This pair seized upon the headlines generated from a case involving a woman named Mona Marshall, who alleged that she had been drugged, raped, and forced into prostitution by a pimp. There were elements of her story that were genuinely factual and terribly disturbing, but other parts seemed far-fetched. That included a tale in which the police reportedly received a note that she dropped from the window of the brothel where she worked stating, “I am a white slave.” In addition, Marshall’s recounting of events included several contradictions with dates and key details. Nonetheless, The Chicago Tribune and William Randolph Hearst’s Chicago American ran wild with the Mona Marshall story and it quickly gained a national audience. Clifford Roe gained recognition nationwide as the prosecutor of that case and he leveraged his newfound fame into more of an activist role. He subsequently published Panders and Their White Slaves and The Girl Who Disappeared, which was later fact checked by a notable sociologist Walter Reckless. He found that Roe used heavily altered statements from prostitutes to advance his agenda. In addition, Reckless studied Chicago’s “white slave” court cases extensively and found that less than 5% of them actually involved women held against their will. In fairness, although Roe’s methods were deceptive, one positive result manifested from his work as he successfully lobbied to get much needed sex trafficking laws passed in Illinois. Over a short period of
“The other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore, is a book that follows the surreal and vindicating lives of two young men that lived in Baltimore; both by the same name, Wes Moore. The author presents that while him and the ‘other Wes Moore,’ may have been in very similar circumstances both being black males with no father figure, growing up in New York, playing sports, the outcome of their lives has been drastically different. While he has come to be a successful author, White House Fellow, business leader and influential public figure, the ‘other Wes Moore’ was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, in June of 2001, for the murder of a Baltimore County Police Sergeant. The author forms a relationship with this ‘other Wes Moore’, leading
In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenage girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug when he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White). As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected they can become from their children in a social media world.
In her Fire in a Canebrake, Laura Wexler describes an important event in mid-twentieth century American race relations, long ago relegated to the closet of American consciousness. In so doing, Wexler not only skillfully describes the event—the Moore’s Ford lynching of 1946—but incorporates it into our understanding of the present world and past by retaining the complexities of doubt and deception that surrounded the event when it occurred, and which still confound it in historical records. By skillfully navigating these currents of deceit, too, Wexler is not only able to portray them to the reader in full form, but also historicize this muddled record in the context of certain larger historical truths. In this fashion, and by refusing to
Slander. Fabrication. And defamation of character is what Victoria Price and Ruby Bates accomplished when stating such tales about young black men who were almost put to death by execution because of such false rape allegations. Nowadays such accusations wouldn't go this far as easily as it did back then. The Scottsboro trials appropriated a new kind of discrimination and inequality. But however had ultimately helped shape a new age.
In the article "Why the Audience Mattered in Chicago in 1907” there was an element in the population that was left out of the mainstream focus of the entertainment business. Their cry out for attention created enough noise in the industry that caused laws to be put into place to protect the youth from the hypnotic effect of the big screen.
In her play Chicago, Maurine Watkins incorporates several different themes that express the realities of the 1920’s. Some of these themes are more easily noticed than others. Among the more noticeable ones is the theme of manipulation. Watkins exemplifies the fact that manipulation was one of the most vital keys to success during this time period at several different points throughout the play. Through the encounters of Roxie Hart, Watkins shows that every character, with the exception of Amos, is manipulative and perform their lives in order to obtain success within the corrupted system.
Whatever the woman said it was treated as evidence, despite the story of the Afro-American. Southern white claimed to be the “guardians of the honor of Southern white women” because they were in charge of taking the Afro-American to trial and lynching them when charged with “rape”. They did it in hoped of making it clear that whites were the dominant race and to draw fear towards the Afro-Americans so they wouldn’t get involved with their Southern white ladies. It had a very double standard feel because for Southern white men, they could have an affair with an Afro-American woman and everything would be okay. It wouldn't be viewed as rape. As well as a Southern white male could rape an African American female, and they wouldn’t get lynched. The white male would be set free with a slap on the wrist. This Antebellum era was very sexist and racist and Ida B. Wells knew that, and the Southern whites knew that she knew that so they were doing everything in their power to stop her from getting the word
The author starts the article with a very eye opening sentence, “my first victim was a woman…” (Staples). This sentence is perfectly placed and catches the reader's attention. The sentence purpose is to actually cause the reader to assume something bad is about to happen, but actually nothing happens. The woman just simply over reacts, based on prejudice, because the author, a black man, occupies public space close to hers. This jump starts the article and makes some audience members appeal to the author in a emotional way. For example, it can really hit home for an African American that has experienced something similar to what the author had just went through. The author was
In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.
Baker, Anderson, and Dorn (1992) give the readers six guidelines to follow when critically assessing any literary work, all of which can applied to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. The first guideline is about how accessible is her work. Throughout the book, Alexander made her work as clear and concise as she possibly could by explaining certain points over again in a different chapter to make sure that the audience understands what she is trying to say. Any explanation given, whether it is her own thoughts or other evidence/data is throughly talked about and written in such a way that the readers can easily digest its meanings. The next guideline is Authenticity. Alexander authenticates everything she can; almost all of the secondary sources she uses have dates (years) or she will reference certain historical events that correlate with the facts she is presenting to the audience. This is clearly shown when Michelle talks about the history of the “War on Drugs”, e.g. Reagan’s policies and Clinton’s “three
Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. "Sojourner Truth." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 775-76. Print.
She erases the blackness of the woman to justify her actions, a common endeavor in white America’s exploitation of the black body. This endeavor is evident of the
One of the many excitements in the news during the late sixties was the “Chicago Seven” Trial. People read about this crazy trial and the outlandish events that took place in the courtroom from the defendants wearing judicial robes to crude names and accusations directed towards the Judge. Who could we possibly expect to act so unruly in a place of order and justice? Why, the “Chicago Seven” of course. The events that led up to this trial all began with Democratic Convention of 1968 which took place in Chicago, Illinois.
While Morrison depicts myriad abuses of slavery like brutal beatings and lynching, the depictions of and allusions to rape are of primary importance; each in some way helps explain the infanticide that marks the beginnings of Sethe’s story as a free woman. Sethe kills her child so that no white man will ever “dirty” her, so that no young man with “mossy teeth” will ever hold the child down and suck her breast (Pamela E. Barnett 193)
The journey from being a hidden figure to someone of credibility was far from easy amongst the three women. Each of the women were disposed to stereotypes of not being capable enough that resulted from their skin color. While being stereotyped, these women knew they had