America may be the land of the free, but experiences may vary. People of color, all to often, experience a different America than their white contemporaries. As our texts clearly demonstrate, people of color experience a life of unjustified profiling, exclusion, and marginalization. You may wonder, how is this possible after the ending of slavery and especially after the Civil Rights movement? Well, author Michelle Alexander and songwriter Bob Dylan explain this phenomenon quite simply. Dylan’s 1963 song “Only a Pawn in Their Game” paints a vivid account of how institutional racism has been perpetuated in the 20th century. However, the brevity of the song leaves much to be unpacked. This is where Michelle Alexander’s research comes in, specifically
…show more content…
Dylan explains how poor whites are taught in schools, to hate against people of color, such as seen in his line “and he’s taught to walk in a pack” aor rather “he’s taught in his school” that the “laws are with him, to protect his white skin” (Dylan). This verse also explains how poor whites are supported by this group mentality, and politically-backed power, and are able to kill without remorse or personal accountability, as seen in the line “To kill with no pain, like a dog on a chain, he ain’t got no name” and also “to hide ‘neath a hood” insinuating the faceless anonymity of group murder (Dylan). Alexander explains this in her article “The Birth of Jim Crow”, specifically how the emancipation of slaves after the civil war led to stricter laws in the Southern states in efforts to combat Southern “Reconstruction” with “Redemption”(Alexander). Alexander explains how this led to the rise and empowerment of terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who were successful in forcing the federal government to abandon support of the “African American plight for a egalitarian racial order” in the South while also gaining more authority in communities for the express ability to harass and murder people of color (Alexander). Alexander also explains how this societal racism led to legal methods of disenfranchisement in all aspects of daily life such as “racial ostracism” seen not only in “schools”, but in …show more content…
By this point, it feels like Dylan uses Evers as a model for the many Civil Rights era martyrs such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Herbert Lee, and many more who were killed for having a public voice and fighting against sociopolitical regimes. This opinion derives from the fact that many other civil rights martyrs were killed similarly during this time yet Dylan gives the activist character a specific identity while generalizing the politicians, law enforcement, and military. This is most likely an attempt to humanize the victim and dehumanize the corrupt regime of those orchestrating and perpetuating “the
Dylan explains how poor whites are taught in schools, to hate against people of color, such as seen in his line “and he’s taught to walk in a pack” aor rather “he’s taught in his school” that the “laws are with him, to protect his white skin” (Dylan). This verse also explains how poor whites are supported by this group mentality, and politically-backed power, and are able to kill without remorse or personal accountability, as seen in the line “To kill with no pain, like a dog on a chain, he ain’t got no name” and also “to hide ‘neath a hood” insinuating the faceless anonymity of group murder (Dylan). Alexander explains this in her article “The Birth of Jim Crow”, specifically how the emancipation of slaves after the civil war led to stricter laws in the Southern states in efforts to combat Southern “Reconstruction” with “Redemption”(Alexander). Alexander explains how this led to the rise and empowerment of terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan who were successful in forcing the federal government to abandon support of the “African American plight for a egalitarian racial order” in the South while also gaining more authority in communities for the express ability to harass and murder people of color (Alexander). Alexander also explains how this societal racism led to legal methods of disenfranchisement in all aspects of daily life such as “racial ostracism” seen not only in “schools”, but in …show more content…
By this point, it feels like Dylan uses Evers as a model for the many Civil Rights era martyrs such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Herbert Lee, and many more who were killed for having a public voice and fighting against sociopolitical regimes. This opinion derives from the fact that many other civil rights martyrs were killed similarly during this time yet Dylan gives the activist character a specific identity while generalizing the politicians, law enforcement, and military. This is most likely an attempt to humanize the victim and dehumanize the corrupt regime of those orchestrating and perpetuating “the