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Description     Instructions: Week 10 only has 1 discussion question

Sociology

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Instructions: Week 10 only has 1 discussion question. Please review the discussion question below, provide a response. Response posts should be 2-3 paragraphs. After you post your response, please reply to a post written by your fellow peers (you can provide more than one reply if you wish). You may have to log on at a later time to post your reply to another student’s post. Please be considerate in your posts and replies. 

WEEK 10 

The left image is from March 1968. That year, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis -- where he would later be assassinated -- to lead the nonviolent march of African American sanitation workers on strike for equitable wages and improved working conditions.Links to an external site. The civil rights movement was moving towards the recognition of economic equality as a central component of full citizenship. The marchers carried placards inscribed “I AM A MAN.”

The right image is from May 2020. A man holds a Black Lives Matter sign in front of San Diego Police during a protest following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

1)  All of the social movements we address in class have one underlying claim -- claimsmakers making a plea for others to see and acknowledge their humanity. And, in seeing that humanity, to grant social, economic, and political equality. Consider the two photographs above and the movements they represent. Is the Black Lives Matter movement an extension of the Civil Rights Movement? Is it an entirely new and distinct movement? When thinking of social, economic, political equality for all, are we making progress or relapsing? Consider the claims of both movements to build your argument.

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From the two images above, I would say that the Black Lives Matter movement is not a direct continuation of the Civil rights movement but shares similar ideals. Both actions use similar nonviolent strategies, boycotts, and more to help spread awareness. Instead, the civil rights movements helped influence the BLM movement as the civil rights movement was fighting to end blatant racism through segregation laws and have the outcome of the Civil rights act of 1964. Even though both actions share similar agendas to achieve political change. The BLM political agenda focuses on completely restructuring political systems such as law enforcement and the prison industry and ending racial discrimination against black people.

The BLM in recent years has helped bring national attention to racial discrimination and influencing public opinion. Their political actions have helped influence politicians on a federal and state level to realize and champion their cause. Through the continuous advancement of political awareness, I would say that these are small achievements. In terms of the justice system, we are having small success. An example is George Floyd's case where due to society putting pressure on the justice system, it has recently arrested one of the cops that murdered Mr. Floyd. I say it's small because it took almost a whole year, lots of protests, political activism for his death to be somewhat solved because there is still the trial of the remaining cops involved in his death. George Floyd's case is one of the thousands if not even more examples of injustices in the justice system and society in general.

Another thing to note is that the influence in the media is both different and similar. Both had backlashes from news outlets. However, the BLM has helped through the power of social media to help advance the movement. The BLM has helped spread more awareness and support through informational posts, donations, hashtags, and more. Social media has helped share new information to help organize local and national support for these events. It has made it easier to share activist articles from their perspective to the general public. Overall, both movements have similarities in fighting to make change for their cause, but I wouldn't directly compare them. The civil rights movement lasted a good amount of years and had colossal life-changing and political outcomes. The BLM has had small reform changes, but it still has a long way to make immense political changes. As of recently, I feel that the BLM has not had the same drive and attention as it did in the past year, but I would say it is very much alive to this day.