Theoretical Paragraphs Post

Farid:
                The abolitionist movement existed for a long time before it came to the foreground of American politics. After many attempts to gain recruits to the abolitionist movement, a few texts were able to successfully paint the acts and practices of slavery through an ‘injustice frame’ as described by Jasper in his discussion of the role of emotion in the motivation and action of protest. He asserts that protest leaders need to create certain frames in order to orient and organize their beliefs and to allow potential followers to align their morals with those framed by the movement. An injustice frame is a special form of frame which expresses a sort of existing condition as unjust and something over which people should be outraged. In this, it also develops an enemy to be outraged against, a group to blame for the unjust transgression taking place. In the abolitionist movement, texts of the 1840’s were able to successfully frame the injustices of slavery in a way in which people could easily relate to and align with. This frame portrayed large plantation owners and slave owners in general as enemies who are perpetrating the injustice.

Jasper, J.M. Sociological Forum (1998) 13: 397. doi:10.1023/A:1022175308081

 Jamie:

Music is a powerful tool that can be used in protest movements. In anti-Vietnam War protests, artists such as Bob Dylan used music to directly address their feelings against the war. In order for this music to be an effective form of protest, it needs to “induce sympathetic reactions from listeners” (Mondak). The songs that speak out against the war must appeal to four different constituencies defined by Mondak in order to be successful: the members of the group, the media, third parties, and decision makers. The protest music would be more appealing to the members of the group, who already agree with the points that are made in the song. The media would project the message to the public, therefore reaching a greater population of people. The most important group to reach would be to the decision makers – those with the power to actually do something to make changes. The power of the protest songs created during this time period against the Vietnam War is reflected by the amount of people that were influenced by them.

Jeffery J. Mondak (1988) Protest music as political persuasion, Popular Music and Society, 12:3, 25-38, DOI: 10.1080/03007768808591322

Kathy Kuang

The People's Climate March 

Rosen, D., Kim, J. H., & Nam, Y. (2010). “Birds of a feather protest together: Theorizing self-organizing political protests with flock theory.” Systemic Practice and Action Research, vol. 23 no. 5, 10 February 2010, pp. 419-441. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC , doi: 10.1007/s11213-010-9167-3. Accessed 24 October 2016.

The People’s Climate March, which is a “decentralized political protest” (419) consisting of a myriad of separate groups with different agendas can be viewed as a “birds of a feather …fly together …regardless of the colors of their feathers” consistent to the Flock Theory (427). The march (or even climate change activists) is the flock and the birds, in this case, are the various groups. These “decentralized groups cooperating for a common purpose…transcend traditional norms of homophily and allow their purpose to be the tie that binds” (427). In the context of the march, although there are two significant divisions in ideology of how climate change should be addressed, as well as diversity in the race, nationality, age, and even goals of the individual participating organizations, the common thread that renders their differences insignificant is their concern of the inaction against climate change. Furthermore, just as birds of a flock can “split…from…the flock”, these different groups that protest independently normally, can easily “rejoin the flock” or rejoin the protest against climate change and participate in the march (424). 

John Chestnut:

David Oppenheimer, 2016, University of California Press

The argument here is talking about how the Black Panthers were nothing more than a race of people being proud of their identity. 

I picked it as a source because it brings a different view of the Black Panther Party than what I am writing about.

The framework it develops is that a brings a new perspective than from what I have been reading. It is only a sentence long, but it brings a new way of thinking about them.

            So in this small writing the author, David Oppenheimer, says that the Black Panther Party was nothing more than a way for a race of people to be proud of their identity. It is a different way of thinking of them, whether right or wrong. I would lean more towards wrong myself as the BPP, were established to bring equality to the oppressed people. Especially when you see that they were not a party that brought not only violence, but they also wanted to bring jobs, equal pay and also health care to the oppressed people.