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The Analytical Research Paper (Rough Draft)

Black Lives Matter

The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth. It is a place where citizens are accorded their rights by a Constitution that seeks equality and fairness for all Americans in all the aspects of life. Everyone in the United States of America should understand that no single race or ethnic group should pride itself as the single race or ethnic group that can rightfully claim to be the primary owner the United States.

The United States is blend of all the races available on earth and it is a country that embraces them all. No race‚ therefore‚ should feel it has more rights to the United States more than the others. If there is one race that should say that they belong to the United States it should be the Indigenous Indian people who were displaced by the English settlers when they came to the United States. All these other races have soon followed into the United States in search of opportunity.

One needs to understand that every race or ethnic group in the United States has in one way or another contributed to the country that s the world’s superpower and the greatest country on earth‚ the United States. That is why the American Constitution protects each and every American citizen equally with no discrimination or bias. Every American regardless of race or ethnic affiliation is thus equally American and should not be discriminated upon in any way. It is important‚ however‚ to acknowledge the fact that this is not what is reflected in the current America. People of colour‚ and more importantly the African Americans are still facing discrimination in the American society. The criminal justice system‚ in particular‚ happens to be the main area were African Americans are discriminated against in terms of police shootings‚ arrests‚ and the sentences they receive on charges compared to their white counterparts .

It is really sad that during the 21st century a great nation like the United States of America is still facing racial discrimination. We all need to come to terms with the fact that people of every race took part in the building of America to become what it is today. African Americans‚ thought they worked as slaves‚ contributed to the building of America. They even played a role in fighting the colonizers along with the First President of the United States‚ Abraham Lincoln ‚ and thus should be treated with the respect they deserve‚ just as their white counterparts. Everyone should understand‚ especially the United States criminal justice system that black lives matter.

It is a fact that African Americans have not been treated equal to the white people in the United States historically. In his speech‚ James acknowledges this fact by pointing out that it is important for black leaders to assert the fact that black lives matter due to the fact that black lives have been considered immaterial in the United States for far too long dating. He acknowledges that black lives have not been seen to matter as much as the lives of other races.

According to Clapper‚ therefore‚ since black lives have been considered not to matter as much as other lives by many Americans‚ mainly of the white race‚ black leaders have the responsibility to ensure that they make it clear to all those people that black lives should equally matter as other lives owing to the contributions that the African Americans have made to the country.

Looking back at the building of the United States‚ one cannot fail to see the contribution that the African Americans made. Though they may not have contributed in a capacity of the respected American people’s point of view‚ the contribution that they made is reasonable significant for those people who want to be true to the facts. In his speech‚ Clapper refers to the former First Lady Michelle Obama‚ ad his reference helps to bring out how black people contributed to the early stages of the building of America.

He points out that the former first lady acknowledged that by seeing her daughters in the country’s White House‚ she could not help but get reminded of the hard work that black people‚ who were working by then as slaves‚ put in to build the white house. Looking at this‚ one cannot help but realize that black lives do really matter considering the fact that they played an important role in building the single most important structure in the United States‚ the White House‚ where the most powerful man in the world and the President of the United States of America resides.

Clapper uses several real life experiences try to show his audience that black lives do really matter. In his speech‚ he points out that there was a time when he and his family were living at some highland in Japan he points out there was a black dentist who happened to had gone to brunch where the army officers and their wives‚ which included Clapper’s parents and his sister‚ were all there. It thus happened that the dentist was the only man in the room that was black‚ and because in he was black sat by himself on the room’s perimeter.

The fact that the dentist sat alone in a corner in a room that was filled with his fellow army lieutenant colonels and colonels is enough proof to show that blacks were discriminated in the army despite the fact that Harry Truman had already signed an executive order that was aimed at desegregating the military (Clapper,40). Despite the move‚ discrimination was still there in the military. The lives of black officers were still considered not to matter as the lives of the white officer counterparts.

Clapper further narrates in his speech that when his mother saw the dentists seating alone in the corner‚ she went to him‚ took his hand‚ and brought him to the table where his family was seated. He and her sister were moved so that the dentists could sit with them on the table. It is important to acknowledge here that Clapper’s family was a white family‚ but his mother defied the social disregard of the black people and felt for the dentist. That is why she went to him and took him‚ by the hand‚ to their family table.

The one shocking thing‚ though it was common at the time‚ is that when his mother was doing all this‚ everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to concentrate at her. The white people in the room saw it as a deviant act since white people were not expected to show any compassion or empathy towards black people since black people were considered to matter at all. It was this time that Clapper realized that black lives really do matter. Looking at this example‚ it is clear that Clapper is trying to arouse empathy in the audience using real lives examples that he experienced as a young boy in order to arouse the feeling that really makes them see that back lives do matter.

White privilege has a significant role to play in an American society where black lives seem not to matter. It is important to start by understanding the word “privilege.” Privilege refers to a word that is constituted by two Latin words‚ which mean private and law. Explaining it from the American society’s perspective‚ privilege can be used to describe the American criminal justice system that does not bind all the American people equally. To make it even more clearly‚ if an African American youth was to be arrested for graffiti‚ which would be considered a felony in his case‚ the same would occur for the case of a white college student who engages in the same activity or crime for that matter. This unequal treatment of black people from the organs of the criminal justice system is to blame for the American people’s consideration that black lives do not matter

As Bergo and Nicholls put it‚ when any laws that bind or govern any given community tend to apply differently to the different members that make up that given community‚ such laws end up undermining the given community’s solidarity. This‚ in turn‚ undermine that whole community. This is in fact what has taken place in the U.S. criminal justice system. When a white individual commits the same crime as a black counterpart‚ the back offender tends to receive a harsher or longer sentence compared to the white counterpart‚ even when the appropriate sentence should have been a fine‚ community service‚ or a shorter jail term. It is because of this differential treatment of black people by the government organs‚ such as the criminal justice system‚ that has made the white American society to disregard black lives and they now believe that black lives do not matter.

Before any white American believes or even thinks that black lives do not matter‚ he or she should first try and look back at the American history. The United States is a blend of people from all over the world. These different races and ethnic groups arrived in the United States at different times. What we all seem to understand very clearly is that blacks came to the United States as slaves and it is because of this that white people tend to have the illusion that black lives matter. White people need to understand‚ however‚ that their ancestors may not have been treated as “white” when they first came to the United States.

To know who is white and who is not may be hard to tell currently in the United States. People who were originally from Russia‚ the Poles‚ Ireland‚ and Italy were considered non-white when they first arrived in the Lower East Side of New York City. The one shocking thing is that all these ethnic groups are now considered white in the United States (Bergo & Nicholls,109). The fact that these European originated ethnic groups have by the white Americans is an indication that they now believe that their lives matter and that they can identify themselves with them. The main question that one is left pondering about is‚ why hasn’t the white American people never viewed black people as part of their society and that their lives matter?

To answer this question‚ may be white Americans need to see the contributions that black people are making to the nation. It may seem that they recently noticed that black lives matter when President Barrack Obama was elected into the white for two terms. This‚ however‚ in not the case owing to the fact that many African Americans have in the past few months been violently killed by police officers as if their lives do not amount to anything when it comes to contributing to the growth and development of the country.

Intelligence is one of the most important things that the United States has thrived on for many years. It has been the main thing behind its ability to fight terrorists and to ensure the safety of the American people. Black people have been on the forefront in seeing to it that the American intelligence is always on the best edge. In his speech‚ intelligence requires contributions of people of different racial dispositions and that is why black people are important. He points out that it is important took at gathered intelligence using different viewpoints in order to eliminated biases that would bring about skewed analysis (Clapper).

In his speech‚ he acknowledged that his experience in the intelligence was enough to show him that it cannot be easy get diverse ideas in a room that is filled with people of the same racial affiliation‚ sexual affiliation‚ and who have had the same life experiences (Clapper). It thus implies that there is need for people that have had different life experiences for ideas to be analyzed from all the possible and available perspectives. This is where black lives come to matter.

Clapper points out that at his tenure in the Intelligence Community‚ he has always placed diversity as an important priority. The reasons for these are that diversity is not only the right thing that everyone should fight for‚ but is also critical to any given intelligence mission as well as ensuring that the different views of the minorities are heard when making important decisions (Clapper,65). He points out in his speech that the 2014 appointment of Frank Taylor as the head of the country’s Department Homeland Security’ intelligence department was a smart move by the country. Such appointments thus help to prove to white people that indeed black lives matter.

Like the African Americans in the United States‚ Black Brazilians are also considered to be less equal to the other Brazilians. Though they have been promised lands as a way of paying back for the bad treatment that they have received in the past‚ those promises have not been met fully and when they have been honoured it has been faced with serious land-based conflicts (Farfán-Santos,110). No important measures have been put in place to see to it that these promises are really honoured. It is as if these black lives are not considered to matter and that is why they are receiving such a treatment.

In conclusion‚ it is high time that everyone in the United States and around the world understand that every life matter no matter the racial or ethnic affiliation because different races can make different important contributions. Black lives‚ therefore‚ matter just as the lives of white people as pointed out by Clapper. They are an important component of the country’s intelligence system.

Professor:

You have written a decent opinion paper, but your have not completed the assignment for this class which is to write an analytical research paper in which you use secondary sources to help you analyze the rhetoric of an artifact. In your case, the artifact you chose is an image of an activist holding a Black Lives Matter sign.

While you have presented a context for your analysis (the promise of America as a country where all races are supposed to be treated equally under law, and the conflicting fact that the criminal justice system targets African Americans in particular) and summarized the arguments of three secondary sources, you have not introduced or analyzed your artifact, or shown how the secondary sources relate to the artifact and its rhetoric.

As you revise this into your revise this into your final paper, I suggest you:

1. Read my margin notes, which tell you what you should be writing about at each point in the paper.

2. Carefully review Monday’s discussion board about the essential elements of the finale paper. Please post questions if you do not understand the difference between the paper you wrote and the requirements of the paper.

3. Review presentations about rhetoric and rhetorical analysis if you are still unclear about what rhetorical analysis means:

pathos,

logos,

and ethos

4. I have just finished reading your rough draft, and I see that, again, you have not written about your artifact (the image of the woman with the Black Lives Matter sign). I am not saying that you are supposed to put a copy of the photo in the paper. You're paper is supposed to be about the photo.

Do you see the difference between the outlines I have provided and the paper you have written? If you don't see the difference, you will not be able to correct the paper.

Works Cited

Bergo, Bettina and Tracey Nicholls. “I Don’t See Color”: Personal and Critical Perspectives on White Privilege.Penn State University Press. 2015

Clapper R. James, “Why Black Lives Matter To U.S. Intelligence.” Nov. 4, 2016‚ Morehouse College, Atlanta.

Farfán-Santos, Elizabeth. Black Bodies, Black Rights : The Politics of Quilombolismo in Contemporary Brazil. University of Texas Press. 2016