Keshawna Veney

AFAM 200 GROUP PROJECT

[mykveney]

#RaisingValue

For my group’s racial justice project, we are going to engage in four different methods of bringing awareness and discussion to our goal of #RaisingValue. Our purpose is to ultimately bring awareness to the systematic targeting of African Americans, educate about African American and American History, and change and influence assumptions and mindsets about how African Americans are viewed and valued in society. The first method that we are going to engage in involves educating the public about African Americans and American History. To do this, we are going to create and hand out flyers that recognize similarities between situations during and before slavery and those of our current society. We also plan to discuss and educate about the Transatlantic slave trade, African American history, and African American inventors/contributors. In handing out flyers and educating the public, we hope to enact discussion and thoughts to learn more about African Americans and ultimately help in #RaisingValue of the importance of African American lives. The next method we are going to engage in is to create a poll within the Mason community to recognize where our community stands with knowing aspects of African American and American history which will help guide us in areas that we may want to focus more on and potentially create an event dedicated to the discussion of particular topics or areas. The third method we plan to engage upon is to create a logo that we can place on buttons or other apparel to urge the public to know their history and to be aware of what is happening in our society. We can’t possibly teach or change every person’s mindset, but by making the public aware of what is happening, we hope that they will be open and understanding in what is happening and hopefully change attitudes of how the public views and acknowledges African Americans in society.  The last method we plan to use is for Ryan, who is an artist, to create a song or poem that engages and brings awareness to change. Music and poetry is a huge way to reach many different people here on this campus, within our classroom, and beyond and even after the project is over, the music will still speak volumes and hopefully engage upon changing mindsets and influencing the public to be more aware of society and our history. Although we have chosen four different methods of enacting change, we have also thought of other ways to enact change including open discussions about what is happening within the African American community, African American and American history, and discussions of race, discrimination, and equality. We could also use social media as more of a tool in engaging upon conversation on a virtual bases by creating Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr page. Using social media would be an effective way to engage in discussions daily, educate the public about what is happening in society, and intrigue the public to explore more about their history and become more engaged in #RaisingValue. We could also create a wiki blog that allows my group to voice our message and engage the public in commenting and giving their opinions and thoughts on #RaisingValue and becoming more engaged and aware of society’s current situations. We as a group have also discussed polling the Mason community by engaging upon interviews or random polls inside the Johnson Center in which we could get an idea of how educated our community is about these issues which would also allow us to educate the public and potentially change or encourage the change of uneducated stereotypes and ideas. The last idea that we could engage upon is organizing events in which we have guest speakers that could discuss specific topics within the African American community which would also encourage discussion and educate the public of our statement of purpose.

[mykveney]

[mykveney]

[mykveney]

This video was released by the sheriff of Fairfax County that details the death of Natasha McKenna. 37-year old McKenna was being held in a Fairfax County jail for the alleged assault of a police officer. She was later removed from her cell and can be heard saying, “You promised you wouldn’t kill me,” and was handcuffed, tased multiple times, and forced to have a bag over her head. Upon restraint, McKenna loses consciousness and is transported to a hospital where she dies three days later. McKenna’s death was ruled “accidental” caused by “excited delirium associated with physical restraint including use of a conductive energy device, contributing: Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar disorder.” This video is significant because it shows how disvalued the lives of African Americans are and how they are handled in police custody. This video illustrates the disrespect, assault, and devaluation of how McKenna is handled in police custody.

[mykveney]

#RaisingValue #KnowYourHistory

For this week’s post, I chose to concentrate my research on African Americans who contributed highly to America’s culture and society. My group’s statement of purpose is to raise the value of how African Americans are viewed in society, and an important aspect in #RaisingValue is to educate others of how and what African Americans have contributed to our society. With the history of our country, we must realize the impact African Americans have made in education, entertainment, civil rights, science, and all other aspects of our daily lives. For example, inventor Lewis Latimer completed the patent application for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, created a more efficient and less expensive version of Thomas Edison’s lightbulb, and contributed to many other inventions and patents that are necessary in our daily lives. Eunice Waymon (Nina Simone) used her music as a voice for the Civil Rights movement to bring about change and activism which can be heard specifically in her song, “Mississippi Goddam”. With recent movements and protests such as the Black Lives Matter movement, there develops mounts of protest and opposition for the purpose of straying attention away from the systematic targeting of African Americans and in order for change to occur, we must understand how African Americans suffered, resisted, and overcame the struggles of slavery and how their inventions and legacy continue to benefit society. If it had not been for African American inventors, entertainers, educators, etc. we would not be able to stand in the position we are today and as African Americans continue to be systematically targeted, we must be reminded that racists and discriminators are not only killing black bodies but are also killing the possibility of vaccinations, inventions, and change that could have been brought by African American minds, souls, and spirits.

http://www.greatblackheroes.com/ 

[mykveney]

#Raising Value

This scholarly article focuses on patterns of racism and discrimination as experienced by African American women and their modes of resistance in maintaining their pride and self-worth. Throughout history, African American women have been in a state of “double jeopardy” as being both African American and a woman, therefore becoming targets and the reciprocators of victimization. The article describes the resistance and coping mechanisms of a specific group of interviewees of age 70 or older who “made significant contribution to the improvement of the lives of black people especially in the 1940s and 1950s.” Throughout the article there are countless examples that exhibit the “resourcefulness, flexibility, and creativity” the interviewees encompass in overcoming instances of racism and discrimination. One interesting aspect of the article was Lykes’s comment that the black women she interviewed “were significantly more likely to compare themselves to other black women…and the view of black womanhood described by many of them allowed for the possibility of self-esteem and pride.” Although these women experienced many instances of oppression, they never succumbed to their present situations and identified any options possible to overcome. One particular example of resistance that stood out in the article was one interviewee’s creation of a women’s welfare club to enact African American representation in her city’s politics and schools. This article embodies the #RaisingValue purpose in engaging upon methods and resistance to raise the value of how African Americans are seen in society. Due to the resistance by this particular group of women in this article, we can continue to engage upon resistance and incorporate changes and awareness of the importance of African Americans.

*Select get PDF* *Download PDF *

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00157.x/abstract 

[mykveney]

#RaisingValue #WhatHappenedtoSandraBland

The NY Times article discusses the video release footage of Sandra Bland during her initial encounter in the police station when she is taken to her holding cell, explained her bond, and given her initial phone call. Officials in Waller County, Texas commented that they released the video solely to end rumors that Bland was murdered before her mug shot was taken and to dispel any speculation that police officials had any connections in Bland’s death. This video release was one of the initial ways of covering Bland’s death and removing attention away from police officials in hopes of ruling Bland’s death a suicide in her holding cell. This specific account gives rise to our idea of the devaluation of black lives. If it had not been for endless protests, questions, and demands by the African American community, there would not have been an independent investigation done into her death, and her life would have continued to be ignored. We must therefore continue to stress the importance and value of black lives in America to ensure that we are given justice and bring an end to our systematic target as the cause of America’s problems. We must continue to fight in #RaisingValue to ensure that black lives matter and are given justice. Even as more instances, such as this, occur, we must never forget, but continue to fight for the importance of our black lives and demand justice and equality. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/us/jail-video-of-sandra-bland-aims-to-dispel-rumors-about-her-death.html 

[mykveney]

[mykveney]

#RaisingValue

My group chose the hashtag #RaisingValue in order to raise awareness to the target of Black Americans as the reciprocators of most social injustices. We thought it not coincidence that dating back to the Transatlantic slave trade, Black lives have been devalued and thought of as commodities in hopes of presenting Blacks as inferior to Whites. Dating back hundreds of years, and continuing today, we can see instances of injustice through police brutality, unfair racial segregation and discrimination, and racial targeting, and my group has chosen to shed light on these issues. As a group, beginning in the George Mason community, we hope to educate the public about the continuous loss of life in the Black community because of racial injustices, enact discussions that will contribute to changing assumptions and mindsets about how Black lives should be valued, and undo uneducated stereotypes about the Black community. We plan on enacting these changes by engaging in discussions about these issues and supporting programs that discuss these issues, presenting information about the importance of Black lives in our history, and invoking opinions and conversation with other students and faculty. 

[mykveney]

#RaisingValue

My group selected the hashtag #RaisingValue as a starting point of raising awareness to how America chooses to devalue black lives. As seen through consistent instances of police brutality, prison deaths that have been ruled “accidental”, and other instances of injustice, Black Americans have been placed in an inferior position in comparison with Whites. We as a group understand the concept that, yes, all lives matter, and are not subjecting Blacks to be inferior to Whites, but are instead shedding light onto the systematic target of Blacks as the reciprocators of most American injustices. We are concerned with educating others of the concepts of Black injustices, introducing an awareness of the importance of Black lives, and presenting reflections of how Black Americans have contributed to our society. By #RaisingValue of Black lives, we hope to change the negative perceptions associated with Black Americans to present Blacks as more than an undermined, subhuman species in comparison with white America. We hope to not only bring awareness to Black injustices, but to the raise the value of how Blacks are acknowledged and represented in society.

[mykveney]

[mykveney]

Our racial justice issue is focused on how the United States chooses to devalue the life of African American people, and therefore our project is focused on raising the value of Black lives. Resulting from recent movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, America has diverted attention away from Blacks to focus on the issue of #AllLivesMatter, ignoring the bigger picture that the African American community has set out to reach. Beginning around the time of the Trans Saharan slave trade, black lives began to be valued as commodities, beginning the downward spiral of devaluing black lives. This downward spiral continued throughout the Transatlantic slave trade, Civil Rights Movements, and today with the everyday reoccurrences of police officials targeting Black males. Consequently, we as a group chose to focus on how we can ultimately reshape the minds of people who fail to recognize the significance of Black lives. We hope that by giving focus to the value of Black lives we can begin to change the perceptions that are placed upon African Americans and make people aware of the systematic injustices that we as a people have faced since being brought to America. #why #AFAM200