Examples Of Sociological Imagination

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Sociological Imagination POLICE BRUTALITY by Mamy Hydara September 22, 2014 "Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to chose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices. to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose"(C. Wright Mills).The term sociological imagination was made by C. Wright an American sociologist in 1959. Mills defined Sociological Imagination as "..the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.” Mills, C. W.: 1959, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press, London. Mills is saying that sociological imagination is the ability to see situations…show more content…
It seems to me that every news headline in the media today is about police shooting innocent citizens and a large number of them are African American males. I also understand that not every African American citizens that police shot were innocent but the numbers of those who were shot and later cleared as innocent is unbelievable compared to innocent and guilty white Americans that where involved in police brutality. The reason why this topic is so important to me is because it does not only affect me, it affects my whole community especial the families of the victims. The Ferguson case is one of the many police brutality cases that are just shocking to me. According to blog( Mother Jones) writer Jaeah Lee explains in her article titled "Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?" Mike Brown is one of four unarmed black men who died at the hands of police in the last month. Federal databases that track police use of force or arrest-related deaths paint only a partial picture. According to blog(Mother Jones) writer lee explains that Police department data is scattered and fragmented. No agency appears to track the number of police shootings or killings of unarmed victims in a systematic and comprehensive way. According to blog (Mother Jones) writer Lee shares statistic from the NAACP ( National Association Of The Advancement Of Colored People)that shows the NAACP reported that out of 45…show more content…
the media usually did a great job of blaming the individual instead of recognizing the situation as a public issue. head lines would read "gang member shot by police during an attempt to arrest. "in the past police brutality was framed as lawmen doing their jobs and that is to serve and protect cases of black people dying in the hands of police were looked over like it was nothing and a common explanations were resisting arrest or getting violent with police and if a citizen died there were no major solutions to the problem. over time police power rose and so did the brutality to a specific community. Police brutality is reframed from being viewed as a public issue because a specific community is being target and that's the black race and since the population of the black race is very small compared to the white race it's not going to be seen as a public issue unless that certain community stands together and address the problem and ask for change in a political way. in the Ferguson case the incident was framed as a personal issue by saying that mike brown was shot because he was armed even though he wasn't warned or even listened to when he kept saying "Don't shoot" and for weeks the media covered the story as police shot him because he was armed. instead of recognizing the person as

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