Essay Example on Racial War in US: The Three Documentaries Showing KKK and Black Liberation Movements

The three documentaries perfectly combine to bring out the racial war that has been looming or going on in the United States since the abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment. White supremacists such as the Kunklax Klan (KKK) have been preaching white supremacy ideologies and spreading messages that entrench hatred of the black race. On the other hand, there are black liberation movements that have been defending the rights of the black folk, while at the same time teaching their members about the need to protect their racial and ethnic identity from the interference by the white race.

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MOVE was a movement that sought the United States' system from imposing the way of life that major ethnic groups and races deemed appropriate. Although the group’s membership was open to people of all ethnic backgrounds, it was predominantly comprised of people of colour. Founded by Donald Glassey, a graduate student of Penn who had strong beliefs about the social rights of black people, the movement advocated for a way of life that was completely different from that of the white. Members of the fraternity lived a life that was based on the belief that human activities destroyed everyone's lives through the negative effects that they had on water systems, air, soil and food. A stand of between the MOVE and the police happened in 1978 and the following years due to the allegations of possession of explosives, other weapons and also a plot to bomb various places across the state. In my opinion, the fact that the police department was predominantly comprised of white officers played a major role in escalating the tension between MOVE, its neighbours and law enforcement agencies that sought to make the group relocate their neighbourhood.

Officers in the city who had authorised the armed assault and the bombing of the MOVE compound acted in total disregard of the number of innocent civilians who would be affected by the ensuing events. The bombing resulted in the deaths of numerous adult civilians and children. I think that the officers presumed that the innocent civilians were guilty due to their affiliation to a social movement that advocated for the rights of poor black Americans. Because MOVE members were deemed inferior due to their race, the officers, who were predominantly white went ahead with the bombing.

The Ku Klux Klan is a movement that advocates for white supremacy and believes that blacks are an inferior race that is not entitled to any rights. The group believes that the white race, their way of life and their values are under attack and that fellow white Americans should wake up to that fact and fight through any means necessary. The groups large and rapidly growing membership is an indication that a racial and ethnic war is being waged in the United States through both conventional and conventional means.

The 13th Amendment brings out the reality of how slavery and slave labour have remained persistent in the United States even after the abolishment of slavery after the amendment of the United States Constitution. Anti-black movements and political stakeholders have used the carceral system as a way of politically silencing black activists and economically sterilizing the black race in the United States. The history of mass incarceration which spans over 150 years has been used as a means of proving free or cheap labour to corporations to revitalize the regions of the United States which were dealt a big blow economically after the abolition of slavery. Many people, especially young and middle-aged black males, were incarcerated for minor demeanours. Based on the documentary, I am inclined to believe that the issue of racism and white supremacism is a political, social, and economic matter that is also profit-based. There are many corporations and private prisons that make millions of dollars off of the carceral system that mainly targets people of minority races. Also, I believe that the United States system has continued creating an image that paints black people as belonging to an inferior savage race, that is not entitled to any civil or constitutional rights as white Americans.