The Impact of Movies

Over the course of our workshops the movies that the biggest impact on my learning was Selma and Bhutto: Democracy was her Greatest Revenge. These movies both tell the story of the oppressed people fighting and standing up for the rights. Selma takes place in America during the midst of the civil rights movement. While Bhutto takes place in pakistan within the last two-three decades. They both have common goals of achieving their basic human rights, and be given fair representation.

You see similarities in multiple places throughout these movies. The most vivid part to me in Selma is when the people of the town try to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and are slaughtered and beaten on national television which was an eye opener to the rest of the country. In Bhutto, you see something similar when people are in the streets while bombs and gunshots are going off.  The difference is in Selma that was a turning point for the oppresses black people; in Bhutto it seems that the violence is just something they have to deal with if they want to achieve political freedom. Another theme I saw in both movies is both Martin Luther King Jr. and Benazir Bhutto would take all the abuse and unfairness thrown at them, and still fight back non-violently. This was key in both situations because it made both of the groups look like the victim to the common-eye which they were, but if they were to fight back people would not feel much for them.

Both of the films complimented all of the readings we’ve done throughout the summer. You could see the change of time between the black lives matter articles and Selma, but also see the hardships we are facing now are similar to those faced in the past. That showed me that there is a serious problem going on now with police brutality if we are facing situations similar to the civil rights movement. In Bhutto, we got a visual story of the readings of her and we understood how much she meant for her people. You could see that she was a true symbol for democracy and gave her people the most powerful weapon hope.

Why “Black” Lives Matter?

 

Over the past few years’ cases like: Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr., Tamir Rice, and many more have put pain across the nation but especially in the black community. So first people must realize that the saying “blacklivesmatter” is not saying nobody else lives matter. I think law professor Patricia Leary best sums up the meaning and what it stands for and clears the negative misconceptions. In her response to students who were offended by it she says, “The students seem to believe there is an invisible ‘only’ in front of the words Black Lives Matter… “Black Lives Matter” is not a statement about white people. It does not exclude white people. It does not accuse white people, unless you are a specific white person who perpetuates, endorses or ignores violence against black people.” She tells the truth and stresses the importance that the people who want to say this offensive are really just looking for an excuse to make the cause look bad on black people who want equality.

Black people have protested, rioted, and pleaded with our country to try and help them with the injustices they face. It is at the point where the black community is just sick and tired of their people and youth getting senselessly killed. Black Lives Matter approach to this problem is different than those of the past, which is strange because with all the progress the civil rights movement made you would think they would use some of their tactics. Reynolds argues that, “Many in my crowd admire the cause and courage of these young activists but fundamentally disagree with their approach.  Trained in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr., we were nonviolent activists who won hearts by conveying respectability and changed laws by delivering a message of love and unity. BLM seems intent on rejecting our proven methods. This movement is ignoring what our history has taught.” This is significant because while BLM is a known movement, how much progress have they made? Martin Luther King Jr. changed the history of the world on matters that we are facing today why not use what he already taught us, and it least give it a try.

I support what Black Lives Matters is trying to accomplish, and being from their activist generation I see where their tactics are coming from. I also recognize what the older generations see, and why they wish it would change. I think if they did use some older tactics they might have a better reaction, because it a more respectful way and does not make them look like the bad guy. Reynolds try to show this when she says, “But at protests today, it is difficult to distinguish legitimate activists from the mob actors who burn and loot. The demonstrations are peppered with hate speech, profanity, and guys with sagging pants that show their underwear. Even if the BLM activists aren’t the ones participating in the boorish language and dress, neither are they condemning it.” I think by mobbing and looting it makes nobody feel remorse for what the black community is going through. While during the civil rights movement the black community led my MLK was able to show the harassment and brutality they had to deal without any retaliation.

In the end it is going to take more than one tactic, or a few changed minds to create equality and a right world. Black Lives Matter is the closest thing the black community has to unity over these issues right now. Our community has to stay unified to continue to try and fix this problem we have to convince the rest of the country that there is not much more we can do to stop being racially profiled.

 

Works Cited

 

Jaschik, Scott. “Law Professor Responds to Students Who Complained about Her Black Lives Matter Shirt.” Law Professor Responds to Students Who Complained about Her Black Lives Matter Shirt. N.p., 12 July 2016. Web. 27 July 2016.

 

Reynolds, Barbara. “I Was a Civil Rights Activist in the 1960s. But It’s Hard for Me to Get Behind Black Lives Matter.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 27 July 2016.

The Struggle for True Equality

Our society has been conflicted over years, fighting for democracy and achieving equality throughout the country and all its inhabitants. Right now we are in a time where we want to think that we have come so far, and our country is now in a time where there is no racism or racial stereotypes.  The problem with this is these are always going to be relevant in our life time and you cannot ignore them. Being an African-American man I have been told my whole life to respect authorities, and always do what they say even if it is not right it is not worth my life. There is always going to be a chance for people to prove their innocence, but what our society has to understand is you cannot do that if your dead. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his “Letters from Birmingham Jail”, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” These words can relate with our society as senseless killings of black men by police have become nearly an everyday occurrence, and we can use them to understand that we need to change the police brutality and inequality that is happening now. We can not just complain on social media, or kill cops because not all of them are bad matter fact most of them aren’t. We have to change the eye of the public about the black race.

We have come to a time where it seems that people and cops especially are scared of black people because of their skin color and how they look. It seems that when it comes to these innocent shootings the cops were more frightened than need be. They have to understand just like us now that you cannot stereotype a whole group (cops) or race because of history or one persons actions. Benazir Bhutto when talking about the Pro-Taliban forces in her country said that, “They thrive on dictatorship, they thrive on terror, they provoke chaos to exploit chaos.” If you look through history it does not matter where the same basis of structure for the fighting around democracy always relate back to the same ideas. What Benazir was dealing with in Pakistan, was happening during the civil rights movement the reason they were successful then was because with the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. they did not give into the incitement and chaos. They made the public see the brutality, and not once did they fight back making them look like angels. This is why the civil rights movement was successful but it also took time, and now we are at a moment where these tactics are needed but nobody wants to take the patient route.

Now we are at a point where we have to stop looking back, and trying to make the past change. Overtime we look back and grieve about what has happened we are missing opportunities to prevent events from happening like this in the future. In “Prisoners of Hope” it is said by Cornel West, “The question becomes, “How do you channel the rage?” Because it’s going to come out.” This relates with the black american society now more than ever, because so many people have built up rage about events like Alton Sterling or Mike Brown. With the shooting of the Dallas policemen, it puts a bad look on the black community even with all that is going on. It is a bad example, of what we should be putting a rage towards; Martin Luther King Jr. was great at showing people what to put their rage into, and he led by example. We need to know look back on the history of our race, and look at what we can do from our past and what worked for them that is how we will achieve true equality.