The Examination of Diversity and Representation
By: DILLON ROMNEY
Colored Diversity
The article “The diversity of the recent Black Lives Matter Protests is a good sign for racial equity” talks about the Black Lives Matter protest. In particular, George Floyd’s murder on May 25th 2020.
“We have never seen protests like these before, in turnout, perseverance, and the ethnic and racial diversity of those participating” sociologist Doug McAdam remarks.
A video of an African American being a victim of police brutality, was the result of people from many diverse groups protesting for a change in the community. Progressive groups don’t normally focus on the issue of racial justice in America.
However if it’s to make more awareness of that injustice then they will do everything they can to promote it and gain more allies to help out the cause. “Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they support the movement”, Pew research publishes calmly.
It is shown from the survey that a majority of those who supported it were either Black, White, Latin, or Asian Americans. This is very promising news of the survey to show us because it gives the world hope that there is a chance to reach racial equity.
2020 definitely has its ups and downs with the BLM movement and covid arising. However things are slightly looking better today with both racial diversity and representation, whether it’s small or big it’s a step in the right direction.
In this really inspiring and hopeful article, people of all types started the BLM protest scattered all across the United States. The fact that it wasn’t just mainly African Americans involved in the protest really shows how much America and its people have grown.
The author, non-resident senior fellow and professor in the sociology department, Dana R. Fisher is very knowledgeable when it comes to topics on democracy, activism and climate change. She gave the facts, let us know the actual details of what happened, and put quotes of multiple individuals giving their own opinions. Overall a very intellectual and well thought out author.
Black Lives Do Matter
The article “Black Lives Matter Movement and the Workplace” talks about the protest that could very well shape the future of America.
Observing the situation, black people were swarming around the cop Derek Chauvin and the man he was putting his knee on George Floyd.
The looks and expressions on the people’s faces when this cop was doing this was anything but pleasant for all those watching. “Get off of him!!!” one person shouts. “He’s not resisting!!!” another person exclaims.
The aftermath of this little exchange resulted in the death of George Floyd and the arrest of Derek Chauvin. However this didn’t stop the relentless unrest from the black community.
Across the globe people saw this video of a white man abusing his use of power on a helpless and defenseless African American. This has sparked the beginning of the BLM movement.
Ibram X. Kendi for instance was not elated from what happened in the video, “time and time again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era.”
Historical black figures like Dr.Martin Luther King and Rosa parks really didn’t want the future to turn out this way. It’s almost like they caused a relapse instead of pushing forward.
A Blast from the Past
I observed a zoom call a couple of weeks ago from some long-time Alumni who were a part of the five demands protest. This protest basically summarized the five demands these Black and Puerto Rican students wanted from this college that they overlooked.
Those being “a school of Black and Puerto Rican studies”, a freshman orientation for Black and Puerto Rican Students, Seek students having a voice for the seek program, racial composition of the entering freshman class be racially reflective of the high school population, and that all education majors be acquired to take Black and Puerto Rican history and the spanish language.
To be more specific Francee Covington was in the zoom call and she gave us some very insightful details on the movement and how proactive it was. Classes were canceled, buildings were set on fire, and even the college president resigned because of it.
Francee proudly claimed “the way we can correct things since we can’t write big checks, is to show up and make sure that our voice is heard.
She was always a debater and looked through the flaws of everything that didn’t look or sound right, so her father told her to fight for black people and their rights the same way to debate against us.
She also claimed that “she was arrested at the age of 14 and brought to the downstate medical center. A huge complex was being built there and watching all these men pass by, none of them were black.”
At that moment Francee realized that a change had to be made for all blacks in the community. Thus, the five demands protests began around the whole campus.
