...by significant strides toward racial equality. Historians have often drawn parallels between this era and the period immediately following the Civil War, known as Reconstruction, prompting some to refer to the modern Civil Rights movement as the "Second Reconstruction." This comparison highlights both the enduring struggle for African American civil rights and the efforts to address the legacy of racial oppression in America. The Reconstruction era sought to establish civil rights for African Americans through constitutional amendments and federal legislation. However, these gains were short-lived as they faced significant backlash from Southern states and white...
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...Angelique Vasquez Doctor Scala WGS 4100 April 4, 2017 Log 8 As a black feminist and social activist, bell hooks addresses the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality and religion, and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. In her latest work, Writing Beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice, she attempts to strategize the ways in which scholars, activists and readers can challenge and change systems of domination. In Writing Beyond Race, bell hooks provides an insightful and compelling analysis of the discourse and media representations of race and racism, and provides suggestions for the ways in which people can bridge cultural and racial divides. Writing Beyond Race is a smart, engaging and passionate...
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...African American history. The topic of lynching is a key aspect of African American studies not only because it reveals the hypocrisy of White supremacist ideologies of equality in the United States, but it also can be used as a tool to help transform the entire social and political structure of American society. In a Christian nation that advocates equal rights for its citizens, how are acts such as lynching and other radical acts of violence be supported by most people of the White community? It was not only mob groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who were eliciting such cruel behavior, but everyday citizens like you and I. Families, couples, politicians, or anyone who wanted to be a part of this murderous spectacle were easily permitted to watch or participate in the lynchings. The murders of innocent African American citizens were becoming more of an extravaganza for the White community and many people travelled to come watch the “show.” American institutionalized racism has continually allowed this perception of the Black community as inferior to Whites. It is through the study of lynching can we discover that lynching is caused solely by the problem of the color-line and that the justifications used by white supremacists were untrue. African American studies helps find the real truth about lynching and not a fabricated story by white academic institutions. It has always been the American frontier that had promised freedom and prosperity. “We hold these truths to be...
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...Quetzalli Terrazas 11/25/17 Strategic Reading and Writing Essay #4 The altercation along the removal of Confederate monuments has been a boiling topic for politicians and US citizens. A dispute over the meaning of confederate history that white supremacist seem to have escalated considering the Charlottesville incident. The monuments have been reported to be an appreciation to the south during the Civil War era, where slavery was a central disagreement. Times have alternated and America has seemed to acknowledge the direct message them on humans have displayed, while some might argue on the fact that it is an honor to the confederacy and what it stands for. This prevents people to move on from the history and face the diverse change...
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...Remembering and Commemorating the War Essay According to Blight, Fredrick Douglas fought hard to protect the memory of the war. What was Douglas’s memory of the war and why did he try to protect it? North vs. South, Confederates vs. The Union. Rifles were fired… brother vs. brother. Men were named heroes for seemingly valiant acts in battle. We learn many things from the past. A nation was literally ripped in half in what was called the bloodiest conflict in American History. History is not an obsolete thing. Rather, it teachers valuable lessons. It can’t be denied how tragic the Civil War really was in American History. “It is not well to forget the past. Memory was given to man for some wise purpose. The past is the mirror in which we discern the dim outlines of the future and by which we may make them”(97). Prominent American Figure Fredrick Douglas was born a slave, educated, freed himself then became an accomplished author that fought for equality for blacks and many other groups in America. In the text Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War, author David W. Blight describes Douglas’s memory of the Civil War as something beyond the battlefield. Fredrick Douglas recognized the heroism and the death that happened on the battlefield. However there was much more than the combat and battle happenings that Douglas remembered. Douglas remembered what it was to be a slave; this very insight was the key to his memory of the Emancipation Proclamation...
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...Southerners were trying to keep the nation behind and made it almost impossible to move forward . The south was very destructive to the reconstruction because they had southern supremacists, which denied and refused on keeping reconstruction going in america. They were completely set on not agreeing with the north which caused the north to just give up on them. “The dream of reconstruction was officially dead.”(p.309 background essay 4th paragraph) They had removed all federal soldiers from the south that almost guaranteed the all white government would gain...
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...Tyler Clark 11 June 2015 Evaluation Essay People say you learn things from movies, American History X is a prime example for opening other’s eyes to life lessons. Life is too short to hate everyone for no reason. Our life expectancy is very short for human beings to hate so much. Be kind and loving. Those qualities will always be remembered. Hate can change the person you used to be. American History X was played in theatres back in 1998. Started Edward Norton, and Edward Furlong, two famous actors that were in popular movies as well. Edward Norton played in Fight Club and Edward Furlong played in Terminator 2. Like Danny Vinyard says “Hate is baggage, lives too short to be pissed off all the time.”Derek Vinyard used to be a straight-A student until he became part of the skinheads and a leader of the white supremacists in his hometown. But what influenced his change was his father’s death. Derek once said to a news reporter about his father’s death, “Yeah its race related! Every problem in this country is race related not just crime. It's like… immigration, AIDS, welfare those are problems in them. The Black community, the Hispanic community, the Asian community, they're not white problems.” Danny Vinyard, a 14 year old boy who was the younger brother of Derek Vinyard, who soon became corrupted. He had a great future ahead of him until he wanted to become like his big brother. Like any other younger sibling, right? So he soon developed that skinhead mentality and a...
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...“Essay Question 4” In 1865, the Union declared victory over the Confederate States following their surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Va. The American Civil War was fought between the Northern states of the Union and the Southern Confederate States of America. The Civil War started April 12, 1861 after the first shot was fired on Fort Sumter in the harbor outside Charleston, S.C. The first major battle did not take place until July 21, 1861, and it was a commonly held belief that the war would be decided during this one battle. It took four years of battle and destruction before the Confederate States surrendered to Union forces in 1865. The Race Relations was one area with great potential for violence, although many black leaders stressed nonviolence. Since the mid- 1950s, King and others had been leading disciplined mass protests of black Americans in the South against segregation, emphasizing appeals to the conscience of the white majority (see civil rights movement). Lastly, the question implies the possibility of a counterfactual answer: The South really won the war. I have heard this argument made, and I am not persuaded. I know the logic: The racism that emerged in the postwar U.S., especially but not only in the South, looked like slavery under a different name; the South won the war of history and memory, securing the honor of the cause and forcing reunion on Southern white supremacist terms. And, indeed at a certain, meta – historical level...
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...disobedience. Likewise, the notion of civil disobedience is display in Henry David Thoreau’s “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The two essays express a call to action towards the reality of our honest individual thoughts. The thoughts and actions of Thoreau and King have a great influence in America today and the ideas of civil disobedience are still widely spread. Furthermore, Henry David Thoreau’s ideas of civil disobedience have become a reflection of the American citizens. He discusses the importance of civil disobedience, when it becomes necessary. For instance, “But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it” (Thoreau 941). Similar to a game of chest, a government deciding to become unjust by constructing control over an apparent social division. The government unknowingly then, creates tension among the citizens. Furthermore, “I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward” (Thoreau 941). Individuals are becoming more thorough and coherent before any force...
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...I am going to present an essay about Mississippi Burning, which is a very good movie, and also gives us an insight as to the past of how afro-american people were treated by the Caucasian people. In my essay, I am going to explain the problems in the southern states and the following consequences that they result in. There will be a short description of the characters, especially the protagonists. Finally, I’m going to discus about the white supremacist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and the following problems that still affect the postmodern society. The Ku Klux Klan still exist today, but it is not a huge problem that it was at the time. Mississippi Burning is a movie about an unsolved crime, done to a group of white activists and afro-americans. It is mostly about the afro-american people. Afro-americans are easier to identify, because of their skin color. The movie starts with a car chase, but it isn’t a regular one. In this car chase, the civilians are being chased by a police cruiser. The law enforcement officers are corrupt and they are interested in killing these ethnic kids, instead of following their normal procedure. The kids don’t have any choice but to obey the sirens from the cruiser, so they have to pull-over and see what the problem is. They are very quiet about it, because they haven’t done anything illegal, but when the police cruiser stops behind the kids’ vehicle, a group of 4 law enforcement officers, approach the suspect’s car. They draw their flashlight...
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...Essay 1 In the Jim Crow South, the convict lease system was used to disenfranchise black people, both male and female. Although black men outnumbered black women in the system, black women were uniquely affected in ways that both belittled and warped their identities as both black and female. In the convict lease system, white women were exempt from system while black women were not, black women endured the paradox of assuming traditional female roles while being regarded as not female, and black women were portrayed as sexual fiends but received unwanted sexual abuse from their prison guards. For white people, the term “black woman” was a “oxymoronic statement” in that the term “black” negated the term “woman.” This view can best be scene in the judicial dealings of the white Martha Gault and the black Eliza Cobb. Cobb, who was arrested and convicted under circumstantial evidence of infanticide, was painted as idiotic and monstrous by those arguing in for her pardonment. On the other hand, Gault was charged with intent to murder and theft of an automobile with “damning judicial commentary,” but, based on her apparent femininity, the judge conceded “she...
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...Compare and Contrast Essay | Dr.Martin Luther King vs. Malcom X | By John Green | ------------------------------------------------- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are also two of the most famous civil rights leaders even though their methods were different they both had the same goal which was equal rights for African Americans. They were both religious leaders but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was Christian and Malcolm X Islamic The first notable difference between them is that they came from very different backgrounds . Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in peaceful environment while Malcom X threw hardship and pain. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King, both a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist, had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Martin was a pacific man, his father was a southern Baptist preacher; and he as a young boy decided that was where his path was leading as well. While being a preacher he decided he wanted to be a civil rights leader, which began his journey as a well-known leader. His way of protesting was subtle yet effective. Martin’s long speeches often caught wandering people, and drew them into the crowd. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and is the youngest person ever to receive it. He was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee; which led to many riots by the African American community. Malcolm X was born...
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...going on until this day that routes from years of violence and maltreatment of the Black community in the United States. Black men and women were in a constant struggle in order to try to gain their equal rights as American citizens throughout history. When the United States was first getting colonized around the year 1619 there were African Americans who were stripped of their homes and forced into slavery. It was only years later that there was a Civil War that ended slavery but didn’t end resentment and animosity between Whites and Blacks. Even though Blacks were constantly beaten in public places and made to feel like insignificant human beings, they still fought long and hard for their right’s to live in this nation as equal as a White man and Woman. In this essay I will explain how they fought for their rights and what trials and tribulations they had to go through in order to get the respect they deserved and the life they fought to live amongst the White population. “The Black Codes codified some of these feelings into law when in 1865 southern state governments created legislation that restricted and controlled the lives of the ex-slaves.”(Bowles,2011) These rules that were made specifically for Black men and women of the U.S. at the time, argued by some to be a new form of slavery. According to the Black Codes African Americans couldn’t work any other job then farming. They also couldn’t own guns even though it clearly says in the United States Constitution, “ the...
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...In order to understand the black feminist movement my group and I had to read three major readings about black feminism. The readings consisted of “A Black Feminist Statement,” “The Matrix of Domination,” and “Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination.” These three readings helped us shape our presentation to our class mates on the subject of black feminism. A Black Feminist Statement, Combahee River Collective In this reading, it is explained that black women have been meeting for centuries trying to get equality and rights. It is known that in 1974, black women began meeting in hopes of defending and clarifying there politics. These women were up against the oppression of men and the color of their skin and many were seeking for change. Their fight against oppression included race, sex, hetero-sexism, and class. “…Black feminism we would like to affirm that we find our Afro-American women's continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation” (Combahee River Collective). These women felt as if it was an obligation to fight for their rights and took it as a matter of life or death situation. Many powerful women arose from the black feminist movement such as: Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Sojourner Truth and Mary Church Terrell. These women were major leaders and collaborators in the black feminist movement. In 1973 The National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) was created (Combahee River Collective). This organization was...
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...He is widely known, as D’Souza stated, as the philosopher of Fascism. It is also correct that Gentile ghostwrote parts of “The Doctrine of Fascism” from which D’Souza quotes during his PragerU video. Within this essay Gentile states that “Outside the State there can be neither individuals nor groups (political parties, associations, syndicates, classes.) Therefore, Fascism is opposed to Socialism which confines the movement of history within the class struggle and ignores the unity of classes established in one economic and moral reality in the State.” Gentile goes on to state that “Fascism rejects universal concord,… such a conception of life makes Fascism the precise negation of that doctrine which formed the basis of the so-called Scientific, or Marxian...
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