Introduction
After reading the stories about social movements from the exercises provided to me, I learned a lot about the fights that many have to face to try to make things better not only for themselves but others as well. The two stories which I picked to write on is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and the second reading is Why Rural America Voted for Trump by Robert Leonard.
Discussion of Controversial Quotes
The two articles contain quotes that form the subject of conversation due to their controversial state. The first is Alexander’s book. The passage with the statement, “The more things change, the more they remain the same… (Alexander)” highlights the paradox present in the American society where new tactics are constantly on the rise to achieve similar goals. On the other hand, the extract with the phrase, “Let’s go to work. Let the liberals sleep in… (Leonard)” from Leonard’s article underscores the bias people have against each other. In general, the apparent theme centers on the need for empathy and tolerance towards each other.
Reasons for Choosing the Stories
I picked these stories because they both stuck out to me. The reason why I chose The New Jim Crow was that I use to live in Atlanta, and I was able to see what struggles many people had to face. The other reason why I picked Why Rural America Voted for Trump is that I live in rural part of the state, and I was able to see what happens and what people’s opinions are outside the big cities, meaning the country.
Discussion of The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander’s story, The New Jim Crow, talks about how people of color are still struggling, even though it seems like everything is fine (Alexander). She writes that she thinks that the government brought in drugs into the United States of America, and the reason was to try and make it look like the people of color are the ones to blame and always on the wrong. If the position is correct, then it's the government's fault. I don't think that the American administration would go out of their way to bring in drugs to split America. Alexander also writes on how people think that the racial outcast is gone now because African Americans are getting more famous, such as Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey. She argues that just because people of color are getting more recognition, it doesn’t mean a whole lot is changing for the better, and that there’s still racial injustice. Based on that, there is some truth to Michelle’s argument. The reason why I side with her is that of personal experiences that I’ve witnessed when I lived in the city. Just because an African American is in the office, it doesn’t mean there is any change. In fact, it could make things worse to an extent where people could have an open platform to be racist to someone and rag on him even if he’s doing a good job.
Discussion of Why Rural America Voted for Trump
In Robert Leonard’s story, Why Rural America Voted for Trump, He writes about the reason rural parts of America decided to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election (Leonard). Leonard starts his article by explaining how he used to live in a countryside location, implying farming towns. He narrates that he encountered some boys from school, one was a farmer, and the other was a welder. Both of the boys were hard workers, and they both were voting for Trump. Many rural Americans voted for Donald Trump because they believed he would bring back jobs from the city to farming communities. I can confidently conclude that is how most of rural America is from experiences of living in the countryside and everyone I know in my hometown is supportive of Trump. Like the boys in Leonard’s article, everyone out here in the countryside is hard working and believes that Trump will bring back jobs to rural America. Leonard states that he supports the Democratic party, and he explains that Democrats think that all people are born good and that Republicans are born evil. He believes that the two parties are never going to come together because of how opposite and distinct they are in their perception.
Personal Opinions on the Readings
From the readings, I chose to write about my essay most truthfully and I’m going to give my honest opinions on both authors. For the first reading The New Jim Crow, I thought that this was a fascinating book with sound analysis. The reason why I loved this reading was that it spoke out to me about the challenges that minorities still have to face, even when everyone else says there is a level playing ground for all. I think that no one should get treated in a similar way to the minority; we're all human. For the second reading Why Rural America Voted for Trump, I thought this was such an excellent article, which kept me fascinated throughout and never wanting to reach an end. In fact, I liked this story a lot more than the first. The reason why I say this is because I am a Republican who lives in a rural area, and I wanted to see what Leonard would say. I agreed with Leonard's position on some things. An illustration of this would be when he talks about how hard people work in that area; I'll be the first to tell you that it is correct. Country people have so much pride in the work that they put out, and they do the dirty work that most city people are afraid of.
Possible Solutions
I have a couple of ideas that we as a nation can do to improve the problems that we’re facing. The first clue we could implement to overcome racism in this country would be by having talks about the racial outcast that's happening. I know that this may be uncomfortable for many, and some may think it'll never actually help, but if all of us go out of our ways to talk about this serious issue, we might be able to start a healing process in this country. My ideas would be not just to have conversations about racism in school, but to deal with the origin of racism which is in adulthood. When kids are born, they don’t start acting differently towards another person. It’s their parents that make racism begin, so I think companies should send help to HR at businesses to spread the word on how harmful aspects like calling someone that’s not the same color as yours a bad name. For the second reading, I think we can make rural America a better place by bringing more jobs out of foreign countries and back to America so that there would be more opportunities not only for people who live in the city but also for the people that live in the country, like me.
Conclusion
Reflecting back on my essay focusing on social movement, I was able to understand more in-depth about the issues that everyone faces; it may not be racially like presented above, but it can also be losing jobs in parts of the country that once had jobs. Everyone struggles and I think if we start fixing our issues little by little than trying to fix everything at once, we’ll all be better off as a nation. If we all admit that we can do a better job of helping each other whether by not calling people racial names and helping other people that are down, we can help make our country, if not world, a more forgiving place. The only location we can go from earth is upwards, but it is up to this generation, and next to figure out as to when we will change the way we see each other.
Works Cited
:Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. New Press, 2016. Accessed March 29, 2018.
Leonard, Robert. “Why Rural America Voted for Trump.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/opinion/why-rural-America-voted-for-trump.html. Accessed March 29, 2018.
