B. G. Stoddard

[goldengenetics18-blog]

#blacklivesmatter. that’s it.

I believe that the system of hashtags is a phenomenal way of connecting statements, ideas, events, and people that all relate to one general topic. It is similar to a Google search in the sense that it allows people to make one search and find things of all formats pertaining to key word(s). The “hashtag” itself is what is known to people generally over the age of 18 as the pound sign, or a number sign. The concept of hashtags began in August of 2007 on Twitter, and took off around 2013.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a movement that originated in 2013 (around the beginning of hashtag popularity), founded by 3 women: Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza. From the BLM twitter page, the organization is “an affirmation & embrace of the resistance & resilience of Black people.”. Although I like this description, I really felt that the statement on the Black lives matter website packed more of a punch:

“We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.” 

This hashtag and its associated organization have been massively circulated across all fields of the internet through social media. Similar to how I came to understand the organization, many people simply cannot or WILL not comprehend the struggles of Black individuals. Some of the disrespectful things I came across under the hashtag were people criticizing the movement with incorrect evidence or straight racial hatred. What I believe to be so utterly sad is that today, more and more racist people have no problem being verbal about their racism, and even more so that their hate speech is allowed under ridiculous “free speech” conditions online. Free speech does not equal hate speech.

#blacklivesmatter relates to many of the topics we’ve covered in this course, most specifically to Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes experiment. To me, the work she did serves as a huge success for passing on important white privilege conversations to skeptics and others who don’t understand her point. The same goes for the BLM movement, in my opinion, where the hashtag provides an easy way to convey their message across multiple social media outlets, spreading vital information of police brutality and other discrimination cases.

I chose to research this hashtag specifically because I hope to enlighten those who do not yet understand the movement. Years ago, I was one of the people who thought the organization was wrong in stating that “Black lives matter”.…I felt personally angered for absolutely no reason and to this day, I still cannot explain why I felt like this. It was not until I came across a photo of a man holding a sign that said: “Of course all lives matter, but we are focusing on the Black ones right now, okay?” that I began to understand. After realizing this and learning about the organization’s purpose, I spread this information to other white people, which is one of the best things a white person can do to assist a movement like this. Making others understand that if they truly believe all lives should matter, then they must be forgetting black people are people. 

 All lives will matter when Black lives matter. 

References:

“BLM: About.” Black Lives Matter, blacklivesmatter.com/about/.

Cullors, Patrisse, et al. “Black Lives Matter.” Twitter, July 2013, twitter.com/Blklivesmatter.

“Why Aren't You Out Here with Us?” Pinterest, bridgie_xoxo, www.pinterest.com/pin/492792384211861716/.

“Black Is the Operative Word.” Twitter, Churchboy27, 11 July 2016, mobile.twitter.com/churchboy27/status/752476705038753792.

[fyblackwomenart]

- DreamInMotion - by Jeff Manning

[goldengenetics18-blog]

“Exposing the Modern Racist Paradigm”, An Evaluation

The documentary, “Exposing the Modern Racist Paradigm” is one that draws upon many subjects, people, groups, and ideas to create an up to date collection of videos explaining the depth of systematic racism. This film generates conversation by compiling popular media clips of celebrities and well-known individuals in situations that might not have previously been thought of as racist or discriminatory, but once focused on, show a darker side. In an attempt to help guide these conversations, the documentary breaks up clips by screens of text explaining what happened and what went wrong.

I believe that this documentary ties back to some of the readings and course topics we have covered so far by its goal of education of the greater population regarding our modern systems of racism. This program is making an attempt to inform the general population about how we continue to give these systems the power that they need to stay relevant. That is the underlying reason behind why racism sticks around, because people are uneducated; not just because they don’t know how to dismantle it, but that they don’t know that they continue to feed it with their daily behaviors.

Relating to the course readings about Whiteness such as the works done by Dyer, McIntosh, or Jane Elliot, “Exposing the Modern Racist Paradigm” brings up how our society teaches that White is normal, and everything non-white is ethnic or unusual. This, along with teaching racism wrongly and avoiding the subject of institutionalized racism, is an important point reinforced in this documentary. Internalizing racist thoughts and psychological behaviors that get inherited from one generation to the next is a fuel for systems of discrimination, and until the population becomes educated, it will never cease.

Along with Whiteness, the Dolls Test by Kenneth and Mamie Clark was brought up in this documentary as well. It was recreated by a young woman interested to see if the results would still be the same as they were in 1939 when the first Dolls Test was performed. As one might have guessed, the results were about the same as they were all those years ago, that young Black children overwhelmingly thought that the White doll was the “good” or “nice” doll, and that the Black doll was “bad”. It is a disappointing experiment, but it makes the point clear that there is still something very wrong in how we teach our children and the severe lack of accurate representation in modern media.  

Topics not entirely covered in this course so far, but I think are vital to studying the history of racism are subjects similar to globalization, colonialism, and imperialism. This documentary highlights how Whiteness becomes perpetuated by the constant reinforcement of White characters in media, and the difficulty in striving for equal representation. The representation of diversity is essential to creating an accepting community of people that listen and are willing to understand why it is crucial for people of color to be represented.

 “How the Media Forms Conscious and Subconscious Racism. .” Everythingology.com, Explore, 30 Aug. 2010, www.everythingology.com/the-modern-racist-paradigm/.

“The Modern Racist Paradigm.” DocumentaryTube, 180Vita, 12 Dec. 2014, www.documentarytube.com/videos/the-modern-racist-paradigm.

The_goddess_speaks. “Black Lives Matter, Too.” Instagram, Proudblackroots, 6 Apr. 2016, www.instagram.com/p/BD37z6EKtLh/.

“White Nonsense.” Tumblr, Plumkat, 19 Oct. 2015, plumkat.tumblr.com/post/131513688691.

“Young Boy Chooses White Doll over a Black Doll.” NAACP, Legal Defense and Educational Fund, www.naacpldf.org/brown-at-60-the-doll-test.

[goldengenetics18-blog]

Dear White People: A Discussion

Let me begin by saying that I am so, so glad that I chose such a wonderful TV show for this project. It was so educational and entertaining that I found myself glued to the couch, binge watching all 10 episodes of the first season. Each episode is focused around a different character and their background story in relation to the current goings on at Ivy League Winchester University. The plot is centered around Samantha White, a Black female student with a brave voice, a powerful presence and impressive leadership. She hosts a sociopolitical radio show named “Dear White People”, on which she addresses racist and discriminatory people and events at Winchester.

I most definitely attest that the ideas, opinions, and events discussed in this show are contentious subjects for many. Concepts like interracial relationships, White privilege, police brutality, as well as both peaceful and non-peaceful protesting are all debatable and many people hold strong opinions on them. I feel that this is so because these concepts can be a major part of people of color’s lives, giving their opinions more emotional reasoning. This tends to differ from a White person’s view, where they can choose to ignore these “sensitive” subjects if they so choose because they have the privilege to do so. 

The show “Dear White People” definitely sparked conversations in my own mind, so I wouldn’t hesitate to think that other dialogue surrounding ethnic, racial and cultural diversity was created by its production. This show brought into play just how much identities are created by one’s daily experiences, and with this I truly hope that it really helps someone out there who is struggling with themselves. The students at Winchester argue and petition for more accurate representation, and fight to keep things that allow their identity to thrive. The all-Black dorm on Winchester’s campus was threatened to be removed so students could be “integrated” with others in the pitiful attempt of desegregation. Students feel at home there, and not feel outnumbered like they do everywhere else. It is a place where they can come together to share commonalities, and the integration of it with the other dorms could be catastrophic to many young student’s identities. 

Relating to the course readings and content, this program doles out a heaping serving of throwing shade at systematic racism and skin color privilege. I really had no expectations for this show and went in with an open mind, knowing full well that it was likely going to portray some harsh realities of modern societal discrimination. Each episode makes a hard-hitting crack at how ignorant the majority of White people seem to be when it comes to racially tense happenings as of late. 

Since I thoroughly enjoyed Dear White People so much, it is easy for me to say that I believe it has had a beneficial impact on American culture and visual representation. Television is an outstanding way of educating the general population about ideas and beliefs like the ones conveyed in this show. It allows the audience to feel like they know the characters, thus making it easier to express controversial opinions without the normal repercussions. In order to do this, I think an immense amount of thought, planning and brilliant design went into building the perfect portrayal of these characters. I’m sure that the directors knew that they were needing to depict race-fueled occurrences in a way that wouldn’t “demonize” white people. On the other hand, they also knew that a lot of people were going to be turned off by the title anyway, so they might as well throw out the hard truth, and I believe it was a huge success.

References:

“Dear White People Poster.” IMDb, Netflix, 28 Apr. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5707802/.

Rose, Adam. “Samantha White, Radio Host.” Indie Wire, 13 Mar. 2017, www.indiewire.com/2017/03/dear-white-people-review-netflix-tv-show-premiere-sxsw-1201791350/.

“Joelle & Gabe's Exchange Gif.” Tumblr, Dear-White-People, 21 Sept. 2017, tumblr.com/dear-white-people. 

“Empathizing Gif.” Tumblr, Massmedear, 8 July 2015, tumblr.com/massmedear.

“Dear White People (TV Series 2017– ).” IMDb, IMDb, 28 Apr. 2017, www.imdb.com/title/tt5707802/.