Christina Talks About Freedom

Today in seminar I learned about two things: Brown v. Board and the Jim Crow Era. It was weird to learn about some of these things, because they seem so inhumane and so outdated. But the truth is that some of these things are still very much present in this country, such as blackface, a rising topic in media and entertainment, and lynchings, something that is still happening today in the midst of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.  Lynchings started occurring in the late 1870's and continued to occur for almost a hundred years. It was used as a form of punishment for black people who committed any type of social aggression, ranging from an accusation of a crime to something as small as bumping into a white woman, and the accuses weren't even given due process. Because white people didn't feel as if the law was working, they took the law into their own hands. The people that were responsible for these crimes were never charged or arrested. There was a total of abou...

I recently watched the movie "Gone With the Wind" in my seminar class: here are my thoughts. I mainly want to focus on one thing: the representation of African Americans in the film. Specifically focusing in on the characters Mammy and Prissy.  The two main black characters in the film are Mammy, played by Hattie McDaniel, and Prissy, played by Butterfly McQueen. This movie portrays the complicated dynamics and stereotypical box black women are put in. For one, I loved seeing the relationship between Scarlett and Mammy. We can see throughout the film that Mammy is the one who basically raises Scarlett. She cooks her meals, is always making sure she eats, she helps her get dressed, makes sure she's on time, and so on and so forth. One might think that this makes Mammy look submissive to Scarlett, and literally, she IS. But when we dive deeper into Mammy's attitude and personality, she is exactly the opposite. Through her interactions with Scarlett, we see Mammy being a...

Today in class I learned about the pro-slavery movement and the events that contributed to it. Here are a few things I learned:  The Fugitive Slave Act  was a set of two laws that were put into place in 1793 and 1850 that essentially allowed the capture and return of a fleeing slave. The first act was passed to give the locals authority to capture and return a slave, but the second one was passed to help the south retain their slave supply. This set of acts was passed to increase the division between the north and the south. Because the north wasn't as supportive of slavery, many slaves fled the south to the north where they could live and roam freely. But with the new act passed, it was now the north's obligation as legal citizens to contribute to slavery. This act was really the south's strategy to manipulate the north into going against its morals. The two acts were repealed on June 28th, 1864.     Another pro-slavery expressive act I learned about what the M...

There are eight different values of free expression when talking about freedom of speech: Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and Protect Dissent. The value that I believe has the highest amount of significance is Promote Innovation. The "Promote Innovation" can be theorized as "a community in which free speech is valued and protected is likely to be a more energized, creative, interesting society as its citizens actively fulfill themselves in many diverse and interesting ways." I think this is the most significant value of expression because without it, we wouldn't progress as a society or even a country. Without it, some of the other values wouldn't even exist. A a society, our use of freedom of speech is one of the most important freedoms that we have. When we share our ideas with  each other, we are creating our marketplace...

Today in class we did another mock trial, on the famous case that almost everyone has heard of which is Plessy v Ferguson . This case is a significant example of the "separate but equal" doctrine. I find this case to be extremely fascinating, as it was set up to be precisely what it was. Plessy was recruited by a group that wanted to repeal the act, the Committee of Citizens. The "incident" happened in 1892, when segregation existed not as a law, but as a custom or tradition to American Society. There were two different railroad cars: one for black people and one for white people. Plessy was instructed to sit on the "whites only" railroad car. When he was asked to get up and leave, he refused, and therefore he was charged and jailed. He later filed a petition against a judge, John H. Ferguson, that claimed that they were in violation of the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. When the case was brought to court, the court ruled in favor of Fergus...

The other day in class, we had a mock town hall meeting where we picked characters based off of whether they were pro-slavery or anti-slavery. I chose Sojourner Truth. Since I already wrote a post about Sojourner, I'll give a brief summary of what I learned. Sojourner was a slave who was bought and sold four times. She eventually escaped and found an abolitionist family to buy her her freedom. She went on to be one of the most famous women's rights activist and abolitionist. Another person I found interesting to learn about was Frederick Douglas. Douglas was mixed race, with a white dad and a black mom. Douglas could also be considered a women's rights activist, for he is widely known for speaking out on women's suffrage, with a lot of emphasis on the 15th Amendment, which gave black men the right to vote but left out black women. Douglas also wrote several autobiographies on his life as a slave, and even wrote for a paper called the North Star. Douglas is definitely a ...

When taking a look at the anti-slavery vs. pro-slavery argument, I did some research on Sojourner Truth . Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, was a slave who was bought and sold around four times. She was living in cruel conditions and grew up at the hands of a violent and abusive slave owner. She eventually fled her owners with her infant daughter and landed with an abolitionist family, the Van Wagenens. They bought Truth's freedom for twenty dollars, which today would've been around six hundred dollars. She eventually moved to New York where she worked with a minister and became more invested with religion. This is probably why r eligion was often her base argument when discussing matters of women’s rights and slavery. She went on to be one of the most well known abolitionists and women's rights activists.  Something Truth is well known for is her speech that she gave at the Ohio Women's Right's Convention in 1851, "Ain't I a Woman?". Throughout...

A few days ago in my seminar class, we watched a movie called "Glory". "Glory" depicts the story of the 54th Infantry Regiment in Massachusetts during the American Civil War. It shows the difficult and at times, uncomfortable story of the transition from slave to soldier. The men may have freed themselves from slavery, but they have yet to be free from the stigma that slavery created around them.  This movie was packed with tons of significant moments but I think my favorite was when Robert Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick) decided to take matters into his own hands when acquiring supplies for his soldiers. The men were denied basic attire like socks, shoes, and military uniforms due to the racial discrimination that they were still facing. Shaw wouldn't stand for it anymore and went to talk to the man in charge of attire. I think this is a great representation of what white people need to be doing in America right now. They need to use their privilege to upli...

Today in class we watched a video about the Supreme Court . It digs deeper into the Supreme Court and gave viewers an inside perspective to the justices who work there. Here's what I learned.  The Supreme Court oversees the Appeal Court, who tries the law. When someone doesn't feel that they got a fair trial in Appeal Court, they take it to Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court is certiorari, in which it has the power to pick and choose which cases it will take to trial, many cases are denied. In order to decide which cases they'd like to pursue and which ones they won't, the justices meet in a conference room and privately discuss with one another. Once their discussion is over and they've come to an overall decision, the judges send their opinion statements- explaining the legal reasons for the decision-  in. Their opinion statements are revised and released to the press.  I also learned about the major role that John Marshall played in introducing judicial rev...