#systematic discrimination

[cinephileanonyme]

Séance #13 - #BlackLivesMatter

La croissance exponentielle de l’Internet a permis à la planète entière de trouver des gens avec des intérêts en commun, d’avoir accès à l’information au bout des doigts (littéralement), de prendre la parole sur des sujets qui leur semblent importants et plus. Bref, Internet a offert des possibilités à l'infini qui peut difficilement être condensé en une phrase. 

Cependant, Internet a sa part de points positifs ainsi que négatifs. Ce constat est observable en ligne, surtout lors des débats publics. Le concept de débat public prenant place en ligne n’est pas une problématique en soi. Au contraire, tous ont droit à la liberté d’expression et en ayant accès à la sphère numérique, le partage de croyances n’a jamais été aussi facile. Cependant, le moment où ces opinions personnelles exposées à tous deviennent violentes, irrespectueuses et même barbares, c’est là que des complications s'imposent. 

Il suffit de prendre comme exemple le mouvement Black Lives Matter. Ce dernier a initialement attiré l'attention du public pour la première fois en 2013, mais a depuis pris de l'ampleur en 2020 après la mort tragique de George Floyd aux mains de la police à Minneapolis (Howard University, s.d). Suite à cet événement, le hashtag #BlackLivesMatter prend de l’ampleur sur les réseaux sociaux. Ce dernier mène des manifestations protestant le racisme systématique et misant sur une fin à la brutalité policière qui affecte énormément la communauté noire. 

Toutefois, ce hashtag en faveur de la communauté noire gagne également sa part de manifestants en faveur de #AllLivesMatter. Leur façon de penser étant, pourquoi devrions-nous prioriser uniquement les vies noires? Qu'en est-il de toutes les vies? Cela signifie-t-il que les personnes d'autres races devraient être plus sujettes au profilage racial?

Cependant, la réalité est que la population caucasienne est et a toujours été, grandement avantagée par rapport à la communauté noire. C'est simplement la triste vérité. Et donc, oui, bien sûr, toutes les vies devraient compter, mais lors d’un temps où les vies blanches ont eu la majorité de priorités, il est temps que les vies noires soient prises en charge. 

C’est-à-dire, qu’il est impossible de débattre une cause sans que d’autres se battent contre la cause, surtout en ligne où le contact humain est inexistant. C’est d’ailleurs pourquoi les débats en ligne deviennent si rapidement houleux et même dangereux. Il est trop facile de vocaliser son opinion sur les plateformes numériques et de se sentir inatteignable. 

Bibliographie

This guide focuses on the civil rights that various groups have fought for within the United States.

Controversial Topic: Black Lives Matter | Academic Influence

Black Lives Matter is a modern protest movement centered around civil rights causes impacting Black Americans, especially as they relate to

[adriftanchor]

I don't know why I get political anymore... I clearly can't handle political arguments without getting depressed AF lol

[blackliberalwoman]

Thoughts on Racism to @Rightsideofpolitics

It's great that you, as a white man, see yourself as an individual incapable of being racist and having racist thoughts. But we all have prejudices. What makes you cross the street when you see a Black man walking down the road? What assumptions do you make about Black women and their socioeconomic status when you see them with children? How do we characterize the Black people? What do we mean when the media so readily calls Black people "thugs" or ghetto? What assumptions do we make about Black people in higher education?Why do many people say that they are in college because of Affirmative Action rather than thinking that their accomplishments (as well as the life hardships they may or may not have experiences because of their race, class, immigrant status) make them worthy of sharing the same space as White students? When I speak of racism, I am not talking about individual racism, although that does exists. The use of the n-word, blatant lack of service because of one's color, the irrational hatred towards someone who looks different, etc. Or maybe just look at the racist jokes and hatred that exists towards Obama. Yes, those individual acts of racism still exist.

What I am referring to is systematic racial discrimination. The police brutality, the fact that Black people are denied loans to start businesses and acquire homes, the Driving While Black phenomenon in which a person is significantly more likely to be pulled over because of his race, how Stop and Frisk laws disproportionately affect Black people, how Black defendants are more likely to be told by their public defender to take a plea deal because of class issues and the fact that juries are less likely to view a Black defendant favorably, or that Black people on average are more likely to be convicted AND receive longer sentences for the same crimes as their White counter parts, or the fact that a school to prison pipeline exists and prisons actually use the reading and math schools of Black and Latino children in the 4th grade in their calculation for how many prison cells to build, or that White students get rehabilitated for their misbehavior, Black students get punished (Black children are more likely to get suspended or expelled for the same actions as their White counterparts), the fact that a White male with a criminal record is statistically more likely to get a call back from an employer than a Black male without a criminal record (there are studies on this), the wage gap on the basis of race and gender (you know the .77 cents to a $1 rhetoric? Yea, that statistic is for White women. Look up what happens when you break up the wage gap by race AND gender), the mass incarceration of Black people and Latinos in America on the basis of minor drug offenses even though empirically, White populations and People of Color use drugs at the same rate (in fact, White people use drugs slightly more). I'm talking about the fact that doctors are less likely to prescribe Black patients with pain medications because of the subconscious believe that we are either lying about our pain or more capable of withstanding it. Or that redlining took and still takes place in which banks, with no other basis other than race, outline entire communities where they will refuse to give people home loans. Or the fact that racial residential segregation is on the rise in America and yet no one is talking about it. Or the fact that voting law changes disproportionately negatively affect poor, communities of Color who already have difficulties getting to the polls. When I refer to racism and discrimination, I am pointing to the fact that People of Color aren't adequately represented in the media and if they are, they play stereotypical roles.

And to deny THAT is willful ignorance on the part of any person who denied that racism exists in America in 2015.

[i-am-the-dragon-reflection]

When the phone advertisements get too real...

kissmyprettyblacksass

[tidbits-of-the-mind-blog]

The experience of discrimination has been associated with negative self-reported physical health, elevated blood pressure, diagnosis of depression, and impaired psychological well-being.

[tidbits-of-the-mind-blog]

System-Justifying Beliefs and Racism

System-justifying beliefs are culturally established beliefs that individuals may endorse in order to explain why their society is set up in a hierarchical manner. These beliefs differ from culture to culture, but in the U.S., many of the SJBs fall under one umbrella: meritocracy.

The meritocratic worldview is the cultural belief that hard work and industriousness lead to success (Protestant work ethic) and that people are responsible for their own fate (belief in a just world)—they have the ability to succeed, if they are willing to persevere, and they are responsible for their failures.

The internalization of failure that this perspective breeds encourages the perception that inequalities exist not because of systemic discrimination but because individuals (or entire social groups) have not worked hard enough. Thus, one of the reasons that people may be less likely to see racism in ambiguous events is because these underlying meritocracy beliefs may allow fact finders to rationalize discriminatory behaviors as nondiscriminatory, misattributing negative target outcomes to the target’s failure to persevere.