Posts

Peaceful Protest Video

I am adding to the blog because I feel as though this video is a crucial part of what is going on in our country and also ties in things that we have studied from the beginning of the course, up until now. Beto O’Rourke discusses the peaceful protest regarding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. This is a controversial subject and some may feel that it is going against our country and the soldiers fighting for us, but Beto argues that it distinguishes what is a peaceful protest and argues that it is the most American thing that he could think of. He starts off the video by telling his audience that this is a tough issue, but if it is not discussed, nothing will get done about it. That is one of the first things that we discussed in Dr. Kieran’s class, that some of the topics discussed, will be hard and challenging, but we must talk about them if we want to learn more and tackle these controversial subjects. He then goes on to discuss non-violent protests and what that does...
Post a Comment
Read more

BLM #2

Something I thought to be interesting in both our discussion and from the book, Making All Black Lives Matter by Barbara Ransby is the question of, what it means to be unapologetically black. This term, to be unapologetically black was coined by Fresco Steez and is a term that has been used in BLM activism and something that has inspired many. To be unapologetically black means to be your true self and embrace your blackness and could have multiple meanings depending on the individual. To embrace where you came from, and who you are now. In Making All Black Lives Matter , it discusses this term in its coordinance with success and says, “In fact, success sometimes depends on their proving themselves “different” and apart from the mass of ordinary Black people. That distancing can be both physical and psychological.” (97) Discussed here, the idea that in society,  the success of Black people is sometimes how they prove themselves in society. How they could be like the ordinary, an...
Post a Comment
Read more

For 4/30/19 Making All Black Lives Matter #1

I had never heard of Barbara Ransby or her book, “Making All Black Lives MAtter,” until taking this class. And now having fully read it, I can say that I feel it is a book that everyone should read. I rarely get to read books that dive into intersectional issues while still offering relevant information regarding the topics at large. I found it particularly interesting when Ransby was discussing what it means to be represented versus what it means to be casted out. Ransby draws connections between racial aggression, and over- policing to name a few. In terms of representation, I enjoyed the discussion the class had when discussing what sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. I had sided with the carceral state option originally. It is a known fact that there are disproportionate numbers showing how widely targeted black men are when it comes to being convicted. However, upon further class discussion the question of how much representation and visibility did Barack Obama really give t...
1 comment
Read more

Making All Black Lives Matter

Ransby's "Making All Black Lives Matter" is a book I believe everyone should read. She in a way tells the story of how the era of social media turned a hashtag into a movement. Ransby made it her point to break down the BLM movement for people to understand its history and importance. I love how she discusses the ways in which the movement stands for so much more than police violence towards black people. Though that is an important aspect, the roots lie so much deeper. Yes black men and women are losing their lives, but there are also families unable to gain economic support, adequate health care, and so many other systems at work against the black communities effecting their lives. Another important topic she discussed was about being unapologetically black, but that term can only be defined by how you define blackness. The many different definitions of blackness is what works to separate us. That is how you get people who are deemed not being black enough. This ca...
1 comment
Read more

Making All Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement is a movement that is in the best interest of the black community. Yet, the black community is not unified, as stated on page 86, “the class divides within the black community in Baltimore were on full display during the protest”. Race, gender, class, and sexual orientation intersect to make some people’s voices heard during the movement, and others not. Women were strong leaders during the Black Lives Matter movement, yet the movement focuses around the violence of young, black men. Violence against black women or black trans women are left out. Social media becomes a big factor of the movement, especially for people who have lost their voice. Hashtags such as #blackwomenmatter and #sayhername went viral and opened up many people’s eyes at other issues outside of police brutality of black men. There is a critical question on whether this movement is a feminist movement. I think that this movement has feminist ideas that can make this movement a feminist...
3 comments
Read more

5/2 post

In chapter 5 of Making All Black Lives Matter Ransby describes The challenges and dilemmas the Black lives matter movement faced during the time of high police brutality. One of the new themes that came with the modern movement was the use of social media. Social posed as information for political topics and it really helped birth the Black Lives Matter movement. After the death of Trayvon Martin one of the co founders made a Facebook post containing the first ever Black Lives Matter hashtag. When African Americans were wrongly killed by officers there were social media posts to inform the public. Ransby confirms the importance of social media by stating “Most people first learned of Michael Brown’s death through Twitter or Facebook. The fatal police shooting of twelve-year-old Tamir Rice in a park near downtown Cleveland, videotaped on a police dash camera, went viral on the internet and triggered protests. Eric Garner’s violent strangulation death by police after he tried to break up...
3 comments
Read more

5/2

   Making All Black Lives Matter by Barbara Ransbys talks about many cases of unauthorized killings of young black people. Within these murders, are the murders of Fred Hampton and his friend Mark Clark. They were killed during a police raid on the morning of December 4, 1969. The killing of Hampton was a little different than the others because he was a known leader in two Civil Rights activist groups. He was a youth leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and he also became the chair of the Illinois Black Panther Party. The FBI's counter intelligence program, "...which sought to subvert and destroy black liberation organizations that the government deemed threatening," was the source of the killing. The quote shows that institutional, structural racism is the main cause and problem of all the cases. The system is structured in a way that colored people are oppressed.    The end of the book dives deeper into the things th...
Post a Comment
Read more