just1c3journal - Tumblr blog

[just1c3journal]

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE SAYING THE DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDERERS AND RAPISTS AND KIDNAPPERS IS INJUST, AND WRONG BUT TRY TO JUSTIFY POLICE KILLING COMPLETELY INNOCENT BLACK PEOPLE

It does not make sense in my head that the same people that justify police killing people, INNOCENT OR NOT, can be against the death penalty, which punishes disgusting people for their heinous crimes. The death penalty is a controversial issue because it involves taking the life of a human, it’s controversial because it cannot be reversed. Occasionally the judicial system makes mistakes, including finding the wrong person guilty. The death penalty is a controversial issue because it’s fighting fire with fire, punishing an extreme murderer (or other crime on that level) with another murder. People are against the death penalty because a person’s race or what state they are in can effect whether they receive the capital punishment or not. The police force have almost little room, I believe, when it comes to murdering people on the job. In the video of the link above, two very similar stories happen, but have extremely different outcomes. The most obvious difference is that the British police manage to get the man with the knife under control without using guns, the American police shoot and kill the man with the knife after only 20 SECONDS after arriving on the scene. It is an extremely big deal for a convict to receive capital punishment, only about 1% of felons convicted of homicides are given the death sentence. WHY then, is it such a big deal for a criminal PROVEN GUILTY to be given capital punishment, but a man, who has done nothing close to committing a capital crime is given the capital punishment without trial. Opposing views might bring the rebuttal that he is a threat to the people around him and the police, but the video I have attached shows that there are many other ways to control a person with a knife that to shoot and kill them. And police aren’t even just killing (almost always black) people who are a threat, they’re killing COMPLETELY INNOCENT PEOPLE. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS A BIG DEAL BECAUSE IT CAN’T BE UNDONE, police are killing people without asking questions. This is where the cartoon I’ve attached comes into play - capital punishment given through the jury is almost always for first degree/capital murder cases, these tomb stone show how many people have been killed by police for things not even close to this. No front license, right tailgate out, failed to signal, ran from the cops… NONE of these things are even remotely close to being punishable by death, yet it continues to happen. I don’t believe that it is justifiable for a police to kill someone just because they feel threatened. Police are trained in so many other methods for subduing and controlling a person - yet the reoccurring theme seems to be capital punishment for “crimes” that usually result in $25 fines. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

[just1c3journal]

Two flaws I think are in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights that still are relevant today :-)

1. Hypocrisy in the separation of church and state, but the whole document incorporates a Christian God. God’s existence is self evident (according to DoI) and doesn't need any further discussion or debate. America is God’s country, the rights the declaration defines are “God-given,” the actions of the signers are God-inspired. There are 5 references to God in the Declaration of Independence: 1. God as supreme lawmaker  2. God as creator of all men 3. God as the source of all rights 4. God as the world’s supreme judge 5. God as our protector. There is currently extremely religious leaders in the American government who’s religious beliefs effect their influence in government and their policymaking. For example, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Brown - who uses his Baptist teachings to influence not only HIS lawmaking, but the governors around him too (For example: same sex marriage is wrong according to the bible, so should be illegal because of this. Abortion is wrong according to the bible, therefor should be illegal. He believes that creationism is how the world was formed and pushed for creationism to be taught in schools INSTEAD OF teaching children the scientific theory of the Big Bang theory and evolution). I don’t really identify with the church as much, and honestly the influence of religion in policy making restricting the rights of people with other beliefs drives me crazy. God and christianity is weaved throughout the whole Declaration of Independence AND Bill of Rights, even though it’s specifically spelled out in the same documents that there must be a distinct separation of church and state. Probably because the framers assumed that the separation of church and state would only be giving the religious freedoms to different denominations of christianity therefore all under the same “God,” just practicing with different ways with slightly different beliefs. I’m sure they had no idea that America would be filled with people who follow every, all, and no gods when these documents were created. Which makes sense, except almost all of our law is still directly based off of this documents. 2. A less researched and thought-about idea I have is that the framers LITERALLY say “All men are created equal” (direct quote from Declaration of Independence) even though most of the framers were slave owners??? The same “we’re all equal!!! unless you’re different from us” idea that is still so very much around today is an idea that our country is literally founded upon. A very interesting and hypocritical topic still around today (for example: #AllLivesMatter hashtag users, in my experience from Facebook, social media, and just interactions with other people, are the same people that are against allowing Syrian refugees into America, the same people who think police murdering innocent black people is okay, the same people who changed their profile picture to the French flag when there was terrorism there on Friday the 13th, but failed to recognize the other three acts of terrorism that also occurred on that day. All lives matter, unless you’re different from me/not white.)

[just1c3journal]

In Episode 11 of Michael Sandel’s Justice talks its split into two categories: “Claims of Community” and “Where our Loyalty Lies.”
Discussing the “Claims of Community,” “communitarians argue that, in addition to voluntary and universal duties, we also have obligations of membership, solidarity, and loyalty. “ But these obligations we have are not based on consent. Where does our solidarity lie? Where do these obligations come from? Identities given to us based on where or how we were born: family, city, country. As someone who has moved their whole life, I don't really have a city or a state that I refer to as  “home,” when presented with the question “where are you from?” I always have trouble answering. Well, I was born in North Carolina, but my family is from Louisiana, but I only lived there a year, I currently live in Evans, Georgia but my favorite place I lived was Australia but I lived in England the longest… The list of ties goes on. The country I always tend to claim is the United States but thats just because I have a United States passport - I think it’d be much more cool if I was able to claim my Australian ties. So, concerning obligations to community and moral ties, its hard for me to sympathize and understand because I have no strong claims of community other than my family, and really just my nuclear family at that. I agree with the claim made by a girl called Elizabeth in the episode: just because I was born in the United States doesn't mean thats the membership I necessarily feel I should be apart of, citizenship is a constructed one. Literally humans drew boundaries and separated themselves from each other based on location or skin color and made up different races based on similar characteristics with each other - why should these human drawn differences force me to have certain claims of community with people I not only don't even know or really care about, but have nothing in common with except the location we just happened to be born to? Its a very complicated issue, but I agree that the claims to community and patriotism are somewhat pointless. HOWEVER, the world today has become all about patriotism as countries are constantly fighting and every country has to be the biggest and the best and the most powerful, all countries show pride and citizens cane be proud of where they are from. This is taken overboard in America, extremely, however. Literally no one in the whole world has more spirit or patriotism for their country in the most weird and twisted ways as Americans do. The second part of the episode talks about where our loyalty lies - do we owe more to our fellow citizens than we do to citizens of other countries? My answer to this question is no - why should I care more about someone just because they live closer to me? There is suffering all over the world, why should I care about suffering more in the united states than in other countries just because the United States is where I am “from”? “Is patriotism a virtue, or a prejudice for one’s own kind?” This is where the twisted American idea of patriotism comes into play because it really is just a prejudice for one’s own kind.

Really, once again, racism is just something that drives me crazy because race is made up, LITERALLY humans made races up just to divide each other up and drew lines and separated each other based on location and how they look and people are killing each other and judging people based on these man-made decided differences. There are people in this world who truly believe that people are lesser than them simply because of where they are from and what they look like. I could go on forever.

[just1c3journal]

FIVE BROKEN CAMERAS 

Five Broken Cameras was an insanely hard movie to watch. After the a Palestinian villager got his first camera after his fourth son was born, he was able to document his life. A wall was built through his town and he, along side other villagers, protested its building. Over 5 years, and 5 camera, the movie follows his struggle as he filmed his fight. Everyone ends up getting shot or arrested, and cameras are shot and smashed one after another. Each of the five cameras tells a different story, and this movie showed a lot of what the struggles of the middle east have come to. There was a lot of struggle and pain and loss over a wall being built through their town - something that may even seem like a small idea in terms of where we are, what we have and where we live. In America, if someone just comes and builds a wall in the middle of your back yard, there are rules and regulations preventing them from this, its your property so generally they wouldn't be able to build on your land, even if it was the government there would have to be some kind of compensation, rather than just building on your land. In the movie, it is obvisoult something that is very important to Emad. The movie is hard to watch, it is very emotional and there is a lot of sadness, but this is how the conflict looks from the other side of the wall. This is his life now, people have to live their life like this every day. The movie wakes you up, it makes you realize how little peace and fairness there is in the world, especially outside of the US. Its a very broken and unfair system, the movie shows of distressing their everyday life is. I thought this movie was hard to watch, it wasn't one of my favorites we watched in this class.

[just1c3journal]

All lives matter, unless you’re not white.

First of all, it makes me laugh that in political cartoons, the racist main character is always fat and white because, sadly, most of the time, thats who it is. I was having a conversation today with my friend about how when talking about other cultures and countries, they always seem to have something cool attached to their name when its first brought up (French and their tourist attractions, English and their tea, Germans and their cars…), however America its always fat people, fatty foods, big people and cars and buildings. Very sad that the American culture is based around obesity.

HOWEVER this cartoon is about a much more serious issue, the recent state of war in Syria causing the mass amount of Syrian refugees, and the rejection of them from other countries, specifically from this cartoon - their rejection from the US. The same people who say they care about “ALL lives matter” were the same people who were so against any form of help or refuge to the Syrian refugees. Mostly because “all lives matter” doesn't mean ACTUALLY all lives matter, just a backlash pretend movement because black lives matter. The lady in the cartoon is holding a bible because most of these racist fat white people have their “faith” and their interpretations of religion backing up their actions. This cartoon shows how literally there are children DYING because their homes are consumed in war and the biggest issue Americans have is not letting them into the country in fear of terrorism (which is also shrouded in racial profiling and racism of people of color). The only thing more annoying to me than racism itself, is when people try and back up their racism and try and make it seem ‘okay’ by using religion and the bible or attempting to use racial profiling as a reason to turn away people fleeing from a war-ridden country. It’s not like they wanted to be forced to leave in the first place. 

[just1c3journal]

#BLACKLIVESMATTER: THE MISUNDERSTANDING 

One of my current biggest pet peeves: #AllLivesMatter

I understand the potential for an #AllLivesMatter hashtag, but now is not the time. Right now, and black lives matter. 

There seems to be a very big misunderstanding between people for the #BlackLivesMatter movement and people who may not understand what its real meaning is supposed to be, the difference very distinct: #BlackLivesMatter is saying black lives matter TOO. Not black lives are the only lives that matter. #BlackLivesMatter isn’t singling out that black lives are the most important lives, or the only lives we need to focus on, #BlackLivesMatter is saying black lives matter TOO. Because currently, to a lot more of America than it should be, black lives don’t seem to matter as much as other (white) lives. The #AllLivesMatter hashtag came about NOT because people actually care about all lives, the hashtag happened as a rebuttal to the black lives matter hashtag, people only started saying all lives mattered until someone started saying black lives matter. But really thats the whole point of the black lives matter hashtag, to make it clear that black lives are not as equal as other lives, black lives are being discriminated against, racially profiled, killed. Black lives matter TOO. (NOT: ONLY BLACK LIVES MATTER)

This cartoon depicts a recent event that happened at a Donald Trump rally in Birmingham, Alabama. A group of grown men kicked, punched and chocked activist Mercutio Southall Jr. Southall came to the rally to protest Trump’s racist views, and ended up being shown JUST HOW RACIST TRUMP SUPPORTERS CAN BE. While they were beating him, they were yelling “All Lives Matter!!” Even worst, however, was that Donald Trump SUPPORTED THE MEN WHO BEAT HIM UP - “maybe he should have been roughed up, it was disgusting what he was doing.” There have been a lot of Trump supporters causing racist attacks, including Trump supporters dragging and kicking and immigration activist while yelling “U-S-A!!” ALSO another racially motivated attack on a homeless Latino man by two men in Boston who were “inspired” by Trump, WHO THEN COMMENTED BACK that his supporters were just “very passionate” and “love this country” ……… Nothing really makes me more mad than extremely racist people doing extremely racist acts and not only getting no repercussions for their actions, but getting PRAISED FOR WHAT THEY ARE DOING.

[just1c3journal]

Kendrick Lamar’s latest hit Alright seems to have become “The New Black National Anthem”

“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar is currently, and probably will remain, one of my favorite songs. Even though it is extremely catchy and currently topping the charts, its full of meaning and truth. Throughout Lamar’s track ‘Alright,’ every line is dripping with his knowledge of injustice for his race even in these modern times. The whole song is about Lamar trying to come to peace with his sins he can’t change, while still in fear of whats ahead. Running from Lucifer and racism in the same song.

First of all, the opening: Alls my life I has to fight, nigga Alls my life I Hard times like God Bad trips like: “God!"

The very first line, “Alls my life I has to fight” is a direct quote from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Novel ‘The Color Purple.’ it shows his fight depression and how not even money can help him fight with his thoughts of suicide. Consequently, he raps about how we praise God differently in good times and bad times - thanking him in the good and chastising him in the bad. The very strong opening to one of the catchiest songs of the year sets the scene of the rest of the rap: fighting through the hard times as well as the good.

Second of all, with the hook: Nigga, we gon' be alright Nigga, we gon' be alright We gon' be alright Do you hear me, do you feel me? We gon' be alright Nigga, we gon' be alright Huh? We gon' be alright Nigga, we gon' be alright Do you hear me, do you feel me? We gon' be alright

This is the phrase that is repeated in the link to the protest above. #BlackLivesMatter protestors in Cleveland, OH, used the song to suppress the growing rage of the protestors as police began using pepper spray and other violent means to try and disperse the crowd. Some annotations of the song link Lamar’s religion into these lyrics, saying many Christians believe that God has a plan and if you’re actively part of that plan, everything will be okay. However, more obviously, “we gon be alright” is someone of a hopeful message. “Despite the pain and suffering, in solidarity we will survive.” This message is used to unit in the fight against police brutality towards black Americans.

Lastly, and most obviously, a line from the pre-hook showing his open disgust for police brutality: And we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street for sure, Nigga, I’m at the preacher’s door My knees gettin’ weak and my gun might blow But we gon’ be alright

He’s literally talking about how, due to the recent extremely large number of unjust police killings specifically toward unarmed black people, it’s kinda showing that they hate the police really just because current trends show theres a lot of murder in the streets. He’s literally at the preacher’s door begging for forgiveness and begging for protection. BUT WE GON BE ALRIGHT, this song has a lot more to it than a catchy chorus.

[just1c3journal]

In episode 5 of Michael Sandel’s Justice talks, the two main topics of discussion are “Hired Guns” and “For Sale: Motherhood.” 

“Hired Guns” discusses the issue that happened in the Civil War where richer people had the option to hire people to fight in wars they were drafted in, instead of them going. It brings the debate to the fact that the rich were able to avoid war and, consequently, avoid death, while the poorer people had no choice but to fight. At the same time, this brings the question that, even though the army is voluntary now, does it force the same idea: poorer, less wealthy people are more likely to join the army for its benefits than richer people who don’t necessarily need the benefits being in the military offers. This is very true, I lot more poor people who don’t have many other options join the military not because they believe fighting for their country is the right thing to do, but they need to benefits and money. I think this creates some kind of corrupt military with people fighting “for our country” for the wrong reason. “For Sale: Motherhood” sparks the debate on “who owns a baby.” He discusses the “Baby M” issue where a legal contract offering money and payment for a woman to carry a man’s baby where at the end the woman decided she wanted to keep the baby, and it’s discussed on what the end of the legal battle should’ve been. While I kind of understood the argument that the baby could have its ties to its mother and therefore should have been given to her, I agree with the idea that she signed a contract and should be forced to follow it - while it’s hard to give up a baby you had to carry for nine months, she should have been completely aware of what she was getting into, and thought about all repercussions before signing the contract. If she was to break the contract, I think she should have to pay all money back to the other party he was given, $10,00 plus all other expenses he paid for, in addition to paying for the sperm she was artificially inseminated. Because the baby alive, it brings the discussion of the morality of selling a human life. Now, the conversation gets deeper. When is a human life, a human life? Sparking the abortion debate. Then, the idea of buying and selling human lives made my mind wander to slavery, and on the abortion topic - when is a human life, a human life? This episode made me think a little too much about all these topics, (adoption is an amazing thing, but when bidding on a child becomes alright, it seems a lot less humane…) and how, while somewhat similar, they are very different.

[just1c3journal]

Episode 7 of Michael Sandel’s Justice talks are “A Lesson in Lying” and “A Deal is a Deal.”

His “lesson in lying” was the much more interesting concept out of these two topics. The moral law seems to have lots of flaws, one which would be the murderer at the door scenario. Kant’s moral law says that is it never okay to lie. However, the murderer at the door scenario puts you in a predicament. If your friend was hiding in your house, and a murderer came to the door and asked where your friend was, would it be okay to lie? This raises a lot of issues and where Constance says that it would be crazy that the moral thing to do is to tell the truth, Kant stood by his ideas and said that telling the truth IS the moral thing to do - once you start taking consequences into account, you’ve become a consequentialist and its no longer just about morals. From this the issues of white lies is talked about - lies that are justified by consequences (not justified by Kant). The most interesting issue then arises - is a misleading truth on the same moral level as a lie? It is argued that the motive of a misleading truth is the same as lying, to mislead the person into believing something else. In the second half of the video, “A Deals a Deal,” John Rawls, a modern philosopher, is introduced along with his idea that fair set of principles would be found if WE chose the rules for our society and no one had any unfair bargaining power. This portion of the video was less interesting to me because it talked a lot more legally about different kinds of contracts and the differences they have between each other.

[just1c3journal]

“We gotta respect each other, and we gotta sit down and talk about it as human beings.”

Augusta Race Riots - 1970 

Honestly before this class, I was completely unaware there was a racially-based riot in Augusta, much less the most recent large racial riot before the Ferguson riots happened earlier this year. Racial tensions had been building between the black population and police, as well as government officials for a while. Like most racially motivated riots, the breaking point and start of the riot occurred after a suspicious, potentially racially motivated murder. In this case, the victim was 16-year-old Charles Oatman. He was killed in his cell, the back of his skull was broken and he had cigarette burns all over his body, as well as three long lashes across his back. Along with this, he was also mentally disabled. His death sent the city of Augusta into protest, more so for the manner in which his death was handled rather than his actual death. His death was first blamed on him falling from a top bunk, followed by police trying to pin the killing on black cellmates. After the state governor, Lester Maddox’s, racist input of allegedly “shoot and kill rioters on the spot” things turned for the worst - 1200 Georgia National Guard troops were ordered to the region and by the morning following the start of the riot, 6 black men were killed by gunshot wounds to the back and were “reportedly unarmed with wounds consistent with riot gear used by police.” This, with the hardcore rioting and destruction of the city with hundreds of others injured, led to over 300 people being arrested. 

It’s insane that there is so much history in Augusta, that is very interesting and parallel to current major issues, that hardly anyone is aware of. Protesters were rocking cars, throwing rocks, looting stores, setting buildings on fire… the Georgia State flag outside of the Augusta Municipal Building was taken down and burned by rioters also. With the riot getting this out of hand, it was did very little to make anything better. James Brown, the famous singer from Augusta, said in an interview: “We gotta respect each other, and we gotta sit down and talk about it as human beings.” The Augusta riot showed that while protests work for demonstrating unsettlement, as soon as violence erupts and it turns into riots, its only backpedaling. Learning about the Augusta Riots, a piece of history so close to home, on the same street I drive to school on every day, was very fascinating.

[just1c3journal]

Fruitvale Station is definitely now one of my favorite movies. Before we watched it in class, I had not only not heard of the movie, but also not even heard of the incident; now I’m asking all my friends and classmates if they’ve watched it and if their answer is no, I recommend it to the top of their “to watch” list. I’m not much of a cryer, but this movie managed to have me crying walking from English to Calculus after watching the ending. I absolutely love this movie, and how perfectly executed it is. The movie is based on the true events of 22-year-old Oscar Grant and the events leading up to his murder on New Years Eve 2009. The movie starts with the cell phone footage of the real Oscar Grant’s shooting in Fruitvale Station. Following this, it shows everything that happened before his murder that day, and really the whole time I was crying because I knew how the movie was going to end and they executed the ethos perfectly.

I watched an interview from the Ellen show with Michael B. Jordan where they talked about his recent role in the movie. In the interview, he talks about his role in the movie and what it meant to him. He had a close relationship with the writer/director of the movie, Ryan Coogler, who wrote the script for the role of Oscar Grant with Jordan in mind. Jordan talks about how the shooting of Trayvon Martin happened right before they began shooting Fruitvale Station, and how this influenced his feelings towards the role he was playing. Jordan mentions that, along with Coogler, the fact that there was another shooting made the movie much more important, Jordan says “it could’ve been us. It could’ve been me.” This influenced him to use his role in the movie as an expression of his opinion, and it “gave him a voice.” After this interview, I became a bigger fan of not only the movie and what it stood for, but for Michael B. Jordan as an actor.

[just1c3journal]

THIS IS CRAZY 

This Time magazine cover is one of my favorite ever. Just looking at the picture - who knows what year this could be. It shows how racism is alive today, just as it was in 1968. Unnecessary police violence towards black people. It shows the systematic injustice millions of black people face in America today - the riots in Baltimore very similar to the riots all over different US cities in the late 1960s. 

"The roots of these days of rage, whether in Ferguson or North Charleston or Baltimore, reach down through decades of compounded failures, each flash point is different; so was each community’s response. But there is something universal about them all.” Journalist David Von Drehle writes in the story about the cover. People are getting mad because even though everyone can see what is wrong, nothing is changing. There are protests, both peaceful and not, and although efforts aren't going unheard, there seems to be not enough change in what is going on - innocent black people are still dying on the streets almost every day. 

People aren't happy with how unjust black people are still being treated today, and they want a change. Protests and riots have been happening all over the US since the initial outburst a couple of years ago. This cover asks how much as really changed in America since the 60s.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, massive protests started in Baltimore. Now, almost 50 years later, more protests stemming from racial issues are still occurring. This cover draws the direct link between the two, paralleling each other. Most would hope by now, racism would be an absurd idea from the past, but obviously it is still alive and well today.

[just1c3journal]

Am I about dollars, or about change? 

This quote from J Cole parallels the artwork above. This graffiti was found on a railway station wall in Melbourne, Australia. It is by an Australian street artist known as “MEEK,” it portrays “a life-size man, sitting dejectedly at ground level, holding a sign that reads, “Keep your coins, I want change.”” It is featured in the National Gallery of Australia, and was created in 2004. Meek left this artwork on a railways station wall, where homeless people would usually beg for money to survive off of - but this pierce portrays something deeper. Money doesn't matter, change in the world does. Money cannot solve all problems, and this piece was created right at the time when there was no real political leadership in Australia.

What is more important - making money or making a change in the world?

Money is needed for personal benefit, but change is what keeps the whole world moving forward. 

This piece is moving - a homeless person with nothing not begging for money, but for change in the world. There are over 3.5 million homeless people in America. The richest 1% of the American population owns 43% of the country’s total wealth. The distribution of American wealth needs change. There is too much greed and not enough giving! It is so absurd that there are so many people homeless in America. The US is usually in the top 10 rankings for wealthiest countries in the world, how can it be that so many people are dying of hunger? Why are so many people living in poverty? All these unanswered questions lead to a need for change. 

http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/SPACEINVADERS/Default.cfm?IRN=162193&BioArtistIRN=33679&MnuID=4&GALID=33679&viewID=3&DTLVIEW=TRUE

[just1c3journal]

“That coulda been me, easily. It could have been my best friend…." - Cole

All we wanna do is be free

J Cole is absolutely my favorite rapper. His music almost always has some sort of deeper meaning. Cole wrote this song in response to the shooting of Michael Brown. Cole dedicated this song to "every young black man murdered in America," regardless of the race of the person who killed them. "I pray that one day the world will be filled with peace and rid of injustice," he wrote. "Only then will we all Be Free.” This song is very deep, and sad. It includes clips from the eye witness account of Michael Brown’s death from Dorian Johnson - a real-life nightmare of watching your friend be murdered in front of you. By including this, listeners are forced to visualize what Dorian says happened, forced to relive the event. The lyrics he includes are powerful. He starts of saying “I’m in denial.” Denial that there is still so much obvious racism left in America, in denial that police, people that are meant to protect, are killing unarmed black men.

“All we wanna do is take the chains off All we wanna do is break the chains off All we wanna do is be free All we wanna do is be free”

These lines are deep, the chains of racism, the chains of slavery, possibly alluding to the chains of the many black people imprisoned today. “All we wanna do is be free” - supposedly, black people are free. However, injustice and racism prevents the real idea of “freedom.” I love this song, it is meaningful and gives a powerful message.

“Can you tell me why Every time I step outside I see my niggas die”



It seems like this racist police brutality is only getting worse - or possibly just more publicized. There are now whole websites dedicated to recognizing black people who have been murdered while unarmed - http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/ It seems like every day more black people are being murdered, which is what Cole is addressing in this lyric. 

[just1c3journal]

What is justice?

What is justice? The most important question asked throughout this class - my idea of what justice is and what is “just” has become so much more deep than it has been before. In the first episode of Michael Sandel’s Justice video, we are presented with two different situations - one forcing us to chose between 1. killing one person to save the lives of five others and 2. doing nothing, even though you know five people were going to die right before your eyes and the second situation presented about the case for cannibalism. Thinking about the first situation, reading the book and discussing in class, blew my mind!!!! There is no universally right answer to which is better, all the different situations we looked at, just so much confusing and second guessing in my brain. What would I do? Would I push the fat man onto the tracks? Would I just stand and watch the people die? Would I steer off to the side track and kill one innocent bystander as opposed to five? Really, I have no idea what I would do in any of these situations. I tried to come up with an answer so I had something obvious to say, like “oh yes I would absolutely push the fat man onto the tracks, especially if there was a trap door so I never even have to touch him!” but really, which would be better?? As we explored further in class, would you kill one innocent person to use their body parts in order to save 5 other people who are dying???? Really, my answer always came back to “honestly, I don't know.” In terms of the cannibalism case - a lifeboat full of stranded men deciding to eat the weakest in order to survive - it would be harder to decide. Because if I was in the situation, what would I do? If I was dying, and we all were dying, would I be so selfish as to decide to end someone else’s life for my benefit? But on top of that - would I even be able to live with myself if I ATE ANOTHER PERSON? I really wish I could come up with an answer to at least one of these situational questions - but really it is hard to take a side.

[just1c3journal]

#BlackLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatter 

http://blacklivesmatter.com 

BLACK LIVES MATTER! In wake of recent protests due to the extreme violence from police towards black people, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag emerged. The hashtag was created in 2012 after the unjust murder of Trayvon Martin. “#BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.” I completely agree and am behind with this movement, I regularly explore Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram and I am always seeing new ideas and messages from #BlackLivesMatter. The website http://blacklivesmatter.com spells out exactly what the movement is about - “it’s not a moment, but a movement.” Until thoroughly researching the hashtag, I was under the impression that #BlackLivesMatter was just a hashtag used, and a movement. However, it has turned into a “chapter-based national organization working for the validity of Black life,” working to “(re)build the Black liberation movement.” The idea that racism is still very much present throughout the United States seems preposterous, racism should've ended with the end of segregation. In a modern time, it is hard to believe that there are still people who are racist and discriminating against people simply because THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN. I took anthropology this summer, and we talked a lot about “race.” I learned that race is really just made up, skin color caused by closeness to the equator and the need to have some resistance to sunlight. This idea has stuck with me - all this racism for something so biologically uncontrollable. While the hashtag was created due to an unjust ruling on a murder, it has turned into much more than that. The murder of black people by police is what sparked massive protests, which forced the movement forcing to show that black people are still being discriminated against. Exploring this hashtag I find out a lot of stuff I had no idea about before, which is why I am very adamant that this hashtag is very important and should be explored by everyone.

[just1c3journal]

Amber Rose is a celebrity who is trying to make a difference. I used to not like her at all, she seemed trashy and didn't really have much talent, famous for wearing no clothes and dating famous rappers. However, recently she has become much more than that. Her main ideas are supporting the current feminist movements - stop slut shaming women, stop victim blaming sexual assault survivors, “free the nipple…” She stand behind all of these and has become a main advocate. I personally agree with everything she's fighting for, even though they are very first-world problems and there are a lot more important issues around the world concerning feminism, I think these are important nonetheless. In her comedic video “Walk of No Shame” from funnyordie.com, is twists around the well known walk of shame after a women stays over at a guy’s house for the night. In this video, she makes it clear that there’s really no shame at all in enjoying sex. When women act like men, they are treated as sluts and are frowned upon, where men would be praised. It’s an interesting idea, something I hadn't thought about before, mostly because I’ve grown up my whole life being told the same thing. In the video, which I found hilarious, she is walking home from a night at a guy’s house, and where normally people would be negatively judging her, its all weirdly positive! Instead of being shamed, she is being accepted and somewhat praised for enjoying her life. The video, very obviously being a comedic video, is a little over the top, but still has an important message nonetheless. She recently held a “slut walk,” focusing on issues like rap victim blaming and slut shaming. A lot of her messages are important, that women should be treated the same as men. I love this video, I think its funny while still very obviously making a statement on how people judge men differently from women in concern to sexual activities.