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Summary

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Black Live Matter

Personal Statement from blacklivesmatter.com-

 #BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.

We are expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front.

We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.

We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.

We affirm our humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation.

Background-

Black Lives Matter is an organization that works hard to creating a world free of black hate and where every black person has the opportunities.  The network of members within this organization is expansive, however with the foundation of taking action on any black life that was torn apart by state sanctioned violence and anti-Black racism.  While also healing the wounds that the members have experienced and supporting one another through everything.  

We statements provided by the Black Lives Matter site-

We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.

We work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.

We intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting.

We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we need not qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a prerequisite for wanting the same for others.

We see ourselves as part of the global Black family, and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black people who exist in different parts of the world.

We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.

We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.

We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.

We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered.

We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.

We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.

We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).

We cultivate an intergenerational and communal network free from ageism. We believe that all people, regardless of age, show up with the capacity to lead and learn.

We embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.

Art 150-

This organization applies too many different aspects that we have talked about in Art 150.  Firstly, this site still applies to the same issues the Sojourner Truth was fighting for in her photo with the caption “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance” at the time she was fighting to end slavery in the United States and give rights to all African Americans.  This still applies to today as African Americans are still fighting for full equality, anti-racism, and anti state supported violence.  Secondly, this site can be seen as running congruently with organizations that help fight also for Mexican Americans and Asian Americans who immigrated to the United States and were treated poorly with poor living and working conditions and low salary, but high taxes.  Lastly, above all, wanting to feel accepted.  Each minority group wants to feel accepted and safe where they live and being able to achieve anything they set their heart and mind too.  

Resources-

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

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She’s Gotta Have It

This tv show on Netflix filmed in 1986 first as a movie, but then was adapted into a tv show.  This movie is about the romantic life in gentrified Brooklyn through main character Nola Darling.  With her sexual freedom she is involved in three open relationships with three completely different guys.  One who is thoughtful, one who is care-free, and one who is cocky.  Nola is very independent which the men find out and find to be struggling with.  Therefore, with Nola trying to manage her relationships with her own terms, the men quickly begin to have trouble with it.   

This tv show highlights the gentrification that took place in Brooklyn.  Gentrification often shifts a small areas racial or ethnic composition and the average income by developing new and better homes, companies, or improved resources.  Therefore, this can cause migration or displacement of those trying to be replaced for something “better”.

Art 150-

This relates to Art 150 as in the past weeks we have looked at different migrations that took place in the United States, such as the Great Migration when a large amount of African Americans moved out of Southern United States to the Midwest, East and West Coast in search of better employment and opportunities.  This can be related to Brooklyn during the show as the city was going through jurassic changes with the population of people.  When large groups of African Americans migrated north, east, and west the demographic of people greatly changed and people began to immerse together      

Resources-

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/8/1/what-does-gentrification-really-mean   

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The Help

The Help is a movie written in 2011 based on the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  The film and novel tell the story of a young white women; Skeeter who wants to be a journalist in Jackson, Mississippi.  Skeeter wants to make a name for herself in the publishing world, so decides to write a book telling the stories of maids of her friends during the Civil Rights Movement in 1963.  Within these stories, Skeeter highlights the racism that each of these maids face on a daily basis.  Each story has been replaced with fake names, but as the white families read the book when it comes out, they begin to figure out which story belongs to them.  When this book and movie came out it received positive critiques as it tries to depict what life for African Americans were like during the Civil Rights Movement and what all “The Help” had to deal with.   

Ties to Art 150-

The Help relates to Art 150 as this movie and book helped those who read and watched it get a better understanding of what the help during this time had to go through.  It depicted what types of chores their white employer would make them do.  In the class it has been highlighted that in media a race can be depicted in a certain way, however in this book at the time it made the readers realize just how awful some help had at their jobs and all the negative things they had to go through, such as being talked to rudely or asked to use the bathroom outside in a special out house just for them.    

This book today has sparked other books and movies to be written along with realizing that we as a country never want to go back to that, but that it should be remembered.  A book in particular that comes to mind is The Secret Life of Bees which is written by Sue Monk Kidd who tells the story of a girl name Tab who lives in a deep southern town with very conservative and discriminatory beliefs which only gets worse as she watches the affect of the 1960 gubernatorial campaign. 

Resources-

https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/btb/index.cfm/book_number/2232/the-help

https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-help