Civil Rights: My Rights Don’t Get Left

ENC1102
My Rights Don’t Get Left
In its general definition, civil rights are considered as the prerogatives of all the citizens within a particular country, regardless of their gender, background, ideology, and socio-economic status (Hamlin). While these rights seem to be inalienable these days, history would show that the struggle to gain such equality has been a long and dreadful one. During the earlier days, rights were considered as only for the ‘citizens,’ whereas those who are not included (or who has a lesser status) were not entitled to the same. Specifically, some sectors of the society which have been given lesser rights are those who were slaves, women, children, and the poor. It would only be through a series of resistances and revolutions against these ‘reasoning’ (that alienates other by labeling them as ‘non-citizens’) that would lead us towards the civil rights that we all enjoy these days. In line with this, I believe that the main contribution of these movements was not achieved mainly through violence, aggression, and forcing of one’s beliefs against others. Instead, the main reasons why these movements succeeded in the first place is because of the shifts in paradigms that toppled the previous misconceptions that created lines of divisions between people. As a result, these changes shifted people’s belief and made them open to the idea that we are all ‘the same.’
Before the inception of the Civil Rights Movement, divisions between ‘race’ existed as a part of the American mindset. Specifically, most citizens have the idea that the ‘Blacks’ are inherently born to be servants, whereas the Whites are meant to be served. Additionally, what further ingrained this idea to their minds was the definition of ‘citizenship’ as embodied in the United States’ Constitution. This kind of ‘justification’ labeled slaves as ‘non-citizens’ and removed them of their rights, while also giving more power and freedom to those who are not. However, it goes without saying that people during those days believe ...