Portfolio llcer "how art is used to denounce injustice towards minorities in the American system"

« Art can be defined as the expression of human skills and imagination .In the 20th century, minorities have used art as a way to escape and denounce the USA and its society where the white are privileged over coloured people.In this presentation I will show how art is used to denounce injustice towards minorities in the American system and I will especially focus on the African American society. This set of documents illustrate the theme « Arts and debating Ideas ». There are 5 documents in my portfolio : - the poster of the film « 12 Angry Men » by Sydney Lumet - a screenshot from the series When they See us - An essay that provides an analysis of the movie « The Hate you give ».

Written by ? In ? - An extract from Mlk’s speech « I have a dream », delivered in 1963 during the march on Washington - And a poem entitled « I too » written by Langston Hugues published in 1926 Firstly I will show how art is a way of making the struggles of minorities seen by the public. Then I will demonstrate how art can promote social changes. This picture was taken from the series When they See Us by Ava Du Vernnay The series is adapted from a true story « the central five ».

This story was one of the most mediatised cases of the 80’s.

In 1989, 28 years old Trisha Meilli (a white American) got badly assaulted and raped and then left in a 12-day coma.

Quickly the media presented the case as an act committed by a gang and 5 young boys (aged 14 to 15) were accused and arrested.

Their arrest was racially motivated.

In this picture, we can see one of the five defendants.

His name is Yusef Salaam and he is walking to court with his mother.

They both stand proudly knowing he is innocent.

In the background, we can see people demonstrating against the accusation of being biased by the race of those boys and against the growing racism in the USA.

This picture/the series shows that art (in the form of entertainment) can be used to disclose a real message: how being a coloured people can be such a struggle in the USA where the system is against minorities and is setting them up to failure because of the prejudices they have.

The series strips away the dehumanizing tendency to bunch those boys together and instead shows what each of them dealt with individually.

Cinema is a really great way of exposing the struggles of minorities and we also find this type of denunciation in « 12 Angry Men ».

« 12 Angry Men » is a movie but unlike When they See us, it’s fiction .« 12 Angry Men » tells the story of a jury composed by 12 men that needs to deliberate the conviction or acquittal of a teenager charged with murder on the basis of reasonable doubt:this means the prosecution must prove the proposition to the point where no reasonable person could have doubts about the defendant's guilt.The “reasonable doubt” proves that critical thinking is important when someone’s life is in someone else’s hands.

At the beginning of the movie 11 out the the 12 jurors find the boy guilty but juror n°8 says he can't vote guilty because he has a reasonable doubt .As the movie is going on, we find out that some jurors voted guilty based on racial prejudices exactly like in « When They See Us ».

Juror n°8 will help the jurors to step out of their preconceived ideas and be neutral: his social and ethnic backgrounds do not automatically make the boy « guilty ».

The first thing we can see on the poster is the knife pointing at the sentence « 12 Angry Men ».

I think it means that if they don't take the right decision in this boy trial, they will change the whole course of the boy’s life but it will also impact society in general because the cycle of always portraying minorities as criminals will always go on. But cinema is not the only way form of art that denounces inequalities poetry and speeches do it too.

I chose MLK’s speech « I have a dream” a speech delivered on the 28th august 1963 This speech is a cry for equality.

The occasion for King’s speech was the march on Washington, One of the main reasons of for the march was to protest against racial discriminationThe speech by MLK is really powerful: he tried to make the people understand the suffering minorities line “14-16” He says I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character » He expressed the idea that people should not judge a book by its cover meaning that people should not be judged by their skin color but more on what they have to offer (their skills;their education,etc). A really great poet also used words to denounce the cause of.... »