Brutality And Inequality In United States - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2085 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/04/02 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Black Lives Matter Essay Did you like this example? In the United States, 72.4% percent of the population is Caucasian and 12.6% are African American, as found on worldpopulationreview.com. The difference between the two percentages is 59.8%. But why is this information useful, you may ask? Well, because African Americans are often oppressed by their white counterparts. We see news about African Americans being shot by police officers or White citizens in self defense. African Americans are being racially profiled in their daily lives, resulting in the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black Lives Matter is a necessary movement because of the brutality and inequality African Americans endure. The Black Lives Matter, also known as BLM, is an organization that is chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes (blacklivesmatter.com). This movement was formed after the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old African American. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Brutality And Inequality In United States" essay for you Create order Since the Black Lives Movement, there has been an increase in awareness of racial profiling, resulting in prison and worse, death. According to Google, racial profiling is defined as the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. Black Lives Matter: A Call to Action for Counseling Psychology Leaders, written by Candice Hargons, talks about the Black Lives Matter movement and racial injustice. She writes in the article that in 2015 Black people were killed at more than twice the rate of non-Latino white people, and Black men were nine times more likely to die at the hands of police officers(Hargons 875). In the same year, statistics also showed that police shot and killed 36 unarmed black males, as in Nationwide, police shot and killed nearly 1,000 people in 2017 by John Sullivan. In Nikole Hannah-Jones article called, Taking Freedom: Yes, Black American fears the Police. Heres Why, she talks about an incident in her local town involving a mentally ill man and two officers. At the height of the BLM, tensions were high and many African Americans were upset and hurt with all of the killings. The mentally ill man shot two police officers, making matters worse. As Nikole and her husband, both African American, went to the precinct where the two officers worked, and was not greeted by the officers at the front desk, They were only acknowledged after her husband broke the silence. The very next day, she drove by the precinct again and saw metal barricades as well as two helmeted officers [that] stood sentry out front, gripping big black assault rifles, and watching. The officers werent the re to protect the city or the people, they were standing outside to protect themselves (Hannah-Jones). This action goes to show that they believe that African Americans were going to cause another crime. Philip Smith, the president of the National African-American Gun Association, feels the stereotype that African Americans receive. Smith said, When you walk up to a situation as an officer, I think a lot of times theres an assumption that the black guy is the issue or the problem, Smith said. When you have those stereotypes that are ingrained in your mind, it can be a death warrant for a lot of our black men, unfortunately (Eligon) BLM was first organized after an African American 17-year old named Trayvon Martin was fatally shot while on the way to the local convenience store to buy a drink and sweets in Sanford, Florida. What happened the night Trayvon Martin died written by Greg Botelho, goes into further detail about the night of the incident. His shooter, George Zimmerman was assigned to be the head volunteer neighborhood watch after there was an increase in crime in the neighborhood. According to Trayvon Martin Biography, the teenager was staying with his father and his girlfriend after he was given a school suspension for the third time. The night that Martin was shot, he was wearing a black hoodie, with the hoodie over his head. Reports show that Zimmerman called the local police to report about a guy that looks like hes up to no good, or hes on drugs or something. Its raining, and hes just walking around, and was told to stay in the vehicle he was in (Botelho). Instead of staying in the vehicle, Zimmer man decided to take matters into his own hands and confront the young teen. No one truly knows what happened during the confrontation, however, as we know, it lead to the death of Trayvon Martin. Once the public heard about this shooting, tables turned and they werent happy. Zimmerman was initially not charged with murder as he said it was self-defense, but it wasnt until a public outcry that Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter (Botelho). An incident similar to the killing of Trayvon Martin is the shooting of Jordan Davis, also a 17-year old African American boy. According to an article written by Kristal Brent Kook called, The Lessons of Jordan Daviss Murder, Revisited Jordan Davis and 3 of his friends stopped at a gas station to purchase gum and cigarettes before heading to the local mall on November 23, 2012. Davis and his friends were approached by 45-year old Michael Dunn, who was in a vehicle with his fiance. Dunn and his fiance were in the Jacksonville area to attend his sons wedding. The 45-year old has asked the teenagers to turn down the music in their car as it was loud. Initially, they did turn down the music. However, Davis was tired of people telling me what to do, and turned the music back up. Davis and Dunn exchanged words, cursing and yelling at each other. According to the testimony of Davis friends Dunn asked, Are you talking to me? again putting his car window down. Youre not going to talk to me th at way. Dunn then took matters into his own hands by reaching into his glove compartment for a pistol then fired ten shots into the boys car. As much as Dunn had been upset about the situation, there was no need to fire 10 shots at a vehicle with 4 young teens. While in court, Dunns fiance Rouer recalls him telling her that he ..hate[d] that thug music. Dunn then goes on to say that he wouldve never said thug music, instead, he wouldve said rap crap. Dunn was later found guilty and sentenced 75 years in prison without parole (Kook). A recent incident that has caught attention of the public happened on Thanksgiving in a Birmingham, Alabama mall. According to Black Man Killed by Officer in Alabama Mall Shooting Was Not the Gunman, Police Now Say by Mihir Zaveri, shoppers were making their way around the store, enjoying the extended hours and Black Friday deals stores had to offer. It was then around 9:52 p.m. when there were reports of gunshots. By the time the altercation was done, 21-year old Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was fatally shot by the police who responded to the scene. It was first reported by the Hoover Police Department on Twitter that Bradford may have been involved [with the shooting] in some aspect (Zaveri) However, it was later then found that Bradford was not involved with the shooting. As the incident happened just recently, not much information has been released about. however, according to an article written by Daniel Victor called Black Man Killed by Police in Alabama Was Shot From Behind , Autopsy Shows his family said, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. pulled out a gun and rushed to protect shoppers. Witnesses of the incident later confirmed this and commented that Bradford, was directing shoppers to safety (Victor). When autopsy reports came out, it showed that he was running away [from the scene] and posed no threat to the officer who shot him (Victor). This shows the stereotype that police officers have on African Americans. The officers should have questioned Bradford first before firing shots that would ultimately end his life. Living in the United States, African Americans fear for their lives. The reason why African Americans are fearing for their lives is because young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police than young white men as well as face ongoing everyday slights and indignities at the hands of police (Hannah-Jones). The likelihood of a black man being shot is just way too high, higher than it should be. Compared to an African American, the chances of a White person to be shot is 2.9 out of a million, less than 1%. A majority of the White people do not know how privileged they are, something called white privilege. According to Urban Dictionary, white privilege is the perceived societal privilege that benefits people whom society identifies as white. As they unconsciously have this privilege, they do not have to worry about being stopped at a traffic stop or be scared for their lives on the streets of their town. White people, by and large, do not know what it is like to be occupied by a police force. They dont understand it because it is not the type of policing they experience (Hannah-Jones). Black Lives Matter started out as a hashtag that was initially used after the death of Trayvon Martin to show anger and injustice. The hashtag was used on many social media sites, but was predominately used on Twitter. Rashawn Ray wrote an article called, Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown on Twitter: #BlackLivesMatter, #TCOT, and the evolution of Collective identities to talk about the correlation social media has to the BLM. In the article, it states Twitter was an echo chamber to the movement. Echo chambers lead to territorial desegregation, polarization, and isolation and highlight how people obtain and use information to build communities where their majority position is represented (Ray 1799). The movement also refers to an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally target for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppress ion'(qoted by Garza, 877). As much as BLM protests and promotes equality, and injustice, they also strive to reduce internalized racism and its consequences. They promote self-love, collective efficacy, increased joy, as well as resilience (Hargons). With all of this information, we can not say that there is no brutality and inequality that African Americans are faced with on a daily basis. As all of these incidents are happening to African Americans, it makes one wonder what would happen if roles were reversed. What wouldve happened if Trayvon Martin was a white teenager? What if Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was a white male carrying a gun, trying to help innocent people escape? If Michael Dunn was 45-year old African American man shooting at 4 teenage Caucasian boys listening to pop music (Zook)? Would the events be handled in a different way? Citations Botelho, Greg. What Happened the Night Trayvon Martin Died. CNN, Cable News Network, 23 May 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/justice/florida-teen-shooting-details/index.html. Eligon, John. An Alabama Mall Shooting, a Black Mans Death, and a Debate Over Race andGuns. The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Nov. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/alabama-mall-shooting.html?rref=collection%2Ftimest opic%2FPolice%2BBrutality%2Band%2BMisconduct. Hannah-Jones, Nikole. Taking Freedom: Yes, Black America Fears the Police. Heres Why.Pacific Standard, Pacific Standard, 10 Apr. 2018,psmag.com/social-justice/why-black-america-fears-the-police. Hargons, Candice, et al. Black Lives Matter: A Call to Action for Counseling Psychology Leaders. The Counseling Psychologist, vol. 45, no. 6, 2017, pp. 873901. Ray, Rashawn, et al. Ferguson and the Death of Michael Brown on Twitter:#BlackLivesMatter, #TCOT, and the Evolution of Collective Identities. Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 40, no. 11, 2017, pp. 17971813. Trayvon Martin. Biography.com, AE Networks Television, 1 Aug. 2018, www.biography.com/people/trayvon-martin-21283721. Sullivan, John, et al. Nationwide, Police Shot and Killed Nearly 1,000 People in 2017. The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Jan. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nationwide-police-shot-and-killed-nearly-1000- people-in-2017/2018/01/04/4eed5f34-e4e9-11e7-ab50-621fe0588340_story.html?utm_term=.0ee927334212. Victor, Daniel. Black Man Killed by Police in Alabama Was Shot From Behind, Autopsy Shows. The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2018,www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/us/alabama-mall-shooting-autopsy.html. Zaveri, Mihir. Black Man Killed by Officer in Alabama Mall Shooting Was Not the Gunman, Police Now Say. The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Nov. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/us/alabama-mall-shooting.html?rref=collection%2Ftimest opic%2FPolice%2BBrutality%2Band%2BMisconduct. Zook, Kristal Brent. The Lessons of Jordan Daviss Murder, Revisited. The Nation, 21 Nov.2015, www.thenation.com/article/the-lessons-of-jordan-daviss-murder-revisited/.

The Effects Of Victorian Society s Unrealistic...

This source is an essay examining how Wilde shows â€Å"the impact of Victorian society’s unrealistic expectations of the individual† in both The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the article, she talks about gender roles and societal expectations along with the ways characters in the play conform to or reject them. Although the essay is written by a student at McKendree University, the writing is not difficult to understand. This essay is well-documented and seems unbiased. I can use this information when analyzing the ways Wilde challenges Victorian conventions in my essay. In this article, the author discusses gender roles in The Importance of Being Earnest by examining the â€Å"social implications and power†¦show more content†¦The source seems credible since the website is published by Yale University. Also, the research does not seem biased. The author documents Professor Ellis Hanson’s interpretations of The Importance of Being Earnest. Hanson notes that Wilde mocks marriage and satirizes the decay of lying. He also suggests that Wilde’s use of â€Å"Ernest,† which has multiple meanings, can be viewed as a â€Å"homosexual double entendre.† Hanson’s views are novel and interesting. And since he is an English professor at Cornell University, he is also credible. I hope to use this source to provide more examples of how Wilde uses his cynicism to â€Å"criticize elements of Victorian society.† According to its description, this article discusses the way the play depicts â€Å"power in interpersonal relations.† Unfortunately, the article consists of thirty-two pages of scholarly ramblings that have little to do with the actual play. The contents of the pages cover topics ranging from Oscar Wilde’s sexual partners to the â€Å"psychic origins† of the play. Although this source seems credible since it came from a magazine published by Rutgers University, I do not think it is relevant to my topic. I doubt I will be using this source when writing my paper. The source seems credible since it was published by the Cambridge University Press, a respected university in England. The author also cites research to back up her claims. However, his article does not relate to the play The Importance of Being

Places in Gullivers Travels Essay Example For Students

Places in Gullivers Travels Essay Places In Gullivers Travels By: Jonathan SwiftGullivers Travels has several places that Gulliver visits. In this paper we will take a look a in-depth look at each of the places that Gulliver visits. In my opion Gulliver parelles many places to is home country, England. Lets take a look at the first stop in Gullivers travels, Lilliput. Lilliput is inhabitited by people who are only six inches tall. Gulliver seems like a gigant. The Liliputians have a structured government and social lifestyles. The government has a senate, officials, a council, and an emperor. The government has several parrells to the England government. Gulliver tells us that these competitions, to choose the officials, who can Dance on the Rope, are often the cause of fatal accidents. Flimnap, in fact, would havekilled himself ina recent fall had not one of the kings cushions broken his fall. The kings cushion represents George Is mistress, who aided Walpole in his return to power after a fall. Another comparison b etween Lilliput and England, Reldresal, a Lilliputian government officer. He represents Walpoles successor, he payed Gulliver a special visit. His purpose is to acquaint Gulliver further with domestic and international politics, and to enlist Gulliver for assists in protecting their land from invasion, corresponding to the Tories and the treats to France. In Lilliput, the warring parties are the High-Heels , the Tories, and the Low-Heels , the Whigs. Just as George I favored teh Whigs, so the Lilliputian emperor favors teh Low-Heels. Just as George Is successor, the Prince of Wales, indicated favor to both parties, the Lilliputian heir to the throne wears one high heel and one low. Although several things are parralleled to England some things are not the same. They both have punishment system that are based on different ideas, were as the Englandjudiciary system is based on on punishment, the Lilliputians judiciary system has its rewards for following the rules. They also have very stiff punishments for unjustly accusing another of a crime. If at a latter point in time the accused person is fround innocent, the person who wrongfully accused is put to an creul death and the un justly accused is rewarded materially, and also recieves a title from the emperor. Upon leaving Lilliput for Blefuscu after he had heard that the government was bringing charges of treasion against him and his punishment was going to be blinding him, which this could be paralled to an event in England, when Bolingbroke fleed to France before he went to trial. Gullivers second stop was quit different from his first stop in fact it was quit oposit. The people of Brondingnag were giants, Gulliver remembers the Lilliputians, and what they must have felt like. In this visit, the Brondingnagians, are a parrellal to the English noble. The Brobdingnags treat Gulliver as though he is a circus act to be watched instead of an human being, but they are careful of him and they dont harm him. The first owner of Gulliver actually does show him and then lets his daughter play with him like a doll. As the road show life is eating away at Gulliver he is rescued when the king and queen purchase him from the farmer. He bows and sctapes, pledges undying loyality, and embraces hte tip of the queen finger. The king and queen take good care of Gulliver and have thier scholars examine him to see what was wrong with him. They do lable him a freak because of thier ingornance. The society they are used to is that of the noble they have set ways they do things. They look down on people who are not the same as they are they are the High society of the world so to say. Just as the English noble feel to the common people of England. Because of Gullivers place in England his is offened after he had been talking to the king about England and the king said, how conemptible a thing was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive insects. Gulliver has his noble king and queen in mind when he treats the royality of Brobdingnag with the most highest respect. He asks the queen for some hair and he makes chairs similar to those back home, when the king and queen incourage him to use the furniture for him self he says that he dare not place a dishonoutable part of his body on those precious hairs. The king and Gulliver have a nother conversation about England and how they do things. The king his outraged when he learns about the taxation system, and thought that Gulliver had to be mistaken or that England was headed for bankruptcy. Also the k ing didnt agree with the colonies that England had unless they were only for self-protection. He also was blown away but the fact that England had a army standing by in peacetime. He was suprised to learn about the religious differences causing problems and didnt know what to think of the gambling. Gulliver tells us He was perfectly astonished with the historical account I gave him of our affairs during the last century, protesting it was only an heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishment, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousnes, cruelty, rage,madness, hatered, envy, lust, malice, or ambition could produce. So as you can see the Brondingnag were a country that was basically the opposite of England with the exception of the thought of the English noble being higher than everyone else. The next stop, Laputa, which in Spanish means the whore, although Gulliver interprets Laputa as meaning flying island this is one of the foils the author uses. The Laputans are described in a way that makes them seem silly. The have one eye turned inward and the other up to the sky, its symbolic of thier activities. They are very devoted to abstract science, mathemativs, and music, Astronomy is a favorite of theirs. They have odd ways of satisfy their physical needs. Husbands generally ignore their waves and it is common for wives to meet their lovers in the presence of their husbands. Gulliver recalls a tale of a Laputan woman who left the flying island, normally if a woman leaves the island she never returns, who ran away from her husband to live with a cruel, deformed footman, so odious did she find her spouse and his Laputan ways. The Laputans houses were poorly built because they refused to uses right angles in their construction, they distain geometry, and practical discipline. Although they are very good at theoretical thinking the Laputans are very curiously irrational. Laputans are very superstitious, they have many fears mostly to do with the movement of planets and stars. These fear are in relation to the speculations of English scientists of this time. When the king of Laputa has to handle rebellious subjects, a problem the king of Brobdingnag bever faces, since he has no colonies, he has two choices to solve the problem. He can keep his island hovering over the troblesome town so that they are deprived of sunlight and rain. This dehas comparatively mild consequences, death and dieases, or he could simply have the island descend directly onto teh region, crushing the town. However, because he wouldnt want to be deprived of the riches of his olonies, and more importantly he wouldnt want to damage the underside of the flying island the king seldom resorts to this. So as you can tell they are different from England in their religious beliefs and practices. They have a high monarchy government where the king decides what what is the best decision that is to be made where in England the king does have council with he uses to help him make decisions that will effect the country. Gullivers last journey lands him in the land of the Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms are horse like creatures that are governed totally by reason. They have a society that is perfectly ordered, perfectly peaceful, except for the Yahoos, and exempt from the topsy-turviness of passion. In thier society there is also no crime, poverty, unhappiness but also their is no joy, passion, ecstatic love. Everything is done on an even keel. The Houyhnhnms are the representation of the perfect human culture. The marriages are arranged and the couples have no more feelings for each other than for any one else. The Yahoos are human-like, and are keep in a kennel, and prohibited from having anything to do with the Houyhnhnms. The Yahoo had arrived on thier island by acident. These people are less civilzed than the Houyhnhnms. They represent the lowest traits in human nature. They are gluttonous, filthy, lascivio us, theiving, violentbrutes. Only physically do they resemble civilized people. They started out on the country only two Yahoo, and as they had children and their children had children they also lost the cilivilation and needed to be around other people to stay civilized. In a way this represent the way Gulliver wanted him home country England to be, perfect in its ways. But what would they have done with the Yahoos that they would have incountered?

The Lottery revision Essays (2064 words) - Fiction, Literature

Michelle Glaser Dr. Sewell English Composition II 10 July 2018 The Lottery by Shirley Jackson In this story, we see a circular structure where the readers of the story are not prepared to receive the horrors present in the story. The story begins quietly thus limiting the reader to think only on goods things that will happen during the story. The setting of this story is straightforward as it is seen to be set up in a rural village in a morning with a lot of sun lights. The characters in the story tend to be stereotypical in nature. The story is said to have an ordinary beginning where Jackson is seen to create a structure which is the key to the understanding of the story. The plot of the story is quite simple in a dece ptive manner. The story had disturbing visual images and information which have less sense until the final sentences of the story. The story leaves the readers at th e point of suspense where they a re willing to read up to the end of the story. In equal measures, the user c an set up the imagery presence from the beginning of the story where the villagers had first gathered for the lottery. The circular story structure is a form of modern fiction where the audience must have set up the author's language, literal devices and eventually the author details. "The lottery" is not a free-flowing narrative when compared with works of other modernists authors such as Virginia Woolf. The story demands the audience or the equivalent readers of the story to find with the va rious meaning of the phrases used in the story. Jackson employs various literary devices in the story. These devices include the symbolisms, repetitions, foreshadowing, and back shadowing. These literary methods encourage the reader to take a second reading of the story. End of the story presents the importance of the literary devices, and they enable the reader to understand the evil and violence presented in the story. These devices allow the audience to find and expound the dilemma they experience in real life. Primarily, we recognize the situational irony at the beginning of the story where we are informed that the day is sunny and it with a fresh warmth like the one for a summer. In fa ct, we can view that the resident s of the village are experiencing the darkest of their day. Verbal irony is also portrayed in the story where we see the conductor of the lottery being referred to as Mr. Summers. He is presented as a person who does civic activities like the square dances which should be entertaining while the lottery is horrific. A dramatic irony is also present in the story. This is clear in the Tessie's words to Mr. Summer. When Tessie begins to feel something is not right in the drawing for "The Lottery". "Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. You did not give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair". The reader knows something that this character does not know. The lottery seems unfair to Tessie when she becomes a victim , but not when she is getting advantages from the owners. The author of the story likes to include symbols in her narrative. The names used in the story show the insularity of the vi llage where the lottery was taking place . Adam is said to be the first on the list that was prepared for the lottery. These names tend to evoke the Adam of the Bible. Another symbolism is when Mr. Graves gives a three-legged stool to aid the support of the box. He intends to invoke the holy bible holy trinity which includes the son, the Holy Spirit, and the father. This introduces racism in the story. We see that Mr. Summer appears to be a person who is ready to offer help for good and sad things. The author also clearly describes the characters in a way to make you feel as though you are in some way connected to them. The way Jackson describes the characters names and evens tells you