African American mug shots for target practice

Hello dear readers!

We’ve read an article that includes racial discrimination and the police target practice.  

The article is about the police department in Miami, who has been caught using African American mug shots for target practice. National guard Sgt. Valerie Deant showed up at the department, and among the pictures, she discovered her own brother being used as a target.  

North Miami Police Chief J. Scott Dennis denies any racial profiling, but concedes that his apartment ‘’could have used better judgement’’.

The article is to inform people about the problem with racial discrimination in the US and the people who think it’s interesting to read about the racism in a modern western country like the US.

This is a picture of the mug shots

Our opinion is that it couldn’t have happened with white mug shots, and that the Miami police department only claims that they use all colors of people as mug shots to protect themselves.  

Caroline, Cecilia, Katrine, Malthe and Jonatan

Years has passed but little has changed

Even though slavery ended many years ago, the residual effects still lingers. The black men is still portrayed negatively by the media, which in turn bias the way the rest of the population of USA views the black community and their behaviour. The media present the black men in the way they do because it is more interesting, than for example a black man taking care of his child.

But the facts are not as simple as that. Compared to the rest of the demographic groups, black men is more likely to take of their children everyday and more black men are going to college but yet the recent black graduates from college has a harder time finding a job than white graduates do, as is visible in the graph. This is a not uncommon as the unemployment rate for black men over 16 are 12.2 per cent, while the rest of the population’s unemployment rate over 16 is 6.2 per cent. Furthermore, the job market discriminates against people, who carry “black sounding” names, like for example Lakisha Washington, and workplaces are more likely to employ people with “white sounding” names like “Emily Walsh”.

The graph shows the unemployment rates for recent college graduates

Ditte-Marie, Maria and Emma

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Living in fear. Every. Single. Day.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar has written an article about the black people never being able to have any sense of security, they live in fear every day.  When a police car pulls them over, they never know if they are going to get away, alive. He mentions the Ferguson case, where white people felt just a fragment of what black people go through every day. The white people shows grief and sorrow until the media stops mentioning it and the white people go back to their own lives of comfort and safety. Kareem Abdul Jabbar says that black people will never be able to have a feeling of protection and safety. With the cases we have seen in the last 5 years no black man can feel safe from police brutality. It's a pity that we keep statistics of how many people that were killed by sharks, but not how many that have fallen victim of police brutality.

ida, dani & sam.

Statistic inequality between black and white people.

Racism and inequality are subjects we have heard a lot about on a daily basis throughout time. But does these problems actually exist? - new statistics give us a very clear answer.

Tests show that black students on average only score 36% of their white peers in reading and math.
That is an average of all states!

The black-white index for 2015 shows on which areas the equality is most profound.
The factors with the highest inequality are economics (55,8%), social justice (60,6%) and education (76,1%). The black-white equality index for 2015 shows that the civic engagement for black people is 104%, which is 4% more than their white peers.

Article by Cecilie Kjøller, Ida Hother and Nanna Lindhardt.

Niggers in college

We’ve read an article about a black woman who explains her life in college. She was one of few black students at a small college in Kentucky in the early 2000s. She tells about how the white students made the few blacks feel very unwelcome. For example, there hung Confederate flags in the college windows. The whites kept saying it symbolized their “Southernes” and southern pride.

1.      The main purpose is to inform. To inform especially the whites about how there's still racism in the US the day today.

The target audience is mainly whites and to remind them that there's still racism even though they might not feel like they are treating the blacks differently than others.

Some black people may also read the article and relate to the text and feeling, but it’s not the audience that the author tried to catch when she wrote the text.

2.      The type of article is an opinion piece, since she’s the one who had written the article (a 1. person writer) and therefore it’s very biased. We hear a lot from her own experiences and get to know her opinions.

The flag in the article got removed but the feeling of it was still there. It’s exactly the same in the US. The racism laws might have changed but there’s still racial segregation.

Sophie, Nanna W., Linnea & Helene

The Baddest Dog in Harlem 

The people in Harlem are used to the police being there on and of all the time. When a police car pulls up, they don’t get nervous or scared. Instead, they are curious; everybody wants to see what’s happening. Most of the citizens of Harlem see it as a nice little change in the everyday life when a police car pulls up, and they get so excited about it, that they don’t listen to the police when they tell them to get back.  It is way too exciting mysterious what’s going on, to listen to the cops. “One of them got out a bullhorn and told all the kids to get off the street immediately. He must have meant that as a joke. The kids didn’t have anything to do and they weren’t going anyplace.”    

The story is told by one of the citizens in Harlem, whom isn’t described that much in the story. The narrator doesn’t have a name which makes the story more objective, and more about the issue than about him. The story is written in slang.

“I wanted them to say how bad they felt about it and what a shame it was the way life could slip away so easily in Harlem, in our community, on our street.” I think the point off this quote is to tell what a shame it is how often people actually die in Harlem.

“She snatched it away from him and said she wasn’t going anywhere with them unless she had a black man with her.” It shows that she doesn’t trust the police because they are white, so she needs a black man with her to feel secure.

“I did just like everybody else leaning in that rail did, said a quick prayer and put on my innocent face.” This quote tells that the police suspects everybody living in Harlem, whether they are involved or not. 

Linnea og Cecilia

The baddest dog in Harlem (Katrine og Maria)

1. Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

The environment is tough. There is poverty and crime. The white cops don’t have any respect for the black people who live in Harlem. “…and told all the kids to get off the street immediately. He must have meant that as a joke. The kids didn’t have anything to do and they weren’t going anyplace.” The cops don’t care if some black kid gets shot. The storyteller says “but then I wasn’t looking too hard. The one thing I don’t want to be is a witness”. The quote shows that the black people are afraid of the cops. They don’t want to get in trouble.   

2. Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

The storyteller is a young black guy. He uses slang “big-eyed kids”. The storyteller is young because he talks about a man in his thirties who he calls old. He describes himself implicitly through his short story.  

The language isn’t formal. There is a lot of spoken language example “I don’t want to see no dead people.”    

3. Select three quotes from the text that you believe are central to the story in terms of plot and/or themes. Explain the quotes – what do they mean? Is there any hidden meaning to them?

“That dog looks like a terrorist to me” a cop says that. The quote shows the relationship between them and the community. The policeman has just shot a dog and one of them makes a joke about it.

“…She wasn’t going anywhere with them unless she had a black man with her.” It shows the distrust between the black and white people.

“The cops made us go up first and they came behind” The cops don’t care about their protection. They are not important to the cops.  

  

Katrine og Maria 

The baddest dog in Harlem

1 Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

-       As implied by the title, “The baddest Dog in Harlem” takes place in Harlem. It seems as though the police is not an uncommon sight in their area. The main character appears to has quite a lot experience with the police, “Now, I wasn’t a fool and I knew when the police come tearing like that they’re looking for someone.”

-       The police, however, also appears to have experience with the main character’s neighbourhood. They instantly are suspicious, when they stumble upon the main character and his friends. The police pat Willie down for no apparent reason and they do not seem to believe Pedro, when he tells them that he and the others have been sitting on the bench for two hours. It is first when Willie confirms it the police believe it.

2 Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

-       The story is told from the main characters point of view, which means the story is a little biased since he/she only see the events from one perspective. On the other hand, the main character is a qualified source because he knows the neighbourhood and is able to tell about it with conviction.

-        The main character appears to be a teenager. He uses phrases like “a crazy dude.”

-       Contrary to the other character in the story, the main character uses a larger vocabulary. His friend Pedro speaks like this, “What they mean about some automatic weapon.” While the main character uses whole sentences like this, “You’re lucky,” I said, “If it’s some crazy fool he’s liable to be aiming at you and hit one of us. Least if he hits you first it’ll give us a chance to duck.”

                   Overall, the main character seems to neutral, most of the time, observant and curious

Emma

The Baddest Dog in Harlem - Nanna Wagner

1. Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

You get the impression that guns, violence and police in the streets are a very common part of the everyday environment. People are just hanging out in the street in the middle of the day, when the cops suddenly show up. The cop’s presence does not seem like a surprising thing to the group. “I did just like everybody else leaning on that rail did, said a quick prayer and put on my innocent face”(p. 17, l. 1). from this quote you can tell that the people know exactly how to act towards the police.

2. Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

The story is told by a young, black man. You can tell that he is young, because he describes the 30-years old as old people. The whole story is told from his own point of view and therefore the language is not very formal. “Now, I figured if there was a crazy dude up there shooting at people he was liable to shoot at us instead of whoever he was mad at” (p. 17, l. 25).

3. Select three quotes from the text that you believe are central to the story in terms of plot and/or themes. Explain the quotes – what do they mean? Is there any hidden meaning to them?

One thing about 145th Street. Half the guys on the block don’t have jobs and so they’re always on the stoops or just standing around with nothing to do. (p. 18, l. 14)

It tells us a lot about the environment, what kind of people and the relationship between them, which is very important to understand the text.

“I wanted them to say how bad they felt about it and what shame it was the way life could slip away so easily in Harlem, in our community, on our street.” (p. 24, l. 31)

This tells us a lot about the relationship between the citizen and the police. The police is not a respected occupation, and people would rather make the police feel guilty than appreciate all the good things they do to the community.

“She snatchen it away from him and said she wasn’t going anywhere with them unless she had a black man with her”. (p.21, l. 27)

This is very interesting because it tells us a lot about the circumstances when it comes to the white/black relationship.

The baddest dog in Harlem

1. Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples. 

The relationship between the citizens and the police in Harlem are quite tense. The police are unpopular due to the fact, that the majority in Harlem thinks they are racist. And the population in Harlem are uncomfortable being around them, for example when the black woman Mary does not want to bring the police to her apartment only if a black man accompanies her. 

2. Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? 
Use specific examples.

It is a first person narrator. He is a man and he could be around 30. Cursing and slang influences the language and it is not formal at all. The words they use are very simple but yet they perfectly understand each other in the neighbourhood for example when they discuss who the best fighter is. 

Marie 

The Baddest Dog in Harlem

1. Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

- The relationship between the young people and the police is very bad, because the police is very suspicious. The young boys and the people do not expect anything good from the police and are scared of them (“I did just like everybody else leaning on that rail did, said a quick prayer and put on my innocent face.” p. 17, ll. 1-2).

- Another reason that the police and the community has a bad relationship is that the narrator is sure that if the police could, they would have arrested all of them, (p. 18, ll. 5-7)

- The block where they live is a place where many of the young men do not have a job, they are just hanging around, and when the cops arrives, they are standing on the streets to see what is happening.

- The people in the community do not want to be witnesses, because if they see something they are suddenly involved in the case.

2. Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

- It is a first person narrator and it is told in past tense, (“Outside the shooting started again and I squinched under the counter the best I could.” p. 20, ll. 27-28). The narrator is also a very calm and quiet young man and he just likes to hang around with his friends, but he has a feeling that things are getting worse. After he has been to the apartment with the dead kid he wants all in the community to talk about the little kid’s death and understand how easily somebody could be killed in their community, but he does not tell Willie about it, because it is not necessary because Willie can see it in the narrator’s eyes.

- He has lived in the area for a long time, because just the sound of the wheels of the police car makes him nervous and he knows that something is going to happen and he does not want to be a witness. He tries to get away from the police by first hiding in the restaurant and later behind the counter.

- The tone of the language is very plain; there is nobody who speaks in a provocative way to the police. All the young men say the same thing, that they had been there for two or maybe three hours, except for Mr. Lynch, who just arrived.

 - They try to get away from the place, but the police speak to them in a rather hard tone. The police tell them to stay right where they are.

3. Select three quotes from the text that you believe are central to the story in terms of plot and/or themes. Explain the quotes – what do they mean? Is there any hidden meaning to them?

- “After a while the shooting stopped and I heard someone outside say, “They got the guy with the automatic weapon and it was some Arab!” p. 20-21. ll. 31-2. The reason I picked this quote is that it shows that the black people are fast to make a conclusion about who had the automatic weapon, and it is easy to lay the blame on an Arab,

- “She snatched it away from him and said she wasn’t going anywhere with them unless she had a black man with her.” p. 21, ll. 27-28. The quote shows the mistrust between the community and the police, and especially the mistrust between black and white.

- “That dog look like a terrorist to me,” one of them said. You could see they were breathing easy again, “That is probably the baddest dog in Harlem” p. 23, ll. 8-10. This quote is very central to the story’s plot because it shows that it was not some crazy dude with an automatic weapon, they had seen in the window, it was a dog. It is ironical that the shooting started because a police officer slipped in a dog doo and it is a dog that gets shot, and it shows how easily things gets out of control.

Ditte-Marie

the baddest dog in Harlem

1.

The relationship between the locals and the police isn’t very good, but there are one of the “brothers” there are in the police. It sounds like the police is in the neighbourhood every day because there are some kind of crime inform of gangs. The locals joke with the police because they just are there to put anyone in prison because they live there.   

2.

The language is informal and relaxed when we here the locals talk, but when it is the police then is it very formal because they have this job they have.

3.

Page 19 line 28, because it’s the reason that the police is right on this place.

Page 21 line 25, its were the go to the room with dead dog.

Page 24 line18, it describes the situation when a man is shot in Harlem. 

Jonatan Stage

The baddest dog in Harlem (Ida R.)

1.   Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

You get the feeling that the community is familiar with unexpected visits from the police. And you get the impression that these visits are a bit ordinary.

“Now, I wasn’t a fool, and I knew when the police come tearing like that they’re looking for somebody. I did like everybody else leaning on that rail did, said a quick prayer and put on my innocent face.”

It also seems like everyone knows what to answer when the police start asking them questions. I guess it shows us that there is relatively much crime in Harlem.

Also the police are not friendly like they would be with normal civil but very aggressive. The lady in the café do not want to leave with the police officer unless she has a black man by her side.

2.     Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

The story is told from the main characters point of view and it is told in present most of the time. 

There is also a big use of directly talk. The narrator uses a lot of descriptions and he asks himself questions during the actions. “Now, what did he say that out for?”

3.     Select three quotes from the text that you believe are central to the story in terms of plot and/or themes. Explain the quotes – what do they mean? Is there any hidden meaning to them?

“The cop looked over at us and didn’t say nothing. I bet if he had his way he would have us sitting out there in that police car.”

– The police do not trust or like the citizens in Harlem and the citizens knows that

“One thing about 145^th street. Half the guys on the block don’t have jobs and so there are always on the stoops or just standing around with nothing to do.”

-       There is a big unemployment in the community

“She snatched away from him and she said she wasn’t going anywhere with them unless she had a black man with her.”

- The citizens do not trust the white policemen.

Baddest dog in Harlem (Cecilie)

1. Describe the environment in the short story with special focus on the relationship between the community and the police in Harlem. Use specific examples.

- Judging from the way the main character acts when the police comes I would say that it is not the first time “I did just like everybody else leaning on that rail did, say a quick prayer and put on my innocent face”.

Although the text does not show direct hatred towards the police it seems as if they are quite annoyed by them. Their relationship is “passive-aggressive”.

The police is enemies of the community rather than protectors of it. 

2. Comment on the language in the short story. How is it told and by whom? What characterizes the tone of voice and word usage of the narrator? Use specific examples.

- “Now that was a lame answer and everybody there, with the exception of Willie, knew it".

The language is very “young” and informal. It is spontaneous and probably resembles the way young people in Harlem talk (except the text features less slang). 

As informal as I may be it is still intelligent and easy to understand.

3. Select three quotes from the text that you believe are central to the story in terms of plot and/or themes. Explain the quotes – what do they mean? Is there any hidden meaning to them?

1.  “They had one cop who was a brother but he was trailing behind and looked like he was fixing to run any minute”: It’s interesting how he refers to a black cop as a brother. As if he feels like they are automatically related.

2. “I hadn’t seen anything, but then I wasn’t looking too hard. The thing I don’t want to be is a witness”: Even though he didn’t do anything wrong he will do anything to stay clear of the police and law enforcement. Either that or he didn’t want to see anyone get shot.

3. “The cop looked over at us a didn’t say nothing. I bet if he had his way he would have had us sitting out there in that police car”: Describes the racism towards the community/people of Harlem.