What caused the 1935 Riots?

During the 1935 the Great Depression and the Jim Crow Laws were accruing. The brutal beating of a 12 year old boy started the 1935 Riots. It was caused by a fight for justice and also by rumors. Lino Rivera the boy that was beaten, had stolen from a store. He was confronted by an officer. The officer mentions he had a pen knife the item he stole.  The officer beats him in the cellar. The police officer let him go. An ambulance was outside the store which made things worse. The people who were watching assumed the boy was killed. Which caused the rumor that the officer killed the young boy. The news ran like wild fire that the officer had killed him. This made people angry, because a young boy did not deserve such actions by an officer who was much bigger, who was armed, and was older. The crowd became violent against this incident and that's what started the Harlem Riots.  

Free Blog: Mocking Jay Riots

This class has taught me a lot of things I didn't know. For instance the word riot and what a riot is  I have never learned it before this class. Or at least don't remember that I have. So this class is many about violence provoked by people for a reason. Usually that reason is long term. And people get tired of long term things that don't change and things that affect or relate to them. So I want to talk about The Hunger Games the recent one that came out. As I saw it, I realized how much of related it to everything I had read and learned in my ENN195 class. The different districts, are all the same, people work hard and barely have food to eat. And the higher class lives all fancy and dresses differently with fur coats and ridiculous clothes that look like Halloween costumes to me. But since the first movie it has always been the same, the fight for freedom starts with Katniss. She's the reason people start to fight back. In the books and the articles we have read in class. None really start with a person acting up against the government.  Usually caused by events that are unfair and are led by people who are tired/hungry or want equality. The recent movie I saw relates to the riot of 1935. When the people go against the government and start acting up and creating riots. Mayor Laguardia makes a speech and calls the people "criminals" and warns them that for their actions there are consequences. And in the movie the President Snow does the same he mentions he wants to scare the people from rebelling so he figures he would use the word "criminals" to describe the actions of rioting against the government. Through out the movie we see more and more people fighting the authority. We see fires burning out. President Snow tries to enforce the authority to beat down people and kill them so that others don't rebel against them. But everyone sees hope in Katniss, so as long as she's alive people won't lose hope but they will rebel against the government and the way the system is.  Theres a new district supported with people who want change and they plan to take the capital down. Sorta like in all the articles we have read and learned about.

Blog #6

For my sixth blog assignment, I have viewed two blog of other students from Violence Art Culture by ANGEL  and Jeelyan 

Angel's post titled "nothing to lose " has some similarity to my #5 blog. I found his theme interesting it has strong points of views and examples. Like this one "they simply want to destroy the thing that is oppressing them, regardless of the fact that this destruction won’t make things better." What Angel is trying to say is that, the people are no longer fighting for justice and equality they are destroy things even though it won't make things any better, just make them worse. I believe to make his argument stronger he needed to put some examples on what the people did. The destruction of what they did. Through-out the book there are other examples of how the people fight against it. The Brotherhood that Max is part of, does that continue on to be part of the justice and equality? 


Jeelyan's theme was about violence. She has great examples. In her words "She finally had control over what was going on his her life and she was going to do something about it." she talks about Estella. And the crime she commits trying to fight for her freedom. She described what she thought the meaning of the knife and the the stabbing very well. She used her own opinion. Which makes her example even more significance. I believe that her theme opened to a lot by just saying it's about violence. I think she should've added to it. For example violence due to justice. 

I believe that both these blogs had great themes and examples. They both in a way relate to each other. The consequences of hopelessness towards violence.    

Blog #5

Connect two different passages from Caesar's Column to one of the themes we discussed in class. Discuss what the passages mean individually, and then how the passages relate to one another. Conclude by stating a claim about the theme overall.

"new-born infant would have of life in the den of a wolf" (pg 24) 
"still others had their liberty sworn away by purchased perjury" (pg 76) 

The theme I chose was injustice. Max explains how the world came to be ruined and talks about the modern civilization to Gabriel who just arrived from Africa. He tells him that the poor people have nothing on the rich people. He get's into a fight with one of Prince Cabano's carriage drivers. Gabriel was helping Max out not get run over by the carriage. In doing things got complicated and Gabriel almost got arrested, but Max saved him. When Max explains to Gabriel that he is no beggar and that what he did could've sent him to many years in prison. Gabriel was confused and he couldn't believe what Max was telling him. That a rich man like Prince Cabano with money can buy off the jury and the courts. That was the " modern civilization". Max compared a "new-born infant" would have no chance in surviving in a den full of wolfs to the chance of an "ordinary citizen" having fair treatment in a court against a millionaire. The millionaire would win no matter what against the ordinary citizen. This is a form of injustice. In the second passage on page 76, Max explains how the world came to be ruined by books and magazines he had in his library. He tells Gabriel about the history of the railroad tracks. Everything fall apart by the cause of corruption and the fact that no one with higher power did anything to make thing better for the poor who were struggling. He mentions the the "Brotherhood of Destruction arose" in which people fought back but also many others " had their liberty sworn away by purchased perjury". And that's how it came down. The working class/ poor people grew tired of the injustice and wanted to do something against it. Creating outbreaks. On page 80, there's a quote " universal justice means equal opportunities for all men" which to me would conclude the theme of these both passages, about equality and justice for everyone.