October 12

Blog #78 – Do we need a new Civil Rights Movement?

After studying the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) this week, you may wonder if the CRM is still around.  And, the bigger question is, is there a need for one?  You might think that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 / 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had fixed many of the egregious racist violations of human and civil rights that had existed since slavery ended in 1865.  Why would we need a CRM when we’ve got a black president, some of the wealthiest Americans are black, and many entertainers are black and are “visible” in movies and TV and on the Internet (as opposed to “invisible” during the 1950s that we saw in the video, The Rage Within).  Right?  Isn’t America dedicated to the proposition that everyone is equal and has an equal chance to reach for that American Dream?  So what’s the problem?

Well, if we limit our civil rights discussion to just Black Americans, we can see several things that pop out at us:

1. The income gap between whites and blacks is dramatically widening since 2007 (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/).  FT_14.12.11_wealthGap2Using the chart at the left, you can see that the average household income between whites, blacks, and Latinos has continued to plague the country.  Obviously, the Great Recession (2007-2009) broke a lot of peoples’ dreams to own their own homes and live a comfortable life.  But what these numbers show is that since the 1980s, it’s gotten worse, twenty years after the Voting Rights Act.  Watch this link to a CNN video that explains why this gap has existed (http://money.cnn.com/video/news/economy/2014/12/14/the-economy-in-black–white-animation.cnnmoney/). This leads to my next point.

2. There is systemic racism in this country as shown in the way Black Americans lose their jobs more readily than white Americans and more likely to had been the victims of foreclosure at the end of the real estate boom in 2007 (http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-wealth-gap-between-whites-and-minorities-is-growing/).  We see this in still who controls the majority of the wealth of the country and the barriers that still exist for Black Americans to gain home loans and job opportunities. This racism is also seen in urban public schools and their lack of funding.  Most urban public schools are segregated de facto (by choice) rather than by law.  And with urban schools failing, it seems to compound the cycle of poverty that we read about in the excerpt from Michael Harrington’s The Other America.  We also see this structural racism in the way Black Americans are portrayed in the media.  When white mass murderers are examined in the media, they’re sometimes portrayed as loners with mental problems, but when Black men are murdered, the character is called into question as if that justifies their murder.  inmate or nurse

3. Most visibly, we see African Americans made victims of police brutality and violence.  With the proliferation or spread of camera phones, dash cams, and other video recording devices, murders or assaults by police that might have been hushed up are now receiving the attention they deserve.  With incidents in Baltimore, Ferguson, Cleveland, Texas, and too many other locations to mention, even the U.S. government is getting involved in examining the effects of police brutality and unequal enforcement on communities.  (U.S. Justice Dept. report on Ferguson).

4. The continuing rise of respectability politics puts down one aspect of the Black community while highlighting another aspect.  This idea comes from an early 20th Century movement in the Black community itself to change “Black American culture – and Black Americans themselves – are broken and need to be fixed.  And “fixing” means improving the “Black underclass” that holds us back.”  Much of this comes from forcing Black Americans to attain the standards of white America as a way to improve upon Black culture.  (http://alineinthesand.com/respectability-politics/).  The underlying thinking is that one group of Blacks is making it impossible for the “more respectable” Black Americans to rise up and defeat racism.  President Obama has been guilty of engaging in respectability politics when he talks about the role of the father in Black families.  Comedian Bill Cosby has also been a big proponent of this concept.

5. The school-to-prison pipeline is systematic of two things: underfunded schools and lack of real job opportunities for African Americans.  This pipeline “refers to the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.  This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education” (https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline).  With insufficient funding in urban schools and zero-tolerance educational practices, students who violate school rules in major ways are shuffled out of school and into the criminal justice system.  This kind of educational discipline, made in response to the numerous school shootings that have happened since 1999, also affects students with special needs.  Some for-profit schools are being created to treat drop-outs or “troubled children” with a no-nonsense approach and have had dismal records of meeting the needs of these students.

If we were to just focus on African Americans to the exclusion of other minorities, I would stop there.  But what about the biggest minority group in America, Latino Americans?

6. Using Donald Trump’s comments over the summer as his presidential race debut, he described Mexicans who came over our porous national border as “rapists” and criminals.  If he had it his way, The Donald would have Mexico pay for this wall he’d like to put up on our southern border (despite the fact that there is already a wall along many parts of the U.S.- Mexico border).  These comments just add to the way many Republican candidates see the influx of Latinos coming into the country as a negative thing. deportations_graph_bigger_0

Source: (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117412/deportations-under-obama-vs-bush-who-deported-more-immigrants)

But what about those already here illegally?

7. President Obama’s been deporting more undocumented workers by 2014 (2 million) than previous presidents, yet the Republicans say he’s not doing enough.  Many plans have been bandied about with regards how to include the 11.5 million undocumented workers legally into the American taxpayer system: give them Social Security numbers so they can pay taxes; put them on the road to citizenship and learn English; pay penalties, etc.

8. Much like the gap between whites and blacks with regards to income equality, the same can be said for Latinos and whites.  Questions include, are there enough resources for ELL (English Language Learners) in our schools?  Why do only 52% of Latinos have a high school diploma vs. 85% whites?  Kids in poverty, regardless of race or ethnicity, tend to do poorer in school and on standardized tests.  (http://www.nea.org/home/HispanicsEducation%20Issues.htm)

Next, let’s talk about women.

9. One of the first things that needs to be addressed is the pervasive rape culture in the United States.  Women should feel safe, no matter what they do or how they dress.  When society tends to blame the victim of rape (87% done by an acquaintance, not someone stalking them in the dark) for how much she drank or provocative clothing, the playing field tends to be skewed towards men and not the victim.  Should 20% of American women having survived a rape be considered the norm, especially when an overwhelming majority of rapists never go to jail?  We need to teach men and young men not to rape, not to tell women how to avoid being raped (as if that’s a normal thing).  (http://time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real/)

10. What about the pay gap between men and women for the same jobs?  The arguments against paying women the same as men used to be that a woman’s income was secondary to her husband (assuming she’s married), so that money is just extra.  Another argument against equal pay was that women get pregnant and their replacements needed to be trained, so the money comes out of the pregnant woman’s paycheck for loss of productivity.  According to the AAUW, women in Michigan get paid about 74% what men get paid and are 45th out of 50 in a nationwide ranking.  This chart shows what could be done with the extra money women would get if they were paid equallypay_gap_lifetimeFINAL.  It’s in everyone’s best interest to have women paid as much as men. (http://billmoyers.com/content/facts-figures-women-and-pay-inequality/)

11. I don’t even know where to start when talking about the double standard for beauty with women and men.  Women are expected to look beautiful while a man can get away with jeans and a t-shirt and a baseball cap for dates. Men can put on the pounds but women can’t?  Look at the number of people who have eating disorders, mostly women. Make-up, over-sexualized clothes and toys for children, online bullying – the list can go on and on.  Yes, men have their own hyper-masculine body images as well, but this double standard for beauty seems to really impact women.  

I Am Not A Slut by Leora Tanenbaum.  http://www.amazon.com/Am-Not-Slut-Slut-Shaming-Internet/dp/006228259X

And what about the LGBTQ community?

12. Finally, marriage equality is the law of the land thanks to the Supreme Court case, Obergefell v. Holmes, decided this summer.  The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was overturned two years ago, and you would have thought that most states would have followed through with it, but it took the courts to secure everyone’s rights.  But this doesn’t mean everyone is accepting or willing to follow the law – see the county clerk in Kentucky for one prime example.  Some anti-LGBTQ groups have pushed presidential candidates to seek to overturn Obergefell, or sign laws that allow for religious discrimination directed at those who want to get married.

13. And if the LGBTQ community is allowed to get married, what about the creation of families and adoption rights?  Only 10 states and D.C. allow adoption by gay parents, and Florida is currently the only state that bans adoption by gay parents, but many other states put obstacles in the way of gay parents, including lots of misinformation like “A child is better off with one father and one mother“.  (http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/ig/Lesbian-and-Gay-Rights-101/Gay-Adoption-Rights.htm)

 

This list is by no means comprehensive.  That would take books on each of these issues (like The New Jim Crow, Bad Feminist, God Believes in Love, I Am Not a Slut, Between the World and Me, Harvest of Empire, Citizen, The Fire Next Time).

My question for you is this:

If you had to choose one group to join for a civil rights movement, which one would it be, why, and what would be your top priority?  You can list other priorities that I have not mentioned, because though I have tried to familiarize myself with all of these groups, it is just a cursory / surface familiarity.

If you choose to disagree with the basic premise, that no new civil rights movement is needed, please explain why along with facts to back up your argument. 

300 words minimum answer due Wednesday, Oct. 14 by class. 

 

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Posted October 12, 2015 by geoffwickersham in category Blogs

78 thoughts on “Blog #78 – Do we need a new Civil Rights Movement?

  1. Nathan B.

    I would not support a new Civil Rights Movement. There has been so much change going on for the good in our American society. From the previous civil rights movement, there had been a huge increase in equality for all. From the previous law being passed allowing marriage for homosexuals to be legal in all states that were not previously legalized. I feel if people want a change, they have to work for it. By working for it, you don’t protest or complain but you actually work harder and do your best to succeed. Someone will always be complaining about something wrong in the country, such as from the Civil Rights movement in 1964, which segregated blacks. That gave African Americans basic civil rights. In whites eyes, that was a fix that would last. If we do create a new CRM, it will not be a fix that would last just as the Civil Rights movement of 1964. I feel we as a country are only making positive steps into becoming a better country. Sure, there are going to be some hiccups along the way but as long as we surpass those hiccups, the U.S. can do without a new CRM. There is always going to be some discrimination in the world, there will never not be a time without discrimination. Everyone has their own reasons behind how they feel and usually have good evidence to back it up with. There will never be a perfect country unless a dictator runs it, usually the civilians in the country are hopeless though and want justice. People need to realize this. Sure, you can protest and do what ever to try and make this country perfect but in the end someone will complain or express their opinion, which they have a right to have and just start chaos. In my opinion, a new Civil Rights Movement would not be a great idea at this time. This country is starting to turn around and fix past errors such as the recent legalization of gay marriage.

  2. Harry Carr

    To pick only one of the previously mentioned causes is to ignore the others, and I’d like to preface this with the fact that I believe every single one of these causes would greatly benefit from and most of them even require a movement of some sort, some of which are currently going on. However, the group I most side with out of the above is the African-American community. Black people have been consistently oppressed and marginalized throughout the history of this country, and frankly it scares me that much of the actions against the black community seen in recent years such as law enforcement and even branches of the military retaliating against peaceful protest, directly and unequivocally violating their 1st amendment rights. Since 2014, police brutality and murders committed by them have fortunately gotten an increasingly large focus in the media, but all too often in that time has the law been absent in the killers’ judgement, letting them go free. In July 2014, a New York man named Eric Garner was killed by an officer after being accused of selling cigarettes without tax stamps (this specific officer had been in two 2013 lawsuits of falsely arresting and abusing plaintiffs), and was subsequently put in a chokehold and killed after repeating “I can’t breathe.” The key part of this event was that a bystander captured full footage of the event, later used as evidence, before a Staten Island Grand Jury decision to not indict the officer. It sickens me that even with definitive evidence of a murder like this, an officer with innocent blood on his hands can still go free. White people have been killed by police brutality as well, and in every single case I’m aware of, the killer has been properly prosecuted, whereas with black people the above lack of indictment at all is all too common, and the victim is typically the one vilivied in the media. The abhorrent acts and deep-seated racism of U.S. law enforcement are still with us since the 60s, but fortunately, the Civil Rights Movement has gone on with it and will hopefully result in major societal change.

  3. Victoria A.

    I do believe that the human race as a whole could benefit from another civil rights movement. If I had to choose one group to join during another civil rights movement I would choose the pay gap between men and women for the same jobs. I would choose this topic because I have previously read articles pertaining to this issue about inequality between paychecks, and I personally feel very passionate about the subject. My top priority is to educate the public about the many benefits a full time woman worker could receive if she was paid the same as a man. Today the topic of divorce is very common, making single income families very common in today’s societies. If the main financial provider of the family is female, she can have the same number of kids and same variables as another man who is the main financial provider and the man’s family would live a stronger and better life. Other times accidents occur that may leave the family providing on the woman instead of the man. People need to know that the woman isn’t always the extra source of income but more commonly the main source of income as female independence increases. From the article Facts & Figures: Women and Pay Inequality I found specific examples of benefits if there was no gender gap. With the amount women have lost due to the gender gap, a full-time working women could buy, 2 houses, more than 7 public college degrees, 14 new cars, feed a family of four for almost 37 years, and save $431,360 towards retirement. That amount of money and those benefits could have changed lives and rewrote history if brought to the attention of the public sooner, but we as free people allowed to voice our opinions can only move forward and write the future. As a girl I want to know that when I grow up I can have the same opportunities in life as any other as any other man, to know that I can support for my family without any man to control my life. The only way that I can be confident in the fact that the gender gap will be disappear is through educating the young people of my generation on the constant struggle.

  4. Kristen Harvey

    11. I believe that the ‘double standard for beauty’ destroys self-confidence and self-expression. Today online, in magazines or on TV ideal people appear with tons of makeup, cosmetic surgery, and thousand dollar shoes. Young girls see these people as beacons of what is cool and how to dress in order to not be an outsider. Every model you see and famous movie star is skinny, and has created a need to be thin, if it means not eating or not ever enjoying a treat so you can feel that you are beautiful. Girls younger and younger are wearing makeup and clothes that are not appropriate, just to appear cool. But this destroys lives, as girls feel awful about themselves. Consequently these girls wear loads of makeup, or form eating disorders in order to compensate for what they think they lack. Society has made them not love themselves for the unique people they are. Celebrities like the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus are poor role models, who are idolized in the media because of lack of decency. I believe that this “double standard” holds back many girls from amazing accomplishments. They spend their time trying to keep up on the latest trends, when they could be becoming the next tech mogul or president by following their academic strengths and pleasures. I think that this issue should be addressed in the media, the source of the issue. TV should promote inner beauty, as well as brains, talent and achievement. People should look for role models outside of celebrities to powerful women who have become successful through hard work, determination and talent. Women like Marry Barra the CEO of General Motors, who have broken the glass ceiling, working their way up the corporate structure, are incredibly rare. Girls should look up to people like her, who worked their way up through hard work, intelligence and not by exposing themselves in the media to get attention. Girls focus on style more than dedication and focus in school. Because there are limitations on what they think they can do and what they are told they can do, they do not set higher goals. The media has told them to look a certain way and that famous people who expose themselves are more important than people who use their brain to make a difference. There needs to be a cultural shift, so that girls feel that they can pursue careers according to their talents not their image.

  5. geoffwickersham (Post author)

    I’d join the Equal Pay movement, because soon I and many other’s will be joining the work force and I don’t plan on marrying any time soon. Most Americans in their twenties have held off on getting married because it usually means you have to settle down and start a family of some kind. Research has shown that people have been getting married later than they have in past decades. People want to be somewhat financially stable before they get married. So for the 4 to 7 years people aren’t getting married no matter how hard I work I’d still be paid less than a man in the same field. Which makes me upset because if a female and a male had the same job and did the same amount of work the female would still be paid less! I can understand the thought process in the 19th century but this is the 21st century! Why are law makers dragging their feet will it collapse the economy or something? The benefits of equal pay have been shown: people would be able to pay off crippling debut preventing companies to sell more products, the wealth gap would even out slightly, we could make it easier to escape poverty, etc. For example John Oliver has given his views on his show Last Week Tonight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsB1e-1BB4Y though it is a comedy news show he brings up some great points. Some law makers and news reports say that it’s a women fault for getting pregnant and seeking out poorer jobs and that the gap is barely there so it doesn’t matter but that only applies to single ladies with no children between the ages of 35 to 43. Which is also quite upsetting because I’d get paid less for continuing the human race; it’s the same as a kick to the stomach I didn’t have the choice of being the only gender that could biologically conceive pregnancy. It’s quite ridiculous frankly it’s unfair and I don’t like it if given a survey taken by women that asked if they wanted to be paid the same as males I’m pretty sure most would say “Yes, I would like to be paid equally for the same amount of work thank you.” There is a march that takes place in March for equal pay on International Women’s day. Women also make up 55% of the work force America because in a quote on quote normal family both parents work. I’m still surprised this is still an issue we have to worry about. All of the CRM choices shouldn’t have to be issues but they are and it’s shameful and depressing an unexceptable.
    Joan LM

  6. geoffwickersham (Post author)

    In my opinion, American is in need for another civil rights movement. I feel that in most cases if you are LGBTQ, a woman or any other ethnic besides white you are not getting the equality that you deserve. If I had to choose to join a civil rights group, I would side with the women. A very important topic that needs to be addressed is r-ape culture. R-ape culture is an environment in which sexual violence against woman is normalized and isn’t the offenders fault. One out of six American women have reported that they have been a victim of an attempted r-ape or have been r-aped in their lifetime. Many people do not bring up the controversial topic of sexual assault because it’s known to be “shameful” and in most cases its put aside. According to the rccmsc.org, the average percent of r-apes reported in a year is only 8%. Every two minutes a sexual assault occurs. I don’t believe it is fair that society is putting the blame on women. Girls within the ages of 16 to 19 are 4 times more likely to get r-aped. People are often quick to judge the female and often ask “what was she wearing” as to assume she was asking for it. It should not matter what she was wearing, men do not have the right to harass them or unwillingly force themselves on these women. R-ape is a very important issue at colleges and universities. Most reported r-apes never get prosecuted and the girls are faced with not only with injustice, but are physically and mentally scarred. This can also lead to long term issues with male relationships. I suggest to help lower the percentage of sexual assaults we should start to educate men about sexual assault, r-ape and boundaries with women. I do not think that statistics will lower until a civil rights movement occurs to give woman the equality and treatment that we deserve.
    Lizzie

  7. Lindsay H

    If America was in need of a new civil rights movement, I believe that feminism is one of the most important causes. Feminism is defined as the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes. This is not limited to white women only, but also African American women, Trans women, and members of the LGBTQ community. R-ape culture is a large part of American society today. It was stated about that 20% of American women have lived through sexual assault. Women are living their lives with a constant fear of being attacked or assaulted, whether it be by someone they know or a stranger, at their home or walking alone. They take classes or carry some form of protection or read online how to defend themselves in the very real possibility of being r-aped or assaulted. It isn’t fair that we can’t walk home from school or go on runs alone without looking behind and around us for any suspicious people or cars, especially for young people who should feel safe regularly and not have to worry about being r-aped. They should be able to go out in public without being catcalled or having crude “jokes” or “compliments” thrown at them. When someone is r-aped, one of the first questions many people ask is “what were you wearing?” It shouldn’t matter what you were wearing, whether it was sweatpants and a t-shirt or a short dress that gives you confidence and makes you feel beautiful, it doesn’t make a difference. You choose your actions. You are responsible for what you have done. No one makes you do anything. Saying that a woman deserved what she got or was asking for it is like kicking a man in his tenders and telling him that it was his fault, he deserved it, he wanted it, and that he was asking for it because he doesn’t wear a cup when he goes out. African American and Trans women are more likely than other women to be sexually assaulted and r-aped because they are more of a minority group than women in general. We cannot forget these women. They are Americas and deserve the safety that others take for granted and they deserve be treated as equals. Today in politics, people such as Donald Trump, are attacking their female opponents and women as a whole. Donald Trump often has nasty things to say about women interviewers and their appearances. We see this with pattern of male superiority in politics with Carly Fiorina and Hilary Clinton. During debates, the women are often disregarded, not given an opportunity to answer, and their personal mistakes and negative aspects of their careers are brought to light in ways that are not mentioned with the men or are seen as irrelevant. We need to stand up for these women and women as a whole and create a safer country and a more accepting country for them. Life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean r-ape culture and the inferiority of women in American society can be ignored and marginalized.

  8. Harvey R.

    If I had to choose one group to join for a civil right movement, it would be African Americans. While the segregation of public places was outlawed over half a century ago, there is still racism prevalent in society today, giving Black Americans disadvantages and problems that other races simply wouldn’t encounter. In this day and age, it is unacceptable for people to still be rejected and put in a worse situation based on the color of their skin, yet these problems still exist. My top priority would be combatting the police brutality towards African Americans today. In recent years, a handful of these cases have emerged, where police officers have stopped African Americans and acted violently towards them for no apparent reason. With an increase in devices capable of recording that are carried around today, as well as an increase in body cameras on police officers in multiple cities throughout the country, there is an abundance of evidence of this cruelty, yet a veil of feigned ignorance has been cast over the American Justice System. Most of the officers who have murdered and abused African Americans have been acquitted, with no repercussion for their actions. There should be no question that these officers should receive prison time for committing murder. Any other person in the United States would be found guilty with this much evidence. Instead, the officers get a paid leave of absence for a few months. Officers are there to enforce the law and protect the citizens of the United States. The acts of violence committed by a small minority of officers has created a stereotype that has been applied to all law enforcements. A fear of the people protecting us shouldn’t be prevalent. African Americans shouldn’t feel fear around these people, having to be careful of every move they make and every word they say when in the vicinity, while whites and other races aren’t as bothered. I strongly believe that this unacceptable behavior is a plague across today’s society. These beliefs and stigmas are of Jim Crow-Era racism that should not have lasted this long. I believe that the American people should take control with a new civil rights movement to make law enforcement and the justice system equal for everyone, regardless of color or creed, and we cannot move forward as a society until we demolish the racial barriers that have been set in place.

  9. Natalia M

    If I had to choose only one group to join for a civil rights movement, I would choose Latinos
    I would choose this group because the difficulties for this group are clearest to me in my life on a day to day basis. First of all, my grandma is an immigrant from Guatemala; she moved here to do post graduate studying in obstetric nursing. Also, I have seen the poor education opportunities many Latinos have, both when I lived in Detroit and because my parents worked for Detroit Public Schools (in which the education quality is still declining). Personally, I don’t understand how people can seriously be mad at Latinos for illegal immigration when everyone in the entire country (with the exception of Native Americans) is an immigrant, especially Europeans, many of whom, it could be argued, were illegal immigrants because they moved onto land already inhabited by Native Americans. Risking everything to move here, Latinos aren’t coming here to hurt people and steal stuff (I’m looking at you, Donald); most are looking for better job opportunities than are available to them in their home countries.
    My top priority would be to find a way to include the (11.5 million) undocumented workers legally into the American taxpayer system (by giving them Social Security numbers and citizenship). This would hopefully allow Latinos to get better job opportunities and education. With poverty directly related to school performance (kids in poverty, regardless of race or ethnicity, tend to do poorer in school and on standardized tests), kids would do better in school if parents had better jobs. This could close the gap between the number of Latinos with high school diplomas and the number of whites; right now the gap is 52% of Latinos and 85% of whites. Ultimately, I hope all people will have equal rights and opportunities someday. For that to happen there needs to be major changes in our world and I believe a CRM may be needed to do that.

  10. Emma L

    If I could choose one group to join for a civil rights movement it would be the group targeting the pervasive r-ape culture. My shoulders should not be banned from a public school because it might make some hormonal teenager have a harder time focusing in math class. I should not have to wear shorts that go down to my knees in eighty-degree weather because someone can’t keep himself or herself under control. There are too many instances occurring in our seemingly safe community where the female is the first person to be blamed for being r-aped rather than the rapists themselves. The first question asked of a r-ape victim should not be “what were you wearing?” or “were you drinking?” In many r-ape cases, the victim is the one who is punished and the rapist often comes away clean. 1 in 5 American women is a survivor of r-ape or attempted r-ape, a terrifying statistic that is made even more terrifying when you learn that 97% of rapists haven’t spent one day in jail for their crimes. A hashtag was started (#RapeCultureIs) and the responses to the trend were overwhelming. Many survivors said that r-ape culture, to them, is when those tasked with helping them, often blame them instead. Others said that r-ape culture is teaching young girls not to get raped, instead of teaching young men not to r-ape. All of the posts under this hashtag propel me to my point; that we need to stop this pervasive r-ape culture at the roots. We need to teach young men not to r-ape instead of teaching young girls to not be raped. We need to show support for survivors of r-ape instead of sweeping them under the rug to prevent “bad publicity.” R-ape needs to be seen as a national crisis, not as a cultural norm. I believe the subject of r-ape also infringes on the subject of double standards. Just as women are targeted mercilessly in the media for how they dress or act and asked questions in interviews only pertaining to beauty and not intellect; women are targeted for the r-ape culture that consumes our country. Women are given the heavy weight of having to maintain a certain image while men can look or act however with far less criticism coming their way just as women are supposed to prevent r-ape by “covering up” and never having a drink while men are allowed to do whatever they please. I feel that America has come so far in terms of many things but the continued ignorance of this issue needs to be addressed. It is my top priority because I feel that the consequences of being raped and the consequences of ignoring this national problem are too high for this to go on.

  11. Joe Behrmann

    Joe Behrmann
    1st hour
    I do not believe that America needs the Civil Rights movement that it did in 1965. However I do believe that there still is some room to improve. I believe that there is still work to be done with police brutality. In 1015 alone there have been countless video recordings of police killing African-Americans when they are posing no life-threatening dangers to the police officers. This needs is a problem that needs a solution now. So far these killings just, or not have been protested, and for the most part, not in the correct way at all. Martin Luther King Jr., in my opinion was one the smartest, most influential, and all around one of the best Americans to ever live. He took it upon himself to take initiate a civil rights movement which was undeniably needed more back then than, that it is needed now. Regardless of these he problems, King never resorted to any violence whatsoever. Nowadays, instead of peaceful protests, many so called “protestors” simply take advantage of the situation and resort to chaos where they raid entire cities. There is a solution to police brutality, and this is not it. I personally believe that all police officers, while on duty should be equipped with bod cameras at all time, which would make them much more conscious of their actions and if a crime was committed, it would easily be seen. Along with the camera idea, these cameras should be monitored at all times to make sure that there aren’t any ever so convenient “malfunctions” as we saw with Sandra Bland. I do not believe Black Lives Matter is an appropriate organization because not only do all lives matter, but also we have seen many good policemen killed by all races including African-Americans. According to https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/leoka/2013/officers-feloniously-killed/felonious_topic_page_-2013 , police are more likely to kill a white person than a black person. I am in no way implying that there needs to be a civil rights movement or whites, but I do not believe that African-Americans are being purposely targeted by police in every incident.
    I do not believe that a civil rights movement is needed economically for any race at all. I do believe that programs such as affirmative action sets certain groups of people up for failure in schools and jobs, which is drastically contributing to the school-to-jail pipeline. Affirmative action was very much needed in a certain point in time, but that time has passed and America has progressed. I believe that in the absence of Affirmative Action, there will be a significantly less amount of dropouts, the jail population will decrease, and there will be more African-Americans in high-paying jobs. I believe that this will occur because without Affirmative Action there will be a stronger initiative to succeed and there will be more accuracy in choosing the right colleges and schools, which will lead to better jobs. This will allow the free market to fix the economy and close the wage gaps between all races.
    I also do not believe that a civil rights movement is needed for the wage gap between men and women. I believe that this gap is formed when women work less hours in a paying job, to pursue the much more difficult job of raising a family. If it were men that worked less hours to raise a family, they would too earn less money. This is a gap that cannot be fixed by the government. Also, there are too many variables in determining ones salary such as experience and education. Some women deserve to be paid more than some men, and some men deserve to be paid more than some women. It would be highly unconstitutional for the government to enforce certain salaries for businesses. It should be the employer, or boss to determine one’s salary and not the government.
    I do not believe that a civil rights movement is the answer to double standard to beauty. Both men and women face different, but equally challenging standards of beauty. Government cannot solve this issue. Over time I believe that the standards will eventually fade on their own as we become more knowledgeable as a society. A civil rights movement posts high-risk, low-reward possibilities which just aren’t worth it. This is not worthy of a civil rights movement that may possibly harm the economy and sprout violence.
    I strongly believe that there needs to be a civil rights movement for Mexicans who are trying to enter America. However I strongly oppose just granting all the immigrants citizenship. I believe that the process of becoming a citizen should be reformed. It should not cost any money to become a citizen. Mexican immigrants coming to America is not only great for the immigrants who are possibly escaping violence and poverty, but it is also great for America’s economy. A reform is needed because illegal immigrant will keep on coming over and living here, and if they aren’t citizens, then that will only hurt our economy. I oppose freely handing out citizenship because then, the war on drugs may get out of hand, and crime rates may skyrocket.
    In my opinion, it was unconstitutional for Gay marriage to be legalized all at once. Nonetheless, this is an arguable statement and when Gay marriage was legalized nationally, gay couples should have obtained all of the rights that straight couples have. Not letting Gay couples adopt kids is only hurting the kids. Kids need a family and stability in their life, and it doesn’t matter who can provide them with this.

  12. Elizabeth

    I believe that the United States needs more Civil Rights Acts. One of my top groups that I would join is the LGBTQ adoption group. Many adoption centers discriminate against gay or lesbian couples who want to adopt children. Even though it may not be illegal in the state that the adoption center resides in, many of the gay couples get denied for reasons that seem unfair, many of these reasons being that heterosexual parents are better for the children. In a research paper scientist found that the children on a lesbian couple had the same IQ and pathology as a heterosexual couple’s children. All the children in the study had been through the parent’s divorce and the drama that comes with that. The study shows that the children’s problems came from the impact of the divorce of their parents. They concluded that the sexual orientation of the mothers/fathers had no impact on the way that the children grew. It is frustrating that in some states LGBTQ couples/families are unable to adopt children based off of who they love. In some ways I believe that LGBTQ couples could make a positive impact on their adopted children. Being an LGBTQ couple shares their stories of discrimination to their kids helping them to learn how to be loving, caring and accepting.
    On the other topics I do not believe that the government can do much more to make people more accepting. I believe that the United States is fixing its errors. The younger generations seem to be much more accepting and caring about others than older generations. I believe this is due to the age of exposure to such a thing. I believe that if you grow up with the concept that all people are equal no matter what skin color, race, preferences, or sexual orientation they have, then you will continue to see them as equal throughout your life. I believe that the education system is helping with the process of this exposure to younger children in America. I believe that change and difference is what people are afraid of, and those who had never been exposed to it are more likely to reject the concept of equality for all.
    I believe that all rights and opportunities should be open to all people, and if that means creating another Civil Rights Act then it should be created.

    LGBTQ Parents Study Paper:
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1986.tb01182.x/abstract

  13. Victoria Lurz

    I believe that creating a new civil rights movement would be extremely beneficial to the United States. If I were to chose a group to join for a civil rights movement, it would be the LGBTQ Community. I would chose this particular group because I have extremely strong feelings towards same sex marriage equality and because many of my closest friends are members of this community. Even though this year Gay marriage was officially allowed in all 50 states, does not mean that it was accepted amongst all American people. In fact many people seem to have huge problems with the ability to marry the same sex (seen this summer in Obergefell v. Holmes). In my personal opinion, I have no understanding as to why same sex marriage seems to affect other people or how many think that it is possible to chose the sex you are attracted to. This brings me to my next question and main point, why aren’t gay couples allowed to have adoption rights? How does your sexuality affect whether or not you qualify as parent? Currently the adoption of children to gay families in Florida is banned and only 10 states out of the 50 allow the adoption of children to gay parents. All across America, thousands of people incapable of being parents are becoming them anyway while some of the most capable are being denied a right. What is the difference between a mom and dad raising a child or two dads raising a child? It is a humans natural born right to have children but in order to do so both sperm and eggs are needed. Those of the same sex physically cannot procreate because they do not have both “ingredients” needed. Therefore those in the LGBTQ community are being denied a right they were given at birth due to their sexuality. This is completely unconstitutional, offensive, and wrong. Many people say that a mother and a father raising a kid is easier on the child as opposed to being raised by two moms or two dads but, it shouldn’t be this way and it certainly doesn’t have to be. If people nationwide can begin accepting same sex marriage and allowing these couples to have the same rights as straight parents, their will be no issue. Therefore if I were to join a civil rights movement with the LGBTQ community, my main goal would be to achieve equal rights.

  14. Ian Herdegen

    I think that the every single America would benefit from a new civil rights movement. If I had to choose one group to join for a civil rights movement, it would be for blacks. The previous Civil Rights movement helped eliminate barriers for blacks on issues like voting, schools, etc. However, even though most of those issues are now resolved, the biggest issue still remains. That issue is racism. People still are mean and even sometimes, if not, often, violent towards blacks. Many people around the United States, even today, are racist, and it is kind of scary that with enough training, these people can work their way into the police force. This is where the largest problem, in my opinion, is. Racism is prevalent is the police force. Police tend to target blacks and act more violently on them, clearly seen with cases such as that of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. The average age for police officers is about 25-30 years old. With everything we are learning in history and school recently on not being racist I think the police force will greatly improve in about twenty or so years, when a plethora of educated, non-racists occupy the police forces of the U.S. However, in order to make sure police are not acting up before then, body cams and mics should be regulated. It is better for those faced with police brutality, and some (including me) argue that it is better for the police as well. A police officer wont be shot down or fear losing his job/life for supposedly being “brutal” when the footage clearly shows he was defending his life. So all in all, the main things that should happen are the continued education on non-racism and civil rights, and regulated body cams on police officers to prevent racism in the police. I believe that with racism outside of the police force and a new group of educated people in society, racism will be nearly gone. All will truly be equal.

  15. Claire Cassar

    Does America need a new CRM? Well, sure we’ve come a long way but there is still so much more to accomplish. In my opinion, white, cisgender, heterosexual Americans (especially men) are getting a little too comfortable with their control of pretty much everything. Instead of looking at a person for their whole self and way they treat others, because of an internalized bias people can be materialistic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, etc. This can be blamed for lack of education, representation, and acceptance. If I had to choose a movement for one group, even though I want everyone to be safe and protected, I would join the LGTBQ community’s movement.
    To start off with, the only queer character we usually see in media is the token gay male friend there for comedic relief. This gives people the image of a very exclusive stereotype. A character is assumed straight because people have accepted that as the “normal” thing. Usually, when a character is gay, it is there to make a joke and show it’s funny to act “gay”. Which makes zero sense because it isn’t a personality. Why can’t nonbinary, those who don’t feel like they fit on the gender binary, or pansexual, people who are not restricted in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity, people read or watch about characters they can relate to? I think it’s ridiculous that you have to try pretty hard to find relatable characters. Because God forbid that people are uncomfortable about a couple that they aren’t used to. There is more than one kind of sexuality and gender and the media has a huge power to show that.
    Not only is the media not using their power to share information, schools should be teaching students about topics other than just cisgender heterosexual sex ed. Students who are not comfortable with their assigned sex are not free to explore terms that describe them because they are not easily open to them. And if they do find a term that fits them, others will not learn what the terms are because they don’t care or have no way to learn. Also, teachers are not always respectful of a student’s pronouns and might only use a student’s given name. A student who uses they/them pronouns won’t always be respected because of the “grammatically incorrect” aspect of it. This is all rude, transphobic, and exclusive. It’s unfair and belittling to people who are told that they will be accepted. Outside of school, people just lack knowledge of sexuality. As I said before, there is only one idea of the token gay friend. People disrespect and ignore other sexualities. They think bisexuals are just confused and “can’t decide”, they think pansexuals are attracted to kitchen utensils, and they’ve probably never heard the word asexual. It’s ignorant and I don’t get why it’s so hard to understand for people to understand more than one concept. The lack of education carries on to the lack of acceptance in life. It’s especially hard when parents refuse to accept their children.
    Another thing I don’t understand is the fact that people think that now that there’s same sex marriage we’re done. First of all, it’s not just same sex marriage because there are individuals who fall on different places on the gender binary. People don’t understand that they are exclusive with so many terms. Secondly, just because marriage is legal, no doubt a very lovely thing, it doesn’t mean that all is well. States such as Texas, Kentucky, and Oregon are denying marriage licenses. I am confused on why that’s necessary. If there’s a separation of church and state, there shouldn’t be a problem because you can’t use religion as an excuse. Also, if we follow the statement that all men created equal with certain unalienable rights, marriage should be one of those right because you can’t deny a person the right to love. Thirdly, there’s no laws protecting the safety of LGTBQ members. You are denied service, jobs, and respect. Companies will refuse to hire queer employees, transgender people will be denied legal IDs, gay couples will be denied adoption rights, nonbinary kids will be denied bathrooms/accommodations (such as in sports) for comfort, and so many other things. There’s still a long way to go before it will be safe for the LGTBQ community to be open.

  16. John Doyle

    Contrary to mainstream belief, I do not believe that there is any need for another civil rights movement in this country. In regarding races or groups, my intention is not to profile or stereotype. I have formed my opinion based off data from government websites, news sources, and other credible websites, such as school attendance records or labor statistics. My interpretation of each of the points made was that the majority of them are flaws in the social aspects of this country, rather than legal, and those that were targeting legal issues were simply false and misrepresented.
    The income gap between whites, Hispanics, and blacks definitely exists, but the idea that there is someone intentionally distributing wealth to only white Americans and then throwing whatever is left to the minorities is ridiculous. Black Americans and Hispanic Americans are more likely to work in blue-collar jobs, though they tend to be concentrated in the lower-skilled jobs, such as operators, fabricators, and laborers, rather than higher-paying precision production and craft jobs within these categories. The statistic that blacks and Hispanics lose their jobs more easily than whites could in fact be because they typically occupy lower-skill jobs that a computer or robot could be programmed to do, and from the standpoint of a business, if the same job can be done for less money, that is the way to go. How convenient it was that the Asian minority was left off of the provided statistics, being that their minority has a higher average income than the average white family, it most likely would have thrown off conclusion that the evil white men are ruling the country. Also conveniently left out was the statistics regarding the number of minorities attending the best colleges the United States has to offer. While the majority of these schools are still predominately white, they are followed by Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks. The University of Michigan’s Class of 2014 was 56.9 percent white, 11.4 percent Asian, 4.4 percent Hispanic, and 4 percent black, with the other 23.3 percent including Native Americans, Hawaiians, bi-racial students, or non-registered aliens. Perhaps the reasoning for more than half of the class being made up of white students lies in the reasoning that 77.4 percent of the country is white, and that the other groups have less students only because they are less in numbers. While it is true that the poverty rates in these minority groups is greater than that of whites, that does not mean it is impossible to do well in school and earn a college degree. 7.4 percent of all high school students will drop out with 17.6 percent Hispanic, 9.6 percent black, 5.2 percent white, and 2.2 percent Asian. Affirmative Action programs have been established to help stack the odds in the favor of minority groups, however, this country was based upon the foundations of equal opportunity, and this program along with the whole complaint that we need more minority groups in the schools is an example of equal outcome. Equal outcome, in other words, lowering the bar for certain groups so that their numbers increase will only dumb down the that group as a whole.
    The idea of respectability politics in America is definitely an idea that creates a lot of controversy amongst the people. The principles are that minority groups in America should conform to the standards of “white America” if they are to defeat racism. The idea is that there is “one group” of these minorities is making the rest of the people in their group stand under the same negative light. The “standards of white America” confuse me because if you watch any news provider, everyone is capable of speaking proper English and keeping a respectable appearance and mannerism. There are people of all races that do this, but I guess they are just falling into the white demands, right? Possibly, but with so many Americans meeting the standards of acting professional – which, along with the majority of these issues, should not be an issue of race, but rather human expectation – why would anyone promote the idea of not conforming with the rest of the society? The mainstream black culture, especially amongst youth, consists of many positive things, but also things like WorldStar Hip-Hop and explicit rap music. I’ve also heard before that every time a crime is committed, the news intentionally goes out of their way to find the most incompetent person to speak about it at the scene. Perhaps this is not true, and the reality is that within areas where the most crimes are committed, the most uncivilized people who are willing and ready to make their television debut are residing. For some reason, the lower class whites, specifically those in the South referred to by the rest of the country as “white trash”, were left out of this conversation. It is unrealistic to expect that if a portion of a culture represent themselves in ways that do not meet the American standards of common decency, that the people will simply look over this and disregard it; people do not work that way.
    Police brutality in America has become a mainstream discussion once again after incidents have appeared all throughout the country. The idea that black Americans are targeted by police and are the victims of mistreatment more often than anyone else is only true if you allow the thought to end after that. If a black person and a white person both commit a crime, the black person is more likely to be arrested. Is this simply because of their pigment, and nothing else? No, this is due in part to the fact that the majority of blacks live in dense urban areas, which are more populated than suburban or rural areas, naturally leading to more policing. If police are only motivated to gun down blacks because of their race, then why is the number of whites killed by police in 2014 19 percent higher? Or what of the Hispanics that make up just under 20 percent? Whites are 1.7 times more likely to be shot by police than blacks, or any other minority. My next question is this: when is the last time you heard about this on the news? When is the last time there was a riot because the police gunned down a white person? If the media tells you that you need to be upset about something, those too weak-minded to do their own research or form their own opinion will definitely be upset. The majority of people rioting over Confederate Flags had no idea what they were until the media told them they were symbols of hate. Why was the Confederate Flag allowed to fly for the 150 years after the Civil War if it was truly such an offensive symbol of hate? I respect the members of the “Black Lives Matter” movement because they have organized many peaceful protests to stand up for a cause they believe in. However, those who riot for the same reasons, especially those who loot stores, have made the entire movement in itself look bad. Are the black youths who go into stores to steal food or shoes truly concerned about what has happened, or are they possibly just taking advantage of the chaos while sporting a “hands up, don’t shoot” t-shirt? The reality is that violent crimes committed by blacks against whites trump the amount of violent crimes committed by whites against blacks by 511 percent.
    The school-to-prison pipeline is an exaggeration that states that black Americans lack funded schools along with job opportunities and that policies and practices push our most “at-risk” students out of the schools and into the prison systems. Typically, these “under-funded” schools are public schools based in dense urban areas with high crime rates. With public schools, your attendance is based off of where you live. Property taxes are paid to fund these schools by the residents, so if an area is filled with foreclosed homes and has a high crime rate, naturally the schools are not going to as funded as they should be. . The only alternative to this would be paying out of pocket to go to a private school of your choosing. If we were to arrange a voucher system, where the parent chooses where the child attends school instead of being limited to your location, it would promote competition in the schools to recruit the best students and teachers, along with giving everyone a choice, especially those stuck in the broken inner city school system.
    If the government were to step in and directly fund these schools, would the students take full advantage of it? Possibly, but it is more than likely that pouring tax dollars into a school with unmotivated students only to benefit the 1 percent that is truly trying to get out of there living circumstances would not work. The students in these schools that are truly determined will be successful no matter their circumstance. The zero-tolerance policy is intended to sift out those who do not plan to live a law-abiding life in order to prevent them from possibly influencing and affecting other students. The idea that we need to be more lenient towards those who commit crimes in order to lower the amount of inmates we have, especially minorities, is ridiculous. We do not need to have sympathy for those who decide to live bad lives, and we certainly do not need to feel obligated to keep them as members of our society.
    The idea that the Republican Party is against immigration is a product of liberal media bias and those who do not care to take time to understand points of view different than theirs. Immigration is helpful to the economy, whether it is boosting the GDP or raising the employment rate and amount of taxpayer dollars given to the Federal Government. However, the Republican Party is strongly against illegal immigration. This is because we know nothing about who is coming into our country or whether or not they are a threat to our society, and they are only going to take advantage of the systems America has established. While many illegal immigrants are only trying to build a better life for themselves or their families, the amount that are destructive to the country is high enough that there should be no tolerance for it. The cases of illegal immigrants committing violent or sexual crimes should be given more attention. Trump’s remark regarding illegal immigrants in a negative light was unnecessary, however it is not unjustified. He was simply focusing on the negative aspects of a large amount of people. Also, though we already have some barrier around our southern border, he referred to it as porous for a reason, because it obviously is not doing a well enough job.
    The amount of women that are subject to r-a-p-e in their life is a frightening number. That is not to say that a lower amount of sexual assaults would be okay, it is to say that the crime is getting out of hand and is becoming more frequent by the year. I strongly agree that women should feel safe wherever they go and that they should be free to wear whatever they please without being subject to criticism or any form of assault. However, the idea that we need to “teach men not to r-a-p-e” instead of teaching women not to prevent it is irrelevant. As a society, we have never advocated r-a-p-e; we have literally done the exact opposite. Everyone is taught that it is wrong and everyone is aware that it is a crime, so the idea that we need to start “teaching people not to r-a-p-e” parallels the idea that we need to teach people not to murder. Women refusing to take precautions simply because we need to teach men not to r-a-p-e are foolish, no different than people who do not lock there doors because we need to teach people not to burglarize, or people that leave their car unlocked because we need to teach people not to steal. I understand that this is unfortunate, and believe me, I would love to live in a society where teenage girls do not have to be drilled on what to do if they are attacked, but the world is not a perfect place. There are bad people out there who pray on those who are praying on the good of other people.
    The “pay gap” or “wage gap” between men and women has sparked a lot of controversy in recent years, to the point where anyone who hears the term is bound to have an opinion. In reality, the “wage gap” exists, but similar to the above points, it does not exist to oppress anyone. The original statistic was based off of a study analyzing the average income in America for a man compared to a woman. The study concluded that the average woman makes 77 percent of what the average man makes. The study published its findings by saying, “Women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.” That is complete and utter ignorance. The five highest-paying college majors (Petroleum Engineering, Computer Science, Pharmaceuticals, Aerospace Engineering, and Chemical Engineering) are all male-dominated fields. The five lowest-paying majors (Psychology, Early Education, Theology, Human Services, and Social Work) are all female-dominated fields. This is not because men were limited to their choices or women were limited to theirs, it is because they chose the career path that they wanted to pursue, it just so happens that there is more potential for a higher salary in the male-dominated fields. Also, when taking into consideration the amount of women working part-time jobs because their husband is the breadwinner of the family (I am not promoting this role, just acknowledging it), it is easy to see how men have higher earning potentials than women. This is also legally impossible, unless America as a whole is guilty, due to the equal pay act of 1963, which guarantees men and women will be paid the same money for the same work. My question is this: if businesses could really get away with paying women less than men for doing the same work, what is keeping them from hiring only women? Would it not save the company money in the long run if women were doing just as good a job as men?
    Double standards are and always have been a large part of our society, particularly targeting women. Women are made to feel like they must meet society’s definition of perfect in order to have any worth, or that they are second to men, or that they should be shamed for being sexually active. While none of this is true, you have to understand that these are social disadvantages towards women, and that men and women have been legally equal for some time, while double standards towards men are far more disadvantageous. Men are far less likely to receive custody of their child(s) in a case of divorce. Along with this, men are typically required to pay settlements of half of everything they own to their ex-wife during the divorce. When being convicted for the same crime, men, on average, receive sentences 63 percent higher than that of women. Men can be drafted in times of war, being forced into combat where they could be killed, along with having a life seen as less valuable as a whole, and if social issues are still being compared, consider that men are not allowed to hit women, even if they are being attacked, and a social experiment was conducted and documented of the differences between domestic violence against men and women. When the woman was being assaulted, it lasted seconds, if that. When the man was being assaulted, people laughed, videotaped, and even hit the man for being “pushed around” like that. The same women that shame men for being perverted towards women carry copies of Fifty Shades of Grey in their purses. The same women that complain about having to conform to body standards shame men who cannot lift their body weight on social media. You have to understand that this point can be effectively argued both ways, most likely never reaching a conclusion, but also that you should not pretend that women are the only victims of double standards.
    Marriage equality has been an issue amongst the culture for decades now, and as of June 26th, it is now legal via The Supreme Court. The new controversy amongst the LGBTQ committee is that homosexual couples should be able to adopt children, and that only 10 states in America, along with the District of Columbia, allow it. There was a video made that showcased several toddlers reacting to the concept of gay marriage, and every one of them responded negatively. Then, three years later, the producers brought back the same group of children and had them react to The Supreme Court’s Ruling. Every single one of the children were in support, which shows that after being enrolled in school and hearing things from other students and teachers, their minds were molded to believe that this was okay. One of the children (age 7) even identified himself as bisexual to the producer. I am in no way saying that I am against homosexuality, I am simply saying I think that children and even teenagers are very impressionable and are not always sure of what they believe in. The deciding factor as to whether or not homosexual couples should be allowed to adopt children should be at the State-level instead of federal. I do not think that the argument of “it’s not how God intended it” is valid because not everyone shares that set of beliefs. However, notice that typically when a child is raised in a Christian household, they more often than not go on to believe that themselves, and if not, they will rebel against it during their teenage years to get a reaction out of their parents and then eventually form their own opinion. If a child is brought up in a homosexual household, they will most likely identify themselves as such throughout their life (not that it is an issue). The same thing goes for children raised in traditional households, veering away from what their parents approve of before finally figuring it out for themselves after they have matured.
    I do not think that another civil rights movement is necessary in this country. I believe that there is no such thing as a perfect system, but the American system has proven itself to be pretty close. This is proven by the fact that we have people risking their lives to enter. As I stated before, I do not mean to generalize any specific group of people, these are just my observations along with research I have conducted on my own. I am convinced that many people in our society, especially adolescents, do not form their own opinions and simply believe what they are told by their parents, teachers, or pop-culture influences. I think that in order to form a better society, we need to teach people how to think instead of what to think.

  17. Ashley S.

    If I had to choose one group to join for a civil rights movement, I would hands down choose the movement against police harassment and hostile abuse. I feel like I would choose this movement, because as a teenager, especially an African American teenager, that I have higher chances of being victimized by the police. When the police are committing these awful deeds, it’s usually to a teenager or young adult that is black. As a teenager or young adult that is black. As a teenager and eventually a young adult, I would like to be treated equal as, for example, a white individual by the police. When I drive around in my (future) car or take a stroll around my neighborhood I would like to know that there are police officers out there to protect me. I expect police officers to carry out their duties by protecting and serving the people of their community. I don’t want to have to live in fear of the police being the one’s committing foul play against me, or any other individual.
    However, African Americans were not only the target of this racial profiling injustice, done by our police officials. The abuse of the police has gone from Native Americans, Indians, Muslims, Asians, and African Americans. It seems that the source to the cruelty by the police is racism and stereotypes. We can’t forget about the 14 Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for constructing a suitcase digital clock. Officials believed this incredible piece of work for a simple engineering assignment was a suitcase bomb. Now we all know of precaution procedures, like the casual inspection of the object. However, the Muslim teen was cuffed and taken from school by about four officers. Ask yourself: Was this necessary? Why wasn’t the inspection of the clock suitcase taken into consideration? And what point of view were the officials coming from? To me and many others, the officials thought the Muslim kid had a bomb in his suitcase, because the majority of terrorists are Middle Eastern. Or this past summer case where an African American woman, Sandra Bland, was physically and verbally abused by a white officer. Eventually, the situation had escalated quickly and she was put in jail. However, Sandra didn’t live long enough to be released. She had supposedly committed suicide by hanging herself. Now why would a young 28 year old kill herself knowing that her release was soon to come? From these various incidents going from a 14 year Texas African American being body slammed or 18 year old Michael Brown being shot, the situation always ended with the officer throwing things out of proportion and making hasty decisions. Typically police forces and other protect and deserve officials are suppose to be devoted to keeping the people safe from any threats. Today, it seems that our “protectors” are a new potential threat.
    When we look at the spread of police hostility to the people in the world today, from various sources online we can decipher a message. Like from the 1960s, we can clearly see the flaw of America that plague our country and see that it must be changed. My top priority would be to put an end to the police brutality and harassment. The rules and regulations of a police officer would be re-addressed and bring to their attention the negative marks they are adding to America’s image. Another priority would be to establish a committee like the Black Panthers to monitor the police’s actions. Now by Black Panthers you may be questioning my wording, but I don’t mean their ways of violence or intimidation. Their tactic would only add fuel to the fire. I mean a type of group that’s higher than the police and can add another opinion or point of view to the situation. This committee would be made of various races and ethnicities (especially those discriminated against) to add diversity and different perspectives.
    With this subject being a top negative highlight of our world today, it makes you wonder: Why has there been no change? Why are people’s cries of outrage being pushed to the back burner? When tweets, images, and videos of these sickening doings of the police are posted/recorded, they read a major warning: Change must come before people take matters into their own hands and copy methods like the Black Power riots or Black Panthers (not saying just African Americans will do this but, other supporters of the cause too). In a civil rights movement against the police’s brutish and aggressive behavior/actions towards the people, I would definitely join and support.

  18. Nathan

    I strongly agree that there should be a civil rights movement in America, people to this day are still being discriminated because of their race, gender or religion. Not to mention the unfair wages for African Americans, Hispanics and women, the problem of marriage inequality and the racial bias that is a big part of American society today whether it is a police man wrongly stopping an African American or how it is much harder for African American to get a job than say a white guy.
    If I were to choose a movement to get behind I would go for African Americans. So many things have happened this year regarding police brutality and racial bias and while I’m sure that this did not just begin this year this seems to be the first I’ve heard of things like this. I was sure that America was not as racist as it had been in the past but now I see that racial bias is still very much alive and ingrained in our society. Things like the Michael Brown case in Ferguson are disgusting examples of the police brutality and racial bias in our society. If Micheal Brown had been white he most likely would not have died and that is the bottom line. So because of the color of his skin instead of being arrested for theft Michael Brown was shot and killed. To think that you can judge someone be the color of their skin is disgusting and ignorant and up until recent events in my opinion not very 21st century. More and more cities have people protesting this issue as more and more cases of police brutality are coming to light. This is very important because it seems as if people are getting fed up and pushing for change. Ultimately I would join this movement because I believe that 50 years after the civil rights movement has been too long to wait for true equality between all people not just African Americans but Hispanic, LGBTQ peoples and women too.

  19. Vincent Jackson

    I think that we may potentially need another civil rights movement based on the police brutality that is commonly seen, and heard about on the news. Within recent years we have seen police commonly overstepping the line with African Americans by committing unnecessarily violent acts. We have seen and have been reported multiple times of Police officers abusing their authority when dealing with African Americans, such as beating them down with their batons, shooting unarmed children, choking young African Americans to death, and all of these police officers never came to justice for the sheer brutality of their death. What kind of society is it okay where those who are supposed to protect you are the ones that find themselves deliberately trying to hurt you? America is supposed to be the land of the free, and home of the brave, when not just African Americans but all minorities don’t have basic freedoms, and are constantly finding themselves harassed by authority in the country that is supposed to be safest among the others, when in fact we are no safer than other countries that’s just the outside appearance we want other countries to have. I think that currently a lot of minorities still need a Civil Rights Movement, but as for now I still believe that African Americans are top priority with the everyday unfairness that they must face putting up with police officers. Police and African American interactions have become so unfair there is even a developed term “driving black” it seems to be pretty common that bad cops always start trouble as opposed to stopping it, and I believe that we need to make a change for the better. Police brutality is way too big of a problem considering now most African Americans cannot even find themselves trusting the police, it doesn’t make sense that people have to fear those that are supposed to protect them. I believe that a Civil Rights Movement for African Americans solemnly against police brutality is absolutely necessary in order to better our society.

  20. geoffwickersham (Post author)

    Our country is far from flawless and there are many worries that need to be taken care. Despite all of these problems, in my opinion there is no need for a Civil Rights Movement of any kind. They would cause further disruption to our country which would add to greater complications such as our current trillions of dollars debt. In present day there are civil rights movements among African Americans such as “Black Lives Matter”; of course black lives matter but so do all lives. Police are here in this country to protect us; they stop crime and enforce the law. We as citizens should be obeying the law and if not to expect consequences. Now there is police brutality because of racist police officers that should not be in their position; however, there are the people, specifically African Americans because they were mentioned of falling victims to it, which do disobey the law and do not accept their consequences but instead rebel. An example of this was the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri. Michael Brown an eighteen year old boy had stolen from a market and when approached by a police officer he retaliated. There was much research and many tests done on Michael Brown’s body to see who was at fault and if the police officer was to be sentenced a life in prison. Scientists concluded that Michael Brown was given a chance to walk away but proceeded in attacking the police officer. He ran, a 6’4” tall boy about 300lbs, at a police officer and continued to charge after gunshot was fired. The police officer shot again killing Brown in terms of self-defense. If people just obeyed police officer’s demands we would live a much more peaceful life in this country. If the police officer is at fault the person will be brought to justice when in court.

    Regarding the foreign policy and illegal immigrants, president Obama has deported about two million undocumented workers by 2014. However according to immigration data “a closer examination shows that immigrants living illegally in most of the continental U.S. are less likely to be deported today than before Obama came to office. Expulsions of people who are settled and working in the United States have fallen steadily since his first year in office, and are down more than 40% since 2009.”

    Gay marriage is another issue in the United States that should not be. In June of 2015 all fifty states legalized gay marriage but there are people that still refuse to marry or hire gay people. This is not necessarily their choice and feel that it is more God’s. Some people have a very strong faith and believe that a man and a woman should be together, not two men or two women. If this is the case, I feel that the gay couple or person should just look to be married or hired by someone else. Who would want to work with people that they will be discriminated by anyways?

    Lastly, I do feel that sexism and r-ape is a problem but does not require a civil rights movement. In my opinion boys need to be trained by their fathers or mothers at a young age that women are not just for their enjoyment and should be treated with respect regardless of their clothing or status. I feel that creating a movement would bring more attention to the situation which is unnecessary. There are in this world the unintelligent people that will do something for fame or honor with their friends.

    Tassia

  21. Erica E.

    I do indeed think there should be another civil rights movement. And it would be focused on either african americans with a sub category or policy brutality and Female Rights. I have chosen these because being a african american and female can put me in a more comprising situation as a citizen of this society compared to someone who is off more privilege. Just because an black is in off in no way means that we have gotten any where close to resolving the issue of racism in the country. There are still countless injustices done towards blacks even some towards the president because of the color of his skin. If you type ‘ Obama ‘ into google and look at the images you will eventually ( without trying very hard ) find him shown in a meme structure and shows him as satan and many other negative reviews but Obama has a plethora of good things for example raising wages by the highest level in two years and creating one million jobs. I feel police brutality is also a big controversial issue in the Black community. There is a line being cross by police officers when they are withdrawing their weapons just when they can utilize it for an intimidation factor more like then pulling it out when their life is in danger and also shooting to kill rather than shooting to injure. When it comes to female rights it is often predetermined that women are weaker then man when on the account of some studies that is not true. And that women may have a higher pain tolerance than men. Women in some studies are also proven to have a greater memory and scenes of smell than men. Also that women make 78 cents to a man dollar doing the same thing which makes no sense to me.

  22. Aldo Buttazzoni

    I think there needs to be another civil right movement for the white population for many reasons. I think the previous civil rights movement has outlived itself. I think there are so many minorities now and so many programs to help the minorities that at a certain point the white population is at a disadvantage. Things like affirmative action lower the bar for minorities to level the playing field but at the same time create a system of minorities being hired simply because they are minorities and not because of their qualifications. At this point in time there are so many opportunities for all people and affirmative action is just lowering the standards for all workers and dumbing down the work place and society as a whole. This country was built on equal opportunity for all and affirmative action is getting gin the way of that.
    I’d also like to address the “police brutality” victimizing African Americans. There are over 44,000 sworn officers in the United States and out of all of them there are clearly some cases or police brutality. To expect a perfect record of 0 police brutality and no killings is unrealistic. With that said I think to say that African Americans are being victimized without looking at who else is and to not also look at what happens to other races is ridiculous. This year after the first recorded 500 deaths by police officers was recorded it was found that almost 50% (49.6%) were white compared to the 28.2% black and 14.8% Hispanic. I’m sure many people didn’t know that mainly because the media skews our view of the situation. Did anyone ever hear of the unarmed nineteen-year-old boy shot to death by a police officer? Probably not. Why? Because media and the civil rights as it is now has us focus on the minority. To tie this in with racism in America I think its very one sided. The blog said that Black Americans are more likely to lose their jobs. It failed to say that black people are more likely to choose blue-collar jobs over higher paying skill jobs and they’re easier to lay off because the work they do could easily be replaced by a machine and it is simply a economically wise decision. Things like the Ferguson protests also play into this. A protest is a protest but some people see this as a chance to take advantage of the situation. Looting stores and destroying homes and business sporting a “hands up don’t shoot” takes the protests too far is completely unnecessary.

  23. Janae

    3. I do believe there is still a need for the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) till this very day; in 2015.
    I choose the topic “police brutality and violence”. I feel as if we are replaying history. Back then, brutality against African Americans was captured by TV crews shown throughout the world, and now, today in our time, we break out our camera phones to upload to social media, and send to our local news channels. We do this because if we interfere the brutality that we witness, the possibilities of whatever the outcome is very unpredictable, because in the end, the only thing the white policeman has to say to win the jury over is, “it was in self-defense” . We learn that back then African Americans were invisible to the white man. In today’s society we use the phrase “black lives matter”; with and without hash tags. We also use the phrase “hands up”; with and without hash tags. When we say black lives matter, we are told all lives matter, not just your lives. I feel once again we are invisible to the white man. The cry out still goes on and it is still over looked “all lives matter”, but we are the ones who are accused of the most outrages things based on how we look, black men are more common for the r*pe of women, robberies, gang affiliation, etc. we are looked down on, not by all police but some “black lives matter”. A boy shot up a Sunday school at church, and was simply escorted with a bullet proof vest. Zimmerman had “suspicion” when he seen Trayvon Martin walking down an alley with some snacks in his hand. He ends up shooting the kid saying it was in self-defense when he shouldn’t have followed the kid in the first place. I feel police brutality is more towards black than it is toward the whites. I remember watching the news and seen an older women being continually punched in the face by a white police man, on the side of the road. But I also remember watching the news and I saw a white man running down the freeway naked, and when police got there, he was wrapped in a cover. We also remember the little boy shot at the park playing with his toy gun. And we can’t forget #icantbreathe, #justiceforsandrabland, #whathappenedtosandrabland and many more. As I said before we are invisible when we say “black lives matter”, and we are “disturbing peace” and when we have protests for example, Baltimore, Ferguson. So I do believe the civil right movement is still needed till this day because yeah the world is changing, but then again it’s not. I don’t see how United States is supposed to be this awesome place and everyone want to live that “American dream”, and America is changing for the better, when we still can’t even get the government to change themselves.

  24. Francesca

    I do think that a new civil rights movement is needed. I think that Caucasian people are discriminated against and that we are just expected to deal with because, hey, everyone’s got it worse and ‘our’ lives are pretty good. Now I’m saying that most Caucasian has life rough but I feel that on a daily basis injustices happen to us but no one can say anything without sounding like a white supremacist. For example, on twitter, hash tags will arise saying “#stopwhitepeople2015” referring to things such as white people performing a ‘black dance’. Sometimes a white person will post a video of them doing the ‘nae nae’ or ‘whipping’ and the hash tags are because they apparently ruin the dance move. If white people started a hash tag like, “#stopblackpeople2015” there would be riots in the streets. Of course I’m exaggerating when I say this but the African American population would be very upset, they would accuse whites of being prejudice and discriminating against them, but when they did it to whites its okay and funny; shouldn’t be taken seriously. Another example is when I went to DC with my 8th grade class. We passed a courthouse in session and our teachers told us about the case that was happening. Apparently two girls both applied to Michigan, both with the exact same credentials, but the black one got in and the white girl didn’t. I believe their reasoning was because of what happened to her ancestors in regards to slavery. I think that this is completely wrong because did our society today to that, no. Was this practically girl in some way discriminated against, no. That decision was the schools to make but when you base it on race and something that happened one hundred years ago that had no bearing on the girl today, that was wrong. If the roles were reversed because the white girls grandparents had somehow been discriminated against at the hands of the government, the black community would use my exact argument to favor their opinion. Also police brutality isn’t just against blacks, there have been documented cases of police sometimes back shooting unarmed white teenagers. But because there are a few bad apples in the police force, the blacks focuses on the instances that they can turn into cases of racial motivation. I’m not saying that that could have been a factor, but its not just them. I know that from the statistics, most Caucasians lead a plentiful life, but I feel that others think that when whites are discriminated against they are just supposed to keep their mouths shut, because for the most part its usually the other way around.

  25. Frances V.W.

    America definitely needs a new Civil Rights movement for most of the issues presented but, America specifically needs a new Civil Rights movement concerning R*pe culture, mainly because of how many people treat this issue lightly. R*pe is serious. One out of every five women have been r*ped, however only forty-six percent of those r*pes are reported and a whopping fifty percent of those r*pes are believed to be fake, while in reality only two to eight percent are. The fact that so many people would look into a victim’s eyes, deny that they had been r*ped or ask questions like “what were you wearing?” “Were you drunk?” is horrifying. Also, the mere existence of r*pe jokes, and the lack of confirmed rapists punished for their crimes only further support the need for a reform in the way Americans treat r*pe and r*pe victims. R*pe jokes are disgusting, insulting, and frankly, they scare me to death, hearing people in the halls jokingly yell “They’re raping me! They’re raping me!” is hard proof that r*pe is not treated or taught to be considered serious in American homes and classrooms. Further proof that a reform in the way r*pe is treated is needed, in the form of a civil rights movement, is the way r*pe is treated in court, according to RAINN only two percent of rapists are ever sent to prison. All-in-all, Americans need to learn the importance a treating r*pe seriously, and punishing rapists properly. We also need to spread the idea that a women’s body is not property, and that women need to be respected. The best way to make sure these ideas reach a large amount of people is a new Civil Rights movement, a movement that will teach Americans about the horrors of R*pe and hopefully lead to a future where women can walk home at night without fear.

  26. Jackson Mahle

    I would join the LGBTQ civil rights movement because all people deserve to make choices about who they date or marry. Also even if you don’t approve of marriage equality, you don’t have to protest/ harass the people who do choose to make those kinds of decisions. The LGTBQ is a good civil rights group and they deserve to make the decisions they see fit. IF people have a problem with that, they should keep it to themselves. If I were if this civil rights group I would mainly focus on getting marriage equality. I would focus on this because it would completely change everything for the LGBTQ movement. This would be a huge win for them and I would bring them one step closer for complete marriage equality acceptance. Also I would like to help the LGBTQ to gain adoption rights in all 50 states. Right now there are only adoption rights in 10 of the states. When I looked on line the main information websites and they all said the gay adoption was legal in all 50 states. Some people believe that the child won’t be raised properly if it doesn’t have one father and one mother. I believe that 2 father can raise a child or two mothers can raise a child, or that one father and one mother can raise a child. It really doesn’t matter who raises the child as long as it is happy and it loves who it lives with. There is also the argument that if a child has two fathers then the child is more likely to be molested by its fathers. This is a terrible argument even though statistically is true, this is a terrible thought and people should not adopt a child if they plan on molesting a child. Anyways I found fight for the LGBTQ.

  27. sirdavid1121

    Yes, I believe that we do need a Civil rights movement. This because of Police Brutality on the Black race. Here are some cases of these occurrences.
    Sheila Chester
    Sheila Chester, 59, of Evansville, IN, was sitting in her car when another driver sideswiped her. In what should’ve been a simple case of an exchange of insurance information when the officer arrived quickly escalated into a case of police brutality on Chester’s behalf? Chester allegedly provided an outdated insurance card to the officer and recited the name that she goes by rather than the name that’s on her driver’s license. When she attempted to give the officer multiple other documents — that still didn’t include a current insurance card — the officer yelled at her to return to her vehicle while he wrote her a ticket. Chester questioned the ticket — rather loudly — and things went downhill. The officer opened his door, hitting Chester in the mouth. He pushed her, tasered her, and tried to cuff her. Four more officers arrived on the scene. The officer also threw Chester onto the ground and knelt on her neck. Another officer wiped mud on her back. Witnesses say the officer tasered Chester up to six times. Chester was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting law enforcement. Police claim justifiable force based on the body cam video.
    Tamir Rice
    “The Cleveland police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old holding a replica gun in November was deemed unsuited for police service two years ago, newly released documents show. Timothy Loehmann, now 26, was employed by the City of Independence Police Department in Independence, Ohio, for six months in 2012, the Guardian reports. In an internal memo from that November, Independence Deputy Chief Jim Polak criticized Loehmann’s behavior during a firearms training.”
    Rumain Brisbon
    “The deadly shooting of a black, unarmed drug suspect by a white Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a gun demonstrates the challenges law enforcement agencies face at a time of unrest over police tactics. Phoenix police say the officer feared the suspect was armed during their struggle, but some critics say the officer went too far. Despite the department’s efforts to be transparent with information, protesters marched Thursday night against the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Rumain Brisbon. About 150 took part in the march through the streets of downtown Phoenix to police headquarters, while also calling for an end to what they say is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality.”

    These are different occasions in which the black race has been brutalized and murdered in the police community. Statistics show that of all the times SWAT has been deployed, 39% percent have been on black people. This percentage is higher than any other race’. So Yes I believe we do need another Civil Rights Movement.

  28. Zander G

    Yes, believe that we do need another CRM Because of the police brutality on the black race here are some of the cases in police brutality:

    November 5, 2011: Danny Rodriguez, 28, was fatally shot by Officer Richard Chrisman in Phoenix during a domestic disturbance with him inside the home they shared. After Rodriguez picked up a bicycle from the living room, Chrisman shot him twice and his pit bull once. Chrisman was convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault, then sentenced to seven years in prison.

    November 21, 2006: Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old Atlanta woman, was shot and killed by police officers who had entered her home with a no knock warrant that had been based on false information.[54] She had fired one shot over the heads of the police, who she assumed were intruders, when they knocked down her door.[55] Those responsible later admitted to planting marijuana in Johnston’s house and submitting cocaine into evidence, lying that it had been bought there.[56] Two of the three officers involved would eventually plead guilty to charges including manslaughter.[56] The three were sentenced to five, six, and ten years in prison.

    These two cases are both police beating up on the African-Americans and the list go ono and on. So yes I do believe that we do need another CRM>

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