Social change is a critical aspect of the contemporary world. Many people with varying special needs feel left out when their desires and concerns are disregarded in the legal and social processes. The most effective approach to inducing social change is through social advocacy. Many people who engage the government and relevant agencies in handling the contentious issues affecting their groups play an indispensable role in changing people’s perceptions about needy populations. One such population is the minority races, primarily the African Americans in the US. Over the years, African Americans have suffered unfair treatment in various realms, mainly in the justice system. Efforts by social change activists focus on dismantling the barriers that exacerbate minorities’ experiences. Activists, primarily victims of unfair social trends, create awareness and encourage their peers to fight for fair treatment from the community, institutions, and other societal stakeholders. One such activist is Jamal Trulove, a California State resident and actor. The current analysis focuses on the activist’s approach, the people and contexts that affected his activism, his strategies and their effectiveness, his place and role in the more significant activism movements, and how his posts relate to or contradict my positions about social change. The essay argues that Jamal Trulove is a fearless activist with an immense impact on policymakers.
Jamal Trulove is an American actor and activist whose life revolves around educating society about their rights and fair treatment regardless of their racial background. Jamal is a victim of a wrongful conviction in 2007, whereby the policy framed him for killing his friend, Seu Kuka, which made him start a jail term in 2010, sentenced to 50 years in jail (Matthews, 2022). A court of appeal in California overturned this ruling in 2015, and he was released after six years in jail. Trulove sued the state of San Francisco for framing and won the case. The court granted him $13.1 million in damages (Bazelon, 2022). The case exemplifies the implications of framing people based on Race. As Collins (2016) explains, everyone today is enmeshed in a complex web of problematic relationships that form our stereotyping and objectifying people different from us. Similarly, Trulove’s false conviction shows the stereotypical approach in the law enforcement processes based on Race. Trulove uses his acting and activism to enlighten people about framing and engages the authorities in opposing policies that support racial profiling and unfair treatment.
People and experiences affect activists’ strategies and focus. In Trulove’s case, the most poignant context that determined his activism is his wrongful conviction. For over six years, the activist was in jail for a crime he had not committed, and the police denied him a fair trial by concealing some critical details of their investigations that could have changed the outcomes (Bazelon, 2022). Being in jail is hard for convicts and even worse for innocent victims of unfair trial processes. It is tormenting enough to be behind bars for something one has not committed, and it could trigger a wave of anger and dissatisfaction with the justice system. On June 1st, 2020, Jamal led a group of protestors at City Hall in California, protesting the unfair treatment of African Americans. This protest is a reflection of his experiences in jail that added to his anger with the justice system in the US. According to Beckett and Goldberg (2022), incarceration causes significant harm and multiplies precarity, mainly regarding racial and ethnic inequalities. Therefore, by having been in jail for over six years, Trulove’s precarity increased, leading to his consistent desire to fight for better treatment from the police.
The other factor that enhanced Trulove’s commitment to activism was his encounter with people who did not help him get fair treatment. First, the police framed Trulove by hiding a police report from the judge, coercing an eyewitness to give fake testimonies in court, writing their report in pencil to make it possible to adjust it, and suppressing an eyewitness who overheard the primary eyewitness saying Trulove had not committed the crime (Morales, 2019). Trulove knew the truth about the occurrences at the time of the crime. Therefore, the tricks used by the police to frame him triggered anger and distrust, which contributed to his activism. Also, the prosecutor in the case was a deputy to Kamal Harris, the current vice president of the US, and evidence shows that the prosecutors and police framed Trulove and paid the primary witness $60,000 as relocation fees for accepting to frame Trulove (Wyche, 2021). This encounter with the police and prosecutors made Trulove skeptical about the people in the justice system, contributing to his activism to call out similar people in the justice system.
Trulove uses tools and strategies with the highest implications on the target population. Social media is the primary tool Trulove uses to engage people. For instance, an analysis of the posts on his Twitter account from June 2020 to date shows a spirited effort to engage his followers in changing their perceptions about the oppressors and establish a better approach to dealing with their fears. For instance, his post on June 2, 2020, on his Twitter account shows his desire to engage African American supporters in opposing police brutality and racial discrimination (refer to Appendix 1). The post followed his activism at city hall, where he led activists to remind the police of the need to protect African Americans’ lives. Trulove also uses Instagram to increase the number of people he reaches with his posts. As shown in the posts attached in Appendix 1, Trulove adds a link to his Instagram account to direct people to the platform. Social media advocacy is an effective strategy in advocacy. According to Wyche (2021), social media contributed to the success of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. More so, online activism gives activists real-time experiences in the contemporary world. Freelon et al. (2020) assert that digital platforms are critical in engaging people in what is happening in the contemporary world. Through live streaming and frequent posts, activists like Trulove use social media as a tool for activism.
The other approach is acting and music to educate communities about the fate of minority groups. In his latest movie, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Trulove exposes the erasure of African Americans in urban spaces. A woman in the film says their neighborhood has been “cleaned up,” and there has been a reduction in crime rates since the cleanup process. She refers to the reduction of black people in the area, which implies the stereotype that African Americans perpetrated crime (Wanzo, 2021). Such acting shows Trulove’s use of films to educate people about the changes in modern cities and the stereotypes used to profile minority races. This approach is practical because Trulove can engage his audience through entertainment. Trulove achieves his activism goals through music and community activities and movements. For instance, participating in the Bay Area protests to call out the police for their brutality is an effective strategy to engage the authorities.
Jamal Trulove occupies a pivotal role in activism in the US because of his roles and connections to other activists and movements. First, Trulove uses his platform to engage people with similar ideas. For instance, he reposted the calls for justice for Breonna Taylor and a seminar about accountability in the legal system on his social media platforms (refer to Appendix 2). This effort shows that Trulove plays a pivotal role in creating awareness about the occurrences in the US and the activism issues. His participation in activism also contributes to its success around San Francisco. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trulove worked with UCSF’s Science Policy Group, a non-profit organization that provided people with masks and sanitizers (Harshaw, 2020). As a famous person, working with such movements makes it easy for people to trust their services and participate in activism and community development activities.
Trulove participates in activist activities with other groups in his area. For instance, Trulove joined and encouraged fellow protestors and activists to paint the BLM signs on the deck of the Bay Bridge in 2020 to protest police brutality in the Bay Area. Together with 26 others, Trulove held a press conference outside the San Francisco Hall of Justice to express their displeasure with the police and demand fair treatment for African Americans (Bauman, 2020). Such efforts keep the community alive to the atrocities committed against the minority groups. As Teasley et al. (2021) assert, many people have died at the hands of the police, and only a few are indicted. Thus, Trulove’s commitment to activist activities in San Francisco with other activists and movements enhances the fight for equality and justice.
Trulove’s content resonates with my perceptions about justice and equality. First, Trulove focuses on evidence-based issues. In his activism activities, Trulove avoids delving into hearsay and focuses on things evident in the contemporary world. For instance, he engages in matters that attract public attention, including police brutality. Secondly, Trulove’s content is professional and observes moral principles. For instance, when engaging his audience on his social media platforms, Trulove avoids abusive words and maintains a professional tone (refer to Appendix 2). The engagement approach portrays Trulove’s appreciation for ethics and professionalism in activism. The medium used, social media, also resonates with my preferred approach. The rationale is that social media is an indispensable force in today’s activism because of the high usage rate in the US and globally. Therefore, engaging people via social media is a practical approach with the potential to reach millions of people at once. Also, Trulove engages in matters of social change and justice for the minority, which affects many people in the US. The content resonates with my focus on achieving social change and preventing vulnerable persons from minority groups from exploitation, harassment, and discrimination by the people in authority and majority groups. Lastly, Trulove’s content upholds accountability. Many injustices occur because culprits are not held accountable. For instance, police officers quickly get away with killings. For instance, George Zimmerman, who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Zimmerman in 2012, was acquitted in 2014, while Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Eric Garner to death on a sidewalk in New York, was never indicted (Teasley et al., 2021). When such police officers are not charged, justice can never prevail. Therefore, Trulove’s approach to holding culprits accountable resonates with my view about social change.
Conclusively, Trulove is among the most effective social activists in the US, and his fearlessness impacts many stakeholders around him. Through social media posts, acting, music, and activism activities, Trulove gives his followers adequate information regarding the things that matter most to them and their loved ones. An example of such issues is the erasure of African Americans in urban areas, implied in his movie. As a former victim of police framing and having grown up in neighborhoods where police brutality was a great challenge, Trulove is a reflection of the sufferings that minority groups endure in the US. More so, through his participation in community-based activism and events meant to uphold fairness and justice and his language and approach in social media posts, Trulove shows a commitment to a better country where everyone has a sense of belonging. Thus, he is a symbol of social change.
References
Bauman, A. (2020, June 16). San Francisco actors demand change after painting BLM on Bay Bridge. San Francisco Chronicles. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-actors-demand-change-after-painting-15342534.php
Bazelon, L. (2022). Racial Justice Clinic: University of San Francisco School of Law. Cal. Legal Hist., pp. 17, 27.
Beckett, K., & Goldberg, A. (2022). The effects of imprisonment in a time of mass incarceration. Crime and Justice, 51(1), 349–398.
Collins, P. H. (2016). Toward a new vision: Race, class, and gender as categories of analysis and connection. In Race, gender and class (pp. 65–75). Routledge.
Freelon, D., Marwick, A., & Kreiss, D. (2020). False equivalencies: Online activism from left to right. Science, 369(6508), 1197–1201.
Harshaw, P. (2020, May 29). Community Service and Star Power with Jamal Trulove. KQED. https://www.kqed.org/arts/13881132/it-takes-the-hood-to-save-the-hood-lessons-from-jamal-trulove
Matthews, R. (2022). The Perverse Carrot: How Extreme Economic Precarity Is Exploited through Witness Perks. USFL Rev., pp. 57, 111.
Morales, V. (2019, August 26). Trusting A Prosecutor: The Kamala Harris Gamble. Celie and Pearls. https://celieandpearls.medium.com/trusting-a-prosecutor-the-kamala-harris-gamble-c2c868c1dabf
Teasley, M. L., McCarter, S., Woo, B., Conner, L. R., Spencer, M. S., & Green, T. (2021). Eliminate racism—Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 26.
Wanzo, R. (2021). Black Obliteration Around the Corner: The Gentrification Film. Film Quarterly, 75(1), 79–83.
Wyche, C. J. (2021). Clash of civilizations (Doctoral dissertation, Wichita State University).
Appendices
Appendix 1: Jamal Trulove’s Twitter posts, June 2020
Appendix 2: Trulove’s engagement with other activists
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