It made me start thinking. All of these people that we've chosen for National History Day, all of the people that we're learning about in American Studies, they all succeeded in making a difference. So what's going on? Why hasn't a single officer been convicted of a crime? Even after witnessing the outrage of the country at the verdicts of previous cases, each jury either finds the officer not guilty or doesn't indict. The jury for the Trayvon Martin case had only one non-white member. 75% of the jury for the Michael Brown case was white. In Eric Garner's case, there was actual video footage of the police officer using an illegal chokehold to take Garner down, despite the fact that he was largely outnumbered and could be heard on tape saying "I can't breathe" eleven different times. I don't know how it's possible to find that officer not guilty of anything, and clearly the trials for Martin and Brown were ruled by predominantly white jurors.
All over the US, people have been taking to the streets to protest. It's a present-day version of the time period we're studying for NHD, with protests and marches and all kinds of issues that turn ordinary citizens into activists. We just need to be as successful as the leaders we write about in our endeavors to make a difference.
This entry really stuck out to me. I completely agree with you about all of those cases, though I had never thought about them in a historical perspective. The Twitter post was really powerful and thought-provoking. We say that America is the land of the free where everyone is given equal opportunities, and yet cases like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown happen without finding the officers guilty. I think it's time that we reevaluate our ethics and start moving towards change. Total equality will never truly be possible, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
ReplyDeleteThis post gave the raw truth: Something's wrong and those with authority are turning a blind eye to it. It's become so common to open the news channel and see the headlines of another person (commonly not a white christian) having been abused or murdered and yet the news makes it sound as if the person is the criminal instead of the victim. Of course, there are two sides to every story but being blindly racist doesn't help the situation. I think NHD is a really good opportunity to see how to fix the problems we see
ReplyDeleteThis post was really inspiring:) Its true that there is something definitely wrong with authority. It is not the fault of the people, but rather it is the fault of the people who are addressing the news. The media continues to influence the way information is presented, and this, in turn, causes biases and misunderstandings. This does not help fix the problem of racism. I believe that National History Day is an effective way to revisit and present history as a reminder to people today.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, Miranda; as your peers noted, this is a very moving post, and you ask tough questions about why justice in this country is not color-blind. Where do you think the leaders of today's protests will come from?
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