Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine was a foreign policy that James Monroe dictated in 1823. It basically stated that Europe should stay out of the Americas and that the Americas should stay out of Europe. At the time, this meant that Europe was not to colonize or retake any parts of Southern and Central America. Today, our current government has to make many choices about foreign policies and relations with other countries, and the Monroe Doctrine is still a key factor in some decisions.
I have chosen an article that covers a foreign policy that the government has recently taken action with, or rather hasn't. This article talks about the Ferguson and Staten Island cases, which have recently dominated the news not only in America but in England, China, Russia, and many other countries. The recent events in these two places have been quite disturbing, not only because of the cruelty of US police officers, but because of the riots as well. As an american myself, I am not only disappointed in the cases but also in the way the public reacted to them. However, the foreign policy comes to play when countries like Russia and China get hold of these stories. They would see America as being weak and unable to deal with issues right there in their own country, like racism and riots. The word of weakness in America could spread to more malicious groups, and if an opportunity to do us harm while we are weak arose no one knows what might happen. But aside from extremist groups, the countries reading about these cases could take away something wrong about how America is truly run.One of the worst things that these countries could see in America and in these cases specifically is police brutality. Communist countries like China would see the great and pure nation of America having its government workers beating and strangling citizens without punishment, so why can't they? Overall, it's a very slippery slope and the article wants to educate people as to not step off the edge.
If the U.S. were following the Monroe Doctrine to deal with these foreign policy issues, that is to stay in your own region, not dominate other countries, and not to intervene, there would be a lot to say. First of all, other countries should not care what was going on in America, because that is in our region and does not affect them in any way. Continuing down this path, there should be no action or intervention by other countries, as again this is an internal affair. Lastly, and most specifically, no country or group should take advantage of us, should we be considered as being in a weak state. I personally think that these three courses of action are quite good, as it not only gives us time to deal with the issues ourselves, but protects the nation while at it.
http://www.newsweek.com/ferguson-and-garner-cases-hurt-us-foreign-policy-289613
Stein, Jeff. "Ferguson and Garner Cases Hurt U.S. Foreign Policy."www.newsweek.com. Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2014. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.

Race and Identity in Latin American Revolutions and Today

In class, I studied the Brazilian Revolution. This was the only peaceful Latin American revolution in the 1800's, and it is overall a very interesting story. Brazil was originally a colony of Portugal, and was ruled by the European country for many years. People generally liked the king of Portugal, but he started to become more and more disliked as a revolution broke out in Portugal while the king was away. He had stayed in Brazil far too long, and his mother country did not like the attention the colony was getting. People in Brazil began to realize that they didn't like the king and his poor rule of Portugal. They wanted a new form of government. The king, however, sensing this unrest and not wanting Brazil to fall out of his grasp, appointed his son the ruler of the colony and left for Portugal. Right before he left, he told his son, Pedro, that if he felt any sparks of a revolution, to break free from Portugal and announce himself king. And this is exactly what happened. People got riled up and started to revolt, but Pedro remembered his father's advice and seized the crown, not only stopping the revolution but keeping good relations with Portugal. Very minimal fighting occurred, and Pedro's plan worked perfectly. The revolution was peaceful and did not cause any large changes in the government or to social structure, which led to some problems. Colonial Brazil was, like most other Latin American countries, strictly divided by race, so much so that pictures were made and published describing tens of different races possible. These systems of dividing and categorizing were made by Europeans, mostly to ensure their spot at the top of it all. When other Latin American countries revolted, they did so violently to shake loose the European's tight control. This resulted in the loss of the rigid social structure, and made racism less prominent in the countries. However, with Brazilian's peaceful and small revolution, this change was not made. This resulted in many more years of racism and harsh social structures. Racism in Brazil still exists today, with many people believing that it affects them daily. The white and formerly European citizens have it much better off than other minorities.
Racism does not only affect Brazil today, but the rest of the world. We see even in America today, a country that has taken great steps to make all humans equal, no matter the gender or race, there is racism still present. A current example of this is the tragedy and outrage in Ferguson, where a black victim was shot and killed by a white police officer. Many people claim that this was a result of prejudice that the police officer had towards black people, but many dispute this. The grand jury eventually ruled the latter to be true, enraging some of the locals. This article, Ferguson and the Mythology of Racism written by James Brown, explains the context of racism in the America we know today. Many people still have not gotten it out of their minds that people should not be judged by race or ethnicity or gender, and we can see from this case that the opposite is true as well. This dispute affects not only towns in Missouri but the nation as a whole. Many people think that racism is fine, and many people do not. This issue comes up when dealing with a case such as this one. A white man killing an unarmed black man certainly raises eyebrows. People throw out accusations, saying that racism was the root cause, but others cry self defense. The real reason can never truly be certain, but the thought of racism in our country disgusts most. This case surely will not be forgotten, for it has changed the nation as a whole, bringing lingering racism to light.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-brown/ferguson-and-the-mytholog_b_6228756.html
Brown, James. "Ferguson and the Mythology of Racism." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Nov. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.