Anomie Protest

In history, there have been many social changes that have occurred like the industrial revolution, the abolition of slavery and the Civil Right Movement. The less powerful not having enough voices to overcome the obstacles being erected by the powerful and many more examples. These voices play a major role when it comes to making big political and social changes. In “Return to Hayneville,” Gregory Orr recounts his experience and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He argues that vocal campaigns and movements in public discourse and deep connections within people, help bring about change in today’s society. Whereas, In Vivian Yee, Alan Blinder and Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Parkland Students Start a Social Movement” they bring

Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have allowed their users to stay connected with others more than ever before. Although, when it comes to social and political activism, these sites are the least effective method for change. The creation of these social media sites has made many people believe that, by spreading their “knowledge” and information to their followers and fellow networkers, they can easily solve an issue that has risen in society; however, Malcolm Gladwell, staff member of The New Yorker magazine, disagrees. In his essay, Gladwell opens with a description of the Greensboro sit-ins. He emphasizes how effectively members participating

In August of 2016, Kaepernick began his protest during a NFL preseason game where he initially sat during the singing of the national anthem. At the time, his rebellious efforts became unnoticed, but he soon enough made headlines when someone took a photo of him sitting during the anthem. Thus a social issue was born from the public’s reaction from the photo.The negativity of the public’s reaction stemmed from the norm that it is customary that people raise their right hand over their heart while facing the flag when the Star-Spangled-Banner is playing, so if one does not follow this norm it is identified showing disrespect. Inevitably, the prediction of the people’s reaction were to be expected as they were outraged when Kaepernick broke the norm. Although, it is legal for individuals not to follow these sacrosanct protocols, citizens of the United States find this norm obligatory.Would you stand by and constantly watch the same social issues to keep reoccurring in your neighborhood? Not only that but it keeps happening to different people by the same organization? When numerous acts of police brutality occurred, Colin Kaepernick decided to protest. He could no longer stand by and do nothing; he decided to take a knee. For professional National Football League (NFL) player, Colin Kaepernick, his response was “no”. One of the last waves that came toward the end of the summer is the kneeling while the national anthem played during sporting events. When Kaepernick decided to

Anomie, first developed by Emile Durkheim, is very evident in today's society. The concept of anomie, according to Durkheim, is a state of normlessness, where individuals are succumbed to deregulation in their lives and through out their society brought on by a social change. Robert K. Merton, following the ideas of Durkheim, developed his own notion of anomie, called Strain Theory. Merton argued that anomie was a day to day function in society, seen as a social structure that embraces the same goals to all of its members without giving them equal means to achieve them. In the name of progress, modern society has promised a better world, yet in modern society anomie has not become the exception but instead the norm.

Social capital is the is the social connections that allow for social interactions in which an individual has opportunities to build bonds, help others out, and affect change for the better. When the social engagement is reciprocated, it can produce benefits for the multiple individuals engaged in the activity and so further the circumstance of the society.

“Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” by Malcolm Gladwell focuses on previous examples of activism that occurs with and without the use of social media. The first event he talks about is the Greensboro, North Carolina sit in. To sum of the event, 4 African American college students were denied service. During this time the Civil Rights Movement was taking place, so the African American community were fighting against being segregated and discriminated everywhere they went. This event was used in Gladwell’s favor to show that this event happened without the help of social media. Gladwell uses the story of a person in need of a bone marrow transplant to explain how thousands of people got to sign up for the campaign. The simple

Social capital is defined as the capacity of social institutions, such as families, churches, schools, or other community organizations to make an investment of attention and advice, support and concerned interest in other community members according to reformer L.J. Hanifan. As a dependent of the community social capital is applied to my everyday life. It helps me to obtain resources for my education such as scholarships, teaches me how to work together with my peers, becoming a positive role model to youth, and build trusting relationships with others in the community. Social capital is seen as a support group from leaders in the community.

Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has created much controversy in the nation over his latest protest. During a preseason football game Kaepernick was photographed sitting during the national anthem (McKirdy). When asked about the action later, Kaepernick explained, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” (Wyche). The nation exploded. Many showed their support for the quarterback, expressing pride in him for “standing up” for the things he believes in. Others displayed their anger with him for disrespecting the flag and all the things the flag represents. After seeing what a backlash his action received, Kaepernick decided to kneel instead of sitting, claiming that his new way of protesting would show more respect for those in the line of duty (Anthem uproar). Although he has the right to protest, sitting during the national anthem is the wrong way to draw attention to a specific cause.

Hierarchical organizations, like high-risk activism, allow individuals to obtain strong ties. Malcolm Gladwell argues in his essay “Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted”, that technology cannot be used for high-risk activism because it is not disciplined enough to be used for strong bonds; however, technology can be used for low-risk activism. He speaks about people having thousands of friends on Facebook, but those online friends are not the real friends who will hold strong ties. Without discipline, movements would not be considered high-risk activism because strong hierarchy is consists of moments without violence. In the story “Return to Hayneville”, Gregory Orr explains the civil right movement that he cooperated with was a civil rights group for racially integrated delegates at

Robert D. Putnam, professor of Public Policy at Harvard University wrote one of his famous essays, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital (1995)”, criticizing the deterioration of social engagement in America during the mid to late twentieth century. In the first paragraph of “Bowling Alone” Putnam states “There is striking evidence, however, that the vibrancy of American civil society has notably declined over the past several decades” describing his central idea. Putnam’s essay informs the reader with strong statistical evidence that there is degrading social capital, explains what potentially caused the loss of activity and provides a proposed solution to prevent the further collapse to America’s social capital. Putnam includes many statistics from the

When discussing why societies are better with deep social capital, Putnam writes “dense networks of interaction probably broaden the participants' sense of self, developing the "I" into the "we” (Putnam, 1995, pp. 2-3). To me, this means that when people are not concerned with only themselves but also with others, things like peace building and community involvement occur. In terms of peace building, if social capital was dense and I had a high social capital level, when something intrigued me and drove me to advocate for peace such as ending violence, it wouldn’t be a fight that I was starting alone but instead the “we” would help fight this battle. For me, this means that if I really want to make a difference in this world, I need to be more involved and increase my social capital. By doing so, I can impact others to do the same and the chances of building peace as a community would be greater. Furthermore, the piece in the article where he ties the whole concept of social capital and its decline to bowling really hit home for me. When it is put in perspective in such a way that Putnam did to describe how even bowling has decreased in profits because people prefer now to bowl alone rather than a s a group or in a league, it really forced one to reflect upon their own involvement. (Putnam, 2010). If as a society and even myself we continue to not fully engage with others but rather masked by technology and our own life circumstances, peace will never be built. As someone who believes in social justice, I know that peace is something I want to help build and thus need to change my social capital

What determines a movement? Malcolm Gladwell defines what pushes a movement to make a difference. He analyzes the concept of “strong ties” and “weak ties” and how these relationships affect an individual’s willpower and determination to help a cause. Gregory Orr puts these ideas into context in his memoir, “Return to Hayneville”, in which he recounts his experience and involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, focuses, in particular, on the civil rights movement concentrates to the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. Gladwell’s ideas and opinions of social and political emancipations are given a real world setting, as

In the reading “Small Change : Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” Malcolm Gladwell discusses the act of four brave college students and their act of social activism. The four freshmen from a local all black college sat down at a counter in a diner near Greensboro, North Carolina and were denied service because of their race. The students refused to leave and instead started a protest there at the restaurant. The numbers of people protesting with the four young men increased as the story spreaded across states. The story of the sit in was done without the use of any technology or social network. Gladwell discussed the effectiveness of the sit-in because of the relationship between

The author, Sean Gregory, in “The Perilous Fight,” talks about the political issue that has been going on for the past year, the issue started when a professional football player from the San Francisco 49ers team, also known as  Colin Kaepernick, kneeled down when the National anthem for the United States of America was played at the beginning of a game. Kaepernick’s justification for this, was that this was his way of protesting unfair treatment of individuals because of racial characteristics. Since racism, discrimination, and gender inequalities have been going on for centuries, I agree on the matter of sports players being able to  kneel down when the anthem, “Star spangled Banner,” is being played because these people are trying to stand up for what they believe is right, and they should be allowed to protest because it is serving as a peaceful way to protest for people who are being unjustly treated. Racism and discrimination often leads to these individuals who are suffering to be judged, killed, and many other harsh things that should not be taking place in the “land of the free.” We as Americans are given so many great things, and people think about the United States they usually think of  freedom, pursuit of happiness, and the rights of being a U.S. citizen, but how can we exercise those given rights properly, when t the government does not let us by putting limitations and restrictions on how we use our rights?  When it's

Kaepernick has every right to show his protest against oppression because it’s one of the many solutions to stop it. He made the right decision to not stand during the Star-Spangled Banner because he didn’t cause the death or injury of a person. His simple yet meaningful influence sparked society’s attention and helped recognize the issue dealing with racism. In paragraph four and nine, I have experienced something similar with social media. In social media, there are many incidents of victims who have died because of police shootings. These events are very tragic, and many have died when they didn’t commit a crime. Instead, they are hurt because of their race or color. These events cause protests because the unfair treatment continues to happen.