The readings from the text include An Overview, chapters 1 & 3. We will focus on cultural and social perspectives/theories that explain violence within the context of the struggles for justice in the...

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Title: Cultural and Social Theories on Violence and Struggles for Justice in the United States
Contents
Introduction    3
Historical Background of Criminal Injustice in USA    3
Racial Violence and Jim Crow    4
Cultural and Social Perspectives of Violence    5
Violence and Social Justice    6
Struggles for Social Justice in the United States    7
Voting Rights in USA    8
Conclusion    9
Works Cited    10
Introduction
The history of American democracy has been one of the important contexts that reflect the increasing participation and inclusiveness. Presently we witness America that has transformed its governing structure and the administration with a heterogeneous population. This has been the greatest achievement of the century which recognized a series of successful campaigns that struck down the segregationist practices, discrimination, and racial injustice turning into violence in American society. Although these changes were officially registered in nations courts and legislature yet the struggle to secure those legal compliances was forth in the field where intolerance reigned. African Americans who had been born in the earlier century witnessed the struggle for civil rights that reached a crescendo in the 1950s and 60s.
The paper examines the prominent role of violence from the perspective of social and cultural aspects which for their help in the struggles to achieve social justice in the USA.
Historical Background of Criminal Injustice in the USA
The events from the collective archives relates to the memory of the struggles of African Americans in the context of capturing violence that prevailed during those times by capturing millions of black people from the continent of Africa. History has perceived an immense impact of violence that was inflicted upon the Africans who were separated from their culture and society. Once they arrived in America they were treated like cattle, sold in an auction block and were subjected to beatings, rape, lynching, and decimation of their families. However, the limit for endurance was perturbed which compelled them to fight to gain their freedom (Phipps & Thorne). 240 years of the institution of slavery ended in 1865. Eventually in 1865 after the abolition of slavery, a comprehensive social system with loss was developed known as Black Codes.
Black Codes restricted African Americans from voting. They were denied the right to attend public schools, public healthcare facilities and even prohibited to utilize public facilities such as hotels, parks, and public transportation. Not only that it encouraged the Whites to take the law into their hands and physically attack non-conforming free blacks to pressure them to work in poor working conditions that provided very minimal payments and at times no payment at all. Black Codes can be identified as the precursor of Jim Crow laws that lasted for decades until 1960. The Jim Crow laws were better known as the era of Neo slavery legalized discrimination and social injustice in the USA. It denied voting rights to the African Americans. However, they were allowed to attend separated schools, orphanages, and hospitals but inequality persisted legally. All the aspects of public life were legally separated too. The total institution of Jim Crow laws included the provision for beating and lynching the African Americans who were treated as vagrants by the Whites.
It is evident from the historical background that the total institution of Jim Crow controlled the lives of African Americans. However, political pressures and protests in the black civil rights movement resulted in the abolition of this official and legal discrimination. But the seeds of slavery and fertile Jim Crow flourish even today.
Racial Violence and Jim Crow
As discussed in the above segments about the historical background of the racial injustice that persisted in the USA reflects the aspect of violence from the point of view of culture and social perspectives. For instance, at the beginning of the 20th-century anti-black propaganda was depicted in journals, newspapers, and novels which focused on the stereotype of the black brute. The cultural stigma and the fear of black men raping white women were held as a public rationalization for lynching the black men. Most of the victims were shot or hanged but were sometimes castrated or beaten.
Literary works like Brute Caricature portrayed black men as threatening antisocial and sociopaths who terrified and targeted helpless...