Final Blog Post - Social Media vs. Politics

 Social Media vs. Politics 

The things people post on social media change many's political views and voting decisions. Social media and the internet post both true and false information about current candidates running and post candidates who have run in previous elections. People see others' posts and think of themselves as different things. 

Based on the chart above, you can see that all races use social media for political issues and to impact people's opinions. The three races' rankings are all similar to where the colors are ranked. Blue was first meaning finding others who share views on important issues the highest was their main goal on social media. 

The second-ranking is green which stands for getting involved in issues that are important to them. For example, those who support the Black Lives Matter movement would post a black square on their feed. For those who support the Women Supporting Women movement, they post pictures of women helping one another. They are sharing their beliefs to not only share what they are thinking but to impact and educate others on their personal beliefs. 

Lastly, the third-ranking is purple which stands for giving them a venue to express political opinions. Social media is known as a haven where people share their beliefs. 

People use all different social media platforms to express their political views. I personally believe when people do this they are not trying to harm others, they are trying to educate others and elaborate on their points of view. Politics are an extremely touchy subject and talking about it through the media is not the best way. 

News reporters and people who write articles get paid for posting and sending out what they post to their bosses and even those in charge of political campaigns. Most people would do anything for money, especially write an article on information that could be full of lies. There is no way for us to tell if it is coming from a credible source or if it is all lies. You have to check the websites and background check the people writing the articles. In conclusion, you can never really trust what you see people post on social media. 

Sources:

- https://www.statista.com/chart/22264/social-media-for-cultural-social-issues/ 

- https://www.freedom-voice.info/elections?gclid=Cj0KCQiA4uCcBhDdARIsAH5jyUlhcI1l0ejJzHHy8bijIbZYiPHr0Y38o5lEc04ABCPIXgSEqbm44UIaAjTeEALw_wcB

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner Reflection

 Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

“Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” by Stanley Kramer was a film produced in 1976. This film is centered and focused on racism in the United States of America during the Civil Rights Movement. Because of the time frame when this movie was released, Kramer was praised for showing the world what interracial couples look like and their lives. 

The film is about the characters named John and Christina Drayton and their daughter Joey. They find out that Joey is engaged to a young black man. His name is Dr. John Prentice. This concerns John because he knows this will put a damper on the way society views them and a bad reputation under their last name. He does not want his daughter to be frowned upon by society for falling in love with a black man. 

The couple received plenty of discriminatory comments and actions directed towards them. One example shown in the film is when the couple goes to a restaurant. The waiter refuses to serve them. Another example is when they go to check into a hotel and the hotel clerk refuses to give them a room. This is all because of a white woman being accompanied by her significant other who is a black man and that did not fit into society’s expectations and norms. 

No matter what John or anyone else thought, they were getting married and starting a family either way. Discrimination was not going to stop them. Overtime, the couple powers through all of the negative comments and struggles made for them and were supported by their loved ones. 

Although I was not in class the day we watched this movie and talked with our peers, I still found this film extremely impressive and informative. It does a great job showing that being racist does not do anything good for the world besides separate everyone, especially from the person/people you may love.

Klansville USA

Klansville USA

The documentary, “Klansville USA” by Oliver Platt shows us this Klan that was highly ignored. This is because they continued to try and shed new light on organized racism and how it can impact people and their thoughts. This documentary was taken place in North Carolina. At this time, North Carolina was known and seen as one of the most progressive and successful southern states. They called themselves Klansville USA, which inspired the name of this documentary. It shows us how the Ku Klux Klan came back into the world in spite of looking for revenge for being shunned away. They grew tremendously in 1960 because of the civil rights movement. This was all led by the leader of the KKK Grand Dragon named Bob Jones. To defend this, North Carolina gained 10,000 members. 

My Review

In my opinion, this documentary is highly informative. It gets the point across and explains it enough so the audience can understand and peak in on why this happened. It does a great job of representing the main situation at this time and how it was dealt with. They touch on why Bob Jones did what he did and what his motives were. They show clips from this time frame so we can see firsthand what it was like and what was going on directly which helps us have a better visual. Overall, this documentary by Oliver Platt was extremely informative and entertaining. I would recommend it to others to watch. 

MLK and RFK Assisination (Reax)

 Martin Luther King’s Assassination 

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated. He was outside standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King was rushed to the hospital and died shortly after his arrival. 

Martin Luther King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968, so he could prepare for a march that he was hosting. This march was scheduled to be held on that Monday. He planned this because he wanted to protest the striking of Memphis sanitation workers. 

His assassin was named James Earl Ray. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. James Earl Ray escaped prison from June 10, 1977, to June 13, 1977. 

The night before his death, he gave a speech foreshadowing his death. In 1958, he was almost assassinated but escaped and was protected. 

Robert Francis Kennedy's Assassination 

Robert Francis Kennedy was assassinated on June 5th, 1968. This happened shortly after midnight in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles California. He was officially pronounced dead on June 6th, 1968. 

His assassin was a 24-year-old Palestinian man that was named Sirhan Sirhan. He did this because Robert Francis Kennedy claimed victory in California's pivotal Democratic presidential primary. During the assassination, he also injured 5 other innocent humans. 

Robert Francis Kennedy was seen as an extremely consolidating candidate capable of bringing back together a very divided country. Sirhan Sirhan was the last person in the world who wanted that. 

In 2021, Sirhan Sirhan was ready for his parole hearing on August 27th. His lawyer no longer sees him as a risk, but the judge does not grant him parole. 

The Two Men

These two men were extremely important to the United States of America. They both wanted to make the world a better place. Both of their deaths were extreme tragedies. They both traveled and gave speeches about America and race. 

Their assassinations occurred almost exactly 2 months apart from one another. Some thought this was a coincidence. Do you think the two men worked together and planned their assassinations together? 

When these two men died, the fight to end racial discrimination did not end and their legacy lived on.

Sources

• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/28/sirhan-sirhan-robert-f-kennedy-california 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Ray 

• https://www.ushistory.org/people/twolions.htm 

Board of Regents vs. Bakke - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title 6)

 Board of Regents vs. Bakke - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title 6)

Oppression has been a massive problem that has inhibited the moral progress of the United States. Throughout the civil rights movement, there have been many political figures that have fought to allow equal opportunities despite race. Countless public figures wrote speeches, created boycotts, educated, and put their own lives on the line for fighting for equal education, jobs, pay, protection, and arguably the most important American freedoms. 

Regents vs. Bakke supreme court case argued that the University of California used race as a determining factor in admissions. This was an upset across the nation as the civil rights act of 1964 (title 6) directly prohibited any racial discrimination in public places. This case was also in violation of the 14th amendment as all persons born in the United States are subject to equality including race, gender, religion, sexuality, ex. The supreme court ruled in favor of Bakke prohibiting racial quotas. These quotas were intended to only allow a certain number of people per race to attend the university. After the case ruled in favor of Bakke, universities transferred from racial quotas to performance-based acceptance. 

While oppression is still and nationwide problem the civil rights act of 1964 and the Board of Regents vs. Bakke case was an essential stepping stone to ending discrimination within the United States. Without this case happening, the world would not be where it is today. It has impacted our lives tremendously and still does to this day. It has changed the admissions process for schools all around the world.

Sources: 

• https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/civil-rights-act-of-1964?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsoycBhC6ARIsAPPbeLtg5X_XXmGJ7WteTCwjJhJkJ61C4L_k7AxxrHDTt4yVOuHcQDtX2akaAkyLEALw_wcB 

• https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/regents_of_the_university_of_california_v_bakke_(1978)

In the Heat of the Night Reflection

 In the Heat of the Night 

The movie, “In the Heat of the Night” by Norman Jewison, is about an African American police detective in Sparta, Mississippi named Virgil Tibbs He is arrested because the racist police chief, Bill Gillespie, was suspicious of him relating to a murder they are currently investigating. Tibbs is able to prove his own innocence. When he does this, he and Gillespie put racism to the side and joined forces with one another to track down the real killer. When they work together, they are a power duo. They go through every part of the town. Tibbs is making enemies as he fights and hunts for the truth and to find the real killer. This film is an Oscar winning award. It won this award in 1967. 

Virgil Tibbs

They could not have solved the murder without detective Tibbs and his knowledge. He led the investigation and made it have the outcome it did. He shows white people that a black person can be a detective also. He gets paid a lot more than a white detective and is highly ranked because of his good work. 

Compared to “Gone with the Wind” and “Band of Angels” 

In all three of these movies, we see the power the men had back in the day and how the women had to be their puppets. They had no say or choice in anything they did. In Gone with the Wind, we see a woman who is sending her husband off to war. She has to look pretty and proper no matter what. In Band of Angels, we see a woman who gets sold when her father dies to another slave owner to pay his debt. Lastly, in In the Heat of the Night, we see a naked woman trying to seduce the police chief. All three of these movies show the power men have over women because of their higher social ranking. Although these movies all have different plots, they deliver the same message to the audience. 

Feminism

At the film's beginning, we see the police chief pass a naked woman looking for him to come inside. She was looking at him through her window. I felt that scene was completely unneeded and shows nothing in relation to the movie. I feel this violates a woman although she agreed to do this scene.

Sources

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/plotsummary 

- https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/in-the-heat-of-the-night/cast/1030201217/

Harlan's Dissent in Plessy

 Harlan's Dissent in Plessy

Justice John Marshall Harlan was famous for being the only dissenter from the US Supreme Court in the ruling of Plessy vs. Ferguson. This case was ruled that the United States is a “separate but equal” place. This upheld the segregation laws. Here is a little bit about Harlan. Harlan was born in 1833 and died in 1911. Many people learned a lot from him because of how open-minded and willing he was to reevaluate issues and search for new facts to change societal causes. 

In the 1950s, Harlan’s reputation drastically changed. This happened because of two events in 1954. One of them being the Court’s adoption of his famous dissent in Brown vs. Board of Education. The second one was President’s Dwight D. Eisenhower’s nomination of his respected grandson and brand to the High Tribunal. 

Justice Harlan’s dissent became immortal became a law in the Brown vs. Board of Education case. This is because the court overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine. The court prevented congress from abolishing slavery. It was stated that it is unconstitutional and a violation of the 14th amendment. The 14th amendment states that “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” 

Because of this breach of the 14th amendment, Harlan took the Plessy court because they embraced the separate but equal doctrine. To him, that was morally unacceptable. It did not appear to be satisfying to the 14th amendment. This is because there was not a strict set guarantee of the equal protection part of its law. In favor of Plessy, the court supported segregation. 

Justice Harlan was extremely mad and outraged with Plessy. This was visible and noticeable to everyone. Harlan believed that during the court's ruling of this case, Plessy would be viewed like Dred Scott vs. Sanford which happened in 1857. This was when the court stated that black people could never be citizens in the United States of America. 

Sources

- https://www.thinkwy.org/post/justice-harlans-imperishable-dissent-in-plessy-v-ferguson#:~:text=Justice%20Harlan's%20dissent%20in%20Plessy,badges%20and%20incidents%E2%80%9D%20of%20slavery

- https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1335/john-marshall-harlan-i