LAD/Blog #27: MLK, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech

What stuck out for me in this speech was is obvious oration, which I noticed before even listening to the speech. The most obvious device he used was his anaphora. Most famously, was his anaphora of "I have a dream", where he stated reforms he wished to see. But, what stuck with me more was his anaphora of freedom. His use of "let freedom ring" and allusion to the My Country 'Tis of Thee song was more important than ever at this time. In 1960's America, "the negro had been given a bad check, marked 'insufficient funds'". As pointed out by Dr. King African Americans of the time were subjected to police brutality, confined to ghettos, and constantly discriminated against. As he said, "1963 was not an end, but a beginning", a beginning of what we would later refer to as the civil rights movement. This movement was structured upon demands from men like Dr. King, and Malcolm X. In this speech these demands came in the for of his dreams. His dreams that stuck out to me were "that all men were created equal" and that "men should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". These stuck with me because of their persistence today. Luckily our nation has greatly moved passed the bigotry of Dr. King's time, but we have not moved passed these birth-right advantages he spoke of. Too often we see things like the memorial to Trump's $1.4 million donation to the University of Pennsylvania, and then we notice that Tiffany Trump attended the school yet doesn't seem to display anywhere near the academic or intellectual prowess any other person would need to attend there. We can see George W. Bush attending Yale with an sat score of 1206. We see Damon Wayans Jr. getting any acting roles at all (I really don't think he's funny). While the issues he was speaking on have generally improved, the underlying nepotism and birthright remains.

I have a dream speech:
Image result for I have a dream speech:

Nepotism:

Image result for Tiffany Trump graduating from UPenn

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LAD/Blog #35: Home was a Horse Stall

Executive order 9066 was essentially a racist program that excluded Japanese Americans from everyday life in America due to the actions of their former nation. They were banned from the west coast and forced into internment camps where they essentially lived under oppressive, racist marshal law. This was especially painful for first generation immigrants as they had a personal connection with both nations. Many of them did not want to see their two home nations fighting, and held some allegiance to both, but most were more prone to defending the United States.This was also hard on Japanese children, as they were ripped away from their friends, lives, and schools and taken to internment camps. One example of this is Sox, and her difficult upbringing during this time. She is taken away from her home and placed in a new one. That home is a horse stall. This stall was in a small, crowded internment camp which Sox was forced to grow up in. Her experience illustrates how poorly the Japanese ...

LAD #37: FDR’s Executive Order 9066

On February 19th, 1942, FDR proposed executive order 9066, the order that gave the Secretary of War the ability to create designated areas for specific people to stay during wartime that could pose a threat to the US military. In WWII these areas became known as internment camps, and the people put in them were Japanese-American citizens. This allowed for the rampant mistreatment of these people with cramped living conditions and improper education. While FDR did say these areas were to be provided adequate food, shelter, and transportation, the word "adequate" is very subjective, and allowed for very poor conditions. One example of this is the story "Home was a Horse Stall", where a young girl, Sox, and her family were forced to live in a horse stall and had very little rights and no access to programs many citizens would such as a good education. I, personally, think this is a horribly executed order. While it was FDR's intention to avoid the influence of spie...

LAD #39: Brown V. Board of Education

This case marks the beginning of the civil rights movements of the late 1950s to even present day. In Brown v. Board the supreme court unanimously ruled that schools can no longer be racially segregated. This contradicted the previous ruling of 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, that stated all publicly funded buildings could be separate but equal. This previous case had been deemed ineffective because all to often these separated facilities were not equal, with facilities that were dedicated to African Americans being significantly lower quality. This case was brought up originally because of Linda Brown, a girl barred from an all white school, and only given access to black schools which did not provide an equal education. Her defendants cited the 14th amendment, stressing that the State could not deny any person the equal right to protection of the laws, specifically the equal treatment under those laws which Linda Brown was not receiving. The Kansas District Court acknowledge...

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