Women's March And The Black Lives Matter Analysis

In 1891 philosopher Oscar Wilde observed that humanity’s greatest virtue is disobedience. Throughout history, we have used disobedience to change what we know as the way of life such as social norms. Disobedience promotes the need for social progress. Marches, stand-ins, and other protests are peaceful and common ways of disobeying society’s set morals. Today we have the Women's March and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The Women’s March, which took place April 21, 2017, was an international example of the people’s unity against misogyny in modern society. Women marched because they believed that enough time has passed without women gaining the same human rights as white men in the modern world. Meanwhile, the BLM movement battles against police brutality among the targeted people of color. The deaths that sparked this movement was caused by the stigma surrounding the belief that “all black people are violent, drug addicted criminals.” The BLM movement believes that the brutality exerted by the police officers involved in the deaths of
black people without a reason. Both of these public examples have brought forth societal advancements in response. The BLM movement has resulted in body cameras becoming a mandatory accessory to the uniforms of many police officers that provide an alibi for the officer and the victim and the Women’s march united the people on the international level to defend women’s rights. Mass disobedience against a single party is displayed through revolution.
The American Revolution, for example, began when the people of the American-British colonies grew intolerant of the demands given by King George III and their lack of freedom to decide. To combat the oppressive rule of King George III, the people of the Americas revolted against the iron fist of the king and declared themselves an independent nation separate from Great Britain. As an independent nation, the founding fathers designed a democratic system built on the belief that the average person should have a say in their government unlike the monarchy they detached themselves from. Today, the democratic system created by the Americans still stands tall today. Democracy is now the primary government system in 123 countries out of 192 countries today, becoming the primary government of most of the world’s major powers instead of
monarchies. Lastly, we can disobey on a personal level to make a statement against what others believe. Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett Till, decided to hold an open casket funeral for her son after he was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi in the summer of 1955. The funeral home that was holding the mangled body of Emmett Till was instructed by the authority in Mississippi that he was not to open the casket for the funeral. Mamie Till opened the casket because she wanted to see what happened to her son. After viewing the mutilated body, she decided that she wanted to have an open-casket funeral for her son so the world could see the extent in which the south’s racism would go and that the people down in the southern parts of America would go to protect their views. The death Emmett Till and the ruling of his murder trial is what sparked the Civil Rights movement in America. Mamie Till believed that there should be justice served for the death of her innocent son and that the extent of the south’s racism was too far. Compared to the 1950’s and the 1960’s, black Americans today don’t face as strong as a racist prejudice as they did then, but the racism Mamie Till wished would end still exists. Everyone wants change, so we disobey what is believed to be set in stone to make it happen. Some of us are more willing to make a stand to change the norms of society than others.