Personal Narrative: Black Lives Matter

Words: 640
Pages: 3
Open Document
I believe that one of the hardest challenges an individual can face is having to stand up for what they know is right even if it’s not always easy. I personally learned this simple truth last summer when I stood up against racism at a friend's college send-off party. I met this friend years ago through the sport of figure skating, so she invited me to a small going-away party at her house.

The part of this day I vividly remember was when the conversation around the table led to the topic of Black Lives Matter. At the time, protesters in Saint Paul were blocking freeways and staging protests all across the city due to the death of Philando Castile- a black man shot and killed by a police officer. I could tell from the minute the conversation started, I was going to have very different opinions than the people around me. I was then proven right when my friend’s mom stated, “Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group”.

The moment she uttered these words, I was given two choices. I could either be silent, keep to myself, and let her ramble on about “those thugs on TV”, or I could choose to question a belief that I knew was both incorrect and highly offensive. I looked over at my friend Emma who I knew shared my views, but she …show more content…
While this was a negative consequence of protesting, the protests themselves were just a small piece of a larger issue. She was ignoring the goal of these protests which was to draw attention to police brutality and pressure politicians to enact change. She instead only chose to focus on the destructiveness of the protests themselves. I on the other hand understood the need for blocking streets. It not only helped draw attention to the movement, but it showed the hypocrisy of being angry at the death of innocent people in ambulances and not at the death of an innocent black
Show More

Related Documents: Personal Narrative: Black Lives Matter

Comparing Brown's Clotel And Our Nig

In Brown’s Clotel and Wilson’s Our Nig, gives insight to the personal lives of slaves by zooming in on their struggles, emotions, and relationships. Like many other narratives both Clotel and Our Nig showed how slaves were looked at as nothing more than property. Both narratives show that it didn’t matter if the child was interracial or not any hint of Black meant being seeing as less than a person. Mag’s children as well as Currer’s children were interracial. The back story to Currer’s daughters…

Words 475 - Pages 2

Rhetorical Analysis Of The Problem We All Live With '

The narrative argument by Nikole Hanna-Jones in the radio program “562-The Problem We All Live With’” is presented in a way that will make the listeners believe she argues her point effectively. The story is engulfed in pathos along with having a tone that makes the audience relax and listen to her points of view without hinting anger. The tone of Hanna-Jones is serious and fair-minded, but it can come off as a bit misleading when talking about a hypersensitive subject based on her personal experiences…

Words 1239 - Pages 5

Alice Walker's Meridian

Meridian, defined the word as, “A black feminist or feminist of color. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous, or willful behavior” (pp. xi). In her novel Meridian, Walker is determined to give oppressed African-American women, a voice. Meridian utilizes Walker’s personal experiences to convey the struggles of a women in the 1960s. The reader follows the heroine’s battle for civil rights, and a battle within herself. In Meridian, Walker orchestrates narrative structure, characterization…

Words 922 - Pages 4

The Objective Basis Of Morality Thomas Nagel Analysis

good and the better option. In the article, The Objective Basis of Morality, Thomas Nagel explains what morality can be and how individuals interpret morality and identifying morality based on their belief system. We consider the laws placed in our lives by the government or God when we think of the consequences that our acts may result in.…

Words 1289 - Pages 6

Book Thief Response

Liesel Meminger, the protagonist, is encapsulated within the world of Himmel Street, along with her loving foster parents, a loyal friend, and a Jewish man. Through a personal point of view, The Book Thief’s retention in the Literature Syllabus causes readers to be aware of the values embedded in the text, and how they relate to our lives. The inclusion of the novel is triggered through the power of words, cultural values, and the use of language. One of the most major and recurring themes of the novel…

Words 855 - Pages 4

Frederick Douglass Paper

The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Liberty and Freedom Explained Frederick Douglass was a former slave who was a key figure in the abolition movement. Through his speeches and discussions, many people learned of the evils that surrounded slavery. Although he was a great speaker, his most influential tool in the fight for abolition would be his narrative he wrote. Through explanation of the horrors he experienced while shackled in slavery, many people came to join the fight against the abhorred…

Words 1434 - Pages 6

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Religious Roles in the Narrative Essay example

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Religious Roles in the Narrative The narrative of Olaudah Equiano is truly a magnificent one. Not only does the reader get to see the world through Equiano's own personal experiences, we get to read a major autobiography that combined the form of a slave narrative with that of a spiritual conversion autobiography. Religion may be viewed as at the heart of the matter in Equiano's long, remarkable journey. Through Equiano's own experiences…

Words 1821 - Pages 8

Essay Mr Rennie

1924 and 1948 as well as across national borders and cultures. Levy’s novel, written more than fifty years after the first Windrush arrival, creates a common narrative of nation and identity in order to understand the experiences of Black people in Britain. Small Island—structured around four competing voices whose claims of textual, personal and historical truth must be acknowledged—refuses to establish a singular articulation of the experience of migration and empire. In this essay, I focus on…

Words 7826 - Pages 32

Success And Failure In Being Mary Jane And Scandal

The Single Black Female: A look at success and failure in the television shows Being Mary Jane and Scandal. The role of the single black female is society is one that may not be as simple as black and white: instead it has many grey areas. Society has pinned the black female to be a very independent, nose in the air, conquering everything in her way, no need for a man type of woman. These stereotypes affect her home life, relationships in the workplace, her friendships, and her day to day interactions…

Words 3178 - Pages 13

Watching Eyes And Their Eyes

she may, "sail forever”. Through it all, I believe that Hurston is trying to say that no matter what people think and say about you and your life, you have to give it your all and do whatever it takes to make yourself happy because in the end, the only person you can to rely on to reach your "horizon" is yourself. Question 2: Most books are told solely in a third-person or first-person narrative accompanied with dialogue between characters allowing the reader to further understand the…

Words 1791 - Pages 8