A discourse community I belong to is the Black community. We face many problems with the police, cultural appropriation, the justice system, and that’s just a few. Sadly nothing has changed but it has been shown more and more.
One problem we face is police brutality and harassment. Police are placed in urban communities where they aren’t familiar with and harass innocent residents and residents who are walking around minding their business. They abuse their power and ego to not enforce the law but kill and act like they are fearful for their life. This year is the year that all police secrets and brutality are being exposed with the help of social media and today’s youth’s acknowledgment. With the death of George Floyd, it was the last straw for the Black community and it opened doors for past and present cases of unarmed Black people who got killed at the hands of the police. The protesting for Black Lives Matter got MAJOR support from allies of big companies, the LGBTQ+ community, other minorities, and White people. Unfortunately, there’s always those who love to have a counterclaim argument about something positive like “All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter,” which doesn’t correlate with the purpose of Black Lives Matter.
Another problem is Black people not getting credit for society’s influence. Throughout the years, Black people were and still using fashion, hairstyles, food, cosmetics to express themselves, and hairstyles like box braids and cornrows were used to map out escape routes. Whenever Black people wear their naturally curly hair and afro, it’s called unkept and “dirty.” Black people can wear long nails and be called unprofessional or dirty. White women can wear the same things and they are looked at as trendsetter and everyone’s glorifying it. Artists like Justin Beiber, JLo, Miley Cyrus have used Black culture for their benefits and they know we’ve played a major role in their careers, yet, never gave credit.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/all-lives-matter-black-lives-matter/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/non-black-minorities-appropriation_l_5d974be7e4b0f5bf797372ba
This is great–thoughtful and definitely on the right track. As you continue to work on the project you will definitely want to pick one of the two problems above and consider who outside the discourse community needs to hear about it. Your audience will be very different for each of these problems. The other thing to keep in mind is that the Black community is diverse and that it be even be that the DC you are part of is part of the Black community but not the whole Black community so that your audience might be another segment of the Black community or completely outside.
I completely agree with your points, especially the one regarding Black Lives Matter vs Blue lives matter. People aren’t viewing the concept through an objective lens and i think that’s what is making people become stagnated in their mindset. Being a cop is essentially a career choice, however we cannot control our genetics.