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the significance of equality in a society
effects racism can have on any society
effects racism can have on any society
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Imagine yourself denied basic civil liberties and rights based on the color of your skin. You are told by the very government that resides over you that segregation is legal if equal but it is not . Tormented by those with blind hatred fueled by flames of racism and you can do nothing to stop it legally. Sacred and wanting some kind of change something must be done to reverse the injustice suffered by the innocent. Options are discussed by those that want change. Hopefully a leader will rise to the occasion and lead their people to the road of redemption and not to the path of total and utter destruction. For the oppressed, three paths come to mind in which they can decide to act. The first is to accept the oppression and the contempt of the oppressors. The second path is to demonstrate nonviolent resistance to prove that the system of government is flawed instead of racial groups. The last path is violence. Violence in its self is an agent of evil and anything gained from it will eventually turn to ash. The methods of each approach have their own ramifications, avenues, and cost. Oppression is a kind of hatred distilled from the lack of understanding and indifference of those that do understand.
Acceptance of oppression is the willingness of the oppressed to be put down and cast as second rate citizens. The act of acceptance is the path of least hardship. It does not require great effort to be put down. Only to follow what you are told by those above you. This is almost a mindless way to go about life. In Martin Luther King’s. I find myself in total agreement with him. A people that accept the whims of the tyrants above them have no reason to wonder why they are not equal. Weak people would rather gripe about the event...
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...peace and stability. The other paths are just as evil in their manners as the oppressors. Peace is the underling goal in the minds of the oppressed and nonviolent resistance is the sensible way of securing an understanding between all people involved. Long lasting stability will be ensured if oppressors can admit their shortcomings. Peace will also be helped along if the oppressed will rise to the occasion and show those that have wronged what they have done. Equality is the ultimate means for the ideal of path of nonviolent resistance for all that reside in our great nation. None of the tribulation or sacrifice would mean a thing if it was not for all peoples of a nation to stand equally amongst each other and be counted as a citizen. In this way, a nation can truly stand together and face obstacles together as a united front and not as separate warring factions.
Oppression signifies an authority of a dominant group over a monitory group, disengaging the minority group from society. “ The term oppression encapsulates the fusion of institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life in our society” (Bell, 2007). In one way or another every individuals experience some form of oppression, whether it be through, sex, gender, religion, age, economic status and/or sexual orientation. In some instances, an “individual may experience multiple oppression and they can be experienced simultaneously or singularly depending on the context” ( Vernon). For, an example as an African American who also
This awareness does come with a social outcry, an explosive retaliation, as the stress builds and boils until the injustice cannot be tolerated any longer. The Rodney King incident in Los Angeles is a prime example of social retaliation by the masses. The injustices that occurred paved the way for a group to become enraged and provided an outlet for the social mistreatment of African-American citizens to finally be expressed. The violence that followed would force political officials to respond to an issue that had existed, but was ignored because minority groups’ issues did not fit into a political agenda. However, this form of retaliation cannot thrive and lead to a consensus where terms are fair for both parties. Counterstances stems for violence, and forces violence to become a response. As Anzaldúa expressed, “The possibilities are numerous once we choose to act and not react.” (pg.
Abolitionist, Fredrick Douglass once stated, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”(Douglass).
Times were looking up for African Americans, their new freedom gave them the option to go down a road of either criminal actions or to make something out of themselves. But the presence of racism and hatred was still very much so alive, Klu Klux Klan, although not as strong as they were after the Civil War was still present. Laws like Jim Crow laws and “separate but equal” came into play and continued to show how racism was alive. Besides these actors of racism, blacks still started gaining a major roll in American society.
Martin Luther King Jr. is considered to be one of the most prominent human rights’ defenders of the XX century and the speaker for non-violent social change. He believed that building power is the most important task facing movements for human progress because the human progress comes through the tireless efforts of people, who should use powerful and true weapon – non-violence – in order to achieve positive effects. King managed to achieve brilliant success in the battle for the liberty of blacks and not pour the way to freedom by rivers of blood.
In 1963, as protest to the authoritarian regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem, Buddhist monks began to go to public places in Vietnam and commit suicide, by drenching themselves in gasoline and setting themselves on fire. They did this as an act of civil disobedience, defined as an act of defiance of specific laws or policies of a formal structure which the individual or group believes to be unjust. The Buddhist civilization in Vietnam was not apparent to the Americans until the Buddhists began sacrificing themselves in Saigon’s public streets. The pictures of the monks engulfed in flames made world headlines and caused American intervention; and later the capture and killing of Diem and his brother. In contrast to these acts of civil disobedience, one can observe the actions of suicide bombers. In the Palestinian territories, those who support suicide bombing claim that it is merely a tactic of war in defense of their land and homes. Without superior weaponry, they see it as “a heroic act of martyrdom, a final act of resistance, stemming from desperation”(Suicide Bombers). Both the Buddhist monks and the “suicide bombers” in Palestine resort to self-sacrificial actions as their form of violent civil disobedience. Violent forms of civil disobedience should only be necessary to counter violence but never if it inhibits upon the liberties of the innocent. By this definition, the actions of the Buddhist monks are more justifiable than those of suicide bombers in the Middle East.
The debate between silently obeying the law and loudly resisting in the face of injustice is one that has existed since the birth of this country. Those who resist see the obedient citizens as ignorant of what goes on around them. On the other hand, those that are obedient see resistors as radicals. I believe that resistance, whether it be peaceful or violent, is justified. In this paper, I will refer to works by Frederick Douglass, Stephanie Camp, and Deborah Gray White to show that resistance is important to challenge injustices, whether it be slavery in the 1800s or inaction against racism at colleges in 2015.
In Chavez's argument, he explained the importance of nonviolence during the Civil Rights Movement. He used Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement as an example of successful protest using nonviolence. Although Dr. King's example proved to be effective, after he died, several members of the movement resorted to violence which caused the death of thousands of Americans. Chavez argued nonviolence is the only way to protest violence in order to attract support for his cause: the farm workers' movement. Chavez's rhetorical choices, through his tone and allusion to history, effectively influenced farmers to protest without violence.
Freedom from anything is a product of the awareness that one must revolt for a higher moral cause to get a good outcome. People have to fight for what they believe in and speak their word to get what they want in society. Sometimes those groups get what they want and other times people are not so fortunate. In the eyes of Henry David Thoreau, he believed in exactly that. As an American transcendentalist, Thoreau enthusiastically maintained these beliefs through his journalism. He implemented his approval for independence and fairness in his essay called Civil Disobedience. This essay was written after Thoreau spent a night in the Birmingham jail and he thought about the American society. This essay is know very well known and has influenced many civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. King regularly used the philosophies that Thoreau wrote in his paper during the bus boycotts in Alabama. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a nonviolent protest where the African American citizens of Alabama rejected the use of the buses until desegregation was passed. The protest all started when Rosa Parks put her foot down and did not give up her seat to a white male on the bus. She was later arrested for violating a city law requiring racial segregation of public buses. The boycott was ultimately ended by the Supreme Court decision to desegregate the buses. Throughout the entirety of the passive protest, MLK proceeded with the essay written by Thoreau in his mind so that he would never let the white people change his view of equal rights. He kept striving to achieve perfect equality between blacks and whites to make a change in the faulty society.
Fear of Difference is a unique a weapon of unimaginable power. Throughout history this weapon has been used in certain situations to force conformity upon the oppressed to enslave people against their will. By exploiting the Fear of Difference, a leader or oppressor can enter the minds of the oppressed and override their basic beliefs and goals in life with their own views, and when it is used properly, the results can range from the acceptance of basic racial discrimination to the cruel and undue deaths of millions. When Fear of Difference is exploited, those who are being oppressed lose sight of their own views an opinions and are forced to conform ideals imposed upon them.
"The Ways of Meeting Oppression", by Martin Luther King Jr., is a story about the ways in which oppressed people deal with their oppression. Dr. King came up with 3 characteristics in which oppressed people deal with their oppression. In this essay we will discuss the three major ways that Dr. King talks about. We will also reveal the one method that King supports.
Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations and the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize winner, once said, “Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated (“Quotes.”)” Racism has existed since the dawn of time. It has been used as a method to keep strangers out of societies or to keep people in an inferior state. Racism is defined as, “The belief that some races of people are better than others (“Racism.”)” How should the citizens of the world stop the spread of racism? The answer is through the education of children. Parents and guardians must teach them one step at a time to not judge a book by its cover. The evaluation of two sources, the article, “Just Walk on By: Black men in Public Spaces” by Brent Staples and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech, “I Have a Dream,” can help citizens learn how the discriminated feel when they are discriminated against, and how to stop the spread of racism.
I was aware of these oppressions and have often times struggled with what I can do individually to work towards alleviating these oppressions. The Next Steps portion of the chapter on racism really outlined methods of actions that could be applied to all forms of oppression. One method entitled “FLEXing Cross- cultural Communications,” outlines productive communication, depersonalization, and open- mindedness when it comes to understanding and practicing competency. This model serves as a tool to motivate action to those form other cultures in ways that in the end everyone can
The oppression and domination is a big issue that we still see today . The oppression is not always easy to spot nor is it always intended but it is still there. It is true that enormous progress has been made to end this issue but there is still work to be done. The domination and oppression of minorities is present through our daily life through xenophobia, our legal system and the use of different forms of racism. Like in the novel the ''The Color Purple'' the characters do not beat racism but they do understand that the colour of their skin, ethnicity , gender or sexual orientation does not affect yourself worth. This is a lesson the our society as yet to learn or even understand, to be able to have a future that we will be proud of we have to understand that everybody is equal in every shape or form.
Today, a serious problem exists all over the world. Racial oppression takes place in the poorest and the richest countries, including America. Racial oppression is characterized by the majority, or the ruling race, imposing its beliefs, values, and laws on the minority, or the ruled race. In most areas, the ruling race is upper class whites that run the “system”, and have a disproportionate amount of power. In other areas, it may not be the white race, but it is still the race that is comprised of the majority, makes the laws, or has the most money. These are the keys to domination over the weaker minorities that don’t have the power to thrive under the majority’s system according to their own cultural beliefs, values, and laws.