Say His Name: Police Brutality, Extra-Judicial Killings and Achieving Racial Justice in the American Legal System
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now. Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
With the Black Lives Matter Movement in full swing, I wanted to write an essay about police brutality and the gravity of what we are fighting for. We are not fighting against one incident, we are fighting against centuries of injustice. While there has been an acceptance of responsibly for the slave trade and Jim Crow laws by governments, a minimum acceptance is all there is. I do not focus heavily on the positives of the Civil Rights Movement, most school textbooks have a very poor teaching of racism after the movement. I try to discuss ways in which the governments could take action and how we ourselves can change things (protesting, educating and harnessing white privilege). They did it in the Civil Rights Movement, we can do it now.
Note: I am not a scholar, I am just an angry law student; forgive any errors. I also know this is shoddy referencing work but everything has been cited - just not beautifully.
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assembled’ 103 He states that teenagers are the key, ‘they are able to recruit and persuade the more reluctant older
folks’. 104 However, naturally, the frustration increases when peaceful protests are met with violence. Riots and looting,
while a problem and while we can be sad about that, is not a problem that we should prioritise. Shops can be rebuilt.
Again, as I have stated before, this is not about one incident, this goes back to the first slaves.
Regardless, an uprising is inevitable and needed, being the only thing that can make an impact on inequalities as we
have seen though all of human history. Choosing an approach is difficult and something that must be left to the black
community. However, violent or non-violent, what is needed is unity of the black community and allies and resilience.
Outside of protests, there should be constant advocation for equal rights, the conversation should never stop. Be on
the right side of history.
103
Amy Barrett, ‘Peaceful protests: Are non-violent demonstrations an effective way to achieve change?’ (2 June 2020, Science)
<https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/peaceful-protests-are-non-violent-demonstrations-an-effective-way-to-achieve-change/> accessed 2 June
2020.
104
ibid
15
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