#LivingWhileBlack

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

[racheljsay-blog]

Racial Justice Project Plan

Our group has decided to dedicate our racial justice project to “Living while Black.” We hope to bring awareness to the way common daily activities are impacted by the color of a person’s skin and how this leads to struggles for African Americans each day, from they day they are born to the day they die. We plan to bring awareness to the issue here at Mason and hopefully beyond by creating an informational video in which we will ask random people in North Plaza questions about our topic to highlight the ignorance about the issues. After compiling their answers we will end the video with an informational portion on ways people can make a difference and become more aware of the subtle racism they witness or may even unknowingly participate in. The video will then be posted on Youtube and spread on other social medias in an attempt to inform a larger group of people.

Our plan is to stand in North Plaza and solicit students to be apart of our project by answering a few questions we have come up with, some examples are:

•What is affirmative action? and why was it put into place?do you think it is racist?

• is racism still a problem in america?

•WHat is WHite privilege? / How does it affect non-white people?

•have you ever been followed in a store or suspected of stealing?

•has a teacher ever questioned if something was your work or if you were in the right class?

•have you ever been singled out by an adult or person of authority while in a group

•Have you ever felt you were targeted by the police?

•has someone ever told you that you’re so *pretty,smart,well-spoken* for a (insert race here)(insert gender here)?

•Is the n word a term of endearment/ do you use it with friends/family?

•growing up did you see a disney princess that looked like you?

•DO you think Black is synonymous with ghetto?

•Have you ever felt out of place because your race wasn’t shown in a place?

•when asked do people assume your parents are divorced/not together?

•do people ask if you and your sibling have the same dad?

•do you feel like you've ever been singled out because of your race?

•growing up did you have teachers that were the same race as you?

•what race do you identify as?

•can you think of a personal event in your life that impacted you that has to do with race?

•what do you think of when you think of race relations in america?

•do you think mason is racially diverse?

•have you ever been mistaken as a  worker/server when you were shopping/out to eat?

•Has anyone ever told you that you’re so *insert different race*?

•what are features of classic beauty/ what do you consider beautiful?

•what do you think of when someone says all american guy/girl?

•black lives matter vs. all lives matter?

•what does jungle fever mean to you?

•do you think your parents would be upset if your significant other was of a different race than you?

for Women:

when you disagree with someone do they automatically assume you’re angry?

has anyone ever compared your hair to their pets?

do you consider the word cracker as offensive as the “n” word?

for Men:

do you ever notice people crossing the street to avoid walking next to you on a sidewalk?

when you walk by do people clutch their bags?

have you ever been pulled over and asked to have your car searched?

[racheljsay-blog]

“You're so pretty for a black girl!”

“If Black People Said The Stuff White People Say and ‪If Black Women Said The Stuff White Men Say”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zLzWtULig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZucsDVmVhE

More often than not when someone compliments me I get the “you’re so (insert supposed compliment here) for a black girl…. So what they are really saying is black girls can’t be pretty? Or smart? Or articulate? But my questions is what does my race have to do with any of those things? BuzzFeed created these videos to explain how insulting these comments truly are. The videos really highlight the ignorance in the comments people make, comments that are considered socially acceptable. Its crazy to me that people want to say that we live in a “post-race” culture where racism doesn’t exist, where race doesn’t matter. But If race doesn’t matter, then why am I pretty for a black girl?

[racheljsay-blog]

“Black To The Future”

 The movie “Back to the Future” is a huge deal right now because it’s 2015, the year in the future that the main characters in the movie travel to. I find this interesting because 2015 is completely different from what the movie predicted. The Black Voices section of The Huffington Post published an article raising questions about how far America has truly come since the movie was created. The article is in response to a parody called “Black to the Future.” The parody follows Goldie (the token black person) who in the original movie became mayor of the town by 2015, in the parody he gets shot by a cop who “thinks” Goldie’s walkie-talkie is a gun. The video really does a great job of showing how prevalent racism still is, even though there is no colored entrance anymore and we have a black president. The video really emphasizes the dangers of simply living while black, it really embodies the nightmares every black mother has about her son getting shot by the police walking out of the corner store, it shows how far we have come but how far we truly have to go. Another article I read, by Ian Simpson, titled: “Prosecution Of U.S. Police For Killings Surges To Highest In Decade” really got me thinking about the black lives matter movement. The article talks about how the prosecution rate has surged, not the death rate. Which means black lives have consistently been taken before with no consequences for some time now. It reinforces the reason that “Black Lives Matter” must constantly be reiterated. How petrifying is it to think that the only reason there are consequences for one person taking the life of another human being is because day in and day out people are tirelessly working to remind America that black lives really do matter. So yes it is now 2015… but how far has America truly come?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/prosecution-police-killings_562e26aee4b0ec0a3894eb23?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%2BVoices§ion=black-voices&utm_hp_ref=black-voices

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-to-the-future-parody-shows-that-racism-still-isnt-a-thing-of-the-past_562799dde4b08589ef49dfeb?utm_hp_ref=black-voices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyz1KwcTyjg

[racheljsay-blog]

“She Ain’t Oprah, Angela or Your Baby Mama: The Michelle O Enigma”

“She defied the angry black woman stereotype.”  Society has depicted black women as of angry, uneducated and ratchet. When Larry king interviewed Michelle Obama he taunted her, attempting to draw the out “angry black woman.” On Television, in movies, and in the media black women are constantly characterized as angry and aggressive if they are successful, or they are ghetto welfare living baby mama’s. Gina Athena Ulysse’s article explores the nations’ fascination with Michelle Obama. She explains that Michelle is apart of the group of black females that are a “social enigma.” Society has become comfortable with associating black women as “mammies, jezebels and sapphires” however there are now a rising number of black middle and upper class females, that they consider “out of place or exceptional.” Society refuses to accept this image of black women that defies the stereotype they have become accustomed to. Ulysse’s explains the struggle black women face on a daily basis, the painful life experiences others are not forced to endure. She illustrates this picture by giving examples such as: “having to explain that we are not the cleaning lady; having our ideas overlooked or attributed to others.” Ulysse’s does a phenomenal job of explaining the struggles women of color face each day while praising Michelle Obama for “shattering the glass ceiling.” Her article articulates the things our nation wishes to turn a blind eye to with tactfulness and grace.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40338775?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=driving&searchText=while&searchText=black%5C&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Ddriving%2Bwhile%2Bblack%255C%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

[racheljsay-blog]

#BeingEducatedWhileBlack

Very often during k-12 education the only time black history is mentioned is during the month of February or when talking about Martin Luther King Jr and Abraham Lincoln. The rich history of African American accomplishments is not mentioned, only the tale of their enslavement before Abraham Lincoln “saved” them. Up until recently… at least. McGraw-Hill released a geography book for the 2015-2016 school year in which it referred to African enslaved people as “workers from Africa” who were brought to America to work on southern plantations. While white children get to learn about the genius creations of their ancestors, black children learn about their ancestors being forced across the ocean to work and being treated as less than human. Being educated while black is a struggle every single day. The thought of black equating to less is constantly being reinforced, whether intentional or not. The unfortunate “slip up” in which McGraw-Hill referred to enslaved Africans as workers is a sad reflection of the value placed on African American history in the education systems of the united states.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/mcgraw-hill-textbook-controversy#.uqEJW5XjN9

[afam200-blog]

Do you use these phrases? 

[racheljsay-blog]

[sarahnawab]

           The hashtag we selected is #ThatsNotMe. We selected this hashtag in the hope that, when African American folks see the way that they are misrepresented in the television news media, they will think, “that’s not me,” rather than allowing those misrepresentations to dictate their identity or allow others to make assumptions about them. The other hope is that African Americans and others will be able to use the hashtag as a means to remind people not to make generalizations about an entire race based on the way that race is represented by television news media. Through this project, we hope to spread social awareness about the fact that African Americans are often misrepresented in television news media and also the fact that these misrepresentations affect their lives in negative ways. We plan on achieving this goal by holding an event on campus later in the semester in which we present our findings about the misrepresentation of African Americans in television news media and the adverse effects that they have and then facilitating a conversation about possible causes and solutions. We plan to invite as many people as possible from as many different racial and ethnic backgrounds possible in order to ensure that multiple perspectives are presented at the event.  

[beatthesystem-bethesystem-blog]

We chose the hashtag #EducationNotIncarceration as a way to encourage black youth to stay in school and off the streets. Ones educational journey should not end after high school graduation. So, my group would like to travel to Baltimore and partake in my high school’s activity titled Knights Of The Round Table. In this event, Baltimore City College alumni are invited back and assigned to a class of seniors in order to talk to them about their college experience, answering FAQ’s about college life. We would like partake in this activity by sharing our views of college from the perspective of a first semester freshman, junior and senior. In this way, the students will have multiple views to consider when making their decision of if or where they want to go to college.

[racheljsay-blog]

WHY?

My group selected the hashtag #LivingWhileBlack to bring awareness to the struggles that African Americans face each day, from they day they are born to the day they die. This specific hashtag was selected because we will use it to show how common daily activities are impacted by the color of a person’s skin.

 WHAT?

We hope to educate and inform people (specifically Mason students) about the daily injustices people of color face daily. Simply getting others to acknowledge they exist is the first step in the right direction.

HOW?

My group came up with the idea of creating a game show like video. We plan to stand in the middle of the GMU Fairfax campus and ask volunteers basic questions about their opinions of the treatment of African Americans. After we will tell them statistics and facts that. This entire interaction will be recorded and we will post it on You tube in hopes of spreading the word about the injustices and to stomp out misconceptions.

[racheljsay-blog]

#LivingWhileBlack

Nothing is more frustrating than having someone treat me as if I am less of a human than them, simply because the color of my skin. It is demoralizing to have someone assume that I am only in the same room as them because a quota had to be met. We are in 2015 where we are supposed to embrace and love ourselves. But I wonder, when the phrase “love the skin you’re in” was coined… did they mean black people too? I don’t think so.

My group selected the hashtag #LivingWhileBlack to bring awareness to the struggles that African Americans face each day, from they day they are born to the day they die. This specific hashtag was selected because we will use it to show how common daily activities are impacted by the color of a person’s skin. The idea for the hashtag came from “driving while black,” which is when black men are pulled over not for breaking the law, but simply for being black. My group hopes to use the hashtag #LivingWhileBlack to the emphasize the level of risk that comes with doing anything while being black, from being educated to being apart of the workforce. The goal of the hashtag is to highlight and expose the constant struggle black people face each day.

[wearethe15percent]

Reese, Riley, Cecilia, Torrey and Reagan - Charleston, SC

[staff]

This is the most heartwarming blog ever inspired by a cereal commercial.

[racheljsay-blog]

The Racial justice issue my group selected investigates the challenges and disadvantages blacks face on daily basis. We selected this issue to draw attention to the daily struggles that come with being black in today’s society. It is a common misconception among people that racism is not a problem in America anymore, what those people fail to realize is that racism is more than just hating someone simply because of the color of their skin. America’s society and culture is based on racial hierarchies that put people of color at a disadvantage in every aspect of life. These disadvantages have become so intertwined within the social norm that white people do not realize the many advantages they receive in their lives each day. Our group hopes to provide information and insight to the subtle forms of racism and disadvantages that black people face on a daily basis. By drawing attention to these issues we hope to inform our community and inspire a change in treatment towards blacks.