In the Trevor Noah Clip, he discusses what a social contract is and if it is being upheld correctly. According to Noah, a social contract is a set of agreements and values that people agree to with one another and their government. This contract basically details the rules that society as a whole agrees on.  The purpose of this society is to uphold the terms of the contract as this makes the world function properly. However, in many cases, this is not what happens. Throughout history, people in power have continuously broken their part of the agreement and this has caused society to be dysfunctional. This is what has caused slavery, wars, trade disagreements, and the recent inequality of minorities. This inequality spreads across many minority groups however African Americans experience it the most. This happens even though we are all citizens of the U.S. whether black or white. But who is a citizen one might ask? In my opinion, a citizen is any person who lives and obeys the laws of whatever country they are in. I say this because by living in and obeying the laws of said country, you are agreeing to the social contract that exists within that country.

In the film “I am Not Your Negro” Baldwin explores the philosophies of some key historical figures. They are Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evans. He chooses these people as they are great activists who fought for the equality of their people. Though they had the same vision, they all used different means to reach their end goal. MLK believed that in trying to achieve equality in a peaceful manner. This included peaceful protests and trying to talk out the differences with the majority. X on the other hand believed that we should forcefully take back what was stolen from us. Peace was out of the question in his mind. Edgars believed in using a political approach to reach equality. He would fight against the majority using the same system created and used against us. This film wasn’t really an eye-opener to me as I was already aware of the hardships our ancestors went through. From enslavement to inequality Blacks have always been giving the shorter end of the stick. If there is one thing I got from watching this film it was that we have tried many different ways to have our voices heard and achieve equality. Though there has been progress since then, in today’s world we still do not have the equality we had hoped to achieve all those years ago.