Tyranny Of The Minority By Benjamin Bishin

As discussed in Chapter 10, public opinion is vital to the progress of any democracy. Noted by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, “a just government must get its power fro, the consent of the governed.” This quote highlights the reality that without understanding the publics opinion, a democratic government will fail. This same theme is echoed in the beginning of America’s constitution. Starting with the phrase “we the people,” the importance of the opinions of the common man is made a priority. In this Chapter 10 summary, I will discuss both the importance and of public opinion and analyze whether public opinion is skewed based on certain factors.

Peter Wood’s Black Majority is a social history examining the cause and effects, both explicit and implicit, of the black majority that emerged in colonial South Carolina. His study spans the time period from the settlement of Carolina through the Stono Rebellion, which took place in 1739. He also takes into consideration and examines certain events that took place in the years immediately preceding the settlement of 1670, as well as those that immediately followed, as a direct result of, the Stono Rebellion and their respective relationships to the black majority that existed in the colony. Wood introduces the book as possibly the first real study of this black majority and its impact on the colony in its earliest years. Wood also

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...and to the republic for which it stands...one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” (“Is the United States a Democracy?”) The United States’ pledge is taught to children of all ages, plays an active role in the patriotism of the people, and it symbolizes the citizen’s promise to never violate the Republic of the United States of America. The founding fathers built the foundation of America on their ideological belief that the country should be a republic and that all mankind are created equally. However, over the years, America has gained the title as a democratic nation and the status quo of America being considered “the majority rule.” The present state of affairs of the American government proves to be incorrect because the United States is not a democracy. The United States has limited citizens to participate equally on various occasions, due to the emphasis the government has placed on non-democratic practices, inconsistencies, and discrimination regarding race, gender, and ethnicity.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander tries to advance intellectual dialogue regarding mass incarceration in the United States. Alexander does this by carrying out a historical analysis of the process in which the correctional system controls African Americans through intentionally selected, and systematically sanctioned legal limits. In fact, the United States incarceration rate is not at peak by coincidence. Moreover, it is not coincidental that Black men and women make up the majority of this number. According to Alexander, this problem is a consequence of the “New Jim Crow” rules, which use racial stratification to eliminate black individuals in the legal sense. Black people and a small number of the Hispanic community face racial stratified laws when they face the justice system. This paper will support the claims that race is a major factor in the incarceration of black men in the United States, which includes the Jim Crow system, the slave system and the drag war. This process will also involve analyzing of some of the arguments presented within the book.

If anyone in the United States were asked, "What is the best part about living in this country?," most people would answer "equality". The United States is built on and known for the equality among its citizens and is often referred to as the 'melting pot'. After reading Jonathan Kozol's, The Shame of the Nation, equality is nonexistent within the schools he has gone to, and has been employed through. With his travels, expert testimony and personal stories gathered from the people within the community and schools, he shows the exact opposite of equality. Minority schools being his main focus, he discusses the inequalities these students endure and truly opens up your eyes to just how awful these minority schools have it. Jonathan Kozol is successful in his writing of The Shame of the Nation, and makes himself a voice for these minority schools that are denied of their voices.

They say majority rules and that couldn’t be more true in our society today. In order for the minority to be protected by the majority the U.S Constitution was written. Amendments in the constitution were put together to protect the U.S citizens. Federalist papers were written by James Madison, go through what responsibilities the government has to take on for its citizens.

The readings we did within the past few months, I connected more with these two articles: The case of reparations by Coates and Race, Wealth, and Equality by Oliver. Throughout the articles, we understand the struggle that black communities face because of the system that’s built to prevent them to succeed in life. As an African American in today’s society it has been difficult to find opportunities in life because of the injustice and discrimination that the particular community is experiencing. However, I will compare the two articles with two outside source I found the New Jim Crow by Alexander, she effectively argues in her book how racism is evolving over time, but Alexander poorly makes the analogy of The New Jim Crow, compare to the

Participation bias exists in voting where only a portion of the people are able to vote and end up electing a non-diverse body of government.

Benjamin Bishin's subconstituency theory of representation is supported with the empirical evidence that Larry Bartels provides from his book, of which Bartels evaluates social equality and its relationship with the American government, to Bishin's observations. Ideas, such as hidden minority rule, activism, visibility's true impact on the average voter, and ideological and social groups, that Bishin describes are supported by Bartels' findings; these findings being senators responsiveness to income groups, citizen's knowledge, and voting actions and more.

Historically in America, voting has been a relatively discriminatory practice. It has limited and deprived many individuals of many diverse races, ethnicities, and walks of life from casting their votes to select the individual who they feel is most educated, and skilled to represent their interests. Not only has this been proven to be wrong by discriminating minority groups in voting, it also has proved to be a process, which minimizes the largest growing demographics in the country. Furthermore, with millennials growing to become more politically active, minority groups are becoming more politically involved than ever. Taking this into account an important question that is raised by the author William Eskridge in his book “Legislation and Statutory Interpretation” is “Would minorities be better off with more representatives who had to pay attention to their interests because they are a powerful and organized constituency, rather than with a few representatives of minority districts who specialize in protecting only their interests?” (Eskridge,Frickley,& Garrett, 2006, pp.55).

A plural society defines social structure that consist/comprises of different communities, races, cultures or other social groupings. A plural society is formed when one or more different integrate into one singular society. Although a plural society is a grouping of differences, it seems being a plural society only serves to make them more distinct from each other. From the early uses of the label plural society, there seems not an intention for it serve as a complete integration, but their coexistence in a singular structure. There are many different types of plural society as there’s not only the defined different plural societies but also, the evolution of the plural society concept itself has forged different meanings for a plural society.

The Constitution famously begins with a flourish, “We the People.” Less famously, the phrase “the people” appears in several other constitutional clauses, five of which are in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment ensures “the right of the people” to petition the government and to assemble peacefully; the Second Amendment protects “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms”; the Fourth Amendment protects “the right of the people” against unreasonable searches and seizures; and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments reserve to “the people” non-enumerated rights and powers, respectively. This ambiguity of who “the people” are leads to several questions of clarity: Who are “We the People”? Do these

The Democratic System in America was formed by the Founding Fathers by the voice of many people. The famous statement of Thomas Jefferson “All men are created equal” has influenced the American political system. Therefore, the Constitution of the United States was created in order to have the institutions check and balance powers, protect the basic rights of the people, serve the community and have liberty, which means the people has the freedom with very limited government control over the people. Today, American people have the right to choose their local, state and federal government, and their senators to represent in the Senate and the representatives of the House of Representatives. However, people have the voices in the Senate and the House of Representatives through their representatives

The people have many ways of prevent the spread of arbitrary and unaccountable power by the separation of powers and the core values of the Constitution. We the people have the absolute power to fight for our freedom and rights. Throughout history, the people have accomplished change for our country. For example, we have change and the construction of our political freedom standards enormously like having “efficient” voting system, religious liberty and individualism.

No one is born prejudiced because it is a learned behavior pattern. Nelson Mandela, an internationally acclaimed figure in the fight against racism, describes this idea as, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate…” Harper Lee’s renowned novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic of American literature, explores a story of prejudice through the lives of some small town Southerners in the early 1930’s. The book is narrated by Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout, a tomboy who prefers to solve issues with her fists instead of her words and possessing knowledge of life far beyond her years. Scout, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus reside in the small, fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus is a lawyer who is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell. The novel takes on a life of its own describing the seemingly endless gossip spread from person to person, solely based off of personal prejudices. People get so wrapped up in their hearsay, it begins to become an alarming reality, and those who pay are the ones who get unfairly excluded because of traits they cannot control. These ideas slowly become standards by which individuals are categorized in. Harper Lee uses almost every character throughout the book to teach us that prejudice