Bac oral anglais places and forms of power

Places and Forms of Power

The notion I am going to deal with is places and forms of power. The power is the ability to exercise control or authority over others. Power affects more than personal relationships, it shapes larger dynamics like social group, professional organizations and governments. This helps to create social cohesion but also lead to conflicts and tensions. Even when authority seems absolute, there are always counter-powers which question it, aim at limiting its excesses and resist it. African Americans have long endured segregation.

What means African Americans used and are still now using to fight for equality?

I will first talk about fighting trough art and then of the help of social media.

Documents:

1. Painting: The Chain Gang, Johnson, William 1939

2. Excerpt from Sula, Toni Morrison, 1973

3. Video: “A History of the Black Lives Matter Movement”

African Americans try to achieve recognition through art. Harlem Renaissance is an African American artistic, intellectual and musical movement that flourished throughout the 20’s, based in New York but extended in the World. It is a major cultural movement, known today as the Harlem Renaissance but at the time called the “New Negro Movement”. It reflect the expression of a new racial consciousness for African Americans artists and intellectuals who believe that through art, they could fight stereotypes and racial prejudices and thus achieve recognition. In the painting The Chain Gang painted by Johnson William in 1939, we can see 3 blacks men that look to be prisoners, they also have tools, their hands and feet are deformed and they are exhausted. They are certainly working in harsh conditions. The document points out how black people are treated and seen.

The excerpt from Sula, writen by Toni Morrison in 1973, denounce the inequalities between black and white people. In this text, a mother and her daughter were accidentally in the white-only train car and therefore, even if they were on their way to reach the colored car, the conductor ridiculed and scolded them. He was rude and however Sula keeps responding politely. At this moment, her daughter promised to never let herself to be belittled.

These two documents are an example of how blacks try to stand up for theirs rights through art by showing the inequalities and raising questions about it.

But blacks although use internet now to fight for equality. In 1992, when Los Angeles police officers were acquitted over the beating of black cab driver Rodney King, there was anger, there was riots, but there was no movement. The video from Blooming News informs us about the history of the Black Lives Matter movement which started in 2014 after the death of several black people. The phrase Blacklivesmatter debuted as a hashtag on Twitter, in August 2014 hashtag #BLM was used 52000 times. Since the beginning of social media, blacks people points out the discrimination against them thanks to internet, mostly through violent video of for example policemen beating up an African American person. Consequently, people have starting protesting and demonstrating against

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