Free Essay About Controversial Social Movements

The Kent State University shootings on May 4, 1970 when students protesting the Vietnam War were shot by the National Guard, was a pivotal moment for the protesting of the anti-Vietnam war movement. The insurgence of student protests reached a level that had never been seen before. The shootings only aggravated the American students to begin wide spread protesting of the war. The research shows that 4.3 million students outraged by the National Guards response to the student protests, began one of the largest student protest movements seen, with 900 colleges forced to shut down (Mazelis & Martin, 2010). Based on what I read, I think that the Kent State shootings by the National Guard against students, created more of a national problem in opposition of the Vietnam War. The lack of the government’s responsibility in their reactions to the deaths of students further reinforced the anger that the students expressed through the protests.
A more recent controversial social movement took place after a white officer shot and killed eighteen year old Michael Brown, a black youth from Ferguson, Missouri. The social movement that the incident created was the widespread attention of racial profiling and police brutality of the African American population, as well as other minorities. The people in Ferguson and many other cities throughout the United States were upset by the lack of acknowledgment of the injustice that many young black men were facing at the hands of the law enforcement. The protesting was done peacefully and erupted to a disastrous scene when the police showed up with military grade equipment to force citizens to settle down.
The two incidents were different in nature, but both created an revolt against what they saw as socially unacceptable. The citizens have a right to express their perspective and stand up to what they believe as wrong, and unfortunately the government or other individuals in power keep responding by brute force. The message that seems to be made by the authoritative side of the social spectrum is one of suppressing the masses.

Works Cited

Alcindor, Y. (2014, December 2). Ferguson struggles to grasp why protests turned \
violent. USA Today. (Print). Retrieved from
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/01/ferguson-struggles-to-understand-move-to-violence/70120308/>
Mazelis, F., & Martin, P. (2010, May). Forty years since the Kent State massacre. 
World Socialist Website, (Website). Retrieved from <http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/05/kent-m04.html>