LIB 110 project: What are Human Rights?

Well for me human rights is a really important thing in our life but even though its really important, most of us are not aware of our rights. I had the chance to form part of this cluster as I learned a bunch of stuff that I never realized before, and which will help me in the future, especially when I start working. Human rights are the rights we have simply by being born on earth. Everyone has equal rights, but unfortunately, not all people that can use those rights, for different reasons. Its the things we have the right to do which are protected by the law. Our rights stop where someone elses rights begin, which means that even though we have rights, we have to respect other peoples rights. We can't do whatever we want just because we have human rights.


For my project i'll talk about my experience at work, where human rights are really exploited. I work at a place called Tribeca Rooftop in lower Manhattan. I've been there for like 9 months and i've always had hard times there. Why? The reason is simple: The managers there don't respect the workers rights. I know that the New York State law says that all workers are entitled to a 30 minute break per shift. But there, if ever you take even a 10 minute break, you'll get in trouble for it. The thing is that there are lots of illegal workers there, so they exploit them a lot. Either your illegal or not, your a human being, and you have rights. Now the problem is that as the managers are so used to ill-treat illegal workers, now I get treated the same way, even though i'm a US citizen. So sometimes I work during twelve to fourteen hour shifts without getting a rest. But to be honest I dont really care about it. Im only there for the money, im not living only on the money i get there. But I feel bad for the immigrants though, it's really unfair for them. They're trying to earn money to feed their families, an they are treated in such a way. They work for almost 60 hours every week, only $9 per hour, without medicare, insurance and all that. Really messed up in my opinion. But I guess the guys have no option than to work and to abide by their nasty rules as they need the money and they're trying their best to help their family. Thats why they'll never try to sue them or some kind of stuff like that. As long as they get the money they will work for them.

But this kind of practice should stop. Its happening there, and i'm sure its happening in lots and lots of places throughout the country and even the whole world. There are laws against it, but still it's being practiced.

If I want to relate this life experience to the language of human rights, I would say that language is a really important thing for these people in their quest for their rights, but as they are deprived from their freedom of expression, which is freedom to speak and voice out their concerns, they will always have to live and work in this dreadful conditions. I will say that the language of human rights here is the tool that will help these people to come out of the dark. If these people are able to learn their human rights, and also learn the english language and gain a proper education, they will finally be able to fight for what they were looking for: a better and more just and fair life. In the past, we have seen people fighting for different reasons, and finally won what they were looking for thanks to language: Martin Luther King Jr. was known to lead successful campaigns as he was a great and convincing speaker, as well as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who were said to have won their respective elections thanks to their great speeches.

Effectiveness of MLK's speeches

In this blog, I will be talking about Martin Luther King and the importance of his speeches. Regarding his speech "How long? Not Long!" , there are many factors and ideas that MLK used to take out the fear from the people of his crowd. First of all we can see that he was 100% confident. He knew what he was saying , and he knew that he was doing the right thing. His convincing tone (He was literally screaming) shows that he was confident that he had the right ideas, and the screaming is i guess what touched the feelings of his people and pushed them to be happy and respond with jeers of joy also. It kind of stored some confidence and energy in to the crowd. There was also the repetition of the words " How long? Not long !" that created a sense of comedy in the crowd, and made them laugh. In my opinion, that was to soot down the minds and souls of the people, as i'm pretty sure that they were feeling really tense about the Birmingham March, which was a march done to express the discontent of the black people about the ways they were treated unjustly. We could see the person next to MLK, which I think was one of his colleagues, was laughing, which means that he wasn't worried at all.And in the end we can hear Martin say "Glory Alleluiah" with his right hand bowing the crowd, which shows that god is with them, he is blessing them. God and religion were really important to MLK and his crowd. This gesture kind of told the crowd that ho is with them so they have nothing to fear about.

In the other speech I watched, which was his last speech he'll ever give, which took place in 1968, we can see that the tone of his voice is stronger which is in my opinion a tone of anger. His anger provoked an exciting reaction in the crowd, which showed that they were willing to march with him and to do their best to earn respect and equality in the world. MLK also felt that his death was near, as he says that he 'will not reach the promise land together with you " ( referring to the crowd) . This shows how much he dedicated himself to his march, and to his fight for equality, and for the rights of those black people: almost his  whole adult life.  

Classwork: Non Violence

In the book A Testament Of Hope, The Essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. edited by James. M. Washington., we learn deeply about what Martin Luther King did during his struggle or battle for justice during his life.

In Class today, I learnt from some of my classmates that King helped in many ways for the progress of the black people in the soceity. Thanks to him black people were able to evaluate themselves in a better way compared to before. They didnt feel as inferior as they felt before. They were also moving from rural areas to urban areas and were doing jobs that were enabling them to earn a better amount of money. King also said that self respect and dignity were really important for the progress of black people in the society, and he was able to instore that in them. I also learnt that King was able to "defeat" his opponent without the use of violence. We can see him say " In your struggkle for justice, let your opressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. ( J.Washington pg 10):/ He is trying to say that if you are trying to fight against your opponent, make him know that you are only trying to make peace, and not to defeat him.