The year was 1968, 70,000 Viet Cong soldiers launch the Tet Offensive, one of the largest assaults conducted during the Vietnam war, in which it proved to be a disastrous turning point for the US, psychologically and politically speaking; on April 4th, the most influential civil rights leader of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated by James Earl Ray outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee leading to more instability immediately following. In addition to MLK’s untimely death, Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles by a young Jordanian man that was upset by RFK’s support for Israel. These tragedies, all following the release of Planet of the Apes, help make up the tumultuous 1960’s decade. Planet of the Apes …show more content…
“Institutions of law and governance, structures and styles of authority, religious faith and medical knowledge…all of these emergent forms bore the stamp of slavery.”(Keywords, pg. 225) When Taylor is shot through the throat, the audience is asked to empathize with those denied a voice. Whenever he tries to reason with his captors he is suppressed by beatings and a hosing down, which was used by police to subdue civil rights protestors. When Taylor is placed in the formal setting of the court room, he is again silenced even though he was intelligent and could reasonably defend himself. Taylor was denied his basic civil rights based on the fact that he was not an Ape; this specifically was shown to the audience because many cases fought by the blacks before abolition of slavery in 1865 were denied based on the fact that they were not white. In 1857, the case of Dred Scott vs Sandford, U.S. Supreme Court held that blacks, whether they were enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and therefore was not able to sue in federal court. Even though Scott had lived in a free territory for a number of years he couldn’t get pass because of a faux legal barrier that had no purpose other than to place blacks in a sub category of human. One of the big, if not the biggest, visual ques in the movie was the “Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil” moment that the three Orangutans mimicked, this was a response to the theory that Ape was a decedent of man that Zira proposed in the court proceedings, which contradicted Ape’s faith. This moment could be seen as how many whites in the position of power treated the issue of slavery, they simply turned a blind eye towards it in hopes that it would fix itself. These types of injustices are exactly what people needed to see in order to understand what the civil rights
The first social issue portrayed through the film is racial inequality. The audience witnesses the inequality in the film when justice is not properly served to the police officer who executed Oscar Grant. As shown through the film, the ind...
Finally, the government was unjust because of their need to treat black males as animals rather than men. During slavery the high level of cruelty towards slaves made it seem as though the man was an animal and was often referred to as such. Douglass didn’t take kindly to how laws had referenced to slaves as “beast of the field” (Douglass, 2011, p.780). He found it ridiculous that when it came to the law the term “man”
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
In the duration of one year, 1968, the American national mood shifted from general confidence and optimism to chaotic confusion. Certainly the most turbulent twelve months of the post-WWII period and arguably one of the most disturbing episodes the country has endured since the Civil War, 1968 offers the world a glimpse into the tumultuous workings of a revolution. Although the entire epoch of the 1960's remains significant in US history, 1968 stands alone as the pivotal year of the decade; it was the moment when all of the nation's urges toward violence, sublimity, diversity, and disorder peaked to produce a transformation great enough to blanket an entire society. While some may superficially disagree, the evidence found in the Tet Offensive, race relations, and the counterculture's music of the period undeniably affirm 1968 as a turning point in American history.
In conclusion, after view this film, it is clear that one can see how black youth are being viewed as killers and savages. This is not true. There have been many admirable scholars and scientists who come from the African American culture. This movie, though it depicts what goes on in South America, takes the violence committed by black youth too far. One cannot view a film and take it that this is what a race is like. The filmmakers depicted black youth in a harsher light.
The narrator is not the only black male in the story to have experience the racism with the white men. The narrator tries to get away from the racism but struggles to, he come across multiple African Americans that attempt to do the same thing. All of these provide an idea to the correct way to be black in America and it also demonstrates how blacks should act. It is said that anyone who doesn’t follow these correct ways are betraying the race. In the beginning of the story, the narrator’s grandfather says that the only way to make racism become extinct that African Americans should be overly nice to whites. The Exhorter named Ras had different beliefs of the blacks rising up to the whites and take power from the whites. Even though these thoughts come from the black community to take the freedom from the whites, the stories reveals that the are just as dangerous as the whites being racist. The narrator has such a hard time throughout the whole story exploring his identity. While doing so, it demonstrates how so many blacks are betraying their race because the have such a hard time dealing with it. In the end of the story once the battle was over the boys are brought to get their payment. That is when the narrator is able to present his speech to everyone. He was completely beat up and bruised and blood coming from his mouth and nose when he begins his speech. All the other men are laughing and yelling at him,
Towards the end of the Sixties various tragic political assassinations managed to take away such great leaders as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Robert Kennedy.
... blacks and makes them impotent hurts Tom Robinson this time because even though Atticus has ripped apart the Ewells to a point where they aren’t even asked for the truth, Tom Robinson is still a black man in a Jim Crow south and his word is against two white people’s word. And ultimately instead of being rewarded for helping out, he gets shot.
The year of 1963 would be the year that would forever be remembered as the time when President John Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. On a warm Friday afternoon in downtown Dallas, perched on the top floor of the Texas School Book Depositary, Lee Harvey Oswald set aim on one of the more popular presidents of all time. This event impacted the history of the United States, and is one of the most talked about killings of all time.
Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.
The portrayal by Apess of the rampant racism that existed in America in his time is accurate and clear. He understood that the nature of racism is found both in the regular citizen as well in the ruling classes or politicians. As an example, during the time Apess wrote his essay, it interracial marriage was illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He mentions this as a direct infringement of the rights of the individual by both the state and society. It is Apess’ argument that the white man doesn’t even consider other races, especially the Native Indian or the Blacks, as qualified to have rights in the first place. The dehumanization of the Indian by the white man allows the latter to oppress and murder the former, to take his land, and to
Just what exactly happened on April 4th, 1968 at 6:01PM? Just how many sides does this story have? The events surrounding Martin Luther King's death remain controversial to this day, after more than 30 years after the fact. The accepted story is a man named James Earl Ray was the assassin however, there are many contradictions to that conclusion. One must come to realize the accepted story is wrong, a cover up has deceived the public for over 30 years, James Earl Ray did not kill Martin Luther King; Martin Luther King was assassinated by a government conspiracy.
“evil” shows how unfairly these black Africans were treated (93). The author further justifies the
The monkeys of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book are a very unique group of characters. They are viewed by the other animals of the jungle, or the Jungle People as they call themselves, as outcasts and outlaws. The most prominent chapter they occur in, “Kaa’s Hunting”, shows their lawless, shiftless, and uncivilized way of life. This image in itself does not give off any racist undertone. However, Disney’s adaption of The Jungle Book carries this view of the monkeys, while also giving them strong attributes that are commonly associated with African-Americans.