Forum Replies Created
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I watched a Youtube video by the African American Policy Forum #SayHerName: The Mothers of the Movement, which featured a short series of clips from interviews of the mothers and grandmothers of Black women murdered by police. It was moving seeing these women speak about their personal connections with the women killed and hear how the #SayHerName movement wasn’t just political, it was personal for them. The #SayHerName movement helped these mothers and grandmothers grieve, connect and heal. This is important. It is an example of the phrase popularized in the 1960’s by feminist activists, “the personal is political.” The #SayHerName movement is not just a political movement, it is very personal to the families and friends of the Black women killed and Black women living in anti-black societies. The African American Policy Forum’s video was published June 14th, 2018 and has only about 450 views, which is an unfortunate testament to how often this movement goes ignored. Below I attached a photo taken in November 2016 of the #SayHerName mothers.
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In the process of doing my final project I got really curious about what other art has emerged during and been inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. I stumbled upon Nina Chanel Abney, a black woman artists based in NY, in an article titled “</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The most powerful art from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, three years in” which unfortunately mostly featured white artists. I found the article, “Nina Chanel Abney Paints on the Edge of Violence” by John Yau, which discusses some of her pieces and her style. She paints big, colorful, cartoonish pieces that often depict a chaotic, confusing and potentially violent scene. She uses her art to express her lived experience, being a Black person in America. Police aggression and violence against Black people is a large theme in many of her pieces. Her work has helped create discuss and exposure on the Black Lives Matter Movement.
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I chose the album cover, Stankonia by Outkast because it seems to have a political message but the songs it consists of are not overtly political. I think this album, as an art piece, reflects Black musicians complex relationship with race, America, music, identity and hip hop. The album cover which shows Big Boi and Andre 3000 in color over the background of a black and white American flag. I believe the cover symbolizes that these two Black men are trying to live their lives creating art while living in a very racially separated society. Their reality and experience is shaped by their racist environment. Despite living in a racist environment, they continue to live and innovate and have fun. Stankonia was released October, 31, 2000 and was the first album of its kind in a lot of ways. Outkast was considered weird hip hop at that time, innovators but weird, not yet legends. Sacha Jenkins in 2017, had an interview with Big Boi and Dre and asked them about their feelings about Outkast’s growing white audience and fan base. Big Boi says, “Our whole thing is, as long as we’re making music that is true to ourselves, we want as many people to hear it as possible.” This is an honest and generous perspective on white audiences as potential allys listening to Black music.
source: https://www.spin.com/featured/outkast-stankonia-cover-story/
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The photo I chose was a screenshot I took of a video of Porsha Olayiwola reciting her poem called “Angry Black Woman.” During her performance she humanizes and contextualizes the angry Black woman stereotype. She is “pissed the fuck off” for many valid reasons, but this is not the only emotion she feels and she should not be demonized for expressing how she feels. This powerful poem reflects the importance of understanding and validating Black anger, an emotion rooted in pain. This Black anger she expresses and performs reminds me of the militancy and rejection of the U.S. government the Black Panther Party embraced. The Black Panther Party either went unrecognized or was presented as threatening, much like Black womanhood, despite the fact that their values and expressions are just reflections of their oppression.
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I found this photo of demonstrators in Havana, Cuba in May 1971 while looking at an article titled “The Anti-Vietnam War Movement in 39 Photos” by Savannah Cox. It reminded me that anti-war protests were happening internationally, not just in America or Vietnam, but beyond. A photo of three Black Cuban women holding a sign saying, “Yankis fuera de indochina” which translates to, Yankees get out of Indochina, is a great visual representation of Malcom X’s and MLK Jr’s international perspective on activism at the end of their lives. It also reflects that black women around the globe are also the leaders and participants of human rights movements.
source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/vietnam-war-protests#21
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I saw a post on Instagram by @defendboyleheights, an account and collective dedicated to resisting gentrification in Boyle Heights, about how Metro bike share is a mode of gentrification which is a form of white and affluent invasion of non-white, poor space. I think Boyle Heights is a prime example of something Elijah Anderson discussed, demographic change leading to public space change and then perception change (Anderson, 10). Boyle Heights was once a predominantly poor Black neighborhood, now it has become a mix of low-income non-black latine, recently immigrated Korean people and Black people. I believe this change is demographic has made the community more desirable and able to be invaded. Implementing a Metro bike share system would give white people, gentrifiers and transports more easy access to invade and subsequently displace people from Boyle Heights. The Metro has become part of the unfortunate evolution of space (read: gentrification) which I support the resistance against. Gentrification is a form of white trespassing in to non-white space.
Source: @defendboyleheights on Instagram
date: Dec. 2, 2018
The caption (not pictured) reads: “ @metrolosangeles is one of the biggest gentrifying forces in the city! It is a “Public Agency” that acts like a private development and investment firm. Programs like @bikemetro are part of the blueprint used to gentrify our hoodz. They’re also part of the amenities development that comes with gentrification. we also know they actively work with police departments to criminalize and harass poor people. #SolidarityOrShame”
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I decided to share two photos of Mari Copeny, Little Miss Flint, a now 11 year old activist in Flint, Michigan that began her activist work at the age of 8, when the Flint water crisis began in 2014. She wrote a letter to Obama expressing the dire conditions Flint residents, including Flint children like herself, had to deal with. This letter prompted Obama to visit and aid. She continues to advocate for her community in need, she founded Dear Flint Kids Project in 2016, which raised money for Flint students. On September 11, 2018 she tweeted a photo of herself with a caption stating, “Today makes 1660 days without access to tap drinkable water. Whats even scarier is there are places all around the country with water worse then Flint and they have no idea yet. #FlintWaterCrisis.” She is a reminder that these issues aren’t theoretical and aren’t reserved to the political sphere, which is reserved to adults. Mari Copeny is a child that can clearly see and feel the effects of her community not being supported by the government and has taken it upon herself to work to advocate for her community.
Source: https://mashable.com/article/little-miss-flint-mari-copeny-how-to-be-a-young-activist.amp
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I found an interactive pollution map of LA by the Los Angeles Times that provides a detailed account of the environmental impact index of every area. It is clear that communities of color, surrounded by freeways, are impacted the most. These poor, communities of color are painted red, indicating they are burdened with being exposed to the most pollutants. It was interesting that I could track exactly the type of environment my father grew up in, South Central, specifically on a street with a 44.68 environmental impact index, right next to the 110 freeway. Now that he’s no longer poor he was able to move to an area with an environmental impact index of 11.14. My father was lucky and privileged enough to make it out of poverty and he was determined to raise his children in an area with good public schools, but I don’t think he ever thought about the intense pollution burdens he dealt with and protected his children from.
source: http://graphics.latimes.com/responsivemap-pollution-burdens/
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This week I chose a comic that is a visual representation of how ridiculous it is that the US government pretends to not have the resources to give reparations to black people for their long history of racism, particularly slavery and exploitation. The effects of this deeply racist history are still present and the US still benefits from it. Monetary reparations are possible and just the beginning of holding the US accountable for the inhumanity it is founded on. An official apology is not enough and seems especially in-genuine considering the massive amount of money the government has access to.
I found this comic via http://www.bendib.com/black/new.html
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The image I chose is of a 1939 “residential security” map of Los Angeles, color-coding and ranking neighborhoods based off (racist) notions of desirability according to the HOLC at that time. I chose this image because I was curious about the history of redlining in the place I was born and raised. It’s interesting to see how things have changed or stayed the same since the creation of this map in 1939. You can see that all the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown LA are red and as you move further away from the inner city the ranking goes higher. Particularly when you move northwest, neighborhoods turn green and are ranked as most desirable.
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I chose a photograph from Zig Jackson’s (aka Rising Buffalo) series called Entering Zig’s Reservation. This Untitled photo taken in 1998 showed Zig’s dark humor while reflecting on issues of tourism, land rights, sovereignty, and tribal traditions. I wanted a photograph that showed Native American’s relationships with land and addressed land rights through the actual lens of a Native American. Zig Jackson poses next to an official-looking sign that says “Entering Zig’s Indian Reservation” with a list of “Private Property” rules (Donna Urschel).
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