[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

This week I decided to share a photo of Amber Guyger and Botham Shem Jean. This photo is important because usually whenever we see police brutality stories in the media, the victim is portrayed negatively. The media usually uses previous mug shots of the victim or images that make the victim look like a criminal. In this image we see the police office Amber Guyger’s mug shot. There are no images of her with her family or any kids to make it seem like she’d never hurt anyone. The photo of the victim is of his in a suit and smiling. He isn’t being portrayed as a criminal like we’re so used to seeing. This image is also important because of the story behind it. On September 6, 2018 Amber Guyger entered an apartment she believed to be hers and shot and killed Botham Shem Jean. Botham Shem Jean was in his own apartment and Amber Guyger had actually entered his apartment then shot and killed him. After this she was arrested and charged with manslaughter. However, this week she was indicted on murder charge. This isn’t a conviction, but as we have seen time and time again, not every story makes it to this step. Many innocent black Americans have been shot and killed and the officer that killed them was never booked. This week we talked about how everyone plays a role in protecting the white space. Police brutality is a way we also protect the white space because most of the officers never get charged with any crime and often times it’s portrayed as the victim did something wrong.

I found this image on the cnn website with the story. The news story says they got the photo from Kaufman County Jail Facebook page, but I was unable to find it so I have added the cnn url.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/30/us/dallas-police-officer-botham-jean/index.html

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

I decided to share this photo of a 75 year old woman in Puerto Rico using a lantern because there was no electricity. After the hurricane, Puerto Rico was without power for 11 months. There were many discrepancies from the administration and the media. The citizens of Puerto Rico were also belittled throughout this experience from paper towels being thrown at them to their death toll being wrong for a long time. Puerto Rico’s problems were minimized. Had this happened on the United States mainland in a predominantly white community, the electricity be on immediately and we would try to get the death toll right the first time. By getting the death toll wrong the administration is showing that Puerto Ricans are less than those in the United States mainland.

Photo by: Carol Guzy for National Geographic

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/03/puerto-rico-after-hurricane-maria-dispatches/

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

This week I decided to share a photo of the Dakota Access Pipeline construction. Throughout this course we have been talking about the colonizer story. Colonizers take over land they believe will be used better under their control. To indigenous communities, land is sacred and the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline is an invasion, especially since it is not land run by the United States government. Going along with the colonizer narrative, the United States government and big oil companies will not see themselves as invaders. To them they are using the land for for money and money is important to life.

Photographer: Kristina Barker for the New York Times

http://time.com/4548566/dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-sioux/

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

This photos is of a 9 year old girl holding up a sign that reads “I have been poisoned by policy.” I decided to share this image because innocent kids are being affected by the Flint Michigan Water Crisis and more citizens are becoming aware of how it go this bad. It saddens me that the people of Flint are seen are devalued and have been fighting this fight for years without any success. Even the children are being devalued because it seems no one cares that the level of lead in children’s blood has increased. The citizens of Flint, Michigan have been repeatedly abandoned and let down by the government.

source: Jake May, January 8, 2016, MLive.com

https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/page/flint_water_crisis.html

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

Before Brown v. Board there was a case in California, Mendez v. Westminster, attempting to end segregation in schools. This case however focused on Latinos. The plaintiffs argued that their schools were under resourced compared to the white schools. The defendants argued that Mexicans lacked hygiene and carried diseases. Segregation is no longer legal, but is still seen throughout California. High rate Latino schools have a higher rate of poverty and are less likely to take the SAT and be college ready when compared to their white counterparts. This photo is of students walking to commemorate Mendez v. Westminster, but I also think it shows that to an average person segregation ended years ago so it no longer exists, but we are learning that it still exists. We know that some schools in certain areas perform lower than others. We have been learning how history plays a role in segregation and what is going on in the school system today.

 

sources:

photo taken by: Don Bartletti for the Los Angeles Time via Getty Images

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/latino-school-segregation_us_561d70a5e4b050c6c4a34118

 

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

This photo is of a sign banning colored people from a theater in Tennessee. According to the Massey and Denton article along with our conversations in class, people often stopped supporting businesses that catered to African-Americans in order to keep the color line in their neighborhood. Restrictive covenants not only barred African-Americans from renting or leasing property, it also banned them from using public spaces. This article mentions a study done by  Emily Badger, New York Times writer, that showed young African-Americans are less likely to receive help from their parents to put a down payment on a house compared to Whites and Latinos. This statement reminded me of our discussions in class about how wealth and land is inherited. People of color don’t inherit housing wealth people earlier generations were excluded from homeownership.

 

Source: https://ggwash.org/view/41615/where-dc-used-to-bar-black-people-from-living

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/04/how-your-parents-affect-your-chances-of-buying-a-home/?utm_term=.a7bc63610729

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[JACKELINE RECINOS LOPEZ]

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>This photo is a screen shot from a Buzzfeed video that was recently uploaded and reminded me of what we discussed this week in class. This video is an interview with a 17 year old girl from South Los Angeles. She lived in affordable housing near the AllenCo oil drill site. She mentions as a child she’d experience body spasms, nose bleeds, asthma and heart palpitations so severe she needed to use a heart monitor for several weeks. She mentions her community experiences the same thing. I decided to chose this picture because it shows the severity of the harm being caused by drilling sites. This video reminded me of conversations we’ve had this week and the Lipsitz article. Lipsitz mentions there has been a history of racialization of space and the spatialization of race. The video mentioned she lived in affordable housing and we know that a majority of Los Angeles’ population is Hispanic/Latino. Communities of color, living in poverty and not having lots of political power are exposed to toxins and other pollutants and less likely to access medical treatment. Lipsitz also mentioned that 50% of Latinos in Los Angeles live in areas with air pollution. This video embodies what Lipsitz mentioned so that is why I wanted to share it. </span>

<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Reference: “I Was Poisoned In My Childhood Home.” </span><i><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>YouTube, </span></i><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>uploaded by BuzzfeedVideo, 10 October 2018, </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXyh542bNhU</span&gt;<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>.</span>

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