to engage…
Jill Lepore quoted what one the two black kids in Port Clinton told Mr. Putman, the black kid said “Your then was not my then, and your now isn’t even my now.”(Lepore 4). She is using the rhetoric of Pathos to show the racism and the discrimination that was directed towards the two black kids in Mr. Putman's class and how they endure hardship in Port Clinton. Racism is the biggest trivial to inequality in the United State of America. The police brutality towards the black since Mr. Putman childhood till now has made a great insight on how the future will looks like, a future of pain and turmoil, the land of peace will become a soil of bloodshed because the Negros will strike to their last blood to accomplish the brutality that the police has started. The current report about the black sniper who shot five police dead during the black lives matters parade in Dallas show the beginning of the decline of the so called greatest nation,…
In the media, black people and black men in particular are villainized and portrayed as disturbed and violent individuals. Statistics of incarceration and crime rates are often cited in rhetoric debasing the black community. Yet in just a few pages, Ta-Nehisi Coates expertly dissects how America’s institutionalized racism and eagerness to turn a blind eye to social issues contributes to the hostile environment many black people occupy in his book Between the World and Me. In his book he talks about the difficulties of being raised in an impoverished and violent neighborhood and his realization that these conditions are remnants of America’s history - such as the over-policing of black Americans and police brutality, which breeds fear and feelings…
Today, the number of deaths including black people in custody has continued and black people are disproportionally stopped and searched on streets. After the case of Macpherson life for the black community was expected to change, however to some it is known that the changes have been extremely disappointing. Black people feel they are less likely to get a decent job, they feel they are treated disproportionally by police, by being stopped and searched and within communities (Janet et al,…
In addition, the rudimentary purpose of the police is fostered by governmental authority with the intention of protecting, and maintaining a sense of security. Therefore the death of black men in the hands of police officers is something that is common today. Coates and others did not have the ability to accommodate themselves and better their safety, because they didn’t own the streets. Consequently, “Jones was murdered by the men who should have been his security guard.” (Coates, pg 90)…
During the 21st century around the time period when there was racial discrimination, an American journalist and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote “Letter to Son” to seek that it is easy to destroy black bodies through abuse and violence , claiming America’s racist history created a government system that oppresses and murders the black community.To support his claim Coates talks about the police brutality in today’s society and laws that have been placed , but not enforced.In “Letter to son” by Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes Pathos and Metaphors to reveal It is easy to destroy black bodies through abuse and violence…
Charles explained the inequalities treatment that Black people received by the police force that lead to many social movements. Social movements like Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name is some of the few that civilian used to get justice for the Black victims that have been killed by police officer. These incidents have raised much concern about the tactics and the treatments that police force have toward Black people. Black people often experiencing violence force and threaten at gunpoint whenever they got stop by the police. Moreover, poor black neighborhoods are the main area that most arrests are made and where many Black children are experiencing police force for a random crime.…
The streets of Chicago have always been riddled with gang violence and poverty in African American communities. Dominic A. Pacyga’s novel Chicago: A Biography explores the obstacles faced by blacks during the evolving of Chicago through accounts of public housing, street gangs, education, and juvenile delinquency. The film There Are No Children Here tells the story of two boys growing up in a housing project in Chicago infested with crime and a shortage of money, guidance, and tranquility. Knowledge of the struggles of the residents of Chicago, in particular African Americans, is essential to the history of the city. Were these struggles possibly dreams deferred? Both Pacyga’s novel and the film There Are No Children Here convey the trials and tribulations of the African Americans who made their homes in Chicago years ago. However, Pacyga displays a bird’s eye view while the film provides a front row seat to African American struggles in the evolving Chicago.…
This is a sad reality that unfortunately exists in society; that is, the act of racial profiling which is an inherent form of discrimination. In spite of this negative life trajectory, many of the interviewees used the film as an opportunity to have their voices heard regarding what really happens in the inner city—not all African-Americans amongst other minorities possess illegal firearms or drugs and are out to cause crime and…
In 2016, there have been many cases of alleged police brutality against people of color, who King refers to as “negroes”. Both then and now, all minorities, not just “negroes”,…
In this Chapter, the author introduces his backstory and the way people react around him despite the fact that he is a Harvard professor. Many of the residents in his building get nervous because he is black when he rides the elevator with them. However, despite the fact that he is discriminated against when he is out of his suits, he states that he cannot blame them for being nervous around him. Due to the criminal and violent history that African Americans have today, as well as the media portrayal of African Americans, many people get a pre conceived racist notion of how all black males are. Wilson thoroughly explains that because of the changing society, racial inequality has continued. “In the last several decades, almost all of the improvements in…