Human Rights In Alice Goffman's On The Run

America is often coined ‘land of the free, home of the brave’, it resonates feelings of pride and superiority to be free of all forms of oppression and be a nation with strict codes of natural rights. These certain rights become unanimous to being a citizen of a country or even the world, those rights have been developed over time and are pivotal in various forms of cultural framework. Although the United States, and United Nations have developed various rules and regulations to enforce and guide the basic rights of human beings and citizens of particular countries, there are still social divides. The Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became a promise for people, but in Alice Goffman’s On the Run, both documents provide an outline of basic human rights stripped. The accounts on Sixth Street show a violation of human rights through punitive policing, fear of

The Universal Declaration states, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (UN).” In On the Run, when Chuck was killed and in the hospital many members from 6th street stopped by to pay their respects but were not allowed to stay, when Alice Goffman entered she was allowed to stay the nights and was not harassed. This event showed how there is a division in race in many segments of society. For members of Sixth Street, the neighborhood they were born into, and the color of their skin, dictate the building blocks for the direction of their lives. Although there should be rights afforded to all regardless of many factors, it is apparent that for poor black neighborhood rights fall short of ensuring those an equal chance to