The Rhetoric of Shared Grief: An Analysis of Letters to the Family of Michael Brown

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicia R. Stewart

The Black Lives Matter Movement is alive and growing as the media capitalizes on the killings of Black men. Amid the marches, protests, funeral services, television appearances, political rallies, and other symbolic gestures that have allowed those touched by the tragedies to express themselves emotionally, one might wonder how, in particular, the mothers of these young Black men respond, cope, and move forward with their lives. With an understanding of this type of loss, two women decided to reach out to a family in order to share in their grief and offer words of support. This article examines the letters written by Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant III, and Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, to the family of Michael Brown. It seeks to uncover the rhetoric of their grief and highlight the necessity of their words as a part of the grieving and healing process.

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Ricky J. Pope, M.A.

The tragic killing of Trayvon Martin has received nationwide media coverage, even garnering commentary by the U.S. President. The attention is unique in the sense that young Black men in Martin’s age group have consistently been the most likely to be killed as a result of homicide and often ignored by the media. A personal reflection is provided to give context to the racial socialization process as well as the internal struggles being faced by some Black men in the United States. In addition, postings have been shared from the American Psychological Association Division 45 electronic mailing list capturing the social justice activism process in pursuit of justice for Trayvon Martin. The results of this article call for deeper analysis of the cause of racially motivated killings.


1970 ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
May Abu Jaber

Violence against women (VAW) continues to exist as a pervasive, structural,systematic, and institutionalized violation of women’s basic human rights (UNDivision of Advancement for Women, 2006). It cuts across the boundaries of age, race, class, education, and religion which affect women of all ages and all backgrounds in every corner of the world. Such violence is used to control and subjugate women by instilling a sense of insecurity that keeps them “bound to the home, economically exploited and socially suppressed” (Mathu, 2008, p. 65). It is estimated that one out of every five women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching up to 70 percent in some countries (WHO, 2005). Whether this abuse is perpetrated by the state and its agents, by family members, or even by strangers, VAW is closely related to the regulation of sexuality in a gender specific (patriarchal) manner. This regulation is, on the one hand, maintained through the implementation of strict cultural, communal, and religious norms, and on the other hand, through particular legal measures that sustain these norms. Therefore, religious institutions, the media, the family/tribe, cultural networks, and the legal system continually disciplinewomen’s sexuality and punish those women (and in some instances men) who have transgressed or allegedly contravened the social boundaries of ‘appropriateness’ as delineated by each society. Such women/men may include lesbians/gays, women who appear ‘too masculine’ or men who appear ‘too feminine,’ women who try to exercise their rights freely or men who do not assert their rights as ‘real men’ should, women/men who have been sexually assaulted or raped, and women/men who challenge male/older male authority.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872199933
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cobbina ◽  
Ashleigh LaCourse ◽  
Erika J. Brooke ◽  
Soma Chaudhuri

The study elucidates the interplay of COVID-19 and the wave of Black Lives Matter protests to assess motivation and risk taking for protest participation. We draw on protesters’ accounts to examine how police violence influenced the participants decision making to participate in the 2020 March on Washington during a pandemic that exacerbated the risks already in place from protesting the police. We found that protesters’ social position and commitment to the cause provided motivations, along with a zeal to do more especially among White protesters. For Black participants, the images in the media resonated with their own experiences of structural racism from police.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawoon Chung ◽  
Jaoon Young Hwan Kim ◽  
Kyung Woo Kim ◽  
Yong Min Kwon

Abstract A gram-negative, orange-pigmented, non-flagellated, gliding, rod-shaped, and aerobic bacterium, designated strain F202Z8T, was isolated from a rusty iron plate found in the intertidal region of Taean, South Korea. Notably, this strain synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and 17 putative genes responsible for the synthesis of AgNPs were found in its genome. The complete genome sequence of strain F202Z8T is 4,723,614 bp, with 43.26% G + C content. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain F202Z8T forms a distinct lineage with closely related genera Maribacter, Pelagihabitans, Pseudozobellia, Zobellia, Pricia, and Costertonia belonging to the family Flavobacteriaceae. The 16S rRNA sequence similarity was < 94.5%. The digital DNA–DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values calculated from the whole genome-sequence comparison between strain F202Z8T and other members of the family Flavobacteriaceae were in the ranges of 12.7–16.9% and 70.3–74.4%, respectively. Growth was observed at 15–33°C (optimally at 30°C), at pH 6.5–7.5 (optimally at pH 7.0), and with the addition of 2.5–4.5% (w/v) NaCl to the media (optimally at 4.0%). The predominant cellular fatty acids were iso-C15: 0, iso-C15 :1 G, and iso-C17 :0 3-OH; the major respiratory quinone was MK-6. Polar lipids included phosphatidylethanolamine, five unidentified lipids, and two unidentified aminolipids. Our polyphasic taxonomic results suggested that this strain represents a novel species of a novel genus in the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Aggregatimonas sangjinii gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Aggregatimonas sangjinii is F202Z8T (= KCCM 43411T = LMG 31494T).


Author(s):  
Lan Wei

Abstract Over the past two decades, Chinese rural architecture has experienced dramatic changes through the Building the Chinese Socialist New Village movement. Thousands of new houses, particularly in the model of the New Village, have risen abruptly out of the ground. These Western-style new houses with a garden (huayuan yangfang), which often appear in the media as typical family houses in Western society, largely represent the image of the good life of the state and the peasant in contemporary China. In this article, I focus on how the family house is produced and consumed in Baikou New Village in south China. By presenting the materiality of the dwelling space, this paper probes the intertwined processes of the materialisation of the blueprint of the good life and how the new houses influence family life (especially intergenerational relationships) in post-socialist Baikou New Village.


2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-396
Author(s):  
Biljana Stankovic

Premature sexual activity of the young, before reaching physical and psycho-social maturity, brings along the risk of jeopardizing their reproductive health, mostly because it can lead to sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy, which is mostly unwanted in adolescence. The starting assumption of the promotion of reproductive health of the young is understanding and acceptance of their sexuality and relevant needs in social environment in which they live. Primarily in the family, the media, healthcare institutions and school. During the period of childhood and youth, school possesses the unique possibility to enable a large number of young people to acquire knowledge and skills related to sexuality and reproductive health and shape their values, attitudes and beliefs. The complexity of the process of making the decision about becoming sexually active, as well as the space for action towards its postponement to older age, are also indicated by the results of the research conducted in Belgrade, on the sample of one hundred and eleven female adolescents aged fourteen to twenty, who became sexually active at the age sixteen and earlier. These are primarily those results which refer to the meaning of love and sex in their value system, motives, feelings and attitudes related to becoming sexually active.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janani Umamaheswar

The “Black Lives Matter” movement, centered on fighting racial injustice and inequality (particularly in the criminal justice system), has garnered a great deal of media attention in recent years. Given the relatively recent emergence of the movement, there exists very little scholarly research on media portrayals of the movement. In this article, I report findings from a qualitative examination of major newspaper portrayals of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement between April and August 2016, before the particularly divisive 2016 presidential election. Inductive textual analyses of 131 newspaper articles indicate that, although the movement’s goals were represented positively and from the perspective of members of the movement, the newspapers politicized and sensationalized the movement, and they focused far more on supposed negative consequences of the movement. I discuss these findings by drawing on the “protest paradigm” and the “public nuisance paradigm” in media coverage of social protest movements, arguing that the latter is particularly useful for interpreting portrayals of Black Lives Matter in the prevailing US political climate.


Author(s):  
محسن عبود كشكول

The importance of media education in our present time lies in its supposed role in rationalizing the youth’s use of digital media, as the school is no longer able to continue its knowledge and educational pioneering role in light of the excessive and absurd use of the Internet, just as the teacher is no longer a main source of science and knowledge. Considering the study curricula, addressing the negative impact of the excessive use of digital media on the school, as well as addressing the decline in the role of the family and its withdrawal from educational competition with the school, and thus education has lost the mandate of the school and the family to educate the new generation in favor of the hegemony of the new media authority, which is called metaphorically. Fifth, which overtook all authorities, including the authority of traditional media (the fourth power), so that control over the child went beyond control of his family and parents, and the challenge became before those concerned with education, how can the new media be a source of education, entertainment, education, guidance and direction, and in various methods of influence, By using multiple and amazing techniques that are characterized by transcending the limits of time and space, and according to that the great impact of the new media, we see a decline in public education. Illiteracy and its limited means, as well as retreating and losing its control over the social environment, which calls on researchers to study ways to rationalize media education, enhance human awareness of the media, and give it the largest share in influence and direction, and in social upbringing and raising young and old together.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabiha Hasan ◽  
Namood-e-Sahar

Abstract Gender role development is very important among children during the phase of their personality development. This results in the formation of gender identity, which later on determines the type of gender role exhibited by the child in later life. Home is the main platform from where the key features of personality for a child is shaped up. Similarly, variable gender roles are also being taught by the family members. The growing media and its impact also play significant role in this regard. The current research made an account of how the gender role portrayal is changing in media and its respective impact on gender role shift in the society. This objective was achieved by conducting a survey on the content portrayed in a Pakistani movie “Ek Thi Marium” (2016). Findings suggest that the media today is displaying a changed gender role instead of gender stereotypical portrayal. It could help future researches to identify the modern trends and to study the effect of these variations among individuals of different age groups.


Author(s):  
David R. Grove ◽  
Gilbert J. Greene ◽  
Mo Yee Lee

An analysis of family support or lack of family support as key protective and risk factors is reviewed. Specific aspects of family support is defined and research on how it impacts trauma as both a preventative measure and a central component of the healing process is provided. Research regarding lack of family support and the consequences to the trauma survivor is offered. A description of numerous types of family interactional patterns and they interfere with family support is outlined. Cross-cultural issues related to trauma and trauma treatment are addressed.


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