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March 9, 2019 at 9:28 pm #4722JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
For this week’s photo share I chose to focus on this image taken by Jack Healy used in an article titled “Occupying the Prairie: Tensions Rise as Tribes Move to Block a Pipeline.” This photo portrays a very signicant issue when a company in Texas launched a project creating the Dakota Access pipeline. When this project was publicized, it initiated an outbreak of peaceful protests led by the Native Americans because the pipeline would harm their water supply and threaten their sacred territory. This led to a growth of tension between the Natives who came to protect their land and the officers who have showed up to supervise the construction of the pipeline. With that being said, I thought that this image specifically was successful in showing those opposing sides. On the left of the image are the Lakota riders who were on Standing Rock territory riding around in front of the police officers as a way to show their allegiance to their land and people. This peaceful demonstration was a traditional ceremony that portrayed their culture on those lands, which is signifying the importance of preserving their existence as the rightful protectors of this land. However on the right side of the image, it shows the uniformity of the police officers as they stand in a straight line in order to blockade the Native Americans from entering the construction site. The alliance on the left of Native American tribes shows that their majority in support is already overpowering the authority of the officers on this land because they are the true protectors.
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February 24, 2019 at 1:59 pm #4324JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
For this week’s topic, we have started to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of educating people about the movement’s true vision for global justice. During the class conversation, one of the main points that struck out to me was the awareness and understanding of seeking out justice due to the continuous struggles that the black communities must endure. It was mentioned that there is a significant difference between “All Lives Matter” to “Black Lives Matter” because saying that all lives matter doesn’t take into account that different groups of people experience specific hardships targeted onto them, though it doesn’t necessarily demean another’s own struggles. It just shows that people must consider and be conscious of those differences because truthfully, our society should not have to question who’s lives have more value but to attack the social construct that has built to degrade certain groups of individuals. I chose this image, taken by Johnny Silvercloud, which became the headlining picture for the article titled “Teaching Police that Black Lives Matter” by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah because it connects with needing to educate people of those communities of how to be civil with one another, especially with officers towards black communities. There has been consistent apprehension between the police and black communities which is shown by this article as Akwasi interviewed some officers on how they should improve their relationship with these communities. The article provides an insight on how and why officers would react to certain situations when confronting black people specifically, which is then countered by the author’s ideas as well as the opinions of people of that community. The overall theme that I understood from the article was that compromise and rcognition that working together comes from both sides equally was the best option for a safer environment for these black communities who still have to think about their lives constantly just because of the color of their skin. It’s not enough to just say or think about these ideas but to actually implement them so that progress between police and black community relationship becomes better.
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February 17, 2019 at 11:39 am #4103JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
<p style=”text-align: left;”>For this week’s topic I chose this documentary called “Precious Knowledge” because it portrayed a controversial debate on the importance of Ethnic Studies within the curriculum. The filmmakers, Ari Luis Paulo and Eren Iasabel McGinnis, documented the engagement of students within the Mexican American Studies Program in Tucson High School in Arizona. This documentary was able to show the progress of student and community activism after Arizona passed a law allowing the State Superintendent to abolish the teaching of ethnic studies classes. In retaliation, the students expressed their message to save ethnic studies through the media and with active protesting. The teachers and especially the students believed that ethnic studies is a significant portion of the curriculum that must be taken into importance because it allows underepresented students to learn about THEIR history. The knowledge that they have retained from it proved in research studies that there was a higher rate of students of color raising their GPA’s and even pursue a higher education. It is a new perspective informing students to embrace their culture and background in a comfortable setting. This picture specifically was filmed within the documentary when the students of Tucson High School protested and informed the community about ethnic studies being taken off the curriculum. It was interesting to see the progress within the documentary as the community involvement expanded. The reason why I chose this was because it was one of the major films that we had watched in my Contemporary Issues class in the summer program I was in, coming as a freshman last year. I really enjoyed that class because I was able to learn from other incoming freshmen who came from different cultural backgrounds.</p>
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February 10, 2019 at 1:36 am #3833JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
For this week’s topic on the Hip Hop generation, I wanted to share J. Cole’s song titled “Change” which was released in 2016 in his album, “4 Your Eyez Only.” I chose to focus on this song specifically because his choice of lyrics and the way the music video portrayed his message was in an interesting way. First off, the image I included was the cover for the official music video which hinders a sense of sorrow and distress from how J. Cole slouches as he looks up at the American flag hoping for the change that his community needs. I think that the way he built up his lyrics from his optimism for a “better day” to where the main issue was, gave way for the audience to think about the realities of police brutality. J. Cole started the song to be light and in relation to his practice of religion focusing on the sense of forgiveness, but as it progresses, you can see that it evolves as much as he has evolved in reality. The shift of the song then moves towards the bloodshed and the terrifying experiences of African American people. He mentions in the beginning that he was once silent and lives through life as he does, but after a couple of verses, the change in lyrics was meant to portray his maturity on being able to use his music as a way to speak up about the truth. As he reminisces back upon all the cases of African American people dying in the hands of violence, I think it was powerful for J. Cole to end with the last 2 verses disclosing his close friend, James McMillan Jr., who became another victim of this injustice. J. Cole not only personalized this song to it’s fullest, but he imposes a clear message that CHANGE within our actions and CHANGE in our perspectives must happen because the violence and crime within African American communities can not continue.
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February 3, 2019 at 4:35 pm #3724JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
In honor of Superbowl Sunday, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit the empowering perfomance by Beyonce during the half time show in 2016. Beyonce has continously produced varieties of music, but in recent years she has successfully tackled upon issues such as police brutality, white supremacy, self-love (centralize on African American people), and many more. When I had found out that she was headlining for the Superbowl, I was overly excited because I am a huge fan. Watching her performance was very powerful and passionate that I didn’t even realize what it’s purpose was, other than as entertainment. It was such a fierce and influential performance giving recognition to the Black Panther organization, which I didn’t piece together at the time. After being in this class, my eyes have opened to the compelling message that Beyonce demonstrated in her “Formation” song (in the second image) as she first off, included all female dancers as a way of dedicating to women empowerment, especially for Black women. Second, the literal formation of an X and Beyonce’s outfit display a gold X across her chest gave homage to the activist Malcolm X. Furthermore, in the first photo, the powerfulr strut of Beyonce along with her dancers displayed the fashion tibute to the Black Panther which united the continous movement of the Black Panther’s purpose from the past to the present. I was aware of the Black Panther and Beyonce’s controversial attack using her music, but I wasn’t deeply educated on the history behind it. For this week, I was enlightened on this respectable group of activists who have inspired a ceaseless fight for justice.
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January 26, 2019 at 8:55 pm #3414JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
For this week’s theme we focused more on James Baldwin’s life story as an African American who not only escaped social injustice but also abandoned the very country who drove him to resent the place he should have called home. I thought it was interesting to be discussing Baldwin’s influence within the civil rights movement along with Malcolm X and MLK Jr. because before this class, I wasn’t completely aware of who he was. Just like Baldwin’s ignored significance in today’s teachings of the civil rights movement, I taught I would extend towards a different platform of civil rights activism, one example being Nina Simone’s use of her of music. One of her prominent songs was “Mississippi Goddam” released in 1964 as a way to highlight the continuous brutality towards her people not only in Mississippi but as well as in Alabama and Tenessee (which she mentioned in the song). “Mississippi Goddam” was a direct response to the assassination of Mayer Edgars, a civil rights activist, along with the retaliating violence towards protestors in Tenessee and the bombing of a Baptist church in Alabama killing 4 children. Nina Simone used her song to not only emphasize the pain they have endured but express her message about only wanting equality and that they can’t continue to do things slow anymore because that obviously hasn’t gotten them anywhere.
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January 18, 2019 at 11:48 pm #3122JONA ALMAYDAParticipant
During this week we focused upon activists that pioneered the civil rights movement. This image I chose demonstrating this week’s theme, is a picture by an unknown photographer titled “No Child is Free Unless All are Free” which was taken during the late 1950’s. The picture illustrates the continuing influence of MLK throughout communities of different age groups during the years of the movement. The placement of both white and African American children together confronts the threat of a political system whom persist on intentionally portraying their “differences” in order to justify segregation. The demonstration of the children’s unification legitimizes the need to take action to prevent future generations from the struggles that many have endured. In MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” he mentioned experiences of African Americans, one of which was an example of a parent having to explain to the child that she can’t go to an amusement park advertised on tv due to the color of her skin. This just cares to show that the oppressed can’t live under the injustice of segragation any longer, especially when a country bound to protect them threathens that sense of trust.
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