The Dignity Of Black Americans

Black Lives Matter is an international activist movement that started within the African-American communities. This movement is organized by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. Ever since the black people have stepped on American soil, they have continued to be victims of racism and violence. From slavery to lynching to segregation, the black people have suffered alot in this country. In the past few years, there are so many of them that have been targeted by the law enforcement authorities across the country. This movement’s goal is to raise awareness of racism and violence against African-Americans. They wants African-American to live with dignity and respect like other Americans do.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a loosely‐coordinated, nationwide movement dedicated to ending police brutality that rose to prominence in late 2014. It takes its name from a hashtag started by three Black feminist activists Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi but the movement and the hashtag are not identical (Freelon, McIlwain, & Clark, 2016). BLM has achieved national reputation through their online and offline organizing, obtaining extensive news media coverage and glowing references in music and entertainment television. Based on a horrendous incident that sparked a concern for a lot of Black people across the world, the sudden need for a social movement was born called BLM. Black Lives Matter is a national organization working for the validity of Black life and also working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter broadens the conversation and highlight the incidents around state violence to include the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. This referring to the ways in which Black lives are deprived of basic human rights and dignity. According to the article The Murder of Walter Scott, which talks about race and class, “African Americans are less than 13% of the U.S. population yet they are nearly 50% of those killed by the police. North Charleston has a population of 104,000, 47% Black and the police force is 80% white (Miah, 2015)”.

Numbers suggest that, for instance, while Blacks compose six percent of population in St. Clayton city, they represent 57% of overall police arrests. Similarly, the probability of Black arrest in Berkeley (CA) and Madison (Wis) cities is nine times higher than other racial groups compared to their corresponding population. In addition to this, Bureau of Justice statistics report that at the national level, Blacks are two times more likely to be arrested compared to Whites. Concurring with media reports and national statistics institutes’ estimates, empirical studies also report high proportion of minority arrests compared to their representation in the population (Golub, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007).

Stephanos Bibas explained the high incarceration rates in his article, “The Truth About Mass Incarceration,” by stating that, “Over the past few decades, prosecutors have grown tougher, and more consistent.” He also explains that over half of arrests today lead to felony convictions versus twenty years ago when one-third of arrests lead to felony charges (Bibas). Bibas concludes that the increasing incarceration rates cannot be tied to racism among the judicial system, but can be explained by increase in convictions and arrests for crimes considered felonies. Even though Bibas presents fair points, race is also a factor in arrests, between June 2005 and June 2008, African Americans consisted of 85% of all stop-and-frisks by the NYPD, while only 8% of stop-and-frisks were performed on white people (Graff 129). “...The criminalization process works so well precisely because of the hidden logic of racism,” Angela Davis writes to describe how hidden racism leads to the widespread belief that African Americans are more likely to be criminals than white people (268). This societal expectation that all African Americans are criminals has lead to more stop-and-frisks and more arrests of people of

Both public perception on police racial profiling and the fairness of our justice system reveal that race continues to play a role in our society. The shootings of unarmed African-American men Michael Brown and Erica Garder are incidents that highlight the racial divide in public opinion on racial profiling by police officers, and its court rulings. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2014 revealed the following after respondents were asked whether the grand jury’s decision to not charge Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown was

Despite this, 1 in 10 the officers support racial profiling, practice it and believe it is an essential utensil in law enforcement (Barlow & Barlow,

This piece of evidence is from a website called “The Daily Wire” and it’s a fascinating. “According to MacDonald, 12 percent of white and Hispanic homicide deaths were due to police officers, while only four percent of black homicide deaths were the result of police officers” Many will state that white on black violence especially among police officers, but the main problem is black on black, which widely increases the death total of black men and women from homicide. The next piece of evidence is also from “The Daily Wire” and it shows that the reason cops this year have killed more blacks is also due to the amount of violent crimes committed by the black community. They state that “MacDonald also pointed out in her Hillsdale speech that blacks "commit 75 percent of all shootings, 70 percent of all robberies, and 66 percent of all violent crime" in New York City, even though they consist of 23 percent of the city's population” Obviously after a crime like a shooting or robbery has been committed cops are more likely to use lethal force, especially while fearing for their life. “The Daily Wire” also stated that “This is according to a Department of Justice report in 2015 about the Philadelphia Police Department, and is further confirmed that by a study conducted University of Pennsylvania criminologist Greg Ridgeway in 2015 that determined black cops were 3.3

Additionally, African Americans and other minorities are more likely to be arrested by policemen due to their race. Many government officials believe race is tied up with crime, and they make assumptions based off the color of the offenders skin (Jost 7). In the twenty first century, one out of fifteen people incarnated were African Americans (Miller 1). Not only are minority adults more likely to be arrested, but also minority children targeted by police officers (“Justice on Trial” 4). Even though studies have shown that caucasian and minority youths have been dealing drugs at the same rate, African Americans and other minorities are more likely to be arrested for the crime (“Justice on Trial” 4).

For the past few years, racial tensions have been on the rise. Although many actions have been taken to prevent these conflicts from occurring, African Americans are still being undervalued by the state. As more African Americans are being turned away with little to no assistance from the American government, anger and the desire for change increased among them. When Trayvon Martin’s murderer George Zimmerman was acquitted for his crime, a great number of Americans were furious at the outcome. Three African American women named Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi expressed their view on a Facebook post titled “A Love Note to Black People” and it ends with “Our Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter” (“Black Lives Matter”). Thus, a new liberation movement for black people was born. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter rapidly spread throughout social media, bringing awareness of the struggles of African Americans. The Black Lives Matter movement is a call to action to eradicate the dehumanization of African Americans that exists in American society. With the constant targeting of African Americans by the police and the unfair treatment in the criminal justice system, the Black Lives Matter movement is a necessity to combat racism.

The Department of Justice data indicates that per capita, police are approximately five times more likely to shoot a Black person than a White person (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Some argue that the discrepancy when use of force is concerned, is driven by the types of activities that Blacks and Whites engage in (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). The thought is that if Blacks conduct more crimes than Whites, it would make sense that Blacks will be overrepresented in the encounters (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Even though officers were still more likely to use force against Blacks, it was largely because officers were more likely to encounter Blacks in dangerous neighborhoods (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma, 2014). Studies using controlled racial differences in arrest rates eliminated the effect of race on shootings. It was found that race generally had little effect of sensitivity. Regardless of race, police participants were usually able to distinguish between armed and unarmed suspects well (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Ma,

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. About a year after Martin’s death, an 18 year-old unarmed male, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. That sparked weeks of protests. Years later, Asians, Latinos, and some whites joined in and realized how big of a problem this was becoming. As the years go by, the BLM Movement will keep growing and will not go

In a study initiated by Cody T. Ross, he reasoned “there is no relationship between county-level racial bias in police shootings and crime rates (even race-specific crime rates), meaning that the racial bias observed in police shootings in this data set is not explainable as a response to local-level crime rates.” (2015). Contrary to the previous perspective, this comprehensive study indicates that there is no correlation between crime rates and the use of moderate to lethal force used by police. The prevailing sentiment in this study is that race if the decisive factor for force

The studies concerning the correlation between race and crime in the United States is a common source for social debate for more than a hundred years. Since a few decades ago, the major focuses of controversy are the causes of high percentages of minorities at various stages of the justice system, such as arrests, prosecutions and incarcerations. For example, prosecutors tend to push for mandatory minimum sentences for Black and Hispanic defendants as twice as much than other races, which leads to more racial data disparities in incarceration rates for these races (Rehavi and Starr, p.11) on the other hand, in the midst of controversy, people disregard the merits of these studies. Likewise, the fine line between racial statistics and racial profiling is often blurred. Thus, a media-inflated event, such as the recent Ferguson Incident, blinds people from seeing the importance of these statistics in their everyday lives. Therefore, most people argue against the use of racial statistics in forensic science. However, even if the argument is that these

We are all probably aware that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s challenged the long term mistreatment of African Americans across the United States and subsequently saw huge reform in equal-rights legislation during the Reconstruction period (REF). But, while the law promotes equality and prohibits racial discrimination, why, still, in 2015, do we continue to witness it everywhere? Today, I will be discussing the differences between race and racism, analysing discrimination in American society (arguably the most advanced developed

“Black Lives Matter” —an intended progression in society without a hierarchy, merely marching forward by spur of the people. Started by three sisters who continue to keep the organization a chapter-based, left wing social justice operation, it can best be described as “Not a moment, but a movement” by those that follow it. The case that began this outcry involved a man —George Zimmerman— whom, according to Lizette Alvarez and Cara Buckley (2013), “was found not guilty [of] second-degree murder [and] was also acquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge.” (para. 1). Since its initial start in 2013, the movement follows and protests against police brutality and civil injustice towards individuals of the Black minority; however, this is a prime example of hate breeding hate as the movement, has opened a new floodgate full of antipathy aimed towards the White-community and Law Enforcement Officials. In short, the initial idea of “Black Lives Matter” —which is to bring civil justice to the Black-community— is a good concept, but the execution by its adherents are, ironically, bigoted; the movement needs to either evolve its state of thought or disperse before it further segregates America.