Stevenson describes social justice/injustice within the black community. He begins by talking about prisons and uses statistics about the amount of black men in prison (I think it was 3 of every 4). He then goes on to talk about the death penalty, and how statistics show that it is more prevalent in the black community than the white community. The main focus of the speech seems to be about black men in the prison system, but he also tells a few stories throughout. He tells a tale about how he never consumed any alcohol his entire life, and connects that to his current success. Also, he mentions how he encounters Rosa Parks at one of her activist speeches, and how he tells her about his plans to not only shed light on injustice, but how he was going to try and stop it.
Throughout the speech, Stevenson really does a lot to motivate his crowd. Through interesting stories and stunning statistics, he gets his point across to the crowd effectively. He also states that he is very grateful for the Ted Talks entity, because it symbolizes a group willing to open their minds to various topics, including his. He relates this to the crowd by telling them that the government tries to hide our past in the eye of the public instead of acknowledging it. He relates this how the Germans don’t utilize the death penalty. Their reasoning is that because of their past, it would be inappropriate to sentence death orders to people. This topic alone brings up another injustice. How can Germany acknowledge and understand that they started the world’s most catastrophic modern genocide, but America tries to hide its injustice towards the black community? Slavery, unfair trial, lynching, persecution and other crimes against African Americans are almost forgotten by the government instead of being brought up and discussed.
lmm466 