Analysis of Bacteria Strains: Phonotypical Tests

Analysis of Bacteria Strains: Phonotypical Tests Kunthavai Jeevananthan Bacterial Identification Aims: To analyse and identify 10 different strains of bacteria by conducting 19 different tests phonotypical tests. Bacteria also known as eubacteria are microorganisms that are invisible to the naked eye but exist in virtually all environments in the world. Bacteria are classified as part of the Monera kingdom which includes archaebacteria and cyanobacteria. Most bacteria are pathogenic or disease causing however not all bacteria are harmful as there are a number of bacteria that can be found in the human body that have positive benefit to their hosts such as help digest food, secrete hormones, chemicals and vitamins required in cell metabolism and even fight off other harmful bacteria. Bacteria exist in various rod, spiral and spherical shapes and are more numerous than any other living organisms. It is important to be able to identify microorganisms in medical clinic in order to help selection of antibodies. Some pharmaceutical products are also made using bacteria therefore many unknown and unidentified bacteria may be useful in the clinical industries. The taxonomy or a particular bacterial c haracteristic can be used to identify similarities that show relationships with disease related descriptions (Janda and Abbott, 2002). Various laboratory tests have been developed that are based on the type of nutrients a bacterium can grow on, the kind of toxins or waste products they produce or how much variation in growth temperature they can tolerate and their morphology can be used to distinguish closely related strains of bacteria. Rapid test kits have also been developed to identify bacteria in the Enterobacteriaceae genera and other gram negative bacteria. Phonotypical approaches of identifying bacteria does not always provide sufficient information to set taxonomic boundaries between different species the repetition of some phenotypic characteristics make it difficult to separate them. Genotyping is however is more precise when it comes to differentiating bacteria within species that lead to the development of DNA hybridisation. This is a technique used measure the similarities in sequences between the DNA of an isolate and a known bacteria. Before conducting a phonotypical bacterial identification it is important to have a pure culture of the bacteria that needs to be identified so that all components of the cells have grown from a single cell and they are clones of one another also known as Holy Grail (Barrow and Feltham, 1993). The bacterial colonies formed for different types of bacteria have different cultural characteristics on agar plates known as colony morphology these include pigments, size edge, pattern, opacity and shine t herefore macroscopically examining the colonies of bacterial cultures is one of the first important tests in bacterial identification. There may be drawbacks in this technique as the visual interpretation can differ from person to person therefore it might not produce reliable results and also mutations in the bacteria strains occur all the time that may provide slightly different characteristics than normal making difficult or incorrect identification. A number of staining methods can be used to examine the cultures under a microscope such as negative staining which stains the background and leaves the cells clear so that the shape of the bacterial cells, presence of glistening capsule and presence of a diffusive extracellular substance (EPS) around the cell and the arrangement of cells can be determined. Differential staining is a test that divides bacteria into two large groups either gram negative or gram positive. Pink- red staining indicates gram negative bacteria and a blue purple staining shows gram positive bacteria cells. Unevenly stained clear surfaces can be formed on the surface of the bacterial cells during gram staining due to the presence of endospores that can be confirmed using spore stain. Acid fast staining is also used if cells appear long, slender and intertwined in order to confirm the presence of acid fast cells which are bacteria in the genera Mycobacteria and Nocardia that are resistant to gram staining. Oxidase, catalase and the ability of the culture to grow in anaerobic conditions are three tests that are conducted during the first steps of identification. Catalase test is to dip an inoculating needle coated with culture into a droplet of hydrogen peroxide and if the bacteria possesses a catalase enzyme it will breakdown the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen that effervesce to form foam. Catalase positive bacteria are usually aerobic while catalase negative bacteria are anaerobic. Cytochrome oxidase is another enzyme found normally in the electron transport chains of an aerobic bacteria and this is tested by adding an artificial substrate such as para amino dimethylaniline that will produce a dark red to black product when oxidised (Cullimore, 2000). Alongside these test the cultures can be tested on their abilities to grow under anaerobic conditions which can further divide them into 4 major groups; strictly aerobic, reduced concentrations of oxygen, both aerobic and anaero bic and strictly anaerobic bacteria. Urease synthesis, gelatin hydrolysis and citrate utilisation are tests that can be conducted to narrowly distinguish bacteria further to help identify their genera. Urease is produced the bacterial genera proteus, providentia and morgenella to break down urea into carbon dioxide and ammonia therefore it is a useful test to help distinguish these genera from other gram negative rods during identification. Urease test is carried out by incubating urea broth with samples of gram negative cultures. The presence of ammonia increases the pH hence turning the phenol red indicator to a pink-purple colour for a positive test (Harvey and Champe et al, 2001). The gelatin hydrolysis test identifies the ability of bacteria to produce gelatinases which can help identification of serratia and proteus. The citrate utilisation tests the ability of the bacteria to utilise citrate as its carbon and energy source used mostly to identify gram negative bacteria. Indole, methyl red- Voges- protease test and fermentation of glucose, sucrose and lactose are also test that are conducted to help assist with identification of bacteria. Indole test is preformed to test the ability of bacteria to breakdown amino acid tryptophan and produce indole that can be detected using Kovac’s reagent. This method is important in the identification of gram negative enterobacteria. Methyl red-Voges- Proskauer on the other hand are two tests that are conducted together as they both require the use of the same medium. The methyl red test identifies the ability of the bacteria to carry out mixed acid fermentations whereas the VP test determines whether the bacteria fermenting sugars via the butanediol pathway by testing for the by-product acetoin. These tests are also useful in differentiating between members of the enterobacteria such as E. coli (Wong, 2005). The ability of bacteria to ferment carbohydrates is also a way to discriminate them during identific ation as fewer bacteria are able to use disaccharides like lactose and sucrose as a source of energy. This can be detected by checking for release of gaseous by products and metabolic chemicals that are released during the process of oxidation and fermentation of sugars. These tests described in the context above were carried out under standard conditions and results were recorded. Results Table 1: shows test results for Colony Morphology for 10 unknown bacterial cultures A to J. Table 2: shows test results for 18 different bacterial identification tests for unknown cultures A to J. Urease, indole, citrate, oxidase, methyl red and Voges-Proskauer test were only carried out for gram negative strains of bacteria and the endospores were only tested for gram positive bacteria. Microphotographs showing cell morphologies and gram (+/-) strains for cultures C, D and F are shown in the appendix. For culture C it can be seen that the cells are arranged in â€Å"grape like† structures whereas C is arranged in packets of four. It can also be seen that culture F it can be seen that the cells were single and in chains. Discussion Organism A and B are both gram positive rods that gave positive results for anaerobic, catalase and endospores test however they can both be differentiated as organism B is brown in colour and a glucose fermenter whereas organism A is orange in colour and a non-glucose fermenter. Organism B was in a cooked meat liquid broth which also indicates that the bacterium maybe part of the Clostridium species that have a few pathogenic bacteria that are responsible for food poisoning and tetanus. Organism A is therefore Bacillus Cereus some bacterium in this species are harmless whereas others are pathogenic that may cause foodborne illnesses such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Organism C has the morphology of pale yellow cocci clusters arranged in packets of four. It is a gram positive bacterium that also shows positive results for glucose fermentation and the catalase test show characteristics of Staphylococcus species which include pathogenic bacteria that causes skin infections, pneum onia and food poisoning. Organism C appeared in clusters that were â€Å"grape like† and is also a gram positive cocci and has a positive result for catalase however it does not ferment carbohydrates but shows positive test results for their metabolic chemical produced and hereby conveying characteristics of Micrococcus species these bacteria are very rarely disease causing and if so some may cause chronic cutaneous infections (Breed and Murray, 1957). Organism E has a white flat mycelial morphology and it is a gram positive glucose fermenter therefore it is a part of the Streptomyces genera that are known to inhibit the soil and causes the common scab in root vegetables. Organism F is a clear gram negative rod bacterium that is glucose and lactose fermenter and produces metabolic chemicals for glucose, lactose. It also produced negative results for tests urease, gelatin, oxidase, Voges-Proskauer (VP) and indole however it showed positive results for catalase, citrate and methyl red and anaerobic tests as shown in figure 2. Analysing these results organism F can be identified as Escherichia coli that consist of many different strains some of which can cause urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, anaemia and even kidney failure. Organism G is a gram negative rod that produces metabolic chemicals for all three carbohydrates glucose, lactose and sucrose however bubbles were only present for lactose and sucrose. It also shows positive results for tests urease, indole anaerobic and VP but negative results for catalase, oxidase, gelatin and methyl red. Organism G showed similar results to organism F however unlike organism F it is urease positive therefore it can be a bacterium from the Proteus genera that also contain a few pathogenic bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections, kidney stones and cystitis. Organism H is only a glucose fermenter but does not produce any metabolic chemicals. It demonstrates positive test results for urease, gelatin, citrate, anaerobic catalase and oxidase but negative for both methyl red and VP as well as indole tests. It is possible that this bacterium maybe be a part of the Pseudomonas genera with different bacterial strains that may cause respiratory tract infections, dermatitis and bone and joint infections. Organism I is also a gram negative rod and had a clear pigmentation on an agar medium that is a glucose fermenter but however it produces metabolic chemicals for glucose, lactose and sucrose. It also produces positive results when being tested for citrate, anaerobic, catalase and methyl red but not for urease, gelatin, indole, oxidase and VP this indicates that organism I could be Salmonella typhimurium a pathogenic bacteria that causes gastroenteritis that leads to diarrhoea. Organism J is another gram negative bacterium that produces no bubbles for glucose, lactose or sucrose fermentation but produces metabolic chemicals for glucose and sucrose. It is also positive for gelatin, citrate, anaerobic, catalase and VP however it is negative for urease, indole, oxidase and methyl red tests. The red pigmentation of the bacterial culture and the other tests results indicates that organism J maybe Serratia marcescens that are associated with many different types of diseases some of which in clude bacteraemia, sepsis and meningitis. In order to conduct more specific identification of these bacteria further tests can be carried out that will help to distinguish each bacterium more accurately. Other tests that can be carried out include starch hydrolysis, lipid hydrolysis, motility (SIM) deeps, beta galactosidase, nitrate, coagulase, mannitol salt, osmotic pressure and haemolysis. References Barrow, G. I., Feltham, K. A. R. (1993). Crowan and Steel’s manual for the identification of medical bacteria: classification and nomenclature. 1-6. United Kingdom: Cambridge university press. Breed, R. S., Murray, G. D. E., Smith, N. R. (1957). Bergey’s manual of determinative bacteriology. 695- 800. United States of America: Baltimore Williams and Wilkins co. Cullimore, D. R. (2000). Practical atlas for bacterial identification: initial stages of the identification of the bacterial culture. 1-7. United States of America: CRC press LLC; Harvey, R. A., Champe, P.C., Fisher, B.D. (2001). Microbiology: identification of bacteria. 24-27. United Stated of America: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Janda, J.M., Abbott, S. L. (2002). Bacterial identification for publication: when enough is enough? Journal of clinical microbiology. Vol. 40 no. 6, (1887-1891). Wong, T. (2005). Introduction to microbiology laboratory exercises for Allied Heath students: The IMViC tests. 48-50. United States of America: Author House. Appendix Culture C Culture D Culture F

Family Guide to Prescription Drugs Essay

The five rights (5 Rs) need to be followed when administering any medications: right patient, right medication, right dose, right time and the right route. Venipuncture procedure for the purpose of establishing peripheral venous access and for obtaining blood sample for laboratory tests follow the standards of practice framework. It is mandatory that health care professionals have and sustain in good status, all licenses, permits, and certificates required by law as well as follow the standards of practice imposed. (2) Explain the repercussions that could arise from violating these standards. Violating these standards will lead to adverse patient reactions to the drug administered; worst case will be death to the patient involved. Investigations regarding the medication error will result to fines/penalties, license revocations and even jail time (Sen, et al, 2005). Sadly, accidental deaths due to medication errors as a result of failure to follow these standards are not unusual cases in health care practice (Medical Mistakes 1999). (3) What are the responsibilities of a person in your health care position during a code arrest? If signs of patient’s condition/ state is worsening rapidly (i.e. increased respiratory distress and decreased oxygen saturation, call a code. The person who found the unresponsive patient should call the code right away and initiate CPR. It is important to know the status code of the patient before anything else, whether the patient has a full code, partial code or has a DNR status (Do Not Resuscitate) (Turjanica, 1998). (4) Discuss the repercussion that could arise, both for the patient and you, in regards to injection of contrast media. Intravenous injection of contrast media will be done/ administered by a qualified physician or trained radiologic nurse. An informed consent will be obtained from the patient prior to the said procedure. This consent has to be signed by the patient, the guardian or patient’s power of attorney. Severe reactions to the procedure leading to cardiopulmonary arrest/ death are beyond the health care team’s capacity. As long as there were no mistakes when the procedure was done, there will be no repercussions. Emergency apparatus and pharmaceuticals are available for any emergencies that may arise during the after the procedure.   (5) Explain the organization of the information supplied in the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR). PDR provides information regarding prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, herbal medications, health conditions, types of surgeries and even treatment options for a number of health issues. They also provide drug to drug interactions when one is taking a number of medications for different health problems.   (6) What are the benefits of physicians using PDAs in ordering prescriptions for their patients? Physicians will gain advantage when using PDRs as it will provide and supply them with the latest medication/ drug products available, concise drug information and multi-drug interaction checker. Daily news updates are also available thru these PDRs. (7) Compare the ratings of addictive drugs on the controlled drug standard. Give an example of each category. Examples of addictive drugs are nicotine, heroines and cocaine. Controlled drugs are medications taken illegally when not being prescribed by physicians. Examples of these drugs are analgesics like Tylenol with Codeine, Oxycontin and Morphine. Presently, all these controlled drugs are addictive.   Research is ongoing nowadays for the new compound ACV1 which is more powerful than Morphine but is not addictive at all (Good, 2002). (8) What are some reasons the imaging professional should chart carefully? In which ways is charting accomplished? Imaging professionals need to chart carefully and completely for legal purposes. Documentation on any health related procedures will be used in court if something happens to the patient. Reactions of patient after any procedure are also documented in patient care notes and on the occurrence form. (9) Which examinations require charting and how is this done? Any procedure pertaining to health care needs to be documented/ charted. As much as possible, the documentation needs to be clear and concise. It should also be reflecting the interventions done and the patient’s reaction/ responses to it. The type of contrast media, the amount given, the site and the time should be documented. The timing of events and the treatments/ interventions done in any emergencies during and after the procedure should be documented concisely as well. To time events, the use of one timepiece is necessary in order to establish consistencies. Reference Good, Brian (2002). Something for the pain. Men’s Health, 17.9, p 36. Medical Mistakes. (1999). KRT Interactive Hot Topics. Sen, S., Chini, E, Nunes, E & Brown, M. (2005). Complications after unintentional intra-arterial injection of drugs: risks, outcomes and management strategies. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Vol 80, 783. Turjanica, M. A. Anatomy of a code; how do you feel at the start of a code blue? Nursing, Vol 27, p34.

High School and Felicia’s Life Essay

A photo of Felicia with notes from her classmates.   The friend, Briana Torres, at 16 a year older and a grade ahead of Felicia, hugged her and walked her to sixth-period English class, the girls’ arms clasped around each other’s shoulders. On the way, Felicia cheered up enough to laugh at a joke, and make a joke of her own. But there were signs of unraveling. Late Monday night, she had posted a brief Twitter message: â€Å"I cant, im done, I give up.† After school Wednesday, Felicia walked to the Staten Island Railway station where many students board trains home. She waited impatiently for the train, and as it approached, she hurled herself backward onto the tracks. A friend grabbed her arm, but she twisted free. She was pronounced dead that evening. By the time her friends began to congregate in the hospital waiting room, posting messages on Twitter and Facebook in what would become a flurry of online speculation about her death, most had pinpointed a cause: Felicia had been bullied, they said, tormented by football players on Tottenville’s undefeated team. Some said she was teased because she had piercings and lived in foster care. Others said players had spread sexual boasts about her over the weekend, after Tottenville’s 16-8 victory over Port Richmond High School. To many friends, she appeared to weather the swirl of innuendo with her usual confidence. â€Å"She never really reached out for help; she was a really tough person,† Briana said Thursday, wearing a small tribute on her left wrist — an â€Å"RIP Felicia† inked in purple. â€Å"When I dropped her off at class, I wasn’t really worried about her.† Felicia had reported the taunts to an administrator, who arranged mediation sessions between Felicia and the boys she said were harassing her. Police are now investigating her death. Neither they nor the Education Department nor the school would comment on the bullying allegations. There was already little that was easy in Felicia’s life. Friends described her childhood as a patchwork of loss and instability: both her parents died when she was young, and she d isliked living with her aunt, said Kaitlyn Antonmarchi, 15, who said she had been Felicia’s best friend since eighth grade. At one point, Felicia ran away from her aunt’s house with an older man. After she entered the foster system, she bounced in and out of different homes, dyed her dark hair red and sprouted a cluster of piercings. With her latest foster parents, Felicia finally seemed happy and stable, Kaitlyn said. Moving to the other side of Staten Island, she started high school at Tottenville, improved her grades, let the dye wash out and eliminated most piercings. At Friday’s football game, Kaitlyn said: â€Å"She looked happy. She was laughing. It didn’t look like anything was upsetting her at all.† Bullying is common at the school, classmates said, but administrators usually acted to stop it, and it rarely reached the level that Felicia experienced. Tease Felicia, and she would come back with a quick, witty retort, said Alissa Compitello, 17, a senior. â€Å"If you tried to bully her, she’d laugh at you,† she said. â€Å"Somebody must’ve said som ething pretty bad about her for this to happen. They just wouldn’t stop.† On Wednesday, Felicia had asked Karl Geiling, 15, a sophomore at Tottenville, about how his test had gone. He saw her at the train station later. â€Å"I was way down, away from her,† he said. â€Å"All I heard was screams, and then everybody went silent.† At school on Thursday, many students wore black and purple, colors often associated with anti-bullying campaigns, and met with grief counselors. A crowd of about 500 gathered at the station in the evening, many holding candles. Someone had tied purple and black balloons to a chain-link fence overlooking the tracks, with notes and a photo fluttering alongside them. As their classmates created anti-bullying Facebook pages in Felicia’s honor Wednesday night, several football players took to Twitter to protest what they saw as the wholesale tarring of the team, which is a perennial favorite to win the Public School Athletic League championship. At least two seniors have been o ffered scholarships to play Division I college football. â€Å"None of you even no half the story so stop pointing fingers at the football team,† wrote James Munson, a safety on the team and the son of the team’s coach, Jim Munson. Another player, Richy Lam, a senior, said Thursday that many members of the team had not even known Felicia. In New York, an anti-bullying statute signed in 2010, one of numerous laws passed around the country in the wake of teenage suicides, requires schools to develop policies to deter harassment of students by other students, including education programs and disciplinary procedures. Prosecutions for student bullying are rare; perhaps the best-known case is that of Dharun Ravi, who was convicted of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy charges for using a webcam to spy on his Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide a few days later. Mr. Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail. â€Å"Bullying that violates criminal law can be prosecuted criminally, but not as bullying,† said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia Law School who directs its Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. Physical violence or threats of physical violence could be prosecuted, she said, â€Å"but what most often happens is that schools and prosecutors try to keep these situations out of criminal court which can be appropriate if the school system takes the incident seriously, punishes the offender and protects the victim.† It is not clear whether anyone will be disciplined in Felicia’s case. For some students, the school’s next challenge is Friday’s football game against the rival Curtis High School team, the last of the season, which may be pushed to Sunday. Felicia was a fan. When Kaitlyn last saw her, she said, she had been planning to cheer Tottenville this weekend. â€Å"She said, ‘Yeah, I’m going,’ † Kaitlyn said. â€Å"And I said, I’ll see you there.† Al Baker and Christopher Maag contributed reporting.

How Your Actions May Be Unintentionally Racist

In the aftermath of the presidential election of 2016, many people have experienced relationship blowouts with friends, family, romantic partners, and colleagues over accusations of racism. Many of those who voted for Donald Trump have found themselves accused of being racist, as well as sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and xenophobic. Those making the accusations feel this way because they associate these forms of discrimination with the candidate himself, on account of statements he made and behaviors he displayed throughout the campaign, and the likely outcomes of policies and practices that he supports. But many of those accused find themselves confused and angry at the accusation, and feel that exercising their right to vote for the political candidate of their choice does not make them a racist, nor any other form of oppressor. So, who is in the right? Does voting for a certain political candidate make someone a racist? Can our actions be racist even though we dont mean them to be? Lets consider these questions from a sociological standpoint  and draw on social science theory and research to answer them. Dealing With the R Word When people are accused of being a racist in todays United States they often experience this accusation as an attack on their character. Growing up, we are taught that being racist is bad. It is considered among the worst crimes ever committed on U.S. soil, in the forms of genocide of Native Americans, enslavement of Africans and their descendants, violence and segregation during the Jim Crow era, Japanese internment, and the fierce and violent resistance shown by many to integration and the 1960s movement for Civil Rights, to name just a handful of notable cases. The way that we learn this history suggests that formal, institutional racism—that enforced by law—is a thing of the past. It follows, then, that the attitudes and behaviors among the wider population that worked to enforce racism through informal means is also (mostly) a thing of the past too. We are taught that racists were bad people who lived in our history, and because of that, the problem is largely behind us. So, its understandable that when a person is accused of racism today, it seems a ghastly thing to say, and a nearly unspeakable thing to say directly to a person. This is why, since the election, as this accusation has been hurled between family members, friends, and loved ones, relationships have blown up over social media, text, and in person. In a society that prides itself in being diverse, inclusive, tolerant, and color blind, calling someone a racist is one of the worst insults that can be made. But lost in these accusations and blowups is what racism actually means in todays world, and the diversity of forms that racist actions take. What Racism Is Today Sociologists believe that racism exists when ideas and assumptions about racial categories are used to justify and reproduce a racial hierarchy that unjustly limits access to power, resources, rights, and privileges to some on the basis of race, while at the same time giving unjust amounts of those things to others. Racism also occurs when this kind of unjust social structure is produced by the failure to account for race and the force it exerts in all aspects of society, both historically and today. By this definition of racism, a belief, worldview, or an action is racist when it supports the continuance of this kind of racially imbalanced system of power and privilege. So if you want to know whether an action is racist, then the question to ask about it is: Does it help to reproduce a racial hierarchy that gives some more power, privileges, rights, and resources than others, on the basis of race? Framing the question this way means that a variety of different kinds of thoughts and actions can be defined as racist. These are hardly limited to overt forms of racism that are highlighted in our historical narrative on the problem, like physical violence, using racial slurs, and plainly discriminating against people on the basis of race. By this definition, racism today often takes much more subtle, nuanced, and even hidden forms. To test this theoretical understanding of racism, lets examine some cases in which behavior or actions might have racist consequences, even though a person doesnt identify as a racist or intend for their actions to be racist. Dressing As an Indian for Halloween People who grew up in the 1970s or 80s are very likely to have seen kids dressed as Indians (Native Americans) for Halloween, or have gone as one at some point during their childhood. The costume, which draws on stereotypical portrayals of Native American culture and dress, including feathered headdresses, leather, and fringe clothing, remains fairly popular today and is widely available for men, women, children, and babies from a wide range of costume suppliers. No longer limited to Halloween, elements of the costume have become popular and common elements of outfits worn by attendees of music festivals across the U.S. While its unlikely that anyone who wears such a costume, or dresses their child in one, intends to be racist, dressing as an Indian for Halloween  is not as innocent as it may seem. Thats because the costume itself acts as a racial stereotype—it reduces an entire race of people, one composed of a diverse array of culturally distinct groups, to a small collection of physical elements. Racial stereotypes are dangerous because they play a crucial role in the social process of marginalizing groups of people on the basis of race, and in most cases, stripping those people of their humanity and reducing them to objects. The stereotypical image of the Indian in particular tends to fix Native Americans in the past, suggesting that they are not an important part of the present. This works to divert attention away from systems of economic and racial inequality that continue to exploit and oppress Native Americans today. For these reasons, dressing as an Indian for Halloween, or wearing any kind of costume that is composed of racial stereotypes, is in fact an act of racism. All Lives Matter The contemporary social movement Black Lives Matter was born in 2013 following the acquittal of the man who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The movement grew and came to national prominence in 2014 following the police killings of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. The name of the movement and the widely used hashtag that catalyzed it assert the importance of Black lives because the widespread violence against Black people in the U.S. and the oppression they suffer in a society that is systemically racist suggests that their lives do  not  matter. The history of enslavement of Black people and  racism against them is premised on the belief, whether conscious or not, that their lives are expendable and inconsequential. So, members of the movement and its supporters believe that it is necessary to assert that Black lives do in fact matter, as they draw attention to racism and ways to effectively fight it. Following media attention to the movement, some began to respond to it be stating or writing on social media that all lives matter. Of course, no one can argue with this claim. It is inherently true and rings to many with an air of egalitarianism. To many it is both an obvious and harmless statement. However, when we consider it as a response to the assertion that Black lives matter, we can see that it serves to divert attention from an anti-racist social movement. And, in the context of the racial history and contemporary racism of U.S. society, it works as a rhetorical device that ignores and silences Black voices, and draws attention away from the very real problems of racism that Black Lives Matter seeks to highlight and address. Whether one means to or not, doing so works to preserve the racial hierarchy of white privilege and supremacy. So, in the context of a dire need to listen to Black people when they talk about racism and what we need to do to help end it, stating that all lives matter is a racist act. Voting for Donald Trump Voting in elections is the lifeblood of American democracy. It is both a right and a duty of every citizen, and it has long been considered taboo to denigrate or chastise those whose political views and choices differ from ones own. This is because a democracy composed of multiple parties can only function when respect and cooperation are present. But during 2016, the public comments and political positions of Donald Trump have prompted many to buck the norm of civility. Many have characterized Trump and his supporters as racist, and many relationships have been destroyed in the process. So is it racist to support Trump? To answer that question one has to understand what he represents within the racial context of the U.S. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has a long history of behaving in racist ways. Throughout the campaign and prior to it, Trump made statements that denigrated racial groups and are rooted in dangerous racial stereotypes. His history in business is blighted by examples of discrimination against people of color. Throughout the campaign Trump routinely condoned violence against people of color, and condoned through his silence the white supremacist attitudes and racist actions of people among his supporters. Politically speaking, the policies he supports, like, for example, closing and defunding family planning clinics, those related to immigration and citizenship, overturning the Affordable Healthcare Act, and his proposed income tax brackets which penalize the poor and working classes will specifically harm people of color, at greater rates than they will harm white people, if they are passed into law. In doing so, these policies will help preserve the racial hierarchy of the U.S., white p rivilege, and white supremacy. Those who voted for Trump endorsed these policies, his attitudes, and behavior--all of which fit the sociological definition of racism. So, even if a person doesnt agree that thinking and acting this way is right, even if they themselves dont think and act this way, voting for Donald Trump was an act of racism. This reality is likely a hard pill to swallow for those of you who supported the Republican candidate. The good news is, its never too late to change. If you oppose racism and want to help fight it, there are practical things you can do in your everyday life as individuals, as members of communities, and as citizens of the U.S. to help end racism.