Lectures Week of October 9
1. Civil Rights and Political Participation
2. Public Opinion, Voting, Media
2023-10-12
Agenda
- Announcemetns and Test extra credit
- This week we start: Public opinion, political participation, voting, and the media
- We start with examples from civil rights
- There will be opportunity to discuss and apply
Announcements and Questions
Test results
- If you had problems with CASA, take that as a learning experience please - If you had problems understanding the material, take that as a learning experience please - If you had problems with your grade, take that as a learning experience **please**
Tutoring is available through the Knack App and Launch Tutoring
Next semester
For any of you with an interest but especially political science, social science, or data related majors/minors:
POLS 3311: Introduction to Comparative Politics
- Mon & Wed 10 to 11:30 AMPOLS 3312: Argument, Data, and Politics
- Mon & Wed 1 to 2:30 PM - Mon &* Wed 2:30 to 4:00 PMThese have about 40 students per section instead of 250, so they are much less impersonal.
Registration
Online Deliberation - 10% of grade for registering and showing up!
- Sign up link is in Canvas in Introduction and Syllabus Quiz Module from Week 1 - Tuesday Thursday class - 194 out of 247 - Thursday only class - 197 out of 246 - Following written instructions to sign up for something online is part of the practically free points in your Professionalism GradeExam 2: October 26, CASA and DART Center
- CASA and DART Center - Missing the exam for any reason including CASA problems means you must make up the exam by taking the final exam - Following written instructions to handle your own reservation is part of the practically free points in the Professionalism Grade - No in person class October 26 other than exam in CASA/DART
Exams and Class Days
- No in person class the week of Oct 23rd
- Oct 24 Tuesday-Thursday class will wrap up unit 2 during an optional Teams meeting for your benefit
- Oct 26 - both classes exam day, no in class meeting
Questions
Test extra credit
Civil Rights
From Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King, Jr. successful civil rights leaders have mastered the art of swaying public opinion to their cause by appealing to shared values and ideals, nonviolence, and civil disobedience
Others from John Brown to Malcolm X have taken a more provocative approach intended to shock the public into action
Questions to consider
When does each approach work?
What are the limits of each approach?
Is either approach overall more effective?
John Brown: Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
- Ancient Sicilian, Klingon, Arabic, Chinese, Viking, Sanskrit, Hebrew… proverb
John Brown
- Northern Abolitionist
John Brown
- Northern Abolitionist
- 1850: Pottawotomie Creek, Kansas - hacked 5 Southerners to death
John Brown
- Northern Abolitionist
- 1850: Pottawotomie Creek, Kansas - hacked 5 Southerners to death
- 1859: Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia)
The Raid on Harper’s Ferry
- October 16 to 18, 1859
- intended to stir a slave revolt in the South
- Attack on the “United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry”
- The second federal armory ever built
- Attack on the federal government
- failed
John Brown:
- Northern Abolitionist
- 1850: Pottawotomie Creek, Kansas - hacked 5 Southerners to death
- 1859: Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia): Failed
- captured, tried, and executed for treason against the state of Virginia
John Brown:
- Northern Abolitionist
- 1850: Pottawotomie Creek, Kansas - hacked 5 Southerners to death
- 1859: Raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia): Failed
- captured, tried, and executed for treason against the state of Virginia
- Helped spark the Civil War (1861-1865) in which the Southern slave states attacked…
Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
- John Brown’s Abolitionist attack on the federal government helped spark the Civil War (1861-1865) in which the Southern slave states attacked…
the federal government
Sins purged by blood
“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
Brown v. Board of Education
- reversed Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
- ended legal segregation in public schools
- ended the doctrine of “separate but equal”
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/videos/brown-v-board-of-education-homework-help
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- 1963: Letter from Birmingham Jail
- 1963: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
https://www.marshall.edu/onemarshallu/i-have-a-dream/
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- 1963: Letter from Birmingham Jail
- 1963: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 1964: Civil Rights Act
- 1964: Nobel Peace Prize
- 1965 Voting Rights Act
- 1965: Selma to Montgomery March https://billofrightsinstitute.org/videos/calling-for-change-violence-or-nonviolence-images-of-bloody-sunday-1965
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott
- 1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
- 1963: Letter from Birmingham Jail
- 1963: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 1964: Civil Rights Act
- 1964: Nobel Peace Prize
- 1965 Voting Rights Act
- 1965: Selma to Montgomery March
- 1968: Assassinated
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Legacy
“Dr. King’s leadership contributed to the overall success of the civil rights movement in the mid-1900s and continues to impact civil rights movements in the present.
While King and other leaders generated momentous strides for equality, the push for civil rights remains a preeminent challenge today…
Dr. King’s generation did their part. Now, it’s time to do ours. The next generation needs us.”
Local Houston Issue: Gunshot detection system
GUnshot detection system and discrimination
Article: ShotSpotter: The controversial technology that detects gunshots in Oakland
“ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that pinpoints where a gun was fired within 10 feet, has been used in Oakland since 2006. The technology is now in more than 90 cities across the country, including San Francisco, Richmond and Redwood City.”
It’s been in Houston since
Report says Houston system is discriminatory
Article: https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/doj-investigate-gunshot-detection-18406617.php
Complex issue
This is a complex issue
- EPIC
- Protection from gun violence
- Right to gun ownership - privilege and discrimination there?
- Areas of the city that need protection
Issues
Is the system effective?
- If not, Can it be effective? - Could the system save lives of gunshot victims?Is the system discriminatory?
- Is it being deployed in a discriminatory manner? How should it be deployed? - Is it discriminatory by nature? If so, why?Who needs protection from gun violence most?
Is it surveillance? Is it by its nature tyrannical? What other limits should there be if any?
Issues: Effectiveness
Is the system effective?
Can it be effective? What would it take?
Could the system save lives of gunshot victims?
Issues: Discrimination
- Is it being deployed in a discriminatory manner?
- How should it be deployed?
- Is it discriminatory by nature no matter where it is used? If so, why?
Issues: Protection
Who needs protection from gun violence most?
One complaint is that this is being deployed in poor, minority neighborhoods, which raises the question:
Is giving more protection to the privileged in their neighborhoods right?
Is giving protection to the poor and minorities from gun violence bad?
Issues: Surveillance
Is it surveillance?
Is it by its nature tyrannical?
Is a system that triggers when a major, violent crime is committed the same as a system that records all activity?
What other limits should there be if any?
Public opinion and the Media
Overview: Goal
- Understanding the media’s and citizens’ roles in a democracy
- Understanding the consequences of limiting expression
- Critically considering the issue for yourself
Overview: Questions
- Why do we need free expression?
- How should we deal with “bad” opinions?
- Does freedom of the press only protect the large corporate media?
- What about citizen journalism?
- Is the internet speech or press or neither (and subject to regulation)?
Free expression
- marketplace of ideas
Free expression
- marketplace of ideas
- discussion and ballots are better than bullets
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
“If there be a time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
Free expression
- marketplace of ideas
- discussion and ballots are better than bullets
- truth will win out / “bad” ideas will be defeated by “good” ideas
Are some ideas so bad they shouldn’t be expressed?
Issues with limiting expression
- Lose the value generated by testing good ideas against bad ones
Issues with limiting expression
- Lose the value generated by testing good ideas against bad ones
- How do we decide what ideas are too bad to even be expressed?
Issues with limiting expression
- Lose the value generated by testing good ideas against bad ones
- How do we decide what ideas are too bad to even be expressed?
- Who decides? Who is “the decider?”
Issues with limiting expression
- Lose the value generated by testing good ideas against bad ones
- How do we decide what ideas are too bad to even be expressed?
- Who decides? Who is “the decider?”
- How is it possible to limit the power of the government to limit expression? How can we limit “the decider” if the decider can prevent us from discussing limits?
Who gets to speak and write?
- Should it be limited to the corporate media?
- What about citizen journalism?
Barack Obama
“As we do every time this year, Presidents and Prime Ministers converge on this great city to advance important work. But as leaders, we are not the most important people here today. It is the civil society leaders who, in many ways, are going to have the more lasting impact, because as the saying goes, the most important title is not president or prime minister; the most important title is citizen.”
- My edit: the most important title isn’t president or prime minister or journalist; the most important title is citizen
We will continue from here next week
Authorship and License
Author: Tom Hanna
Website: tomhanna.me
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</>
GOVT2306, Fall 2023, Instructor: Tom Hanna