Propaganda
There isn’t much propaganda that is directly targeting blacks, other than some from white extremists, but there has been serious amounts of hate crime against African Americans. Unlike the type of propaganda we are used to, the main form of influenced racism is actually the media. Every time these hate crimes are on the news, it can either be presented in an antiracism manner which brings attention to the problems in America, or it could be presented with a biased against blacks which is harmful to the African American community and the minds of people watching. Media can infect us with these views that are poisonous. “The cop was just defending himself against the delinquent” or “The cop said that he fired first but the young African American was thought to have a gun, even though it wasn’t visible at the time”. Even though the hate against blacks hasn’t been resolved yet, there is a lot of propaganda and media that is calling attention to the inequality of African Americans.
Recently we have started to see more and more anti-racism propaganda. Below is a photo that embodies the approach that African Americans have taken to rid themselves of oppression. Black Lives Matter has become a popular slogan amongst black rights activists today.
Social Injustice
Stereotypes
I created this drawing to represent the “equality” that exsists between blacks and whites in our society today. As you can see, both sides of sketch are equal, but they are also separated. This supports the idea of equality as an illusion. Even though there are no laws that segregate or oppress blacks today, the way our society is run is damaging their communities. In the 1980’s African Americans started to move into what had been strictly white neighborhoods and suburbs. This was a successful example of desegregation until the white people started moving into newer suburbs and left the older ones to be occupied by blacks. These neighborhoods became rundown an impoverished.
Currently in the United States, African American poverty is frighteningly higher than Caucasian or Hispanic poverty. The facts alone should be enough for us to see that we need to make some changes with the way that African Americans are oppressed in American society, but of course society needs more of a hint than that. This has created civil unrest, a lot of pain and a lot of anger amongst the younger generations, causing riots and protests led by African Americans.
Everyday Hero
This is a song that I wrote to promote the everyday hero that I chose. Organizations around America try to help impoverished areas in any way they can. People Against Poverty is one that I’m focusing on in depth. They are a United Kingdom based program that uses donations to help people living in harsh or impoverished conditions around the world. They want “to feed the hungry, provide shelter, clothes and educate the poor, take care of the sick and bring communities together to help break the cycle of poverty,” as stated on their Mission Page. They also want to bring communities together in the UK to work toward their cause.
“Our charity works with international and UK projects that we can personally engage with to help changes lives by releasing communities from poverty.”