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Conclusion of police corruption
Police brutality in black communities
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As a young black boy living in Baltimore, Coates is faced with violence all around him. He mentions that one day in the parking lot of a 7- eleven, a boy points a gun at someone near him. This is the day he realizes that the black body can be taken away quickly. He learns that the black body does not actually belong to themselves; rather it is the slave for the people around him. This epiphany lead to his interests of history in college and his search to all the questions that he asks. During his time, black men and women were in danger every second of their lives. They never knew when the police was going to stop them or when someone would shoot them. While some people sustain slavery, others like Coates are out looking for the way to liberate …show more content…
By now we are used to the fact people are being murdered based on what they look like, because it is a part of America’s tradition. It hit Coates close to home when someone he went to college with was murdered by the Prince George police, in Virginia. He believes that Prince Jones, the man that was murdered, was hunted downed. He sees the corruption not only in the Prince George Police but also in the nation. The police officer who killed Prince Jones was known for being untruthful and having no need to kill Prince Jones. This police officer was not charge and he returned to his job. Coates recognized that “Prince was not killed by a single officer as much as he was murdered by his country” (Coates 78). During this time the police system and judiciary system were extremely corrupted and unfortunately that has not changed today. Police shootings were common and they still are common today. Not much has changed since the time he grew up in. In the past few years some police brutality has been televised. Everyone waits for the final verdict, only to discover the police officer is not guilty of his crime, like if were some kind of accident. Because the jury represent to nation, it is astonishing to know that the nation would allow any man to die because of the color of his skin. It is not okay to kill our future, and not have any
She witnessed, “a black man being handcuffed by his car on an empty stretch of road next to a cemetery in Chicago” (6). While this and the Sandra Bland example are two of many more, Biss is trying to prove that white criminals are treated with privilege, rather than experiencing the same kind of treatment someone of color gets, they are given advantages that someone of color would not have, advantages they do not deserve. Biss uses this example in order to prove that the actions of the police are done not out of necessity, but as something that has always happened throughout history, a tradition of some sort, which Coates connects with as
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Douglass, Frederick. The Heroic Slave. In Violence In the Black Imagination. Ed, Ronald T. Takaki. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Douglass's Narrative brings an ugly era of American history to life as it weaves through his personal experiences with slavery, brutality, and escape. Most importantly Douglass reveals the real problem in slavery, which is the destructive nature of intolerance and the need for change. Douglass refers many times to the dehumanizing effects sla...
This Narrative gives one a new perspective on the evils of slavery and the terrible way it affects every one who is involved. The ignorance and physical abuse of the slave is the essential means by which this practice survived for too long. Douglass gives us proof of this in his experiences he endured in overcoming these obstacles and makes us aware of the power that knowledge holds, of both freedom and slavery.
In Racial Formation, the two authors Michael Omi and Howard Winant develop the foundations for understanding the implications of race. Both authors delve into how the construction of racial relations has permeated into society, been contested, and changed over time. Omi and Winant attempt to display the oppressive actions in social structures, as well as the ideas and meanings that form their theory of race and racism. These theories are demonstrated in the brutal reality of Douglass’ life as a slave in My Bondage and My Freedom. Douglass recounts his efforts to educate himself, and ultimately, his resolve to escape to freedom. Society views race as a function of biology rather than a socially constructed method to differentiate human beings.
Frederick Douglass had moved into a new mistresses home who had never known of slavery. While she had initially taught him to read, fed him well, and looked upon him like an equal human being, she eventually forbade him from reading and whipped him at her husband’s request. The kind woman he had known became inhumane and degrading because that was required to maintain the unwarranted power over slaves.
Coates is tells his son about achieving The American Dream, the difficulties he seen and experienced due to racism, and unfair/injustice ways. His book shows how racism makes The American Dream difficult to achieve, how the environment we live in affects us and how the roots of black people has an impact on our lives today.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).
Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have and you come to us endangered” (82). Coates, now an adult, understood both the love and fear his father had when beating him. Additionally, Coates, from his experiences in his childhood, understood the growing up as an African American male in America is dangerous and unforgiving. Police brutality is the strong arm that America uses to discipline young African American teens who fail to comply with their requests.
As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.
“Singular” and “particular” means “denoting or expressing one person or thing” and these words surround the phrase, “slavery is not an indefinable mass of flesh”, because Coates maintains that a black body is a singular person, just as white body is, and they should be defined by more than their suffering. By using these words and forming the “definition” of an enslaved woman “whose range of feeling is as vast your own”, he emphasizes that black bodies were more than a “mass” of slaves, but an enslaved people with “singular” human bodies that interacted with the world in a “particular”
Black people had to fight against the ignorance of white citizens. Ellison states that he had “learned in time though that it is possible to carry on a fight without their realizing it” (Ellison, 4). Ellison would use his invisibility to fight back and gain recognition. Because of ignorance and being left on their own, black people would fight to gain recognition. In Coates’ text it states,”Jesse Williams took the stage [...] assembled just feet from where slaves had once toiled, he simply said,’Look where we are. Look where we are right now.’” (Coates, 13). This took a lot of effort for African Americans to come to this point. This concludes that African Americans had to put in so much effort on their own to get rid of as much racism as
The movement BlackLivesMatter have outed hundreds unlawful officers and victims that never got the justice needed. The same characteristics (color and style) that emulates strong, noble people can backfire. Black people in this country who actively resist dehumanization makes a call to action and a response to anti-Black racism in our current society. (Cullors, 2015) The growth of the movement has moved country-wide, first starting in the south; the south had always had history of racism and anti-black impulses. This movement is continuing to carry up north and west, and is projected that any officer can be the next one to unlawfully kill another black individual. These immoral police officers are no different from the rest of the police force, their uniforms are no different color or style they do not have different titles, there is no distinction between the these two types of officers. African Americans are persuaded to be more cautious and angry towards police officers; anyone with a cop uniform can be considered a threat to their life. Innocent cops were murdered in retaliation to the unfair judicial systems that are not punishing these cops. Once a police-like uniform is worn it not only once symbolizes honor and power, but t too many communities