scholarly journals Acts of Becoming

Loading ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Adam Tompkins
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
The Past ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
The Future

This article examines the rich historical subtext in the future-focused storylines of Quantic Dream’s 2018 release Detroit: Become Human (PS4) and illuminates many of the thematic continuities in racial issues between the past and the future. Much of the subtle historical symbolism appears to have went unnoticed by many reviewers who maligned the videogame and its creator David Cage for relying on lazy tropes that clunkily connect the African American civil rights movement to the narrative of woke androids engaging in a struggle for greater equality in society. Following scholarship that has examined the development of racialized thought in the past, this essay recognizes “race” as a powerful, yet malleable social construct, that sometimes changes over time. Racial concepts in the game do not perfectly align with historical or contemporary understandings of “race” in the United States. Androids, in short, all belong to the same “race.” This article then contends that the storylines of all three playable characters in the game resonate with well-crafted historical parallels and that the narrative geography in the gameworld often closely tethers to the historical geography of Detroit. The characters Markus, Connor, and Kara have intertwining stories that represent different elements of minority life in the United States with the clearest parallels to the historical experience of African Americans. Detroit: Become Human, nonetheless, is a science fiction game about androids. Framing the struggle for equal rights in the future with a group of beings that do not yet exist has the potential to disarm gameplayers of latent biases that may otherwise color their view of contemporary racial issues. The article asserts that the wedding together of past and future through experiential gameplay nurtures an empathic understanding of minority concerns that may carry over to the present to impact understandings of contemporary racial issues.

THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF BLACK CITIZENSHIP

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-277
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur ◽  
Anna Beshlian
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Black People ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
The United States ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Black Life ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractThis paper offers a broad overview of Black citizenship within the United States, concentrating on the major shifts in Black life that have transpired since the classical phase of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. We examine several critical aspects of Black citizenship including economic status, education, criminal justice and mass incarceration, and political participation. Our report reveals that Black progress toward equal citizenship is inconsistent at best; at worst, it is stagnant and at times, regressive. As such, we conclude that dramatic solutions beyond traditional reformist approaches are needed in order to realize genuine citizenship and equal rights for Black people within the United States. In closing, we briefly highlight a specific example of a strategic approach to advancing substantive social and political change.

Diversity and Multiculturalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floyd Beachum
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Right ◽  
Personal Philosophy

The words diversity and multiculturalism are ubiquitous in the contemporary educational lexicon. They are certainly hallmarks in many educational conversations. Recent trials, tribulations, and triumphs in the areas of diversity and multiculturalism are not without historical context or educational precedent. The evolution of diversity and multiculturalism in the United States has been and continues to be a struggle. The lofty language that is immortalized in the United States Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance promises all U.S. citizens the right to life, liberty, safety, happiness, and so forth. However, this promise has not always been kept for all U.S. citizens. The full recognition of one’s rights in the United States has depended on one’s race/ethnicity, gender, social class, religious beliefs, ability status, and so forth. Consequently, the United States has also denied, ostracized, and oppressed groups of people based on these same aforementioned identities (e.g., slavery, segregation, sexism, etc.). This resulted in amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the American Civil Rights Movement, and the Women’s Rights Movement, as well as others. These movements were no panacea; they simply weakened overt manifestations of bias, and allowed for more nuanced, covert, and/or institutionalized forms of bias. The elimination of overt bias also creates the illusion of success. People begin to think that the problems are solved because they are not obvious anymore. This highlights the need for diversity and multiculturalism in order to identify and expose covert bias and remind people that the struggles of the past are not just part of history; they undergird the problems we face today (e.g., achievement gaps, disproportionate discipline, and misidentification for special education). Ultimately, diversity/multiculturalism has the ability to provide a kind of interconnectedness among people by having them face the perplexing problems of equity, equality, social identity, and personal philosophy. Embracing and understanding diversity/multiculturalism is the key to unlocking its transformational power.

Religion, Race, and Sports

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Scholes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
The United States ◽  
Baseball Player ◽  
Sports History ◽  
Jim Crow Era ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
African American Race

Race, religion, and sports may seem like odd bedfellows, but, in fact, all three have been interacting with each other since the emergence of modern sports in the United States over a century ago. It was the sport of boxing that saw a black man become a champion at the height of the Jim Crow era and a baseball player who broke the color barrier two decades before the civil rights movement began. In this chapter, the role that religion has played in these and other instances where race (the African American race in particular) and sports have collided will be examined for its impact on the relationship between race and sports. The association of race, religion, and sports is not accidental. The chapter demonstrates that all three are co-constitutive of and dependent on each other for their meaning at these chosen junctures in American sports history.

scholarly journals The great Chinese transformation: cynicism and the future of the world (article two)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Grzegorz W. Kolodko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Right ◽  
Supranational Level

The huge leap made by the Chinese economy over the past four decades as a result of market reforms and openness to the world is causing fear in some and anxiety in others. Questions arise as to whether China’s economic success is solid and whether economic growth will be followed by political expansion. China makes extensive use of globalization and is therefore interested in continuing it. At the same time, China wants to give it new features and specific Chinese characteristics. This is met with reluctance by the current global hegemon, the United States, all the more so as there are fears that China may promote its original political and economic system, "cynicism", abroad. However, the world is still big enough to accommodate us all. Potentially, not necessarily. For this to happen, we need the right policies, which in the future must also include better coordination at the supranational level.

Racial Realities

2020 ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Natsu Taylor Saito
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
American Indian Movement ◽  
The 1960S

In the 1960s, global decolonization and the civil rights movement inspired hope for structural change in the United States, but more than fifty years later, racial disparities in income and wealth, education, employment, health, housing, and incarceration remain entrenched. In addition, we have seen a resurgence of overt White supremacy following the election of President Trump. This chapter considers the potential of movements like Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock water protectors in light of the experiences of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and other efforts at community empowerment in the “long sixties.”

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Elaine Allen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Southern States ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Martin Luther King

The introduction includes Bible verses cited by ministers to defend segregation and verses to oppose segregation. There are slices of the history of the United States, the Civil Rights Movement, and African American history. The southern states, where white ministers confronted segregation, are identified. The term “minister” is explained as well as the variety of labels given these ministers ranging from “Liberal,” Progressive,” “Neo-Orthodox,” “Evangelical Liberal,” “open conservative,” ‘Last Hurrah of the Social Gospel Movement” to “Trouble Maker,” “Traitor, “ “Atheist,” “Communist,” “N_____ Lover.” Rachel Henderlite, the only woman minister mentioned in the book, is identified. Synopses of the book’s seven chapters are included. Comments by historians David Chappell, Charles Reagan Wilson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ernest Campbell, and Thomas Pettigrew are cited.

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