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March 10, 2019 at 12:13 pm #4751Ella MayParticipant
<p class=”p1″>This piece of poetry is by Clint Smith. He is a writer, poet, and activist, and this specific poem is about hurricane Katrina and making meaning of what happened. One thing that really stuck out to me in this poem was how he alludes to the fact that some people thought the hurricane was the “best thing that could have happened / to a burning city”. This line is juxtaposed with the reality of the immense damage and death that was caused by the hurricane. Clint’s line alludes to the fact that some people thought the destruction caused could somehow help renew or rebuild the city. In a similar way, Blind Spotting highlighted how many people believed gentrification was the best thing that could happen to Oakland. Although they are vastly different examples, both illustrate how outside parties continually impose ideas and actions upon communities of color about what is “best” for them as a result of viewing them as in need of assistance or repair.</p>
image source: https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/crossroads/own_words/clint_smith/
- This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Ella May.
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March 3, 2019 at 10:47 am #4539Ella MayParticipant
<p class=”p1″>Last summer, the police was called on a black firefighter who was conducting yearly fire safety investigations in Oakland. The area is known for having a history of serious fires, so the fire department inspect homes every year to make sure they do not pose a significant fire risk. Normal protocol means that firefighters knock on the door to let residents know what they will be doing, leave information, and whether or not they get a response from the resident they go ahead with the inspection, walking around the perimeter of the house. Firefighter Kevin Moore began his inspection but moments later the cops were called on him as he was inspected for “criminal activity”. Just the next day, he was conducting another inspection and turned around to see he was being videotaped and was asked by the homeowner to show ID. When the resident could not “clearly see” his face in the first ID photo they asked to see a second form of ID. Moore explained that he worked for the department, had on a full uniform and drove the large red firetruck in front of the resident’s house yet this was not enough to “prove” to this resident that he was from the fire department and simply just doing his job. Meanwhile, Moore’s white co-worker (pictured) who was also conducting inspections with him that same day was never once suspected of criminal activity. This example shows how white space is constantly under surveillance and how those seeking to maintain it always feel entitled to suspect/question/accuse people of color.</p>
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-firefighter-oakland-police_us_5b316e53e4b0cb56051b7804Photo: Paul Chinn 2017
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February 23, 2019 at 6:55 pm #4256Ella MayParticipant
<p class=”p1″>These two images were featured in an article on the history of national parks and the forced removal of native populations from these spaces. The image on the left is an ad for an event called an “Indian Field Day” in which tourists to Yosemite could come watch various exhibitions featuring native peoples. Events like this exoticized the native population and made their traditional ways of life and bodies into tourist attractions that could be profited off of. While natives were needed for these types of events, they were not allowed to use and maintain the land as they had been doing for so, so long before the arrival of settler colonialists. This reveals a deeply divided power dynamic in which park “creators” took complete control over when natives could and could not be on park lands while using them as ways to make profits by exploiting their culture. The second picture shows tourists posing outside of a traditional wigwam. This shows how parks kept cultural artifacts belonging to the indigenous communities and used them as tourist attractions while simultaneously robbing native Americans of their recognition, land, and resources.</p>
Article: https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/erasing-native-americans-from-national-parks/Photo: William M. McCarthy Photography Collection
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February 16, 2019 at 6:39 pm #4066Ella MayParticipant
<p class=”p1″>This picture was taken during a demonstration held outside of the King County Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle, WA. Two years ago the city proposed a massive overhaul and expansion of this center that will end up costing around 210 million dollars. Since then community activists have been working tirelessly to stop the construction of this new jail. They are advocating for the end of a “racist and punitive family court system”, for the reworking of cities without prisons, and for the 210 million dollars allocated for a new facility to instead be funneled into a range of housing, health, education, and community-based support services. This is a situation which illustrates the power of the criminal justice system and their approach to handling many of the pressing issues facing youth today. Instead of listening to the community and addressing some of the societal issues that lead to youth incarceration they are choosing to expand their facility and thus continue a cycle of mass incarceration that disproportionately targets and affects youth of color.</p>
<p class=”p1″>Photo: DJ Martinez</p>
<p class=”p1″>Article Credit: https://southseattleemerald.com/2018/03/30/perspective-no-new-youth-jail-coalition-demands-moratorium-on-construction-during-week-of-action/</p>Attachments:
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February 10, 2019 at 11:14 am #3855Ella MayParticipant
The segregation among schools that manifests today has often also impacted the treatment that students face based on their race and economic status. One article on the subject cited a 2011 study that found that students who lived and went to school in low-income areas and were people of color, were more likely to have to go through metal detectors than their peers at primarily white schools (1). The use of heavy security machinery and personal allows over-policing to begin in these schools and is disproportionally targeted at youth of color (2). This creates an environment where students are constantly under heavy surveillance and relays that there is a distrust of students by school staff. This current reality challenges us to think about how segregation amongst schools has created vastly different environments and outcomes for students depending on their race and income level.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/31/02security.h31.html
https://www.blackenterprise.com/overpolicing-black-schools/
Photo: Mike Groll/AP: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/when-school-feels-like-prison/499556/
- This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Ella May.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Ella May.
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February 1, 2019 at 6:16 pm #3585Ella MayParticipant
<p class=”p1″>This is an image of Henry Louis Gates Jr. being arrested outside of his home in 2009. Gates had just returned home from a trip only to find the lock on his front door was jammed. He then asked his taxi driver to help him try to open the door and while they were doing so a passerby became suspicious that these men were trying to break into this house and called the police. While this is a contemporary example, unpacking why something like this happened can be done by looking at the legacy of housing segregation. The assumption that prompted someone to feel the need to call the cops stems from segregationist ideas about who is expected or allowed to live in certain spaces, and who by default is assumed to be ill-intentioned. Housing segregation created clear demarcations about who was and was not allowed to live in certain cities and neighborhoods, and we can see the legacy of these deeply racist historical practices today when people of color are assumed to be out of place because of their race in the context of a certain neighborhood.</p>
photo: B Carter/AP
- This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Ella May.
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January 27, 2019 at 12:07 pm #3445Ella MayParticipant
This photo is from a protest against school bussing programs which was an initiative aimed at integrating schools by bussing students to schools outside of their immediate neighborhoods, that were highly segregated. Programs like this faced immense backlash from many white communties. People against bussing, like those in the photo, were deeply opposed to the program which they viewed as a threat and counteractive to the work that they had been doing to preserve the racial homogeneity of their neighborhoods. This reaction to bussing programs highlights the attachment that so many people had to the values and ideas which reinforced racial segregation.
Photo credit: Virgina Historical Society, https://www.virginiahistory.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-history-explorer/civil-rights-movement-virginia/school-busing
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January 18, 2019 at 2:16 pm #3099Ella MayParticipant
This image in some ways symbolizes how Yosemite and other natural parks are envisioned as untapped natural space that has been historically preserved for the American public’s enjoyment and tourism. What is less frequently discussed is how this ‘space’, was created from land that belonged to indigenous communities that were forcibly removed in an effort to create many national parks. I think that this image and the discussion of national parks relates to Lipsitz discussion of America’s obsession with “the ideal of the pure American space”, and thus how this obsession bred the violent removal of indigenous populations from their lands and also resulted in the erasure of indigenous lives and stories from the histories of the national parks.
PHOTO: Max Whittaker, NY Times, 2017- This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Ella May.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Nadeen Kharputly.
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