Nonvoter Research Paper

John Lewis initiates his claim by conveying that everyone in America should not tolerate racial segregation nor discrimination. In order to reach to his point, he uses the rhetorical device, pathos, in which it causes the “white” audience to feel remorse for what society has become. To illustrate this idea, Lewis reveals African Americans “live in constant fear of a police state”, “have been arrested on trumped charges”, and some faced “the death penalty for engaging in peaceful protest” (paragraph 2). The evidence highlights that they are going through hardships caused by the federal government because they are considered “inferior” compared to the “white” race. From this, readers can infer that white supremacy is being marked on the walls. Lewis is able to awaken Americans so they can realize how their actions are wounding African Americans. In addition, Lewis is representing the African American community so they can feel inspired to join the Civil Rights Movement. Possibly the speaker is trying to drag the African Americans out of their state of oblivion by incentivizing them to defend their rights. Lewis is addressing the problems to both audiences so they can feel the urge to fix them. Therefore, Lewis’ remarks in the first paragraph reveal that he identifies with the concerns of African Americans and how whites, mainly activists, should focus on addressing their issues.

Voting is political power and restrictions diluted as well as denied any significant to the Negro right to vote. What good is a vote if the vote is not counted in the race.

For America present day, the change in race relation has changed, “technically” for no longer are acts of hatred as blatantly open and accepted; while they still do exist they are not as common and frequently exposed as appropriate. The Black Slave Codes, Jim Crow Laws, and Color-Line are within our societies normative cluster cultures. This is where groups of culture habit a vicinity of likeness and share appropriations, such as racial norms, bed rocked by realtor support, financed lender discrimination, city-property tax inequality increases, and school zonings. These are some of the new erected obstacles that “blacks” face when trying to assimilate into a society not made for their habituation. Now don’t take my word for it, but just as a Racist would claim their non-racist ways, so would an individual who bares no observation from the receiving end of inequality. Just take for example the school teacher interviewed during a psychological experiment in Europe on Racism. (Elliot, Jane)

There have been many indications that lead to conclude that African Americans vote differently than those of the Caucasian race. From past knowledge and own understanding, many black citizens have a tendency to vote democratic, especially in the recent presidential elections. On page three of a ProQuest Dissertation done by Leonard David Thomas, he states, “… that for blacks there has been a long term and consistent struggle (i.e. social movements)” (Thomas 2010). Based on self interpretation, these struggles may have a reason on the way they vote and identify as a race. In America, there have been many issues with slavery and racism, creating a “race-based” ideology platform with more democratic views, wanting the government to have less social order on their lives. Leonard David Thomas also explained, “Racial domination means that based on race, individual and group movement are controlled. For the controlled, full participation in society is restricted. Roles and activities are determined by stereotypes and norms that sort people of color into less powerful positions. In addition, dominated groups organize to oppose their domination. By interpreting the social system as radicalized, the focus must be on the social structure” (Thomas 2010). This statement explains that, since the African American race has been oppressed and made feel lesser in politics, usually creating them to be Democratic and more liberal, or even making them less likely to vote in elections

Even after the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, African Americans were “disenfranchised in the South by intimidation and electoral trickery, including whites-only primaries, rigged literacy tests, and poll taxes” (Patterson 2011, p. 180). The Freedom Riders rode through the South, enduring harassment and imprisonment to encourage other African Americans to vote. Voter turnout in African American communities is greatly encouraged. Personally, coming from an African American family, I was strongly encouraged by my parents and grandparents to vote when I was of legal age. My family instilled the importance of voting in me at a very young age. Although voter turnout among African Americans is still fairly low, in the 2008 presidential election African Americans had the second highest voter turnout, behind non-Hispanic Caucasians (African Americans, n.d.). Race can influence voter turnout because with African Americans specifically, although rates are getting better, they are still not high.

The African-American community is comprised of 34 million people, and makes up approximately 12.8 percent of the American population (Barker, Jones, Tate 1999: 3). As such, it is the largest minority group in the United States. Yet, politically, the black community has never been able to sufficiently capitalize on that status in order to receive the full benefits of life in America. Today, African-Americans, hold less than 2 percent of the total number of elected positions in this country (Tate, 1994: 3) and the number of members within the community that actually partake in voting continues to drop. In spite of these statistics, as of 1984, a telephone survey found that 70

What can we do better for our country instead of making a mockery towards the blacks who are poorly educated, and have severe economic issues by not providing equal opportunities and not providing schools for them? And could these actions really lead blacks to crime, violence, and laziness? W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folks provides his readers a second – hand experience of what racism and segregation was like during the late eighteen hundred. In addition, he presents major themes such as double – consciousness, the color – line, and most important “the Veil”. The importance of “The Veil” describes the real-life experience of what life is like for an African American living in a nation that is divided up into two race groups and receiving terrible treatments. In Du Bois’ “introduction” he states that the greatest problem that blacks face during the twentieth Century was the color – line. The main reason that the color – line is such a problem during the twentieth Century is because it’s tough for the blacks to achieve

Malcolm X’s “The Ballot of the Bullet” opened the eyes to many African Americans on the political parties and the treatment towards minority voters in the past. “This is the year when all of the white politicians are going to come into the Negro community. You never see them until election time. You can’t find them until election time. They’re going to come in with false promises, and as they make these false promises they're going to feed our frustrations and this will only serve to make matters worse.”X, Malcolm. "The Ballot or the Bullet." 03, April, 1964. What Malcolm X was saying in this line right here I believe is true most political parties only seem to care about the community when there

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

Equality was once a repulsive concept within America, today it seems to be a foregone conclusion. Indeed, we have made so many strides in the way that we view race that it seems a gross misstep every time that it needs to be addressed. Even our President, an African American who overcame tremendous odds to rise to the highest office does not have the answers to our issues with race, rather he calls on us all to “ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.” For most, these questions point to sources outside of themselves, but perhaps there a bit of introspection is the answer. Systematic segregation can

In today’s day and age, the United States of America is seen of as the land where every human being is treated fairly. However, it was not always like this and America was considered to be one of the most racist countries in the world up until the 1980’s. From 1885 to 1968, when the Jim Crow laws were in place, black people were segregated from whites and were treated like second class citizens. However, black people fought for equality all throughout the Jim Crow era and finally succeeded after the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Blacks in the American South sought to improve their lives by supporting and helping white people that had helped them before, by joining the American military, and by protesting against segregation and their rights.

The right to vote for African American became difficult during the time because the northern didn’t want to consider the blacks as equal to the society. As Frederick Douglass, has once stated “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.” African American fought their way to gain their right to vote is by coming together, free blacks and emancipated slaves, to create parades, petition drives to demand, and to organize their own “freedom ballots.” As a free African American, they except the same respect as the whites and nothing

‘‘CRT begins with an a number of basic insticts. One is that racism is normal, not abberrant, in American society. Because racism is an ingrained feature of our landscape, it looks ordinary and natural to persons in the culture. Formal equal opportunity – rules and laws that insist on treating blacks and whites (for example) alike – can thus remedy only the more extreme and shocking forms of injustice, the ones that do stand out. It can do little about the business-as-usual forms of racism that people of color confront every day and that account for much misery, alienation, and despair’’ (Delgado & Stefanic, 2000: xvi).

Never vote based on popularity. The candidates may have given you a kindhearted and compassionate act that’s worth an Oscar award.

Do you vote? Or do you sit at the house and wait for the world to change? Well what do you do? Would you pay a fine for not voting? Should anyone pay a fine for not voting? I believe people shouldn't pay a fine for not voting because it violates our freedom of choice, it decreases our interest in voting, and it minimizes our rights to express our religion.