The Hidden Assault On Our Civil Rights

Enstad mentions words such as “invisible” (57, 58), “unanticipated” (61), and “threaten” (60). These words indicate the unknown which stirs a sense of terror among her readers. The unknown remains a mystery, and there is no way to predict its movements. By doing so, she underscores the direness of the spread of this toxicity by pushing against this fear. Enstad even blatantly acknowledges the emotions she’s evoking by jeering that after reading her essay, readers might want to “sanitize one’s own environment” (63). As an author, she empathizes with her audience’s thoughts on her essay which allows her to relate to her audience thus, igniting a need to take charge and further analyze this toxicity that plagues Americans. It is common for a community of people to begin scrambling for solutions to an issue when the danger is imminent compared to a future problem. On the other hand, Kim’s article not only brings together a community for a common cause like Enstad’s but, she appeals to a different emotion through her use of a history strand. Kim’s history strand consists of phrases such as “imperialism” (3), “political turmoil” (4), and “immigrant” (4). She motivates her Asian American audience to unite due to the shared histories of the community. The cultural roots of Asian Americans are not often portrayed in American media and is not commonly discussed. Kim

There will always be a few things that a person does not feel comfortable with about their own body that leads them to hide it. These things could be aspects of their identity or their physical features that they feel must be hidden away in order to fit better into the mainstream. In his essay, “Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” Kenji Yoshino discusses the effects “covering” has on marginalized groups in the United States. He defines “covering” as the ability “to tone down a disfavored identity to better fit into the mainstream” (Yoshino 294). In her essay, “Alone Together” Sherry Turkle discusses how the pervasive use of technology like “online communities” is detrimental to people. She worries that with frequent use of technology that people will begin to become indifferent to authenticity in their everyday lives. Both authors worry about whether individuals will unite regardless of their covering or their excessive use of online communities or not. Individuals are pulled further apart from each other due to their excessive use of virtual worlds and covering of their identities.

“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time”-Malcolm X. In every movement men and women have crossed paths with others that share their goals, but not everyone shares the same path to achieve it. The civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties were no different in this case, while many shared the common goal of equality for all, not everyone shared the same style or belief system to achieve it creating sources of conflict within various civil rights organizations as well as between organizations. Freedom activists, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael sharing the same goal as other civil rights leaders John Lewis

At the turning point of the century came the rise of the industrial age in America, and with that, came the rise of multiculturalism. The promise of the money and jobs brought people from all over the world. Free-market enterprise had people enamored with “The American Dream,” the idea that freedom enabled every hard-working individual with the opportunity for prosperity in success. Because of this, no other nation has such a rich blend of cultures. However, with this culture of diversity one could claim makes America great, comes a series of convoluted identity politics. In the novel Covering: The Hidden Assault On Our Civil Rights, Kenji Yoshino talks about the dichotomy between the True Self and False Self, and the concept of covering,

When it comes to court cases, every case that is heard in court is heard for one reason or another.

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

The struggle to achieve freedom during the Civil Rights Movement was slowed and stifled due to governmental agenda and white political discomfort. America cared more about the civil liberties in other regions of the World, while maintaining a hypocrisy against African Americans here in the states.

“Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used that tragic event as a justification to rip up our constitution and our civil liberties. And I honestly believe that one or two 9/11s, and martial law will be declared in our country and we're inching towards a police state” -Michael Moore. This quote is the fine definition to describe the film “Unconstitutional: The War on Civil Liberties.” In this short little summary and potential analysis(mostly opinion) will be about how this film describes the after effects 9/11 and the rushed passing of the Patriot Act.

In Kenji Yoshino’s book Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights, he defines the notion of covering as when individuals will “tone down [their own] disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (552). Despite the United States being a rather diverse country, Yoshino argues that many minority groups feel pressured by the mainstream to conform or sort of adapt to what the society around them deems as “normal.” Throughout my life I’ve been able to meet many different people of many unique identities. A particular example that comes to mind is a gay friend of mine and what it was like for him growing up in a strict conservative family. Despite efforts nowadays to make the world a more diverse and open-minded place,

Through out grade school we as the general public are presented with an extremely small amount of information on the Civil Rights Movement, that of a sample size to give us a general idea of what truly went on through out the country and the Deep South. Our foundation on the education of this historical moment is based on are these big names such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Rosa Parks, who are not only known country wide but world wide. There are hundreds, thousands, and quite possibly millions of civil rights activists who are lesser know or even known at all. In Howell Raines novel My Soul Is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South, Raines expressed the oral history of these lesser-known individuals and their

Dr. King argues that immediate action needs to be taken in the case of Black Civil Rights because Blacks have been told to wait and have waited for too long. His argument is highly persuasive because of his sophisticated use of parallelism, especially in paragraph 3, which is used to appeal to the sense of longing that blacks feel. “We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights...Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ 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 policeman curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you

Until the 1950s, African Americans had experienced discrimination in all aspects of their lives. They were no longer slave, but they were definitely not equal citizens.

When citizens of society break federal and state laws they face a punishment known as “ jail” or “ prison”, which purpose is to not only to serve as a punishment but to also act as a program designed to help convicts enter back in to the society as a better person. As citizens of the United States we have civil rights granted to us from the U.S. Constitution that are not meant to just be taken away from us whenever the correctional system feels like it. Many people believe that once a person is put into prison that all of the prisoners’ rights are stripped form them, which is an untrue statement. Some of the basic prisoner laws state that all prisoners must be respected to and their life valued as a human being, it should be no type or

The idea of subjecting and removing Black American men out of the Black household started during slavery. In 1950 and 1980 Blacks were marrying at the same rate that they were being imprisoned, after 1990 during the height of mandatory minimum sentencing laws there is a split in the number of Black marriages and Black men in prison (see appendix)(Marriage).

The American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.