Analysis Of Lee s We Gon Be Alright - 1607 Words

During the Civil Rights Era from 1954-1968, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin and many others utilized the strength of voice to empower the people they were representing. When they stood up to speak, their reason for speaking was not to make others change their minds, but instead, to encourage and inspire those who already believed in their cause and shared their hardships. Fast forward to today, and the same methods are being used. In Jeff Chang’s book, â€Å"We Gon’ Be Alright†, he is constantly using examples and stories as the evidence to back up his ideas and his perspective. While most people think the reason for that is to change the reader’s way of thinking, Chang doesn’t try to persuade anyone. His†¦show more content†¦Chang realized that there are people who get their information from their TV’s, phones and tablets. So they may be led on to believe that the point of the use of the term  "hands up† during protest was solely about Michael Brown, when in fact it was about the longstanding history of racial injustice in the U.S. The mainstream media doesn’t always tell the true story, and using TV as a source can distract people from the actual issues on hand. Rather than debating about why a movement is using a certain term during their protest, the debate should be over why race-based crimes are so frequent. Another example of Chang calling out media bias is on page 113, where he describes the night when a young man named VonDerrit Myers was shot down in an interaction with a police officer during a â€Å"pedestrian check†. According to the police, Myers had a gun and was killed in a one on one gunfight with the officer (Chang, 113), however, that wasn’t the end of the story. â€Å"They [the police] noted Myers had been wearing a GPS ankle bracelet-- a consequence of being out on bail for recent charges of unlawful use of a weapon and resi sting arrest. The media was fed Instagram photos of Myers posing with guns,† (113). Because the media was filled with pictures of Myers with guns, people who didn’t know all the details of the situation formed opinions on it based on something that isn’t even relevant to what the real problem is. In a Fox news article released after the shooting, the