Freedom Dreams

http://www.fox5vegas.com/clip/14306092/former-nfl-player-claims-police-brutality

I recently saw on twitter a video of a former NFL player, Desmond Marrow being chocked and hit by police officers while they were arresting him. After seeing the video on Twitter, I decided to search for more information about this case. I found this video that explains what happens.

In the news clip, the reporter mentions that there was a lot that was not caught on film by the bystander who recorded this incident. They also reported that Marrow had admitted he was a part of a case of road rage which is what led to his arrest. In the clip Marrow does not look like he is fighting with the officers or resisting arrest. It is really hard to justify the aggressiveness of the officers despite the fact that the video did not catch everything because Marrow seems calm and seems to comply with the officers.

The news reporter also mentioned that black lives matter released pictures of Marrow’s injuries. With BLM now involved it will be interesting to see what happens with the officers in this case. There is clear evidence of police brutality with the video and Marrow had done nothing that would warrant this aggressiveness by the police. It will be very interesting to follow this and see what happens.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43970903

Recently, Kanye West has come out of what appears a battle with drug addiction and himself and has taken his thoughts to twitter. His tweets began receiving a magnitude of backlash; however, many people used this to talk about how “free thought” is not allowed anymore and a particular group tries to maintain control over ones thoughts. This has led to many artists and friends of Kanye to openly debate topics that are controversial in a sensible manner.

This article exams his thoughts on slavery and his take on politics. Kanye West said “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … for 400 years? That sounds like a choice”. He then tweets a quote from Harriet Tubman that says “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman. Personally, I’m shocked at what Kanye West is saying, and wanted to know people thoughts on his recent twitter rampage and thoughts ranging from philosophy to politics.

 

I recently read an article about structural segregation in the healthcare system and its effects on black expecting mothers. According to the article, “black infants in America are now more than twice as likely to die as white infants — 11.3 per 1,000 black babies, compared with 4.9 per 1,000 white babies”. The mortality rate among black infants is higher today than in the 1850, 15 years before the end of slavery. This says a lot about how structural segregation impacts the living conditions of African Americans, especially when it comes to the matter of life and death.

Further investigation shows that this is not a class problem. In fact, many well-educated middle-class African American women find themselves struggling with pregnancy-related problems. Research on maternal mortality has shown that black mothers are prone to suffer from chronic stress as a result of societal and systemic racism, leading to issues such as hypertension and pre-isclampsia. However, taking a step further from the seemingly de facto personal racism, de jure practices of segregation in the healthcare system prevent black women from receiving the help they need in order to cope with problems during their pregnancy. The racial bias in healthcare is manifested in the tendency of doctors to dismiss concerns and symptoms of black mothers on the grounds that they are self-inflicted. They tend to blame the high mortality rate on the women, who are often seen as poor and uneducated. This inevitably leads to the assumption that problems with her pregnancy are because of bad habits like smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and other issues traditionally associated with being black.

This is just one of the many examples of how structural segregation still effects the lives of African Americans in an era often considered as post-segregation. The importance of acknowledging de jure segregation rather than brushing it off as personal prejudice ultimately lies on the fact that we can always do something more, rather than resting on our laurels and gloating on the perceived victory of the past.

Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis

This morning, I came across an article published on ESPN.com that was about a high school in New Jersey that recently fired their head football coach. Although the school denies this claim, players, parents, and the coach himself allege that he was fired due to the fact that his team was comprised mostly of African-American players.

This article struck me, as sports have for so long provided a space for minority voices to be heard and for their talents to be expressed, and this story is a huge set back. The coach claims that when he would bring a list of potential student-athletes he sought to bring to the school for his team, administrators would always ask whether the players were white.

The school claims that his contract’s termination was due to unprofessional dress and disrespecting the school’s president when questioned about his unprofessional dress. These reasons seem easily resolved and not ones that should result in a termination of a coach’s contract. He has filed a grievance against the school as a result of the actions taken against him. Players, parents, and students alike have spoken out against the school regarding the decision, and on Monday, 22 students walked out of class as a result of the decision.

http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/23375029/high-school-coach-says-was-fired-having-too-many-black-players

Jacob Bueter

Abstract

The following paper gives a description of the Boston Busing crisis an issue that was surrounded by racial tension and legal action. The crisis began when black parents and students became unsatisfied with the quality of education they were receiving at predominately black schools. In response black activists set up busing systems to get black students to areas of Boston where they would receive a quality education. The NAACP sued the Boston public school system for racial segregation and in 1974 Judge Garrity ruled that the segregation of black students from white students was in violation of the Brown V. Board decision. This paper looks at the racial tension in Boston following Judge Garrity’s decision, specifically focusing on how white protestors used the facade of busing to front an anti desegregation platform. This paper also examines how Boston legislators contributed to the political climate at the time of the crisis.

 

Brian Chen

Abstract

         This essay examines the effect of the 228 incident and how it was perceived before and after the martial law in Taiwan. The essay shows how the 228 incident contributed to the formation of the Taiwanese identity, the restrictions on the freedom of speech, and then led to the democratization of Taiwan. Throughout the essay, it analyzes the long-term conflict between the local Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese that has been around since the Nationalist Chinese government ruled Taiwan. The segregation of Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese and oppressions on the Taiwanese has contributed a lot to the lift of martial law in Taiwan when it was finally democratized. Although it can be inferred that the effects of the 228 incident was a direct result of the Nationalist Chinese government’s ruling, it could also be contributed by the complicated history of Taiwan. The cause and effect of the 228 incident has possessed a significant role in shaping the Taiwanese society before and even after the martial law was lifted.

 

Asha Beasley

Abstract

Music has always had a noteworthy influence on social movements. It can represent the issues of the movement and the songs can, as a result, become a type of anthem of the movement and the time period. The Civil Rights Movement is no stranger to this phenomenon, as many black artists during the 1960s and 1970s found their audience through the movement and the yearning for black liberation. This essay will therefore analyze the career of singer Nina Simone, who dedicated her talents to singing about black struggles in both the North and South, as well as having an active role in the movement as well. Later in her life, Nina Simone stated that her involvement with the movement and her increasingly radicalized beliefs were the reason that her career ended as quickly as it did. Essentially, she believed that she had been blackballed by the rest of the music industry simply because she had opinions. Through a deep reading of the lyrics to her protest songs “Mississippi Goddam” and “Backlash Blues,” this essay will analyze not only Nina Simone’s influence, but also her analysis and criticisms of racist America throughout the 1960s.

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the unfair background checks that target imposed on black and latino applicants and within twenty four hours i see another news report  on racial discrimination on job applications.

Chastity Jones, a black women from Alabama was offered a job as a customer service representative at a call center but the offer was revoked when Jones refused to cut her dreadlocks. The company argued at the time that dreadlocks were messy and thus weren’t company policy and that it wasn’t racial discrimination because her hair was a quality about her she could change instead of something like her skin color. As of now Jones is trying to take her case to the supreme court.

Jones instead argued that the company was “enforcing deeply entrenched work stereotypes that pressure black women to adopt white standards of beauty and professionalism”. Personally I think that it was unfair to revoke the job offer. Since jones was offered the position it means the company thought she was well qualified and suited for that position and to remove that offer just because of a hairstyle seems rude and wrong. I’d like to hear others opinions on this so please comment.

 

“A Womanist Perspective of the Black Power Movement” 

by Akinyele Umoja

“Ashley D. Farmer’s Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era represents an essential development in a new generation of Black Power scholarship. Farmer’s contribution is a woman-centered overview of the Black Power movement. Like Peniel Joseph’s work, Remaking Black Power will reinforce the significance of recognizing Black Power studies as a sub-field in African American history and Africana studies. Preceded by Rhonda Williams’s Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the Twentieth Century and Robyn Spencer’s The Revolution has Come, Farmer’s Remaking Black Power continues a trend within Black Power scholarship that challenges masculinist narratives of the movement.

Remaking Black Power is cutting edge as it offers a comprehensive-womanist perspective of the Black Power movement. Farmer’s interpretation of various categories of women’s activism is unique and illuminating. From the “Militant Black Domestic” to “Revolutionary Black Woman,” “African/Afrikan Woman,” and “Third World Woman,” Farmer offers frameworks to explore the representation of activist women with a variety of ideological developments within Black Power. The “Militant Black Domestic” parallels the antecedents of the Black Power movement through grassroots civil rights and Old Left intersections with the Black freedom movement. The “Revolutionary Black Woman” highlights women’s engagement with the Black Panther Party (BPP) and self-described revolutionary nationalism. The focus of “African Woman” is in the cultural-nationalist ideological trend, specifically Kawaida, from the Organization Us to the Congress of African People. The “Afrikan Woman” is a variation of cultural nationalism to the development of Pan-Afrikan nationalism, which was a dominant ideological trend of the Black Power movement in the early 1970s.¹ Finally, the “Third World Woman” examines the revolutionary intersectional development of the Black Women’s Alliance and the Third World Women’s Alliance.”

This last week there have been reports of a fraternity on the campus of Syracuse has posted a video that has many racist slurs that are said In this video. This video was uploaded to the fraternity Facebook group message to the rest of the members. In this video they say many racist things like a chant that says “to always have hatred in my heart.” This is meant to be said towards blacks, Mexicans and Jews. This video also shows some members saying that Jews should “get back into the showers” This is referring back to the Nazis treatment to the Jews during world war 2. This video was leaked to the schools newspaper by member of the school.

The school has shut down this fraternity pending investigation that they will be going through. The school said that they do not have any tolerance for this kind of behavior on campus. They will be looking into this matter and get to the bottom of everything. However many people on campus say that it is the same thing every time. They say that the school is sorry for this behavior here is some consolers you can talk to. They say that the school is not trying to stop these instances from happening they only care about that happens afterwards. Now the video has not been released to the public until the investigation is over. Hopeful the school will find these people guilty of racial discrimination against many people and kick them off campus for there actions.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/syracuse-fraternity-suspended-for-‘extremely-racist’-video/ar-AAw2Gby?ocid=spartanntp&ffid=gz