Posts Tagged: Black Lives Matter
Stanford #BlackLivesMatter Walk Out
Black Student Union, Stanford organized a #BlackLivesMatter march/walk out in which URGE students participated in. Over 500 students participated and blocked two major intersections for 15 minutes. Afterwards, the chapter hosted a film screening of the Documentary “Out In the Night” which focused on the experiences of 4 Black, queer women facing sexual assault and the justice system.
Who Is The Good Guy with a Gun?
Last week on the night of Thanksgiving, a shooting at the Riverchase Galleria mall in Hoover, Alabama killed a 21-year-old black man, E.J. Bradford, home for the holidays. Official media coverage of the shooting reported that the police had killed Bradford, because he was the initial shooter. However, in the following days, local social media reported a very different story: Bradford did not shoot anyone. He was simply one of the very many Alabama citizens who pulled out their guns at the sound of a gun going off. Regardless of your feelings on guns, Bradford wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was the “good guy with the gun” and he was black. And not only did that lead to his death, it lead to warped media coverage, because the police lied… Read more »
“Stranger Fruit” and the Quest to Prove Black Innocence
Two and a half years following the murder of unarmed eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, “new” case details have surfaced. Three new potential pieces of evidence have emerged: that Wilson used the N-word, that Brown may not have attacked Wilson or reached for the gun, and most notably, that Brown didn’t rob the Ferguson Market. The dominant, public understanding of the case is one of a demonic, Hulk Hogan-esque Brown committing a strong-armed robbery and assaulting a police officer whom then purportedly shot and killed Brown to save his own life. In video footage released by documentarian Jason Pollock; however, he argues that the video challenges the police (and public) narrative by dispelling the myth of the corner store robbery. The video, part of Pollock’s documentary “Stranger Fruit” shows… Read more »
When the Hashtag becomes the Mic
Social media has been used in a variety of ways to connect a vast amount of people to the current news, whether it be accurate, satire, or false. This knowledge is then broken down into little tidbits of tweets, posts, or stories across major platforms. In this context, hashtags have become the tools of keyboard courage and the microphone for keyboard warriors. Although hashtags work to see others’ contribution to the world’s view, it removes the identity of words, language, and photos. By and by, social media becomes a double edged sword that discredits issues of oppression and privilege and discriminate against other users unknowingly. Unintentionally, hashtags make one experience the universal experience while making the other facets of what defines that experience invisible. An array of experiences shouldn’t be… Read more »
Milo Yiannopoulos and The Discourse
It’s been about a week since Milo Yiannopoulos has been ousted from the conservative community. An openly gay man known for his blatant racism, and transphobia, Milo served as a bridge between the GamerGate crowd, and white gay people who refused to be held accountable for their oppressive ways. Milo’s rhetoric has been responsible for protests on almost every campus he has attended, along with violence towards college students, and those with marginalized identities. Milo firmly holds the belief that being gay is wrong and that political correctness is ruining the country. However, it wasn’t Milo’s self determination to be the Worst Human Being In The World that got him dumped on the doorstep of the club he so desperately wanted to be a part of. It was his comments on relationships… Read more »
Tomi With The Bad Hair: Sorry, Trevor Noah Didn’t Drag Lahren
It’s Finals Week. Yes, the anxiety-inducing week where professors throw out all care for student’s mental health and we cram a semester’s worth of material down our throats. However, because my life seems to be plagued by a particularly specific brand of evil, not all my classes held finals. Some of them held mini end-of-semester lectures meant to show students “the big picture.” Today’s final was one of those. My teacher spent the better half of an hour telling us we couldn’t write and lacked passion. The second half however, he answered questions from students on a variety of topics. It was during this section of class that he uttered this phrase: “The most important issue we as a country must tackle next is the issue of the Black Man.”… Read more »
The Supreme Court Decision That Will Keep Police Violence The Norm
To date, 123 people of color have been killed by police in 2016. After the formation of the Black Lives Matter Movement and unprecedented political engagement from presidential candidates on conversations surrounding racial justice and criminal justice reform, the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in such steady succession cuts to the quick. Our nation has become too comfortable witnessing state brutality against non-violent black people through the grainy footage of cell phone and soundless police dashboard cameras. We know the names of the 123 people who have lost their lives. We know what their families’ suffering sounds like. What we may not know is that, this past June, the Supreme Court made it much easier for these acts of violence to continue without legal consequences. With such landmark cases on… Read more »
#BlackLivesMatter at Texas State
On Monday, #BlackLivesMatter co-founder, Opal Tometi, spoke to students at Texas State University. Tometi, a keynote speaker for a series of talks Texas State University is hosting about diversity, spoke about her experience as a social justice advocate and activist. The event took place in the LBJ Ballroom on campus. The ballroom was filled with students and the event certainly yielded a good turn out. Tometi spoke about the systemic hurdles that our society, and countless others, have put in place, making it more difficult to attain true equality. She addressed institutionalized racism and global capitalism, two of the biggest factors keeping us from becoming a more just and equal society. Tometi then began her call to action. She stressed the importance of acting when we see racial and social injustices. We… Read more »
The Night I Realized How Much I Benefit from White Privilege
Trigger warnings: police brutality, racism, violence I have a 20-year-old hand-me-down car that I absolutely love. Its name is Flacco, after my NFL team’s quarterback, and it’s a ’95 purple Ford Thunderbird with a V8 engine that I might get a little carried away with on long, empty roads sometimes. Like any older car, it requires a bit of extra maintenance. Shortly before my grandparents gave it to me, they had a new engine put in. Fairly recently, I replaced the battery. Even more recently, one of my headlights went out. Unaware of this fact, I drove to the gas station about a mile down the road one night. On the way back, I saw the lights start flashing and heard the siren and for the first—and so far, the… Read more »
