[Aung Win]

The last image I have chosen for this quarter on LGBT rights and the right to marry for same-sex couples is a protest right outside of the Louisiana Supreme court in which a federal judge has upheld a state ban on gay marriage since the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage prior in 2013. There are multiple signs in the image that need to be discussed. First, the people protesting in the image claim that marriage is between a man and a woman as intended by God. We again arrive at the notion where one’s right to an identity through marriage comes into conflict with another one’s right to religious liberty and expression. The federal judge in the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the state ban on gay marriage is upheld because of history that marriage has been made between man and a woman “through thousands of years.” The other sign is “STOP JUDICIAL TYRANNY” which can be argued as double standards, because currently legislation such as DOMA do not protect against LGBTQ discrimination, and only upholds Judeo-Christian values. However, when the judiciary such as the SCOTUS ruled that part of DOMA is unconstitutional and California’s Prop 8 as unconstitutional, anti-gay protestors claim that there is judicial tyranny against them, when in actual reality, the judiciary is trying to level the playing field and as part by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, every individual must be given due process regardless of which state he/she is in.

Source Image: https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/09/louisianas-gay-marriage-ban-upheld-by-federal-judge/
(Sept. 3, 2014)

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[Aung Win]

Regarding to the NYTimes article for this week, featuring on the lives of undocumented immigrants, one element that steps out is how the cloud of fear and uncertainty hangs over those who have entered USA illegally. It is always how the expiration of one’s driver license or the countless alibis one’s parents have recited to the children if they were have questioned or caught at any scene.
For those who have been caught unfortunately, no matter how young they are (even as babies), were separated from their parents. Due to the current Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance policy’, this effects how the ground policing works when handling with illegal immigrants, leading to ‘zero humanity’. It is depressing and disheartening to realize that very young children are being dehumanized and given the cloud of uncertainty at such an early stage in life. The potential of such physical and emotional trauma is so profound and large, and it is even more disheartening that these same children might as well be sent back to the origin of hell they have arduously escaped from.

Image Source: http://nmpoliticalreport.com/2018/06/18/listen-to-children-whove-just-been-separated-from-their-parents-at-the-border/
(June 18, 2018)

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[Aung Win]

Illegality has become more of a weapon in recent years to criminalize and dehumanize individuals even if they are undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers. This form of weaponization leads to discrimination against those who desire to seek asylum in America, because they are ripped of their civil rights that are owed by the country’s constitution. It is discouraging to see that having the status as illegal in the country has lead to the belief that one is a criminal. This type of dehumanization and criminalisation reached it zenith when the Trump administration has began separating the families of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants at the border. How did it get to the point where children and babies are being snatched from the parents’ arms, and put in immigration facilities with fences that appear only appear more prison-like? In the minds of many Americans, those immigrants are no longer seen as human beings, but only more like criminals that refuse to obey the law of the land. They would suggest that they had it coming for breaking that law.

Source of Image: http://time.com/5317522/donald-trump-border-cover/
(June 21, 2018)

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[Aung Win]

I believe it is very important to discuss the fact that due to the US’s policy of the War on Terror, the federal government basically legalized any forms of racism against a particular (albeit not by law, but the social effects indeed were very frightening.) For example, the capture or the kidnapping, and the torture of dozens of people who look Middle-Eastern were largely kept hidden from the eyes of the public.Right after 9/11, the infamous Guantanamo Bay was set up and used as an anti-terrorist HQ facility, to draw out information regardless of whether the ones being tortured are telling truth or not.

It is very shocking to consider how quick and how vicious policies affected the lives of many Muslim people who were kidnapped and tortured LAWFULLY. Immediately, their 1st amendment rights were stripped away. Even though the scale or the magnitude of individuals captured in the prison facility, it is still abhorrent to believe how far laws can be carried out to perceive a particular racial group as terrorists under the guise of national security.

Photo Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-muslim-humanity-is-subjective-guantanamo-bay_us_59302446e4b017b267ee0098
(June 02, 2017)

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[Aung Win]

I personally took this picture when George Takei came to UCSD campus on April 2018 to give his famous talk/speech regarding his experiences as a Japanese American during WWII. He recalls his traumatizing memories when he and his family were incacerated by American troops from their home and community all the way to the internment camps in the swamps of Arizona. He felt it so troubling and so betrayed that is shared by many of his community folk that they were persecuted only because of their skin and race regardless of how much they felt nationalistic about their own country of America. They were later forced to reconcile for the fact that they have to plead allegiance to the American flag that have placed them in unchartered territory and aimed down upon with machine gun towers. George Takei recalls the 442nd regiment which is both the most highly-decorated regiment in WWII and mostly comprised of second generation Japanese Americans who refused to acknowledge the persecution of his community by fighting in the war. Some of their folks opposed them and questioned them why should they sacrifice their lives for a countrh thag had abandoned them. First generation Americans and second generation Americans had verh different reactions mainly to different strategies to react to this persection. George Takei recalls how there were suicide among his community due to the immense feeling of betryal due to their dedication as American citizens.

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[Aung Win]

The image I selected for this week’s is Comedian Dave Chappelle, left, and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, receiving W.E.B. Du Bois Medal award ceremonies at Harvard University. Both these gentlemen have fought for civil rights for their community in their own ways. Dave Chappelle praised James Baldwin when he received the award, highlighting how just like Baldwin and Malcolm X, he too spent time abroad (for him in South Africa) to understand his roots, and to later make his comedy more educational and humorous at the same time. He had major influence from both Malcolm X and Baldwin especially with the violent, anti-white rhetoric before Dave Chappelle flew to Africa. His comedy was centered around comedy superficially mostly for his African American audience, but when he later came back from Africa, he followed through the footsteps of both Baldwin and Malcolm X. He became more aware of his responsibility as a celebrity and later become more of a civil rights figure, but he does not promote himself as one, but still carries on to point out the racial divide in America just like James Baldwin. His comedy became so much more eloquent, and echoes the ideals that Baldwin had in his novel such as the Fire Next Time. It’s amazing how much Malcolm X and James Baldwin can have an impact on future generations of African American descent many decades later.

Photo Source: https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/harvard-honors-colin-kaepernick-dave-chappelle-others-1829708517
(October 11, 2018)

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[Aung Win]

This image is taken at a soda fountain counter when Muhammad Ali beat Sonny Liston at a historical boxing match for the heavyweight championship of the world. Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam along with Malcolm X were booked to speak at a featured event on promoting African American civil rights, and to give a speech of the struggle of the African American Community. Mostly every study and classes in high school and university are aware of the discussions between Dr. MLK and Malcolm X, but are not aware of the special relationship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali was previously registered as Cassius Clay, but only after discovering his Islamic faith and being inspired by Malcolm X, he became drawn to the Nation of Islam and eventually joined the inner circle. Islamic religion very much motivated these two individuals to fight for civil rights. These two Islamic brothers each would fight for their people; Muhammad Ali sacrificing his boxing prowess at the height of his career when he refused to join the Vietnam draft while Malcolm X sacrificing his life at the very end of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali helped each other in some of the darkest times in America’s history even after being separated when Malcolm X joined Islamic Brotherhood to promote universal rights instead. Even after Muhammad Ali didn’t see eye to eye with Malcolm X at the end of the relationship, both these individuals helped progress the Civil Rights Movement in their own special way.

Source of Image: The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images used in NBC News, and the date of the image is taken in March 1964.

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[Aung Win]

Michelle Alexander’s ‘The New Jim Crow’ illustrates how mass incarceration became a systematic form of discrimination and segregation that define the borders of the African American community. Although mass incarceration, by law, is not unconstitutional nor does it break any federal or state laws, it has very deeply rooted problems against African Americans. For example, the war on drugs has taken a toll on minorities, imprisoning them to a possible life sentence while private prisons and their investors reap profits. This form of “legal” segregation by mass incarceration is worsened when the state and federal court systems lean towards the white majority when it is the white majority who commit more drug offenses than the black minority. But yet, both executive law enforcement and the judicial courts treat black minorities more severely with harsher penalties than the white majority. This is in a way answers Alexander’s question of “Where have all the Black men gone?”

Photo Credits: NAACP

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