Friday, March 3, 2017

Kairos- Present Day

The present day image of the woman protester at a black lives matter movement is clearly powerful, but to get the full value of the image, the entire context of the black lives matter movement must be considered.  In 2012, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who is not initially charged with a crime.  The outcry for justice showed not just the severity of the incident, but the years of police violence and abuse against African Americans in the United States.  Following 2012, there were many more tragic deaths involving police and young black men, such as the killings of Michael Brown, and Freddie Gray.  Major protests formed in cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, as people were not only calling for accountability, but protesting for their safety.  Many black people had to live with the fear of wondering whether or not they would be the next victim of police violence.

5 comments:

  1. I am wondering if this picture was a reaction to a specific killing or just anger in general towards the police. Often one incident will spark a movement, but as we saw there were many police killings that built on top of each other to get the movement to its peak effectiveness.

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  2. I wish you would have linked details or background information to the other names you mentioned (Michael Brown and Freddie Gray) because I am unaware of their stories. Although you only have 8-10 sentences, I also think you could have spoke more about the other factors that sparked the Black Lives Matter such as the wage gap.

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  3. I completely agree with your stance. I think at first glance the statement "Am I Next?" just seems like a simple phrase, but I think in this case less is more and if you read between the lines you will see a much deeper meaning behind what she was saying.

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  5. I feel like the image of the African American protester at a Black Lives Matter rally strikes our hearts so singularly because we are knowledgable of the tumultuous history of racial inequality/police brutality that brought us to this very kairotic moment.

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