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Polarization is collective behavior that forces people to take sides on issues and eliminating the middle ground

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The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle for social injustice that took place mainly in the 1950's and 1960's for African Americans to gain rights in the United States.

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Picture of emblem for the white citizens council 

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They were an organization formed of white segregationists and supremacists who opposed integration and the supreme courts decision to abolish legal school segregation in 1954.

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Picture of members of the KKK who were known to wear all white with triangular white hoods.

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Following the Civil Rights movement was the KKK better known as the Ku Klux Klan who emerged to suppress and victimize newly freed slaves.

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Martin Luther Ling was a scholar and minister who led the civil rights movement. He made a seismic impact on race relations in the United States.
Martin Luther King quoted " civil rights protestors had little choice but to take up direct action!”

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the white cictizens counsel or the KKK but the white moderate… who constantley advised the negro to wait until a more convenient season”

“Shallow understanding from the people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”

The relation to polarization is that racism was a huge issue that people simply were not educated on the affect it had on African Americans and people who did not have "ill will" but wanted to act as if racism was something that could simply be put off was more infuriating than the people who were openly racist and causing disruption. The reason it was so infuriating was because the people who did not take sides could stand up to the racism and create more awareness of the harm it was doing. If enough people took action it and would act up it could lead the African Americans to freedom.

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The affect of polarization on Civil Rights

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The affect of polarization on Civil Rights

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Spivak had asked if the sit ins were doing the negro's any justice and MLK responds;

“No, I don’t think so, now I do not think that this movement is setting us back or making enemies”

“It’s causing numerous people all over the nation and in the south in particular to reevaluate the stereotype that they have developed concerning negro's, so that it has an educational value and I don't think in the long run it will transform the whole of American society”

Polarization was turning passive supporters into increasingly active ones and the campaign also affected people in the middle of the political spectrum who had not previously taken a stand (Engler, Engler, 220).

The advantage of polarization in this case was creating awareness and touching on human morality that would eventually lead to victory for African American rights.

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Another example of polarization was the AIDS movement that included ACT UP

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Another example of polarization was the AIDS movement that included ACT UP

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AIDS occurs in the late stage of an HIV infection due to the human immune system being badly damaged by the virus.
AIDS first occurred in 1981 and was mainly affecting the LGBT communities. During this time it was sinful to be gay and people thought of AIDS affecting the gays as Gods work and it was a punishment for being gay.
The virus was deadly and it did not matter if you were gay. Anyone could catch the virus if they came into direct contact with an affected person and did not use sexual protection such as condoms.

Due to the virus affecting mainly the gay community and gay being thought of as sinful the government did not act on treatment for AIDs right away and lacked on funding in support of it. The FDA refused to streamline its approval procedures and people were dying.

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Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). ACT UP. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 13, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/ACT-UP.

Engler, M. Engler, P. (2020). This is an uprising: How nonviolent revolt is shaping the twenty-first century. Nation Books.

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ACT UP protest to reduce life saving drug prices

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Members of ACT UP would denounced opponents as murders and Nazis and openly confronted religious leaders, politicians and doctors who were worsening the crisis. They exposed injustice of official neglect and disregard to win broad support for their cause.

A con to this is that they created a galvanizing crisis around an issue that creates inconveniencing members of the general public, potentially alienating the very people they want to win over. However, The thought was that when a vocal minority speaks out, it can inspire its most ardent enemies to begin organizing in response. Polarization comes into play by taking an issue from a common view and putting it in the center of public debate. Disruptive protest force observers  get to decide which side they get to be on (Engler, Engler, 209).

The pros of ACT UP prompted major federal change for testing of government procedures and distribution of drugs allowing AIDS patients to receive life saving medication far more quickly. It helped revolutionize the American practice of medicine by changed the way drugs were approved for other diseases such as breast cancer and alzheimer's.

In order for polarization to work the positive must outweigh the negative and convince the undecided to side with communities in resistance rather than forces of oppression.

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ACT UP was founded in 1987 to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic. The sole purpose of this organization was to find a cure for AIDS and at the same time create awareness of the disease by means of education and radical and nonviolent protests.

The mission of ACT UP was to carry out daily acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest, using vocal and visual demonstrations, in order to focus attention on critical issues regarding the AIDS crisis (Britannica.com).
On March 24th, 1987 250 protestors gathered at wall street demanding the government to address aids and the annual price of AZT (a drug used in treatment for aids) of 10,000 a year.Protestors would lay down on the streets to block traffic, some with tombstone cardboards and 17 were arrested (Engler, Engler, 208).

Protestors from ACT UP were willing to make enemies and polarize the issue of how the disease was addressed.