Divided States Of America Summary

I recently watched a PBS documentary called Divided States of America. This documentary was very compelling and was one I learned a lot from. It taught me a lot about political activities I was unaware of. This documentary provided a lot of background to the election of Barack Obama and his terms of presidency. After watching the video, I have a great understanding as to why it is titled Divided States of America. Barack Obama’s presidency severely divided the United States of America both politically and racially.
One event that stuck out to me the most was the shooting of Trayvon Martin. I think in all of Barack Obama's time in office this was one of the most dividing events to take place. Trayvon Martin was an African American teenage boy shot by a white man by the name of George Zimmerman. That fact alone brought an extreme amount of racial division among the people. You hear about shootings all the time but this one was different. There was already racial tensions prior to the …show more content…
Michael Brown was walking home one day with a friend when a white cop stopped them on the street. The cop was very aggressive towards Michael and supposedly got physical with him. The two boys took off running when the cop shot Michael not only once but eight times. Onlookers say that Michael was unarmed and innocent but the cop says he was acting suspiciously. This brought a ton of racial tension to the town of Ferguson. There was a history of distrust in this town with such a predominately black community and largely white police force, but this event brought an upheave of anger. Following this event riots broke out in Ferguson. People were attacking police, burning buildings, looting, and chanting “No Justice, No Peace” This event was again a racial divisions between the white population and the black