He had seen firsthand how African Americans experienced brutality growing up. He had seen this when Jess Alexander Helms a police officer brutalized a black woman, and dragged her to the jail house. He had explained it as “the way a caveman would club and drag his sexual prey”. This shows how little rights African Americans had in these days because he was unable to do anything. All of this happened while other African American individuals walked away hurriedly.
They were just cruising. But then in the rear-view mirror, we saw them make a U-turn, and we knew they were going to flash us to stop. They had spotted us in passing, as negroes and they knew that negroes had no business in the area at that hour. It was a close situation. There was a lot of robbery going on; we weren’t the only gang working, we knew, not by any means.
Society in today’s world is very alike to society years ago, with different social classes and stereotypes. In “Just walk on by” by Brent staples, a variety of rhetorical devices are used in order to convey the message of how a black man is trying to show society that he is so much more than the color of his skin. The author explains how the character was characterized as violent and dangerous because he was black. Staples continues on a sort of journey with the character to show how he overcomes that stereotype, by whistling classical music to give the idea that he is mature and less threatening. Throughout the piece, Staples uses devices that will help the reader better understand the struggles that the character has to face on a daily basis.
He explains that people of his race are feeling trapped because of their situation and speaking up means they “interfere with life and disrupt white mainstream”(19). The “wall less prison” is described by the experiences that America Americans have had such as “lousy schools, drug use and abuse, being the victims of crimes, lack of employment, economic despair” (19). All of these factors contributed to the issues that the African American community has faced and has also impacted families. Black parents feel they must describe their children as “what they are not, rather than what they are” (19).
He starts the second and third paragraph by saying “It is true.” This captures their attention. Green also references historical allusions that remind African Americans of the overwhelming amount of pain and lassitude they suffered in the past. By repeating the facts over and over to the African Americans, Green hopes that they realize they must put up a fight. In the fourth and fifth paragraph, Green repeatedly uses the terms “let us” and “brethren” as a way to call out to the African Americans and bind them together.
He says “Its [Birmingham] ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negros has experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation.” (pg. 2), which shows what African Americans are living through. It also shows the fear they were living through.
“I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against ‘outsiders coming in’.” The people of Birmingham do not consider African-Americans as one of them and do not think they should be there. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This suggests that everything is either directly or indirectly affected by another. “It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure has left Negro community with no alternative.”
"But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that “Funtown” is closed to colored children, and see the depressing cloud of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored,” when your first name becomes “nigger” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodyness” -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait."
These words implicate that even though the slaves are free now, they have a worse fate with the racist brutality socially. They will be more mistreated and disrespected in society by all of the people that are against African Americans, then if they were to still be on the plantations. This social group would destroy everything that the former slaves have accomplished. As seen in the image there is a what seems to be a married couple coward down at the feet of the KKK, and in the foreground there is a cloud of black smoke through the air. You see there is a “School House” (Nast) sign, this shows that the KKK would burn and take down everything that meant something to the former slaves.
“But when you’ve seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled police men curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst
This quote exemplifies how blacks have been put down and beat upon for years without the ability to fight back. King detailing the constitutional and god given rights shows that blacks have been denied basic rights that our country has been structured around. The American ideology that “all men are created equal” has not applied to the black race, illustrating their denial of God-given and constitutional rights. The stinging darts of segregation is an example of blacks continuous enduring of
He wrote this piece to express his important opinion about the effect of racism and how he’s viewed as a man of color. He talks about his first encounter of racism when he was young man in college and was assumed to be a mugger or killer just because of skin. “It was in echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” I feel that the author is trying to connect to his vast audience of people who don’t understand what it is like to a black man in society. Later he contemplated that he rejected or shunned by the white race collectively as a dangerous man.
With the current data of the maternal and child mortality and morbidity in the United states. It has decreased over the last century but it has been increasing in certain ethnicities. Such as in 2007 the mortality rate was about 12.7 deaths per live births when in 1987 it was only about 6.6. With hispanic and black women it is not too far from 8.9 deaths. Some of the most common complications relate from pregnancy, internal hemorrhage and eclampsia.
This reference in particular evokes the strongest emotional response from black people because many African Americans revered Lincoln for his decision to sign the revolutionary Emancipation Proclamation, and how the document symbolized a free future for slaves--the ancestors of the blacks in the crowd. But the next few lines following this allusion also persuades those ignorant of how little things have changed by highlighting the “manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination” that blacks still suffer from despite the hundred year gap. Here, he uses the connotations of “manacles” and “chains” to evoke a negative emotional response from the audience, especially from those unaware of the need to change, causing their opinion to match the speaker’s: against segregation. Additionally, King weaves biblical allusions into his speech to appeal to the Christians within the crowd. He uses the “dark and desolate valley of segregation” to illustrate the injustice African Americans have endured for centuries and juxtapositions it with the “sunlit path of racial justice” to exemplify a future where true freedom exists for
Marxist Within the Mockingbird Today the world is open to people of all races, economic classes and much more, but in the 1930’s the world was not as accepting. To Kill A Mockingbird, is a book by Harper Lee which takes place in the 1930’s. Throughout the story there are issues with feminism, racism, and injustice. It starts with a young girl and her family, and as the book progresses the reader gets to find out some of the things that go on in their life and around them. Such as a stressful case which includes, a black innocent man who is accused for something he did not do.
