HIS 270 -- Black Protest in 20th Century US Culture

  In Making All Black Lives Matter , by Barbra Ransby, there are plenty of examples where racial acts are demonstrated by racist police officers, the FBI, etc. After reading the second half of the book there is one example that stands out the most. The Fred Hampton case really struck me differently and forced me to take a step backwards to really be able to take this in. On page 130, it mentions that the black community is still "bitter" about the whole situation and I can understand why. "Hampton was a youth leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and later joined the Illinois Black Panther Party, rising in the ranks to become its chair" (pg 130). He was a great leader and an even better man. He "built bridges between the party" and brought various groups of people together within the city if Chicago. On December 4th, 1969, there was an early morning police raid where he was shot and killed. Hampton's comrade, Mark Cla...

In Barbara Ransby’s Making All Black Lives Matter, the emerging Black Lives Matter movement is discussed in depth and analyzed from the roots of the movement. The murder of Trayvon Martin is what started this movement when three black activists started the hashtag on social media “#BlackLivesMatter” following the shooting. Trayvon’s murder is discussed in chapter two of the book, “An overly zealous community patrol volunteer, Zimmerman saw a young Black man wearing a hoodie sweatshirt and assumed the worst.” (29) Zimmerman shooting Martin, and claiming self defense during the trial was able to get off with no charges pressed against him. When the chapter states that Zimmerman assumed the worst, this points out the fact that race is the only thing that was focused on when the two came into contact. Following the shooting, multiple protests broke out including the “Million Hoodies Movement” where people came together to focus on the obvious flaws of our world. These activists wanted ju...

4/30/19 Preliminary Notes Discussion Questions What are the roots of the BLM movement? To what other movements/readings/issues should we connect it? What does “Black Lives Matter” mean? How raciducal is this phrase? Why? How is the historical moment – Obamacare, 2008 recession, trayvon, ferguson–impt? Ideas to think about Feminism Obama Reality vs aspirations of the Presidency Page 24 “A coming to terms with the limits of what a Black leader at the helm of this country could, or would, really achieve for the masses of Black people set the stage for the expulsion of protests and organizing the began in 2012,  reemerged with even greater strength in 2014, and was sustained throughout 2016.” Page 23 “It was with the understanding that there was an optimist and a sentiment of progressivism that his platform at least sought to achieve. And shortly after, there was a wakeup call, again, about the power of politicians in actually transform...

The murder of Trayvon Martin kick-started the Black Lives Matter movement. I think this particular event, although it wasn’t unusual, ignited such a response because he was an innocent young black boy who was killed only because the white man who took his life assumed that he was doing something illegal purely because of the color of his skin. This movement was perceived as radical at the time, but it simply came as a response to the hardship that the black community was facing at the time. The state of the economy and the African-American person's position in the United States at, and leading up to, the point of Trayvon’s murder were contributing factors. At the time America was in an economic crisis, and this especially affected people of color. I think the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black Power movement are similar in this way because both came from African-Americans being fed up with their treatment in a system that has never been created to see them thrive. The Black ...

I enjoyed reading the beginning chapters of Barbara Ransby's Making All Black Lives Matter because of the understanding and exposure that I have had to the information talked about. Honestly, it has to be nearly impossible for anyone to not have encountered the Black Lives Matter movement in some sort of way. With all of the social media platforms that are out there and the other news coverage outlets everyone has seen or at least heard of the movement. It is also almost impossible to not see the evidence of police abusing their power and brutalizing people, most evidently young black males. This brutality though, is not always seen as it is. Some people today just see these acts of brutality as the police simply doing their jobs. I believe that nonlethal force is needed in some cases to make arrests and sometimes even lethal force, but in the cases that we see like Trayvon Martin, the fact that that can be seen as anything other than murder is beyond me. Martin was an unarmed , 1...

Making All Black Lives Matter opens with much of the same ideology as How We Get Free - particularly the notion that the “liberalization of all Black people means undoing systems of injustice that impact all other oppressed groups as well.” The Combahee River Collective’s establishment of Black Feminism was and continues to be an integral aspect of today’s Black Lives Matter movement, which is noteworthy because of how widely recognized the latter movement now is. That this “phase of the Black Freedom Movement” is not nearly as male-centered as its predecessors and is instead “informed by Black Feminist politics” is particularly groundbreaking when compared to the sexism rampant in the Black Panthers movement among others. Because the founders and leaders of BLM are individuals who experience the kind of intersectional oppression articulated by Black Feminism, they are able to use that experience to be largely inclusive and radical in their ideas, protesting, and work, perhaps more s...

  Within the United States, we see on nearly a daily basis, the amount of hatred towards blacks throughout the media. These incidents for the most part involve police officers and black teenage men. When I was younger I didn't watch the news very often, but I can still remember when the case involving Trayvon Martin was all over the news. Even at a young age I still remember sitting at the kitchen countertop watching the news and it was covering the Trayvon Martin situation. I can vividly remember sitting there thinking this is absolutely insane. An innocent kid went to the convenience store to grab a snack and a soda and he never made it back home. After he left the convenience store he was immediately targeted by an extremely racist cop resulting in the death of Trayvon Martin. I was sitting there thinking how could this possibly happen and who in the right mind would be able to do this to an innocent young man. I was hoping that more and more people would take notice of the situ...

After reading the beginning of  Making All Black Lives Matter, by Barbara Ransby, I have been further educated on the types of movements and groups for the injustices of African Americans in the society today. I was already aware of the Black Lives Matter movement, but not to the extent that was spoken about in this book. I am also involved in most of the social media platforms that are used today, and I see the things that are posted about racism and police brutality way more than what there should be, and it is most definitely a shame. As we talked more and more about the injustices of black people in America throughout the semester, it is mind blowing to me that these incidents continue to occur as much as they do. I wrote one of my entries for the final project on the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and after reading this book I did not find some of the details that Ransby wrote about in my research. I was not aware that prosecutors were not initially planning to charge George...

I enjoyed reading the first couple chapters of Making All Black Lives Matter a lot because the material is something I'm very familiar with. I am a twenty year old boy with every social media account possible, so I have seen and read many things online about the incidents talked about in the beginning chapters of the book. These incidents are perfect examples of how racial profiling and injustice for African Americans is still a ginormous problem in the United States. For example, Ransby explains, " In a crude and deadly case of racial profiling, Zimmerman saw Trayvon's skin color and profile and concluded he was up to no good" (pg. 29). Martin was followed just on the basis of his skin color and what he was wearing. Zimmerman then caught up to Martin and fatally shot him, claiming self-defense (pg. 29). Then, Ransby explains, "[…] George Zimmerman was found not guilty after a highly publicized trial" (pg. 32). When I first saw this story circulating on so...

In my reading of Barbara Smith, she begins by discussing her role in the the feminist movement. When she was asked when she became a feminist, she states that "I began to identify or to be curious about feminism in the early 1970s." (31) Then she goes on to say, "I was very involved in political organizing on my campus, which was Mount Holyoke, including being involved in the peace movement to end the war in Vietnam." (31) She was very involved in the movement and tells us that this was stepping out of the boundaries especially being around the time of the Vietnam war and being a black feminist. Furthermore, she states that she was one of the very few in the black community getting involved in black women's rights. One of Barbara’s main points to her interview was that her understanding of white feminism changed over time, especially when she began to experience different things in society and that helped her grow. She also touches on racial welfare in Boston a...

Beverly Smith’s interview is particularly illuminating in that it provides an account of the formulation of black feminism, starting from when she was a young girl growing up in a woman-led household. I thought this foundation was interesting, especially considering that Smith later introduces an idea she doesn’t necessarily believe in but certainly qualifies: that black women “definitionally are a kind of feminist.” Smith suggests that this is not entirely the case, but that black women have a certain “foundation that nurture [them] toward feminism in some ways” and that this is a foundation non-black women lack. I think this there is value in this sentiment; from a white woman’s perspective, I can only really speak to that part of the statement, but there is a certain, pervasive power dynamic and blindness between white men and women that prevents this foundation of feminism. Another interesting section of the interview is the contention between the white feminist movement and the ...

In How We Get Free , Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes about the interviews she had with multiple women. The interview that I was assigned to read was Demita Frazier's interview. One of the things that Demita mentioned in her interview that I could not seem to get over was on page 119, when she talked about how when she would go to the Black Panther breakfast programs, the men would always "mack her." "Mack," essentially meaning "hit on her," is apparently all the men would do. So instead of taking this woman, who obviously has a reason and purpose for being there, seriously for the committed activist that she was/is, they could only seem to sexualize her. I, obviously, do not doubt this happened, but it is just so hard to accept the fact that men would, and some still do, act like that. Even more disturbing and I am sure irritating, to say the least, is that women had to constantly deal with this type of behavior. This behavior by men, I think, showed e...

Barbara Smith’s interview was an interesting one to read. Her experience with black feminism is an important point of view in this book to take into account. She was going to school in a time where women weren’t aloud to get credit for school supplies without the help of a man. Compared to now being an adult in a time where we have women CEOs. A major aspect I should point out is that even though there are very few female CEOs, most of them are white women. Barbara Smith is able to look back and reflect on how far women in general have come, but by doing that she must also reflect on how much more black women still need. I found it funny that when she was discussing how she got involved in feminist work/politics she told stories of how she had to go out of her way to learn the information she wanted and needed to know. She had to find the speakers, the books, and make her own conclusions. Granted she was going to school in the 70's so black history wasn’t even a thought in higher ...

As I read Alicia Garza’s interview i had to keep in mind my own privilege in the fact that i am not apart of the LGBTQ community and how some of the things that wouldn’t affect me would intrinsically effect her life. It helps me reflect on my some of the privilege that I do have, and brings up a point in class i made to my group, I am one of the top 25% of black women. When I say that I am a part of the top 25% of black women i mean that in the terms that while unlike the top 1% I’m not super rich or famous ,but I am going to a really good college for very little money and will be able to achieve a financial stability and social standing that a majority of the females black community in American (and the world) do not have access to. I realize that this privilege was gained not only with hard work but with a good bit of luck as-well, while my family wasn’t rich I was never homeless or hungry, while my school wasn’t the best if I did the right things I knew it could get me to a good col...

In Keenga-Yamahtta Taylor's How We Get Free,  she highlights the struggles that black women face in society and links the multiple levels of oppression they face. Not only are they racially oppressed in society, but face multi level oppression when concerning sexuality, class status, and other social factors. Black women also face psychological trauma as discussed in the early parts of the book, "There is a very low value placed upon Black women's psyches in this society, which is both racist and sexist." (22) The value that is discussed here shows just how detrimental it is to mental health by this view upon Black women in society. Furthermore she states, "because, being on the bottom, we would have to do what no one else has done: we would have to fight the world." (22) The fact that black women are said to be "on the bottom" will prove that they are under multiple levels of oppression. Then, when she discusses "fighting the world" that...

In “How We Get Free” Barbara Ransby shares some of the Layer of struggles the Black feminist face in the past and today. She pays tribute to the Combahee River Collective and describes how the group influenced her life. Her explanations of the how the CRC faced backlash proves that most of America and even black men are unaware to the Black feminists struggles. When she described the buzzfeed article slandering the CRC it opened my eyes to the warfare these women face when trying to protest. She states “People May have seen the recent Buzzfeed article that really focused a laser beam attack against the Black Feminist leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.” She then later explains that the article was more than critical of the movement and had a biased view of the movement. She then explained how the New York Times released an article with similar views. These biased views of the feminist movements are in some of the most famous websites and newspapers. It’s difficult for a mo...

4/23 Black Feminism Preliminary Notes Interlocking oppression capitalism/socialism Economic inequality Lineage What is the Questions What constitutes “Black Feminism” and how does it intersect with/how is it distinct from the two movements with which it overlaps––the Black Freedom Struggle and Second Wave Feminism? What necessitates a politics and praxis of Black Feminism? What specific issues does it seek to address, and how? What are the most important principles of the Black Feminist Movement? A key aspect of the CRC statement is a critique of capitalism. What is the nature of this critique? How is it related to the politics of racial and gender liberation? How radical is this document? What does it seek to accomplish, and through what means? How do you situate it in the historical moment in the late 1970s, when it was written? How are the following terms important within the CRC’s discussion of black feminism? Interlocking oppression ...