Alternatives to Attempted Murder

What do you get when you take everyday activities performed by Black bodies, add white fragility, and multiply it all by the presence of state policing? Although this might seem like a trick question because this equation has many names, the outcome is the same. Hence the birth of the “Cornerstone Caroline”, “BBQ Becky”, “Permit Patty”, “Coupon Carl”, and many more.

Earlier this month, a white woman, Teresa Klein, alleged that 9-year-old Jeremiah Harvey sexually assaulted her in a Brooklyn bodega. Klein had been reaching over the counter to retrieve an item when she felt something graze her behind. When she turned around, she identified the young boy, as the perpetrator and followed him out the store. In a video, posted on Facebook by a longtime resident of the area, Klein was recorded calling the police. After causing a scene, in front of the bodega, the security tape revealed that Klein’s accusations were false. It was Jeremiah’s book bag that had hit her on his way out of the store. This similarities between Jeremiah Harvey and Emmett Till struck me. In 1955 Till was the victim of the weaponization of white womanhood just as Harvey was in 2018. Although Jeremiah was sparred from this type of physical violence, he was still effect by the threat of police intervention.

A couple days ago, The New York Times partnered with actress/comedian Neicy Nash to release a satirical infomercial to promote a hotline that offers an alternative to calling the police in those types of situations. As the video explains, the hotline serves to reassure white customers that the “suspicious” black person making them “uncomfortable” is not a threat. Pitchwoman, Niecy Nash uses a mixture of satire and actual videos to highlight the absurdity but real-life consequences of calling the police for non-violent and non-criminal activities.

Nike Doesn’t Care about Black People

On September 3^rd, just three days before the official kickoff of the NFL season, Nike released an ad that was, as some see it, controversial. With the face of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick gracing the cover, the caption “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything” brought to light a conflict in which the NFL has been trying to keep quiet. With a public figure like Colin Kaepernick actively standing against police violence toward black people as well as overall injustice toward this community, the Nike ad was seen to be a bold statement which could change to the way people will see Nike in the foreseeable future.

 Although this advertisement has yielded numerous benefits including progressing the conversation immensely regarding police brutality in America, the ad released by Nike did not have the intentions of actually helping the conversation. In fact, it’s even fair to say that Nike doesn’t care at all about police brutality or overall injustice at all. The only reason Nike released this ad is in a very calculated attempt to increase business. After paying close attention to public opinion and the general thought behind the Kaepernick movement, executives at Nike waited until the time was almost perfect to put the company in the spotlight. With knowledge that some long-time Nike customers would leave because of this publishing, the company also knew that the outpouring of further business would be in greater numbers than those that chose to leave. One article even provides that Nike has made $6 billion since the release of the ad. As much good as this ad has done, to think the Nike corporation cares at all about Colin Kaepernick or the police brutality towards black people in America is sadly untrue and even laughable. There was no real risk for Nike in running this ad and they knew it. And that’s exactly why they created it.

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17895704/nike-colin-kaepernick-boycott-6-billion

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/ray-ratto/colin-kaepernick-ad-litmus-test-nikes-true-intentions

https://medium.com/@malcolmlemmons/the-truth-behind-nikes-colin-kaepernick-ad-campaign-d934e518b173

Whose Voice Matters

The Supreme Court decline to overturn North Dakota’s voter ID law. This law requires an ID with a residential address and a P.O. box is not sufficient. Republican lawmakers who pushed for the requirement defend the law by saying it is designed to combat voter fraud, even though voter fraud is not a problem in North Dakota. Native American reservations do not use physical street addresses and Native Americans are overrepresented in the homeless population. This means that those who have used their P.O. box for their mailing address are not eligible to vote. This decision became final less than a month before Election Day, severely limiting the ability for Native Americans and other citizens to attempt to get the accepted ID.

These laws are marginalizing groups of people already marginalized by society. They silence the voices of people attempting to exercise their right to vote through the 15^th Amendment. Without the ability to vote, it is almost impossible to make the structural and institutional changes needed to combat discriminatory policies as this. This is an example of the ‘Dog Whistle’ politics we discussed in class. The voter ID law seems to combat an actual issue, voter fraud. When one actually looks at the law and who it is affecting, you see the racism. Native Americans, homeless, and other marginalized peoples are disproportionately affected.

There are other places where voter laws similar to this are passed. There are multiple instances of voting centers being closed down in poorer areas, disproportionately affecting Black voters. Some voting centers hours are during the work day, allowing the privileged and wealthier the allowance to vote and voice their opinion in politics. These are examples of institutional structures silencing the voices of people of color, homeless, and anyone who is marginalized in society.

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/13/657125819/many-native-ids-wont-be-accepted-at-north-dakota-polling-places

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/high-court-leaves-north-dakota-voter-id-rules-intact-for-now/2018/10/09/777049f0-cc31-11e8-ad0a-0e01efba3cc1_story.html?utm_term=.28f0fa26b59e

 

How Respectability Politics Destroys Gender Equality Movement

Currently, all eyes are on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Recently, Dr. Ford came out to the public and accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a high school gathering in the ‘80s. After the testimonies from both sides, the Senate called for a one-week delay of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh for further FBI investigation.

The Kavanaugh hearing reminds me of the Anita Hill and Justice Thomas hearing as it exemplifies respectability politics, a phenomenon that occurs in social justice movements where the liberation of Black men and White women are prioritized over the struggles of women of color, particularly Black women. In 1991, Dr. Hill accused Justice Thomas for sexually harassing her during her time at the Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Unlike Dr. Ford, who was praised for her courage and bravery, Dr. Hill was considered a “race traitor” for speaking against Justice Clarence Thomas, a man who would make history for being the second African-American Supreme Court Justice after Justice Thurgood Marshall. Under respectability politics, Justice Thomas was protected by the Black and White communities at the expense of Dr. Anita Hill’s justice and reputation.

Unlike Dr. Hill’s hearing, where the Senate Judiciary Committee consisted entirely of white men, there are four women on Dr. Ford’s Senate Judiciary Committee: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California). Meanwhile, there were no female senators at Dr. Hill’s hearing.

Respectability politics has dominated the gender equality movement for a long time. The Me Too movement, for example, was founded by a Black woman named Tarana Burke; however, the mainstream media only applauded famous white women such as Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, and Taylor Swift. In an interview, Burke expressed: “We are trained as a country to respond to the vulnerability of white women…you have white women who are like ‘We’re all in this together, let’s start with us.’”

While Black women and White women both face the struggles of underrepresentation, objectification, and sexual violence, the experiences of Black women are different as they are subjected to the intertwining system of racism, sexism, and classism. While White women are overshadowed by White men, Black women struggle with respectability politics not only because of Black and White men but also White women.

Despite the increasing female representation in politics, little has changed since Anita Hill’s hearing as respectability politics are still rampant and Black women’s struggles are still placed behind those of White women.

 

An Icon, Janet Mock

Janet Mock set the tone for the 2018 Reynolds Lecture the minute she walked out onto the stage. As professor Katie Horowitz tried to introduce her, she politely asked to skip over the introduction as it was “boring”. Throughout the night, Janet Mock talked to us like we were friends. After reading her book for GSS 101, I didn’t expect anything less from her. Her book, Redefining Realness captured the raw emotions of what it meant to transition. She eloquently explained how she knew she was meant to be a girl and the process of coming out to her parents.

Just like her book, during her talk, Janet had a way of capturing the audience. When asked about privilege, she made sure to first acknowledge the privilege that she had. As she listed them out, I was in awe. I didn’t expect that as a black transgender woman she was so adamant about how privileged she was. Janet talked about how lucky she was to be able to be a ‘pretty’ transgender woman, able-bodied and be able to medically transition.  She spoke then on how lucky she was to ‘pass’ as a transgender woman and why the verb ‘passing’ was so condescending. By using the verb ‘passing’, it assumes that transgender women are pretending to be women, when in fact, they are women.

Not only did Janet Mock recognize her privilege, she recognized the opportunity she had as a TV producer. She spoke on bringing in people from the community, hiring them, paying them well and making sure that they realized their worth. Pose is the first show of it’s kind in Hollywood and Janet hopes that by hiring people from the transgender community more producers will follow her lead. Actions do speak louder than words. After the talk, I realized that even when Black women are celebrated, they’re never enough and more is still required of them. As a society we must continue to acknowledge Black women and recognize their hard work. We must put more respect on Black women.

Janet Mock, The Queen

Janet Mock came to visit our college this week and she was the equivalent to the words “free food”, that is to say, amazing! Dr. Katie Horowitz of the Gender and Sexuality Studies department interviewed her and asked her many hard-hitting questions like: What she thought of the “born this way” answer that many LGBTQ+ people give, how her family responded to being painted as villains in her book Redefining Realness, and how her new show Pose is bringing diversity into Hollywood. But as I sat there, only a few rows away from the Queen herself, one of the best responses Mock gave was while discussing her second book, Surpassing Certainty, and her view on “passing”.

“Passing” is being able to successfully be seen as the gender you desire to be seen as. While she spoke on her own issues with the word, she also spoke on the privileges she has in her life! Now I’m not sure about you, but when I see a black trans woman, I don’t think about the privileges she has but more the ones she lack. But I think it is very interesting how Mock has come to realize that being a passing, pretty, able-bodied trans woman has given her many more “privileges” than other trans women, despite being black. As we have discussed in class, she has become the tokenized black trans woman, in other words she is the “right kind.” She is very pretty, she looks as she says she is, she is well spoken, she has money, and as she said she has boobs. It is not right how you must check off boxes created by society to be able to be free from harassment and have rights as any other person. It is not right that she considers these “privileges” when she is so very marginalized herself.

I think this recognition of herself and her awareness of where she is on this hierarchy in the world, as she uses her “privileges” to create a platform and speak out on behalf of others who do not check off society’s boxes, reflects on how much of THE queen Janet Mock truly is.

“Experience Google”: JANET MOCK

“Experience Google” 

JANET MOCK IS THE DEFINITION OF DOPE! I knew she was an incredible writer and activist, but I didn’t know the extent to how influential she is. From narrating albums to being the first trans woman of color to direct her own television show, Ms. Mock is making incredible power plays and is providing opportunities for other trans men and women of color. I learned that she provided her crew (on the camera and behind the scenes) an avenue to climb in their careers. She spoke of having 5 transgender women of color that she was able to make season regulars, providing  choreographer jobs to members of the community, and ensuring staff diversity from make-up artists to actors. She spoke about having the “conditional” privilege of being “passing” and how she used that as leverage to navigate spaces. Hearing her story versus reading out of the book, I was had the opportunity to physically see the strength and unapologetic upliftment she possessed. However at the same time, she is still a human that needs emotional support like any other person. I wondered what mechanisms she uses to reaffirm herself and maintain a healthy mentality.

Janet Mock Reynolds Lecture

I was able to attend the Janet Mock lecture yesterday. While I did not have a lot of background information on her before the lecture, I will be sure to read her book after attending. While she discussed a great variety of subjects, the one that struck me the most was her discussion on the term passing and its implications. She described how it felt to be labeled as ‘passing’ and the implications of being labeled as such. Mock has certain privileges, which she also discussed, which included pretty privilege. This allowed her to ‘pass’ as a cis Black women, as opposed to those women who are more directly labeled trans. This relates to our class through the reality of who Mock was and how people identified her. Mock identifies as a trans women, but many people believed and treated her as a cis woman. There was also the complexity of her navigating through spaces as a Black woman, and she talked about how that has shaped her life and feelings.

Mock also talked about how she wrote her book. She begun as an initial monologue, writing down her emotions and how she experienced events throughout her life. Then she went to the major characters I her book, ie her parents, and talked to them about how they viewed the same events she wrote about. To her surprise, many of these experiences were seen and felt differently. Mock is illustrating the importance to talking to people and experience and attempting to understand others perspectives.

Hustla Baby: A Lesson From Janet Mock

As the esteemed 2018 Reynolds Lecture, Janet Mock offered a lot of amazing advice. She told us to use Google instead of isolating trans folk and to be dedicated to the writing process. The biggest advice she gave me was never spoken. She did not give me a charge to go change the world or dream big. This advice was embodied in Janet Mock: it was the art of the hustle.

Few people master it. The balance between finesse, passion, and skill. Janet Mock has it down to a science. She is calculated but sincere. She understands the importance of selling your content just as much as you are selling yourself– your look, your network, your story. Sitting at her table during dinner emphasized this. She did not sit amongst us looking to be fawned over. Instead, she examined us just as closely as we studied her. She asked us about our lives. What are we studying? What was being on campus during the hurricane like? Why did we choose Davidson? Through the reception and dinner, she managed to make the evening seem as if it were about us despite us all being there to hear about her. She did not fall off her game once.

Her hustle embodies a theme in Black feminist works: we must secure a bag. It recognizes the truth of capitalism and keeps it at arm’s length. We protect ourselves and our people by making enough to survive. Black women like Janet Mock are incredibly talented, but they have also mastered the art of the hustle by understanding the world around us. It works on social capital and privilege. Mock recognizes the importance of liberation and the importance of survival.

Ultimately, the evening with Janet Mock reinvigorated me. Her words and presence reminded me of my own resiliency. The community Black women make of each other is intentional this way. For most of us (the best of us) we live by one unspoken vow: lift as we climb. With her air of hustle, kind words, and affirming looks Janet Mock unknowingly lifted me.

Black Women in POLITICS

How can black women excel or thrive in this country if society already has preconceived notions about them? The winner of the democratic primary for the 77^th Assembly district, Shelia Stubbs, was accused of being a drug dealer by one of her now constituents. This incident occurred while she was campaigning for her seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly on August 7. Stubbs is now only talking about this incident publicly considering recent events which consist of police being called on black people for doing everyday activities. For example, the Yale student, Lolade Siyonbola, who was fell asleep in her common area and woke up to police asking if she the right to be there.

The neighbor who called the police on Stubbs said they called the police because a car was parked in front of a “drug house” and suspected Stubbs to be a dealer. Not to mention, her mother and daughter was also in the car. Isn’t it true that black women, no matter their age, are suspected to be up to no good or criminals?   This situation demonstrates that no matter how high in society you get or if you are a local representative, stereotypes and controlling images still impact the way how people perceive you when you are a black woman.

Controlling images such as the welfare queen and the unfit mother circulate society and some white people form generalizations and make judgments based on their preconceived notions.  To improve the conditions of black people, especially back women, society needs black women politicians who are interested in the lives of other black women. For black women to be political representatives, people need to elect them and think of them as leaders in the community. But how can white people see black women politicians as leaders when they are clouded by negative stereotypes and controlling images about black women?  White people need to discard these negative stereotypes that they associate with black women, so that society could move forward in the right direction.