Interest Groups and Social Movements.

Both the article and the lecture state the few ways that an interest group can be successful and benefit the whole of the group . 

"Demonstrations and boycotts can be another way of influencing policy. This tactic is probably most famous for being used during the early civil movements like the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized by Martin Luther King Jr . Litigation is another tactic used by the civil rights movement as in Brown v. Board of Ed. To litigate means to bring your issue to court in the form of a lawsuit. An important political battle is being fought over the limits in damages corporations have to pay in lawsuits  " 


This statement reflects the idea in the article about smaller groups being more successful over larger organizations. 


I chose this statement in light of what's been happening today with police violence against African Americans today , you see many people want and demanding a change but they aren't effectively influencing policy in their area or country with the interests that they are demanding. Boycotting  when theses things happen can prove to be very successful and so can litigation . I would rather these things than destroying the communities in which they live .

Brown V. Board of Education

" Racial segregation in public education has a detrimental effect on minority children because

it is interpreted as a sign of inferiority . The long held doctrine that separate facilities were

permissible provided they were equal was rejected ".



   A Class action lawsuit was brought against the city of Topeka ,Kansas . Black children were denied

access to white schools but asserted that the school systems did not follow the doctrine of "separate

but equal" because they were not equal to white schools and that there was no way they could ever be

equal . It was brought to the supreme court and would have to pretty much override an earlier

supreme court ruling of Plessy V. Ferguson , which held that segregation was legal but only if the

separate facilities were equal.


The courts ruling was 9-0 in favor of brown . I chose this case because this pretty set up the premise

of my education today because I am African American and it has given me the ability to experience a

quality public school education , although many schools that are not white still experience being

behind. It was said that despite the equalization of the schools by "objective" factors , intangible

issues foster and maintain inequality .  I totally agree with the what was said about racial segregation

in public education has a detrimental effect on minority children and that effect is still felt today and

is also in addition to the fragile state of the African American in the U.S .  The effects of slavery and

segregation has set many behind.


I believe this case is important because it overrides the beliefs and doctrines of racist ideology

and agendas  that were held and accepted in the United States of America .

The Presidency

"  The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God " John F.Kennedy

This quote is taken from JFKs inaugural speech . President Kennedy was basically saying that in this world and society we have the power and the means to end things such as poverty and hunger but instead of being the change and the abolishers of those things we are the creators of it. That the rights that were declared in the declaration of independence and fought for in the revolutionary war are pretty much the same issues that people are still struggling without and fighting for . When instead majority of rights are given with birth and not by government.


I absolutely believe and agree with what President Kennedy had to say . It is so true that the government and industries have the power to end and cure so many things that are ravishing human lives such as poverty ,hunger and more but because they are so money hungry and love power we will probably never see these things come to an end. Such as cancer it has become a billion dollar industry its hard to imagine that they are actively searching for a cure or even would want the general public to have one. There are always many rights that should come with birth that we may think we have but truly do not.

"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? "


In this quote Frederick Douglass is pretty much questioning why he was brought there to speak to commemorate the independence of a country that has not yet brought independence to himself and the people of color he represents . Whether that independence from Great Britain was anything of value to people of color . In the Declaration of Independence it stated that all men are created equal but that sentiment was clearly not seen in the essence of this new founded nation of America because men born like any other were not seen as man but as property and in turn had no independence or freedom  in this rising nation all though they were pretty much building it whether it been with them actually creating things or laboring in a field to produce and pick "cash crops".

I have also thought this  when it comes to July 4th for many years I've celebrated July 4th as well as many other African Americans when truly that independence had nothing to do with me because I would have still been a slave, but emancipation day is not even celebrated with as much  enthusiasm as the 4th of July when it should be more popular among African Americans.  

Fix the constitution !

" I always wonder if ,but for the second amendment , there would be a more radical commitment to compromise and peacefully working through easy and difficult issues ."



I think here she is saying if there were no right to bear arms the means of solving things would not be socially constructed by the use of violence and guns as it is now. I feel like this is true although the intentions of this amendment may have not been what is happening in this country today but because of this guns are just flowing around everywhere and instead of being used in dire situations are being used to end certain situations.


I agree with her because I feel like maybe for reasons of environmental factors and more they may have needed guns but today we can go through our lives without ever having to pick up a gun or use it in any aspect of life. People today are using both legal and illegal guns to  kill people that have wrong them or just harm people to in turn end their lives because they are unhappy. There are many rights that people in this country are fighting for but there is a right to bear a deadly weapon that can end the lives of many based on an emotion that someone feels. Not saying that changing this amendment will just magically fix gun violence but it could be a start. Guns overtime have been glorified to create violence and give power those who have them . I just feel like there is no real need to even own a gun and especially in a city . There's no sense of compromise in people now when it comes to people its just like well I have a gun if I don't like something I'll just shoot you and violence only begets violence and the cycle will just continue.

Trans- National America

" we are all foreign-born or the descendants of foreign-born,and if distinctions are to be made between us, they should rightly be on some other ground than indigenousness. The early colonists came over with motives no less colonial than the later. They did not come to be assimilated in an American melting pot. They did not come to adopt the culture of the American Indian. They had not the smallest intention of 'giving themselves without reservation' to the new country. They came to get freedom to live as they wanted to".

  In this quote Bourne is saying that no one in  America is truly an american we are all descendants of people that came here and brought their customs with them . In fact the very people that "founded" America didn't come here to gain the customs of those that were already here but to live their lives in ways they couldn't have where they were from. with  that being so we shouldn't expect or criticize those who come here and aren't "Americanized" because they haven't thrown their customs or traditions away.

I agree with this quote because everything about this country is build on people who were not originally from here wether they came here willingly  or were forced and its like so many Americans forget that. We need to respect each other whether or not we have been here for generations or for days.