Introduction. Hey, guys. So, I’m a Cambodian 10th grader who studies at the International School of Phnom Penh (ISPP). I’m currently in my last year of the IB’s MYP program, in which the students are required to complete a Personal Project. These projects can be anything we want them to be. I decided to make this book for my Personal Project because I, like most millennials, spend a lot of my time on social media. It’s a platform in which people feel safe sharing their stories and opinions because a username provides them with a sense of anonymity. Throughout my time on Tumblr, I saw so many examples of people putting up with institutionalized racism and trying to succeed in a system that is structured to make them fail. So, I made this book to share with their experiences with other people. As stated in the blurb, this book contains a collection social media posts from Tumblr and Twitter that are recountings of their own dealings with racism, opinions on different racial issues, and reactions to racist events; hence the title, ‘Racism Reviwed’. I found the posts included in the book by looking through tags specific to the topic. For example, to find posts regarding police brutality, I would search #MichaelBrown, #SandraBland, or #BlackLivesMatter. I chose to include posts from both activists and racists so that people who pick up this book don’t end up thinking that social media is ‘a place full of right-minded people who believe in the equality of all races’, because it’s obviously not. Disclaimer: All the social media posts were kept in their original format, to allow the audience a glimpse of the poster’s rawest emotions. Due to to this, graphic images and language that may be offensive to some were not censored.
Terminology. PoC: People of Colour. MoC: Men of Colour. WoC: Women of Colour. Cultural Appropriation: Using aspects of a marginalized culture in a way that cheapens and commoditizes the culture’s meaning and value. Racial Stereotyping: Discrimination against marginalized races based solely off of negative preconceived ideas surrounding them. Police Brutality: The use of excessive force (typically violence) by police in situations where it is deemed unnecessary. Intersectional Feminism: Feminism that takes into consideration the rights of PoC, the LGBTQIA+ community, the disabled, and those suffering from poverty. White Feminism: Feminism that does NOT take into consideration the rights of PoC, the LGBTQIA+ community, the disabled, and those suffering from poverty. In other words: a hot mess.
Cultural Appropriation.
Miley Cyrus. Continues to appropriate black culture without any sensitivity towards their past. What we’ll be looking at specifically is her choice to don ‘dreadlocks’.
Rachel Dolezal. Wore blackface for over a decade, effectively reaping opportunities that were meant solely for the black community and benefitting from white privilege at the same time. Worked in an organization that fought for the rights of African-Americans and claimed to be an advocate for civil rights.
Cultural Appropriation What is “cultural appropriation”? “Appropriation” is defined as the act of taking something that does not belong to you, typically without the permission of the owner. In very blunt terms: stealing. Appropriation can be used in a variety of contexts. A prominent example of this would be in contemporary and modern art (e.g. collages). If we add the world “culture” in front of it to create “cultural appropriation”, it is defined as the act of taking an aspect, be it a sacred image, object, piece of clothing, or even a practice, of a culture that does not belong to you and that you are not a part of. How does it hurt people of colour (POC)? Naturally, cultural appropriation causes harm in a multitude of ways; the most prominent being how it has been used as a strategy where a dominant class suppresses a lower class. If we put this in terms of the Western context of “race”, it becomes white dominant classes claiming ownership over sacred practices and objects of oppressed non-white groups, effectively appropriating their culture. In action, culture appropriation causes a chain reaction of events. First and foremost, the intended meaning of the practice or object is lost, causing it to become cheap. Needless to say, this is disrespectful to the culture the practice of object originates from. A very obvious and obnoxious example of this is Plains Indians war bonnets, often worn by men who have earned great respect in their tribe, being worn by white women as a fashion accessory. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, plug “war bonnet” into Google Images. I would tell you to now go back and add “tumblr” or “hipster” at the end of your search, but it would be redundant considering how the two are already the top related searches. I’m not sure about you, but I’m seeing a very distinct difference between the pictures in the two searches. Secondly, due to the structure of capitalism, it profits off the exploitation and labor of PoC. While most practices and objects of different cultures hold significant meaning and are held in high regard by the people of their respective cultures, once they are “discovered” by white people, they become a fashion trend, a commodity, a symbol of “cool”. Due to this, PoC become reassigned from people with power over
how the practices and objects in our cultures are used to producers that have no control over the consumption of our cultural heritage. Often, PoC will be completely blindsided as white people create newer versions of our culture with their own “twists and tweaks” to put on sale without sharing the profits or benefits of consumption. You know what that means? Not only does culture appropriation figuratively cheapen our culture, but literally as well. This is why Miley Cyrus wearing dreadlocks is unacceptable. It is not “just” another hairstyle. It is associated with black culture for a reason. And in this particular example, the reason is slavery. When enslaved people were being shipped across the ocean, during which their hair would become matted with blood, sweat, urine, feces, dirt, and tears. As their captors watched them crawl, walk, or be carried off the ship, they screwed up their faces and referred to the hair as “dreadful”. This was the most common description of the locks that formed in their hair, leading the term “Dreadlock” to become mainstream in describing a slave’s hair. During the Rastafarian culture, the term was reclaimed and the hairstyle was used as a way to thumb disdain at white culture as well as a symbol of laying down capitalist and material pursuits. The most common defense of Miley’s actions is that “dreadlocks are present in all cultures”, when they in fact, are not. The “matting of hair” is there, but “Dreadlocks” are not. The Irish called their hairstyle “Glibs”, “Gleebs” or “Glibbes” and the Indians called theirs “Jata”, but no culture but black culture had “Dreadlocks”. Rachel Dolezal, on the other hand, reaped whatever small number of benefits that black people in America have despite being a white woman. The problem here is not that she is a civil rights advocate, the problem is that she treats blackness like a mask that can easily be taken on and off and can be manipulated depending on the circumstances. If she ever got into trouble with the law, she could easily wash off the blackface she was committing and bank on her white privilege to either lighten her punishment of even leave her scot-free of any consequences. She used blackface to earn herself a high ranking position in a company where only a black person could receive that position. She appropriated black culture and continues to do so despite having faced the scorn of America’s black community- the very people she claimed to be fighting for the rights of.
Why is it okay for PoC to appropriate white culture? First of all, the examples that you raise as instances of culture appropriation (e.g. the celebration of Christmas or owning an iPhone) are only examples of the globalization of Western, namely, “white” culture and its hold over Eastern regions. When you think about, our ideas of what “development” and “modernity” are are dictated by the industrialization technologies of the West. That’s why using certain aspects of and adapting to “white culture” is actually necessary for the peoples of a country or culture to industrialize and move forward. In addition to this, using Western objects and participating in their practices is mainly used as a way to be seen as “equal” to the West. No profit is being made off of the exploitation and labor of white people. The globalization of the fashion industry in the West has reached a point where Western clothing and garments having replaced traditional indigenous clothing of PoC as “professional attire”. When you look at the clothing people wore in the Ming Dynasty to go to work and compare it to what Chinese people wear to work now, there is a stark difference in what is seen as “professional” and “formal”. The globalization of the English language works in a similar fashion. You will often hear people in Eastern countries stating that knowing English leads to a higher chance of finding a good and respectable job. This is due to the political power that English-speaking nations hold over non-English-speaking countries. So, saying that PoC are appropriating white culture is incorrect in that the spread of Western culture is a direct result of their own actions; a prominent example being the British Empire. The main reason why white culture is never appropriated is history and power. Thanks to colonization, Western culture has become coveted and powerful. All the different nuances and aspects of it is widely understood by the rest of the world the way some cultures can only hope to be understood. Due to this, PoC are aware of the meanings behind sacred artifacts and practices and are hardly ever seen abusing them. They are aware that a painting of Mother Mary is not to be used as a backdrop for a picture of a young Japanese teenager smoking. The widespread lack of understanding of Asian, African and other indigenous cultures is infinitely more harmful than one PoC’s confusion concerning the meaning behind Christian cross.
As soon as they do something offensive- likely even before- they will be scolded and promptly educated about the symbol’s significance. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the symbols of other cultures. Another thing to keep in mind is that many objects that most people associate with the West and credit them for the creation of were actually invented by people of colour. The creation of paper? China. The creation of printing? China. The creation of gunpowder? China (Szalinski, W.). The creation of Arabic numerals? Please don’t make me explain this one. How do I know when I’m participating in cultural appropriation? There’s no concrete “List of Things Not to Culturally Appropriate”. What’s the point in asking what is and isn’t cultural appropriation if you don’t ask why it matters? When considering if what you’re doing counts as appropriation, you need to first think about the context and history behind the objects and practices that you want to use. You need to learn about the meaning behind the design of a Henna, why Plains Indians wore war bonnets and why they were primarily made out of Eagle feathers, who exactly the “cool elephant goddess” is. Then you need to ask yourself if what you’re planning to do is disrespectful to those things. The answer should be clear to you. Everything relies on contextual factors, which is why there’s always more than one answer to one question.
Racial Stereotyping.
Ariana Miyamoto. Crowned Miss Japan in 2015 at the age of 21. Despite this achievement, she was scorned by the Japanese online community for being half black. Later on, Donald Trump disqualified her from the Miss Universe pageant.
Ahmed Mohamed. Brought a homemade clock to school. Instead of being hailed as a genius for constructing a clock by hand at the of 14, he was arrested for bringing a ‘bomb’ to school.
Racial Stereotyping What are “racial stereotypes” and how are they developed? “Racial stereotypes” are preconceived ideas that create exaggerated mental images of a certain race. They automatically come to mind when coming into contact with someone of that race. When a person is stereotyped based on their race, traits that form their individuality and uniqueness are erased as they are boxed in with other people who happen to have a few similar physical traits as them. A few examples of racial stereotypes include: Asian women are submissive and fragile Asian kids are always abused by their families Black people aren’t articulate in their speaking Black people can’t swim Hispanic people are all drug dealers or are involved in crime syndicates - Hispanic people can’t speak English - Muslims are all terrorists and suicide bombers - Muslim women are oppressed by their religion While no stereotype develops out of thin air, all of them have some kind of history in which the people they are centered around were oppressed. For example, the trope of black people being obsessed watermelon. There was a political motivation behind the establishment of that stereotype. Before the emancipation of slaves, watermelons were just as likely to be associated with New Hampshire yokels or Kentucky hillbillies. When slaves finally obtained the freedom they were fighting for during the Civil War, free black people grew, harvested, and ate watermelon. The fruit became a symbol of their livelihood and newfound freedom. In response to this, Southern whites who felt threatened branded watermelon as a symbol of black people’s childishness, laziness, uncleanliness and general undesirable presence. Each insult comes with its own reason for being associated with watermelons. ‘Childishness’: due to the watermelon’s bright red and yellow colours. ‘Laziness’: due to how easy it is to grow them. ‘Uncleanliness’: due to the mess often created from cutting them open and eating them. An ‘undesirable presence’: due to how difficult it is to finish eating a watermelon alone (Black, W.).
How does racial stereotyping hurt PoC? Racial stereotyping isn’t just about getting your feelings hurt. Racism is never only about hurt feelings. The trope that white people can’t dance does not call upon a history in which white people were oppressed because of their race. Tropes about white people do not cause the resumes of people with common white names (e.g. Jennifer or James) to be thrown out simply because their name sounds white. This is because there are no stereotypes about white people severe enough for employers to completely turn their backs on them. There are no stereotypes about white people being thugs, being prone to committing felonies, or belonging in prison. However, people of colour with names commonly associated with ‘the ghetto’ often have their credentials overlooked because employers would rather not have to deal with employees who are ‘dirty’ and ‘smell of weed’. People with Asian or Hispanic names will be pushed to the side because employers don’t want employees who ‘can’t speak English’ or are ‘too sensitive’. Racial stereotypes don’t just hurt the feelings of people of colour, they destroy our chances of finding proper jobs and making a living for ourselves in industries dominated by white people. Let’s not forget how racial stereotyping teenagers growing up and entering law enforcement leads to racial profiling and, consequently, police brutality against racial minorities. The use of unnecessary force against unresisting black people will always be defended by people spouting ‘statistics’ and ‘facts’ about how prone to violence they are. This will be expanded on in the next section of this book. Look forward to more angsty dosages of racism exposed. One of the most painful realities of racial stereotyping is the fact that they don’t only begin hurting people of colour once they’ve become emotionally stable adults (note: don’t take this to mean that all adults are unaffected by illnesses in which their mental stability can be negatively impacted) who can ignore criticism based on their race. Children can’t ignore insults. They’re still growing up and their minds are still in the process of reaching maturity. Negative comments easily impact their self-esteem. Backhanded compliments such as, “You’re so articulate for a Chinese!” can only make them feel as though they’ve entered a lifelong competition with people of their own race. Why should PoC be conditioned to see others who
share their struggle as enemies whom they constantly need to be better than in all aspects of life? Children are young. They are easily influenced by the actions of the people surrounding them who are older. They haven’t developed narrow mental images of different races and they don’t have the capacity to categorize people yet. They reciprocate when you make racist jokes around them. They listen to what you say, they listen to the people around you laugh, and they begin to imitate you. They watch you scrunch your nose and hold your head high when you turn away from a black woman across the street. No child is born with hatred for another race; racism is taught like the ABCs and ingrained into the mind. You’ll often hear people saying that children are very cruel because of how blunt and truthful they are. Well, it’s not just older people kids are mean to. They’re mean to each other as well. If you think a little eight year old girl talking to her Mexican friend won’t lean a little further away, maintain less eye contact, smile a little less, or stop responding to jokes because that’s what her big brother always does with his Mexican friend, you’re wrong. You don’t have to be outright racist and say you don’t trust Mexicans for your little brother or sister to stop hanging out with them. Children of colour can be isolated by other little kids because of the stereotypes about them being imprinted into the minds of classmates. As the kids with racist thoughts embedded into them grow up, they begin to spread their ideas to the little ones around them. It’s a gross and vicious cycle of children being exposed to racial stereotypes and consequently hurting other kids because they feel they’re superior. Who knows what they’ll do when they reach adulthood and find a job. Will they become an employer who puts resumes with the name ‘Laquisha’ or ‘Lawanda’ on it in the trash? Or will they become a teacher who sees a Muslim boy with a clock and assume it’s a bomb? Perhaps they’ll become a cop who sees a black boy in a hoodie across the road and reflexively shoot him. There’s also the possibility of them growing up to become a candidate for President of the United States of America and then saying that Mexican immigrants are, “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” However, they can’t be blatantly racist so they’ll backtrack and cover it up by saying, “Some, I assume, are good people.” All à la Donald Trump, of course.
How do I stop myself from racially stereotyping people? People often excuse themselves from having to adjust their behaviour by saying that they’re not racist, so they can’t possibly be applying racial tropes to people. The first step to fixing a problem is always acknowledging that there’s a problem. People of colour can be as prejudiced towards each other as white people are to us. It’s important to pay closer attention to your subconscious actions when interacting with people who you could potentially be harboring preconceived ideas about. If you find yourself leaning away from someone or finding it difficult to make extended eye contact with them despite the conversation topic being your average small-talk go-to and you have no idea why, it’s possible that there’re some things you learned about people of their race as a child that still has a handle on you. Be more aware of your initial, fleeting thoughts regarding certain situations. These thoughts are what we have been conditioned to think. It’s our response to thinking those things that tell us what type of person we are. If a black man you haven’t connected with in years happily tells you that they’ve earned a master’s degree and the first thing you think is, “Well, that’s surprising,” there’s obviously something going on. Paying more attention to these small details helps us recognize problematic behaviors in ourselves and help us figure out what we need to do to change for the better. An important tool in helping us break away from stereotypes is research. People often cite racial stereotypes as facts when trying to justify their racist actions. Stop trying to figure out whether a trope is true or not to defend yourself. Finding out the history behind how a trope was established and why it’s harmful can help us separate from stereotypes and regulate our behaviour. What are you even doing mulling over what’s racist and what isn’t when you have Google sitting in your pocket? Remember that asking a person about their entire race isn’t that great an idea because one person just can’t be a representative for everyone within that social group. Don’t put that kind of pressure on them. Educating yourself is your own job; not someone else’s responsibility.
Police Brutality.
Michael Brown. Shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson at the age of 18. Wilson claimed that he suspected Brown of stealing a pack of cigarillos. As if that’s enough reason to shoot him 6 times.
Sandra Bland. Pulled over by officer Brian Encinia and body slammed into the ground. Arrested. Found dead in her cell 3 days later. All for a broken tail light.
Police Brutality What are “police brutality” and “racial profiling”? “Police brutality” is defined as the use of excessive and unnecessary force by police when handling civilians. “Excessive”, in this case, would be described as force that is far more than what is required of the situation (e.g. pulling a civilian out of her car and body slamming her to the ground for a broken light tail). However, police brutality exists in many forms. It comes in a physical form, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, psychological intimidation, police corruption, false arrests, racial profiling, misconduct of police gear (guns, pepper spray, batons, gas, Tasers, etc.), political repression and racial profiling (Danilina, S.). “Racial profiling” is described as the targeting of particular individuals by law enforcement authorities based on their physical traits and personal characteristics rather than their actions and behavior. However, the term is also often used to refer to more than someone’s race. It can also be linked ethnicity, national origin, and religion. Impermissibly using these traits as a basis for determining whether or not an individual needs to be questioned, detained, stopped, or be subjected to any other form of law enforcement is considered racial profiling (“What Is Racial Profiling?”). However, it is important to note and emphasize the phrase “impermissible use” in this definition. Racial profiling does not occur when there is substantial evidence that a suspect relating to a specific incident or organization is of a certain race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion and law enforcement authorities use this information as part of their investigation to locate the suspect. The term is only aimed at law enforcement activities that stem from the erroneous assumption that people bearing certain physical traits and personal characteristics are more likely to conduct unlawful behaviour. What we have been looking at in this book is how law enforcement authority blatantly participate in racial profiling and police brutality and how this has led to the subjugation and death of many minorities. More specifically, the subjugation and death of many people of colour in the United States. We will also be scrutinizing how authority incorrectly handles reports of police brutality, opting to either overlook them or haphazardly cover up the situation.
Where’s the proof that it’s an actual problem? Currently, the US government counts killings by the police through an FBI program where law enforcement agencies can voluntarily submit an annual count of what they believe are “justifiable homicides”, which is defined as “the killing of a felon in the line of duty” (“The Counted”). Arguably, a system in which police officers are allowed to choose whether or not they want to submit this information based solely on their personal preference is worse than having no system at all. Fluctuations in the number of police agencies reporting information in addition to faulty numbers being submitted can only result in the creation of inaccurate trends and misinformation as they are relayed to the public. The lack of a proper death toll system in itself speaks volumes about corruption in the law force. It was found that only 1,100 police departments reported justifiable homicides between 2005 and 2012; a staggeringly disproportionate number when you compare it to the total number of police departments in America. In 2013, the data stated that there were a total of 461 police killings. However, a crowdsourced count discovered that there were at least 300 more fatalities during that year. In an attempt to ameliorate the problem, the Guardian set up a project titled “The Counted”, which is an interactive database of police killings in 2015. The aim of the project is to monitor the demographics of the victims and inform the public of how they died. According to the database, as of October 15th, there have been 914 civilians killed by law enforcement in 2015; 492 of which were non-white minorities. Out of 51 states, only one state has so far been able to avoid police killings: Vermont. 158 deaths occurred in California, 92 in Texas, and 56 in Florida, making them the three states with the most police killings (“The Counted”). An argument that is often used in an attempt to lessen police violence and racial profiling as a major problem is the fact that, “The major cause for African American deaths in the US is black on black crime; not police brutality!” What they don’t understand is that that is a completely different topic altogether. The point that we are trying to convey is that the people who have sworn an oath to serve and protect are unlawfully killing citizens. When a murder occurs, we label it as a crime and brand the person behind it a criminal, so why does being equipped with a police badge and uniform change everything we know about law and order?
Why do you say that Michael Brown’s death was unjust and covered up? First and foremost, I want to point out the inconsistencies and lies within Darren Wilson’s testimony under oath and what he said to fellow police officers. There is no reason for there to be any differences between what he says at different points in time to different people unless he is lying. Under oath, he testified to the grand jury that the Ferguson police department did not ask him to write any reports regarding the incident. This blatantly violates standard police procedure. The Ferguson PD requires “Use of Report Force F-080” to be filled out by any officer involved in a shooting. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU) sued for the public release of police reports concerning the Michael Brown shooting but were given blank documents or told that no reports had been written. This could mean one of two things. Either the police department violated their own regulations by covering up the incident, or, Wilson refused to write a report and lied in front of the grand jury (Robert, A.). Wilson had also exaggerated the severity of his injuries. He testified that Brown had swung at him twice; so hard that he was afraid that a third would kill him. However, when photos were taken of his face and neck as proof of injuries on the same day, only a slight redness was present in both areas, heavily contradicting his words. Slight red rashes are not the injuries of someone on the brink of unconsciousness. More importantly are the lies surrounding the actual confrontation. Wilson stated in his testimony that he was alerted through a phone call about a robbery at Ferguson Market and deduced that Brown and might be a suspect when he caught him holding cigarillos. However, to another FPD officer who was first to arrive on the scene, he said that he had not been aware of any robbery happening. The officer admitted to this in his testimony. In addition to this, he did his best to defame Brown and paint him a demon. In the article “Ferguson Documents: Officer Darren Wilson’s Testimony” was Wilson’s full testimony. In it, Wilson said that Brown had charged at him, “and the face he had was looking straight through me, like I wasn’t even there, [...] Just coming straight at me like he was going to run right through me.” He stated that he clearly saw Brown’s face in his final moments as, “the demeanor on his face went blank, the aggression was gone, [...] the
threat was stopped.” Contrary to what he said, in the Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Medical Examiner System’s autopsy report, a gunshot wound was found near the apex of Brown’s head, four inches back from the top of the forehead. The shape of the wound suggested that Brown’s head would have had to be near parallel to the ground for the bullet to have entered that way (Vicens, A.). Unless Brown had been charging towards Wilson in the manner of a bull with his head bent over, the bullet could not have reached that area. However, Wilson stated in his testimony that he could clearly see Brown’s face as he charged and as his life left him, meaning that Brown would have charged at him with his head raised and looking straight ahead. The proof written in the autopsy and in the wounds on Brown’s body points to Wilson’s lies. One of Wilson’s prime eye witnesses, the one most quoted by conservative news articles and media and whose accountings most closely match up with Wilson’s story, was found to not have even been in the area during the shooting. Sandra McElroy was found by the FBI to be racist and mentally unstable. They proved in an interview that McElroy had lied about key details, how she left the scene and her location at the time of the incident. She often made racist posts online and had a YouTube channel with anti-Obama clips. Furthermore, McElroy has a record in St. Louis for making claims about cases she had no connections with and interfering with investigations. All of this was known. Yet, she was still allowed to testify in front of the grand jury not once, but twice (Bastone, W.). Even if someone were able to undermine everything that I just typed regarding the case, the death would still be unjustified. The whole premise of the incident was Brown’s having stolen a pack of cigarillos. No sane person would believe that something like that is worthy of the death. Regarding the people on social media and off the Internet who argue that Brown was shot because he was a thief, it is highly plausible to say that they would be outraged over the incident if they were not aware of Brown’s race. Wilson’s testifying that he assumed Brown was a suspect because he was holding a pack of cigarillos is racial profiling in itself. Without any descriptions of a suspect to work with (especially since he apparently wasn’t even aware of robbery having happened), there was no reason for him to assume that Brown was a thief. There are also those who argue that Brown was shot because Wilson felt threat
ened and that the homicide was an act of self defence. A police officer should be well trained enough to know how to de-escalate a situation and how to bloodlessly subdue a violent suspect. If how Wilson acted during the confrontation is the standard for how all police officers act, then more needs to be done about the evaluation of police personnel. What about Sandra Bland? There were many points in Brian Encinia’s arrest of Sandra Bland that was unlawfully conducted and in which he escalated the situation. When he first pulls Bland over, he says, “You mind putting out your cigarette, please?” To this, Bland responded, “Well, I’m in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?” It is completely within her rights to go against his requestion. It makes you wonder why he’s bothering with the cigarette in the first place. It’s also part of his escalation of the event. He goes on to tell her, “Well you can step on out [of the car] now.” She responds with “I don’t have to step out.” He repeatedly tells her to step out of the car and as he becomes agitated, he tells her to, “Step out of the car or I will yank you out.” He is not allowed to yank her out of her car unless she is posing a threat. Throughout the entire encounter, he never gives a reason for why he wants her to step out. He states that he is giving her a “lawful order” but neither telling her to extinguish her cigarette or telling her to step out of her car without giving a proper reason for why, or what is called a “probably cause”, can be considered a lawful order (“10 Things”). Bland was very well aware of her rights throughout the entire ordeal. She knew that he had no right to tell her to extinguish her cigarette if it wasn’t a threat, to pull her out of her car if she wasn’t a threat, to arrest her without reasoning. She said that she refuses to talk to him, “other than to identify myself” before she is cut off. When Bland stated her rights and was posed to call her lawyer, Encinia seemed to take that as a challenge to his authority and got aggressive. What is arguably the worst thing that Encinia does in this video is yell, “Get out of the car or I will light you up!” as he draws his Taser. This is a clear violation of her constitutional rights and is an act of excessive force on behalf of the officer. A Taser is the last resort next to a gun. In a scenario like this, if he is unable to properly de-escalate the situation, he needs to wait for backup to arrive. He could also have given her a ticket and walked away calmly. The
arrest was terribly conducted and was not supposed to have happened in the first place (“10 Things”). Already mentioned in one of the Tumblr posts, there are inconsistencies in her arrest papers. On Page 2, she said that she has epilepsy and that she takes medication for it: Keppra. On Page 7, “No” is circled for the question asking whether or not she takes any medication. Based on the OP’s speculations, Page 7 is more likely to contain false information due to the possibility of a forged signature. If the police were unable to provide her with proper medication during her arrest, they are violating their own policies. Although, this wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone as they were unable to do something as simple as check up face-to-face with her every hour as per police protocol. Bland’s toxicology report suggested that marijuana was found in her body. The THC levels were so high that one toxicologist suggests that half an ounce to an ounce of it would have had to be eaten five hours before her death. Bland was detained in a jail cell for three days. It is not a possibility that she would have changed into the jumpsuit and hid weed on her for two days without them realizing. It also would have had to be eaten because they definitely would have noticed if she was smoking it. One ounce of weed is typically used to make sixty marijuana cigarettes. It’s important to understand just how much one ounce is. That is the amount used for an entire batch of brownies. She wouldn’t have willingly consumed that much marijuana as she wouldn’t be able to respond to officers when they came to check in on her. A new possibility that this points out is that someone came inside her cell and forced her to ingest it to have something to use against her. The evidence continues to incriminate the people detaining her. Another factor in her arrest that was already discussed was the possibility of her already being dead when her mugshot was taken. According to protocol, mugshots are to be taken when the suspect first arrives. It is not possible for Bland’s complexion to have changed so drastically over the course of a few hours. First off, it is highly unlikely that she was standing up against a wall in that picture. It’s possible that her corpse was manipulated and laid on the ground when that picture was taken. You can see that the gray background of her mugshot matches up with the colour of her cell’s floor. You are also told to look straight at the camera when taking a mugshot. Considering how they had treated her thus far, it
is unlikely that they would have let her unfocused and lifeless eyes slide. It would have been seen as another challenge of authority. The information released to the public had also stated that she had used a trash bag to hang herself from the 5 foot wall despite Bland being a 6 foot tall woman. They also stated that the jail cell in the pictures released to the public were untampered with. However, we can clearly see that there is a bag inside the trashcan. If the scene was really left untouched, just how many trash bags did they put inside the cell with her? Everything inside a jail cell is supposed to be bolted down anyway, so it’s not plausible that there would have been any more bags. If that’s the case, what would have been the point in replacing the trash bag? That’s not high on the list of priorities when you check in on an inmate and see them hanging from the ceiling by their neck. There are too many inconsistencies between the evidence and the information relayed to us for there to have been no fabricating of information involved. Of course, there is also the matter of the uncovered picture of Enciana in Klu Klux Klan (KKK) clothing while wearing his police badge on display. Why are these the people being allowed to “serve and protect” civilians? What is #BlackLivesMatter? The term “Black Lives Matter” was a hashtag that began on Twitter following the shooting of African American teen Trayvon Martin in 2013. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It is now the name of the activist movement in the United States fighting against systematic oppression and police brutality. The hashtag has sparked anger in many people (the majority of which are white) who believe that they should be included, creating the hashtag #AllLivesMatter. What these people fail to understand is that #BlackLivesMatter does not equate to “your lives don’t matter”. In fact, those people were never even mentioned. When you see a hashtag and a movement that works to destroy something as deeply ingrained into society and history as racism, and the first thing you think is, “Why aren’t I included?”, you need to reevaluate yourself, your internalized racism and realize your privilege.
White Feminism.
lslamic Oppression. What White Feminists always fail to realize is the fact that the Islamic religion does not force a woman to cover herself. It is her choice to do so. Does that mean that there aren’t women who are forced to cover up? No. But saying, “Their religion is oprressing them! We need to help!” is just plain insensitive.
Reverse Racism. Sorry, white people, but you can’t experience racism. Reverse racism just isn’t a thing. You may have been oppressed by classism or sexism, but not racism. Never racism.
White Feminism What is “White Feminism”? What about “white privilege”? Let’s get one thing out of the way before someone starts getting defensive. Being a feminist with white skin does not make you a White Feminist. So, being a white feminist does not make you a White Feminist. However, White Feminism is called ‘White Feminism’ because the majority White Feminists are white feminists and the majority of white feminists are White Feminists. Does being a White Feminist make you a bad person? No. Does being a White Feminist mean you need take a step back, reflect, listen, and learn? Yes. ‘White Feminism’ is a term used to label a method of practicing feminism. The method outlines a set of beliefs that allows for ignorance surrounding issues that specifically affect women of colour. It is a ‘one size fits all’ type of feminism where the ‘one size’ is your average straight, cisgender, middle class white woman. White Feminists believe that all women (including women of colour) experience misogyny in the same manner. They fight for a woman’s right to saunter around topless, but bash a Muslim woman’s right to cover herself. They cry out about how every white woman in America makes 78 cents to every white man’s dollar, but are dead silent when a black man points out that he makes even less than they do. They assume that all women of all cultures want the same thing (Young, C.). Why does a white woman’s version of ‘equality’ need to be our ‘equality’? Whenever a woman of colour discusses white feminism within the context of how mainstream feminism benefits whiteness more than women of colour, she faces an onslaught of defensive white women trying to distinguish themselves from White Feminists by saying, “I’m not like that!” and, “Would you please stop generalizing all white women? Just say ‘some white women’.” A White Feminist’s reaction to intersectional feminism is a man’s reaction to feminism. They scorn men for saying “Not all men,” but they turn their backs to us and say “Not all white women.” Hey, that’s actually a great example of white privilege. Someone’s trying their best to hold a conversation about the issues that WoC face and a White Feminist immediately disregards her arguments by saying that their, “feelings have been severely hurt and I don’t feel welcome here”.
We’re about to expand on what ‘white privilege’ means, but there’s something we need to clarify. The last time I clarified something in this section was to make the distinction between white feminists and White Feminists. Not all white feminists are White Feminists. However, all white feminists, as do all white people, have white privilege. A white person could be the most racially aware being on Earth. They could be conscious of the issues that people of colour face like cultural appropriation, racial stereotyping, and police brutality. They could be using their platform to speak up on these issues. They could even be racially biased towards PoC. But they still benefit from institutionalized racism. When it comes to white privilege, it doesn’t matter what’s going on inside as long as the pigment of your skin is pale enough to be labelled ‘white’. White privilege is white people’s privilege to have an employer choose them over a Hispanic woman with better credentials than them because her skin is brown and her name is Alejandra. It’s their privilege to not have their livelihood taken away because of racist stereotypes that were created for political purposes. It’s a white woman’s privilege to wear skimpy bikinis and be upheld as the standard of beauty for women all over the world. It’s a white man’s privilege to murder nine black people in a religious setting and be escorted to Burger King in a police car. It’s a white person’s privilege to wear a hoodie and walk down the street at night without being followed and shot. Had Michael Brown been white, would Darren Wilson be convicted and put in jail? Yes. Had Sandra Bland been white, would she have been body slammed and arrested for a broken tail light? No. White privilege allows white people to be ignorant of racial issues that people of colour face because they will never have to experience them. White parents will never have to teach their children to put their hands up in the air when a cop confronts them and to comply to their every will. Enough black children have had this exact conversation with their parents for it to be widely labelled across social media platforms simply as ‘The Talk’. White people never have to be worried about seeing their culture and religion worn as costumes on Halloween. People of colour respect their culture enough to not insult them like that. They are allowed to saunter around a Muslim space naked while telling Muslim women to take off their clothes and join them in the name of ‘equality’ and ‘feminism’. If Muslim women wore their hijabs and burqas to a church
with more clothes in tow and told all the women to put them on, they’d be arrested. This privilege is also the reason why a white person can never, under any circumstance, experience racism. Racism is the institutionalized oppression of a race that is supported by institutions in a society that is solely based on a person’s membership in that race. Sure, as white people so eloquently state with red faces, they “have problems too!” Sorry, but do these problems stem from their skin colour? Are white people exclusively banned from ballet groups because of the stereotype that they can’t dance? No. In fact, it’s black women who are banned because they are stereotypically ‘too curvy’ to dance properly. White people can experience prejudice, but never racism. When you dive into social media looking for posts about people’s experiences with racism, you come across some White Feminists saying that less attention needs to be on people of colour because they’re the ones with ‘real problems’. You come across things like this:
Oh no! I think I’m a White Feminist! What do I do?! First of all, thank you for acknowledging this about yourself. The first step to fixing a problem is always finding the problem. If you’re a White Feminist, you need to stop painting yourself as The Biggest Victim, because that’s not who you are. You’re not as oppressed as you want others to think you are. You’ll be slighted because you’re a woman, yes, but never because you’re a white woman. If you think that different races don’t face oppression differently, or that feminism is stupid and isn’t needed, it’s because you’re privileged. You not experiencing racial discrimination does not mean that it isn’t real. Now, to transition from a White Feminist to a feminist, you need to learn about intersectional feminism. ‘Intersectional feminism’ is feminism that believes that all women experience oppression in various forms with varying degrees of intensity. Intersectional feminism isn’t only inclusive of people of colour, it’s also inclusive of the LBGTQIA+ community and pays attention to classist issues. Feminism is not about fighting for the rights of white women, it is about fighting for the rights of all oppressed peoples. If you’re wondering why feminism always gets such a bad rep, it’s because the feminism often depicted in mainstream media is White Feminism. It’s obvious that people will sneer at a movement that cries out in support of #FreeTheNipple but ignores acid attacks in India, the Ferguson riots, and Muslim women who have their headscarves pulled off by people shaming them for wearing them in public (Vidal, A.). Being an intersectional feminist doesn’t bar you from fighting for a woman’s right to breastfeed in public, but it does require you to pay attention to other people experiencing oppression. There’s no way everyone in a world as diverse as ours can conform to one single standpoint about an issue that concerns literally everyone. It requires you to be conscious of the various voices in the movement and to be sensitive of all the cultures, races, and ethnicities fighting for their rights and freedom. Educate yourself on the problems that they face and be more attuned to their opinions. Always remember that when you reach a point where you believe you’ve achieved equality, there are others still struggling to have their voices heard. Institutionalized racism will always be present in a world where the people with the most racial privilege choose to ignore it.
Bibliography “10 Things About The Sandra Bland Traffic Stop Every Texan Should Know.”Texas Standard. Texas Standard, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.texasstandard.org/shows/07222015/10things-about-the-sandra-bland-traffic-stop-every-texan-shouldknow/>. Bastone, William, Andrew Goldberg, and Joseph Jesselli. “”Witness 40”: Exposing A Fraud In Ferguson.” The Smoking Gun. TSG Industries Inc., 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/unmasking-Ferguson-witness-40-496236>. Black, William. “How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 08 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/how-watermelons-became-a-racist-trope/383529/>. Danilina, S. “What Is Police Brutality?” The Law Dictionary. The Law Dictionary, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://thelawdictionary.org/ article/what-is-police-brutality/>. “Ferguson Documents: Officer Darren Wilson’s Testimony.” NPR. NPR, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366519644/ferguson-docs-officer-darren-wilsons-testimony>. Mehring, Jonathan. NYC Police Brutality Protests. Digital image. Jonathan Mehring. National Geographic, 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.mehringphoto.com/nyc-police-brutality-protests/9ualr4armm0226p4nurhwbzjegp4k5>. Robert, Anthony, and Gillian Wilcox. “Michael Brown Shooting in Ferguson.”American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri. American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http:// www.aclu-mo.org/legal-docket/michael-brown-shooting-in-ferguson/>.
Bibliography Szalinski, Wayne. “List of Chinese Inventions.” Ranker. Ranker, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-chinese-inventions/wayne-szalinski>. “The Counted.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database>. Vicens, AJ, and Jaeh Lee. “Pentagon’s Report of Michael Brown’s Autopsy.” Mother Jones. Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress, 8 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http:// www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/heres-dods-report-michael-browns-autopsy>. Vidal, Ava. “’Intersectional Feminism’. What the Hell Is It?” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10572435/ Intersectional-feminism-What-the-hell-is-it-And-why-you-shouldcare.html>. “What Is Racial Profiling?” The Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 2015. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/racial-profiling2011/what-is-racial-profiling.html>. Young, Cate. “This Is What I Mean When I Say “White Feminism”” Batty Mamzelle. BattyMamzelle™, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015. <http://battymamzelle.blogspot.com/2014/01/This-Is-What-IMean-When-I-Say-White-Feminism.html#.UtBGy2RDsb4>.
What’s Up? Social media is a platform in which people can share their rawest emotions and innermost thoughts under the guise of ‘anonymity’ and, of course, the safety of sitting behind a screen. It’s kind of like yelling into a black void, tbh. In here, you’ll find a collection of posts from Twitter and Tumblr that are reactions to racist events and opinions on racial topics that centre around the 21st century. Absolutely nothing about the posts have been altered or censored. They’ve been sorted into four categories: Cultural Appropriation, Racial Stereotyping, Police Brutality, and White Feminism. At the end of each segment, enjoy my angsty interpretations of each topic. Soly