During a weekly Bible study, witnesses say a white male came into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and opened fire around 9 p.m. On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof, 21, entered into this church and opened fire. He killed 9 people that day. The church was primarily African American which also caused the nation to go into a panic and think of one explanation: racism. Whichever viewpoint you see this from; everyone can agree it was a tragedy that innocent lives were taken that day. Many speculate different reasons as to why he committed such an act: racism, mental illness, hate, etc. However, when confronted by someone in the church while committing this tragic action, he said “I have to do it. You rape our women and you 're taking over our …show more content…
This theory suggests that people do things based on inequality within social groups. As it has been shown today and in history, a Caucasian person will be less likely to suffer or to fall behind in the world than an African American would. Looking at this event through the conflict theory would suggest that Dylann did what he did because he saw himself, as a white man, more powerful than the black man. It would also suggest that he did it, just because he could. In today’s society (as well as in all of history) a white person has always been more able to pursue things than a black. It’s just because of the history between African Americans and Caucasian people which can be traced back to slavery. As equality has made a definite improvement over the years, one could assume that Dylann felt threatened in his state of power as a white man by someone outside of his race. This would explain why he felt it necessary to take innocent lives of those from another race. This could also mean he did it so he could “send a message” to continue to show his dominance as a white man. Through this theory, one can assume that the reason Dylann opened fire inside of an African American church was simply because he had a bad experience with someone of this race and viewed himself as better than
The hypocrisy and double standard that allowed whites to bring harm to blacks without fear of any repercussions had existed for years before the murder Tyson wrote about occurred in May of 1970 (Tyson 2004, 1). Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1).
Simmel’s theory of conflict may be applied to the residents in “Two Towns of Jasper” because the murder of James Byrd Jr. had created conflict of racism and forced the town to examine their collective identity. The theory of conflict explains conflict as a form of interaction, more beneficial way to bring people in one society together, and a necessary for societal change. The benefits of a conflict are promoting growth in a society, resolving issues, and innovation. “Two Towns of Jasper” demonstrates that the conflict that arises from the murder of James Byrd Jr. brings the citizens of Jasper to recognize the racial differences that are occurring and resolve these issues in order to prevent future problems. Caucasians and African-Americans come together and view the murderers as common enemies which heightened the solidarity among the two groups.
The tragedy that happened in Newton, Connecticut swept the world with a variety of emotions. Many individuals became angry or saddened by the tragedy. I think more of the individuals were angry of what happened to those 20 innocent children. Parents send their children to school thinking that they are safe but in this case ended in tragedy. I am going to discuss similarities and differences between two articles. I am also going to discuss how this shooting is a symbolic crime, how likely policy changes will be enacted and how unlikely they are to be enacted.
When frustration comes, the blaming game become an excuse of the matter. Since Zeitoun happen to be in a place where blaming others was the way to save their reputations, he was accused because of who he was, a Muslim living in America. In the Zeitoun, Dave Eggers states, “Every time a crime was committed by a Muslim, that person's faith was mentioned, regardless of its relevance. When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? ... When a crime is committed by a black man, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American man was arrested today...' But what about German Americans? Anglo Americans? A white man robs a convenience store and do we hear he's of Scottish descent? In no other instance is the ancestry mentioned” (Eggers, 41). This quote shows the stereotype that occurs during this time, especially when things needed to be resolved. Judging others for their religious beliefs or the color of their skin colors will only emphasize the differences. The single story here has created a danger in American society therefore they sentence the man who was serving social justice to save others the government couldn’t save. The consequence of not understanding the value of social justice is; it robs people dignity as we seen in Zeitoun. If we keep playing the blaming game to save our own good, the reality is social justice will never occur in our
The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...
- on June 23, Williams was driving when a heavy car came up from behind him and tried to force his car off the embankment and over a cliff with a 75 ft. drop off. The bumpers of the two cars were stuck and the cars had to pass right by a highway patrol station, which was a 35 mile and hour zone, but the car was pushing his at 70 miles per hour. Williams started blowing his horn hoping to attract the attention of the patrolmen, but when they saw they just lifted their hands and laughed. He was finally able to rock loose from the other car’s bumper and make a sharp turn into a ditch. He went to the police about it, but they would not do anything because he was black. The police in Monroe never did anything to help blacks
As said by Governor George Ryan, “Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death rows throughout the country due to evidence of their wrongful convictions.” With each of these wronged convictions, the victim who should rightfully be convicted was able to walk free and possibly continue to commit crimes. Many of these wronged convictions entail parts of conflict theory with them because the dominant group will view things that they believe are socially deviant as criminal. The example in class of the 1992 Chicago gang ordinance shows how the dominant group, the police force, viewed standing on a street corner as socially deviant and thus, labeled it criminal. In The Central Park Five, the five who were convicted were in Central Park late at night, which was socially deviant. Since there was crime that was committed that night, it was easy to take the socially deviant situation of the kids being in the park late at night, them being in the same place as the crime, and them all being non-white and the victim being white and turn the crime on them. At the start of the night, there were kids who were throwing rocks at cars and assaulting homeless people to the extent of smashing one with a beer bottle. Out of all of the kids who were in the park that night, when they all took off running, it didn’t matter which five were stopped and taken to the police station, as long as there were non-white and in the park that night they could have been one of the “central park five”. “Central park five” turns into a label knowing that regardless of who the kid was and their background, the officers involved were going to manipulate they into confessing to the crime and then end up being convicted. Crime today involves conflict theory and can
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
Conflict theory is the theory of where the group has the haves or have nots. The Saints have the have because they could get out of class any time they wanted and have the wealth of their parents to keep them out of trouble. The treatment they were observed by Chambliss is that the police never arrested them for their wrongdoings. The Saints were the biggest trouble makers that should have gotten trouble then the Roughnecks. They in having money had power over the people. The evidence that is seen is the Saints had cars so they could escape the town to be deviant without being caught and always changed their places they would mess with the roads, speed, or drive while intoxicated. When they did get pulled they were very polite and got out of the problem. The effect it had on the Saints is that since they never got in trouble did not think it was bad. So inturn they enjoyed making trouble. The society then turns to them as good people since to them they do good and their parents probably are involved in the school. The
Sandy Hook Shooting Conspiracies On December Fourteen 2012 Adam Lanza allegedly drove to Sandy Hook Elementary, his old elementary school, and shot and killed twenty-six students and faculty, then turned the gun on himself before apprehension by police. The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary was a tragic event, it’s hard not to sympathize with the families of those killed. There is a movement, however, that claims the shooting was fake (Spaeth). IT’s believed the shooting was staged in order to pave the way for stricter gun control (Salazar).
From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.)
In Malcom’s speech Malcom brings up a riot in New York City caused by police brutality. Malcom justifies the riots of his peers by saying in his speech “but they gave the impression of hoodlum’s vagrants and criminals, but this is wrong. The landlord is white, the merchant is white, and in fact the entire economy of the Black community is white.” Malcolm uses this ideology to justify the rioters breaking windows and causing trouble in their own community because they are not hurting themselves; however they are hurting the white population by destroying the white’s property. Since the time of the New York riots many other riots have occurred based on the same ideology, some of which have occurred within the last few years. In 2014 the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri sparked riots within the town of Ferguson and unrest throughout the nation. In this specific case it was found that the officer did not kill Brown based on race rather out of self-defense, regardless of the findings by the investigation the people of Ferguson continued to riot. In a more recent incident on April 18th 2015 in Baltimore the riots ensued because a man by the name of Freddie Gray was killed by police days earlier. In this instance the investigation found the killing to have been a murder; never the less, riots still ensued in Baltimore for multiple days protesting police
A group of African American sharecroppers had gathered to discuss better ways to receive payment for their crops from the landowners. They placed armed guards outside the doors to protect those inside. Two white men, a sheriff, W.A Atkins, and a railroad worker, Charles Pratt, showed up at the front of the church and shots were fired. Nobody knows who fired the first shot," says Little Rock lawyer and author Grif Stockley, who grew up in the Delta and wrote the book on the Elaine race riots. But there is plenty of evidence to say whites attacked blacks indiscriminately, he says. "I use the term race massacre.”. According to the "white version," a black man from Winchester, Robert L. Hill, planned an insurrection against whites, established a union among black sharecroppers and incited them to grab land and kill whites. In an unprovoked attack, a white deputy was shot by blacks meeting at a church near
The teenagers described above are Dorian Johnson and Michael Brown, black residents of Ferguson. Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson ex-police officer Darren Wilson, a white man. The circumstances of this crime are unlike the conventional hero-defeats-villain type as Brown was unarmed and unthreatening. Brown was often referred to as a "gentle giant" by his friends and his family, thus news of his death was particularly shocking as they knew he would never act out aggressively. This situation, involving a non-violent victim, compels the question: was the Michael Brown shooting caused by racial prejudice? The answer, as many journalists and Ferguson community members have decided, is yes: Michael Brown was murdered because he was black and therefore a threat in the eyes of the police officer. A video from the New York Times describes the tragic incident from neighbors' points of view: shortly after Brown was killed, his body was left in the middle of the street for hours while community members, including children, looked on. Without a sheet to protect his identity or maimed body, Michael Brown was not given the respect a human should, rather he was regarded as a crime scene. The police let people watch the blood from Brown's body, as a neighbor put it, turn from "beet red… to
Social structure theory says that the social and economic forces operating in deteriorated lower-class areas are the key determinates of criminal behavior patterns (Siegel, 2015). On June17th, 2015, Dylann Roof a self-proclaimed white supremacist walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and murdered nine of its members (Charlson Church Shooting, 2015). Social structure theory would suggest that due to the social and economic aspects of Roof’s life are the reason as to why he committed this mass shooting. His parents had divorced but were temporarily reconciled at the time of his birth. When Roof was five, his father married Paige Mann in November 1999; they divorced after ten years of marriage. Bennett Roof was allegedly