...Anderson, Akai Gurley, Freddie Gray, and Tony Robinson are just some of the many unarmed African Americans killed by the police within recent years. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me, discusses these injustices. He addresses these topics to his son, Samori. He also discourses his memoir towards white Americans so he can bequeath awareness about what it is like to grow up African American. Coates discussed growing up as an African American in the Baltimore projects. He argues about the inequalities of the public-school system and about white Americans stuck in “the Dream” (Coates 11). “The Dream” is the ingroup favoritism of white...
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...Racism is a horrible blemish on America’s history and still affects Americans today and in the past. Racism is almost gone in the United States, other than a few small pockets of racist groups, like the KKK and Neo-Nazis. There is also still “common racism”, with police brutality and racist police, which is a problem that needs to be fixed. Racism affects and has affected America through segregation, wrongful prosecution, and police brutality. Firstly, America has always been plagued with racism dating as far back as the 1800’s. Racist laws were often the societal law, these laws were often called the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws got its name off a comedian’s portrayal of a black man. Jim Crows law included many laws that were extremely...
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...nearly 4000 arrests made that week.On Wednesday August 11th, 1965, Marquette Frye was driving down the road when he was stopped by police officers on suspicion of driving under the influence. Frye was pulled out of his car with excessive force and taken into police custody. Surrounding people noticed this arrest taking place. Word soon spread that yet another black male was taken into police custody with excessive force by police. After these events, from August 11th through August 18th there were multiple riots in the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. These were the most fatal riots in the LA history (before the Rodney...
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...English 1020 21 March 2016 Police Brutality The job of a police officer is to serve and protect their community and country, but some don’t see it this way and fail to do their job in an appropriate matter. Some take the law in their own hands and want to enforce punishment where punishment shouldn’t be enforced. These officers use their authority to take advantage of sometimes innocent people to have fun or to just prove a point. Police brutality is a big problem in today’s society which is caused by and contributes too many factors such as racism, incarceration, racial profiling, fear, and lack of training. What is police brutality and how has it become a problem in today’s society? Police Brutality is...
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...School marked a turning point in the evolution of racism and fueled the issue of racial inequality in America. Students walked into the school bathrooms to find the words “for whites” and “for colored people” written along the stall doors. Staff members and the student body witnessed the heinous presence of racist graffiti on the white tinted walls of the school bathrooms. Blacks were pressured to enter separate stalls than whites and reexamine their status in society. Students and faculty members were compelled to analyze the role of white supremacy and the effects of racial prejudice throughout our nation. The notions of race and ethnicity have been negatively...
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...Modern Lit November 20 Ms. Carlton Police Brutality in America Police brutality is one of the main concerns we have today. Innocent victims are targeted by police physically and violently. The government has taken action on this issue with a positive impact. However the statistic is rising yearly in a negative way. Race plays a key factors, black people are more targeted than other races. Protests all over the country are still taking place, with hope that there will be change. Racism is evidently existing all around the country through the abuse of police officers among African-American victims. Police brutality has been around for centuries and has increased immensely throughout the years. Police brutality is the...
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...can relate to. Rap in the U.S first started in the Bronx in the 1970s by Dj Kool Herc. Rap through out time became a very popular genre that many people of all races listened to. Many rappers not only rapped about money and their life style but they rapped about important issues like racism that affected many people then and even today. Rapper Tupac and groups Public Enemy and N.W.A were among many that did. Rap is one important way to bring to light issues people are facing in society because you don’t have to be a certain race to listen to rap and even though a rapper could talk about issues that African Americans many can learn from it. To a great extent rap protest against institutional racism and inform people about what it was like being black in America....
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...African Americans have fought against slavery, segregation, and racism in politics since they arrived in the United States. From the beginning of the slave trade to the present times in the United States, African Americans have fought to be seen as worthy of having a place in this country. African Americans have had to work for political freedom; it was not handed to them. The African American struggle began when they forcibly became slaves in America. Even when they were declared free, they were not seen as equal to whites and had to fight for civil rights. After earning civil rights, they still had to fight to live among white people and no longer be segregated. Today, there is an ongoing struggle of racism and discrimination in America....
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...Kieran Leen/ word count 490 Professor Martinez Culture and society 2/29/16 Paper 2: Racism in America It seems like we cannot go anywhere or watch anything today that does not have some sort of influence or advertising to or for the topic of racism. Recently, society’s spot light has been on “Black Lives Matter” this is a movement that emphasizes police brutality against black individuals and having equal options for blacks. The movement has been presented largely through the use of social media and recently has escalated to the big stage on national TV during the super bowl. What is interesting about all of these racism topics is how it has become a one way street. The media only focuses on when black individuals are upset with the white race, or how they only air news stories about injustices happening to black people when there is problems happening to all cultures in our country and around the world....
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...overlooked and young African Americans were made to endure police brutality, poverty and their opinions disregarded. These circumstances created the rise of political hip-hop in the 1980’s. The first African American political hip-hop group was Public Enemy. The lyrics in Public Enemy’s music included criticism of bias in the American media and frustration over increasing problems in the African American community. Another famous example of messages conveyed in hip-hop music is the rap song called ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. This song spoke the truth about modern inner-city life in America especially in poor neighbourhoods such as the Bronx in New York or Compton in California, which are predominantly African communities. Other groups with out-spoken messages included N.W.A with songs such as ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and ‘F*** tha Police’. These songs protested against police brutality and racial profiling occurring in the African American community. Over the years, N.W.A have been described as notorious, advocates of violence and as controversial. In the eyes of N.W.A and its supporters, their music was ‘reality rap’ and gave an insight to the life African Americans endured. Another example of strong messages and lyrics conveyed in his music was Tupac Shakur (2pac). 2pac wrote lyrics with the aim of spreading the message of gender equality, eradicating poverty, racism and police brutality. These songs included ‘Keep Ya Head Up’, ‘Changes’, ‘Ghetto...
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...Police brutality is the use of excessive force by officers against civilians. The word “excessive” meaning more than is actually necessary. In today’s society police brutality has almost become an every month occurrence. It seems as if every month there is a different case of police brutality being flashed across our television screens. Police Brutality is very detrimental in our society today because it start riots, upset citizens, and implement fear of future incidents in the hearts of civilians. Just the thought of police brutality saddens citizens all across the country. There has been many cases where officers who were accused of committing police brutality have been pardoned by the judge. Majority of those incidents resulted in citizens...
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...Police brutality Police brutality is when the police abuse their power and use unnecessary harmful force on civilians. Police brutality can be physical and or verbal. Police many times use their weapons are or their bare hands. Now in presently in America racism has played a huge role in police brutality. Many people have got themselves involved to make sure justice is served. This is a very big problem. There are many cases of police brutality. Two examples would be Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Mr. Garner a 350 pound 43- year old man who was 6’3. He was selling “loose” cigarettes. He wasn’t new to being arrested; he was arrested many times before this incident. Officers came up to Eric on suspicion of selling cheap cigarettes. Eric told...
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...Jo. K. H. Prof. C. English 1A 16 December 2014 Some police officers take advantage of their authoritative positions with excessive brutality and, in some cases, the misuse of deadly force, which is resulted from racism and the known lack of consequences. Blacks and whites have had different historical experiences with the criminal justice system. Largely, whites see the law as a power to serve and protect their rights and their acreage in a democracy. While, blacks have been more likely to view law as a force that denies their rights. For years the judicial system refused to offer protection to blacks from slave owners, white rapists, and even racist mobs. In 1693, Philadelphia court officials “authorized the police to take up any "Negro" seen "gadding about" without a pass from his or her master” (Chaney). This judiciary command, to stop and detain any black found on the road, gave no distinction between free or slave blacks. The Black Codes of the Southern region permitted militiamen (soldiers who are also civilians) to arrest and restrain blacks whose presence aroused suspicion (Staples). The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, jeopardized not only law enforcement officials, but also average citizens with hefty fines if they failed to assist in the arrest of alleged runaway slaves, when the doubt could be grounded only on written claims; likewise, free and enslaved blacks didn’t have the right or ability to represent themselves in court against such claims (Staples). Alongside...
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...Abstract All eyes are fixated on the country which boasts of the highest levels of democracy and the ‘champion’ of human rights in the world. The United States of America is at a critical stage in its historical development poised between political regression and economic decomposition. The year 2014 was marred with a myriad of African-American shootings, incarceration of protesters and other deplorable acts of police brutality. It is my view in this paper that these incidences are much more profound and anchored in historical aspects the most astounding being racism and oppressive legislation proffered since the days of slavery and Black oppression. I will deliberately use the ‘Black and White’ epithet so as to traverse my arguments. The years in between the Occupy Wall...
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...RESPONSES 1. Do you believe that the media plays a role in how families and the community perceive law enforcement after highly energized brutality event between the police and a minority member? Explain your answer Yes, the media like any other Television show makes their money when people tune in and watch the broadcast. So how can the media make the story more appealing to the public? They tailor the truth to fit the audience that is tuning in. For example Telemundo, a popular Spanish channel. When dealing with issues of immigration or Border Patrol they paint the Border Patrol as always in the wrong. Any time a Border Patrol agent gets in a shooting and kills a Hispanic member of the community. Telemundo will with holds facts and only puts out facts that will paint the victim as a saint. Why? The majority of people that tune in to Telemundo are Hispanic. Question pulled from the article "Police Brutality in America" at: http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/police-brutality-in-america/ 2. Why do you believe minority groups, families, and the community react so quickly and with such a strong beliefs of guilt, immediately after a police brutality event when the facts of the event are not known? Two reasons why this happens. One the past has showed that police brutality did and does happened. In the past due to racism it happened a lot more. The officer received no training in different culture that would allowed them to do their jobs properly. Now there...
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