The Fruitvale Station Tragedy - Essay Example

 The Fruitvale Station Tragedy Introduction The movie I choose to analyze was Fruitvale Station. The frameworks I chose to conduct this analysis with were bodies out of place, Anti-oppression framework, and the equality concept. These three concepts struck me when watching this movie because they accurately described why and how the event played out in Fruitvale station. The objective of this paper is to analyze the shooting death of Oscar Grant and what lead up to these events. I will discuss the systematic oppression and unfair treatment of African American men. I will also discuss the unreasonable stigma placed on these individuals by society. Bodies out of Place The BOP concept applies to this movie because Oscar Grant’s tragedy was seen as an isolated incident by society. They had the idea that these were just black men causing trouble and therefore they paid the price. This society says that if you break the law then you have to be apprehended for it. However, when it comes to black men breaking the law they’re consequence includes being killed for it. “BOP makes certain assumptions about society. The first is place – whether it is location or relative position in a social schema – matters. The focus on place is absent from other theories, and it is an important variable that allows us to highlight missing cognitive aspects implicated in social processes. Much of what individuals know about the social structure of society is obtained a priori. Adherence to such normative expectations is rewarded while failure to do so is sanctioned. This penal aspect is important. The punishment may or may not be corporeal, but the threat of physical violence still exists. The unspoken threat of sanction is what maintains the system.” (Combs, 2015) We know that if a black man acts in a way that is considered non-threatening he might be let go. However, if they act in a way that is threatening were almost certain they will suffer consequences. Since we are using this “colorblind” concept they cannot see that this behavior is focused on one group of people. Harris Combs says that, “the body may be accepted; but the body out of place is rejected. This seeming acceptance only operates as long as the black and brown bodies function in traditional or stereotypical respects where the patterned, ingrained social order is not only maintained, but also perpetuated.” This to me means that society says if Oscar Grant has acted a certain way according to societies standards he may have lived. If he let the cops take advantage of the situation and just sat in silence he may have lived. He was a body out of place and he didn’t function in the “acceptable” way. Equality Concept The equality of process or “distributive justice” is another concept I could apply to this movie. “distributive justice is a framework for explaining the ways that the benefits and burdens of a society or community are shared between its members. Principles of distributive justice tell us how these benefits and burdens ought to be shared or distributed” In the united states we are all supposed to be equal under the law, however the case of Oscar grant says otherwise. An example I would like to use for this concept is drunk and disorderly white man outside a bar. They just came from work and they have their nice work clothes on, but they are causing a scene in the bar. If we think about this situation we know there are many different outcomes that this situation can have. We know this because young white professionals are not seen as a threat. If the police are called, they may be asked to leave or may be arrested and put in jail overnight. Rarely do we see a case where a young white professional is arrested, beat up and/or tazed and taken into custody and maybe fined. Since we are all equal under the law this is the way we would hope everyone would be treated. However, if the situation was flipped and there were rowdy black men making a scene at a bar who were dressed in hoodies and jeans then this scenario instills more fear into people. Black men have an unfair stigma placed on them for various different reasons. One being that society and the media makes black men out to be violent criminals. When we look at the picture of equality we see that the shortest man is given the same “opportunity” as the rest of the men. However, he’s got his lack of height against him which keeps him from having the same opportunities as the rest of the men. I would black Oscar Grant and black men in general in the category with the shortest man. Anti- Oppression Framework The final concept I will use is the anti-oppression framework. “Proponents of the anti-oppression framework argue that theorists such as Rawls and Nozick accept the ability of policy-makers to act impartially (and ethically), support existing structures of oppression as ‘natural’ phenomena, depoliticize policy and decision-making, ignore difference, and place insufficient emphasis on the role of group identity (Hoefer, 2016). I choose this framework because it describes what needs to happen in order to prevent these interactions with the police. We recognize this behavior as oppression of a group of people. Oppression stems from the people in power using their power to keep others down. ‘‘anti-oppressive practice, then, means recognizing power imbalances and working towards the promotion of change to redress the balance of power’’ (Corneau & Stergiopoulos, 2012). The Anti oppression framework recognizes the oppressors and the people being oppressed and criticizes the concept of equality. An example of this in the movie would be the justice system letting the police officer who shot Oscar grant off with just 1 year in prison and “no real” justice was served. The way this was handled further oppressed African Americans because it instills fear into them as well. We saw that nothing really happened to the officer that shot Oscar grant, so our lives seem almost worthless. Conclusion The most important ideas that I reflected upon in this paper were the overall oppression faced by Oscar Grant and many people like him. We live in an unjust society ran by people who don’t see the issue at hand. There are so many people that are either passive, prejudice, or just plain racist which is why we must brink these frameworks and concepts to the forefront of education. This movie is reflective of the times that we are facing at the present moment. I believe the only way to change these outcomes is to use these frameworks as building blocks and create a better society. References Combs, B. (2015). Black (and Brown) Bodies Out of Place: Towards a Theoretical Understanding of Systematic Voter Suppression in the United States. Critical Sociology, 42(4-5), 535-549. doi: 10.1177/0896920514563089 Corneau, S., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2012). More than being against it: Anti-racism and anti-oppression in mental health services. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(2), 261-282. doi: 10.1177/1363461512441594 Hoefer, R. (2016). Advocacy Practice for Social Justice (3rd ed.). New York City: Oxford University Press. Nozick, R. Distributive justice. [S.l.]: [s.n.]. Read More