[MEGAN CHANG]

This image is of #NoDAPL water protectors with an illuminated sign that reads “PROTECTORS” with each person in the photo raising their fists in solidarity. The sign makes explicitly clear that these people are water protectors, not protesters. Protesting is a form of protecting the community, but it’s not seen that way by the mainstream media. “Protector” has a defensive connotation, whereas “protestor” has an offensive connotation. The #NoDAPL water protectors are defending something that is already theirs. The stigma against protest comes from the community who’s being protested against. The word “protectors” makes the point that these communities are not fighting against the people who made the decision to build the DAPL, but rather, are protecting their life source.

Date: 06/23/2018

Photographer: Unknown

Source: https://www.workers.org/2018/06/23/nodapl-water-protectors-continue-the-struggle/

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This song is titled “Casket Pretty” by Noname. Noname addresses police brutality and how it has affected her daily life and that of so many others in the black community. The lyrics “Don’t hold me, don’t hold me when n***** is dying and dying / And I’m afraid of the dark, blue and the white / Badges and pistols rejoice in the night” point to the anger, frustration, and fear that comes with the disproportionate number of black deaths at the hands of the police. “Fear of the dark” when “badges and pistols rejoice in the night” is a very real and tangible fear – the darkness of night can facilitate the “trigger happiness” of police at the cost of black lives. Her emphasis that “n***** is dying and dying” demonstrates that the violence is persistent and ongoing, and her frustration and anger and fear will not rest until an actual solution is found to fix such a severe problem for her and her community.

Released: 08/12/2016

Source: https://genius.com/Noname-casket-pretty-lyrics

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo illustration is a compilation of important figures of the #MeToo movement. The backdrop of the photo is of a #MeToo demonstration, with Tarana Burke at the forefront. White women who brought more visibility to the movement using their privilege and platform have been superimposed onto the image (e.g. Ashley Judd). Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, two previously “untouchable” white men in Hollywood, are depicted in black and white with a stark white outline around the silhouettes of their heads. This distinction is important not only in separating them from the women proclaiming #MeToo as male aggressors but also as white men in positions of power who were able to get away with the abuse for so long. The image demonstrates the intersectionality of the principle behind the #MeToo movement, even if the faces of the movement are mostly white. Putting Tarana Burke at the forefront of the image reminds us that victims of sexual harassment do not have to be white, heterosexual, or female (as evidenced by the crimes of Kevin Spacey). It is more a demonstration of the gendered and racial power dynamics in American society, and especially in Hollywood, that are the foundation of the #MeToo movement.

Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-the-metoo-movement-economically-and-culturally-transformed-hollywood-2018-06-27

Date: 08/28/2018

Artist: Unknown

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo is from a protest in 2017; the sign depicted here is comparing the U.S. to the deplorable actions of 1936 Germany, emphasizing how unacceptable xenophobic, racist, and homophobic attitudes are in the present-day United States. Although the photo source was not specific in mentioning what this particular sign was in protest of, my best guess would be the “Unite the Right” demonstration that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. This sign in particular frames the ways in which white space operates to criminalize people of color in this country, and how white space involves imposing our own dominant-culture images of threat onto bodies of color in order to make sense of what POC are doing in a white space. The idea of policing white space is not exclusive to those who are ultra-racist, or far right. However, it is important to acknowledge microaggressions that seek to homogenize and categorize POC into “other” categories that seemingly justify their presence in white spaces so that the violence of the ultra-racist and the far right are not necessary for us to see that this is a problem.

Date: 08/21/2017

Source: https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2017/08/research-say-race-diversity-acceptance-hate/

Photographer: Unknown

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo of a black child at a Black Lives Matter movement event, while police are seen in the background, speaks volumes about what is at the heart of the movement. Police brutality against unarmed individuals is disproportionately affecting black men, as seen in the death of Michael Brown and so many others. This image of a child reminded me of our discussions on the deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and other young black male children who died at the hands of the police, despite being unarmed. These victims were never afforded to the assumption of innocence, with the media coverage focusing on what they could have done differently or why their deaths were justified. This victim-blaming strips these individuals of their identity as human beings, and replaces it with a flipped conversation in which the onus is placed on the innocent victims to take painstaking precautions to avoid death at the hands of the police, rather than the other way around. Why hasn’t the systemic issue of racism in the police force been the topic of conversation? Black Lives Matter is a call to address that so that children like the one in this photo do not become yet another tragic statistic. These are human beings that are dying at the hands of structural injustice, and this photo could not be more clear in communicating that.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/a-tough-weekend-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/400862/

Photographer: Rick Wilking

Date: 08/10/2015

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[MEGAN CHANG]

The woman in this photo is a family member of a Nez Perce warrior. The Nez Perce were led into battle by Chief Joseph over their claim to the land that would later become Yellowstone Park.  This photo was taken in a studio long after the land was stolen from the Nez Perce to start building “America’s Best Idea.” The fact that this photo was taken in a studio with the intention of “preserving” the indigenous histories that were so violently erased blatantly speaks to the horrible aftereffects of settler colonialism. Indigenous peoples’ removal from the land that is tied to their lifestyle for the sake of making room for the dominant cultures’ leisure (and profit) frames national parks’ narrative in a way that continues to displace indigenous people from their histories and spaces even today.

Source: https://timeline.com/national-parks-native-americans-56b0dad62c9d

Date: 1909-1915

Photographer: Unknown

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by MEGAN CHANG.

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This image is of students in San Francisco in support of the Third World Liberation Front 2016, defending the San Francisco State College of Ethnic Studies. The signs they are holding read “NO HISTORY NO SELF” to demonstrate the importance of having an ethnic studies department that reflects the histories of the students it teaches. Students should have the right to understand their own identities without the dominant cultures determining what can and cannot be taught to them. Having an inclusive curriculum may seem to be a trivial issue to some, but that perspective comes from a place of privilege. The students’ concerns to defend the ethnic studies department was backed by the solidarity of different racial groups within the student bodies of participating schools. This cross-racial coalition is an alliance in defense of justice for marginalized communities, which is clearly demonstrated by these students’ defense of their learning.

Date: 05/09/2016

Photographer: Melissa Minton

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/115901990@N03/27125674755/

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This image depicts the consequences of the American “tough on crime” mentality. The American flag imagery coupled with a play on the striped prison uniform with a ball and chain emphasizes the dehumanization of prisoners at the hands of the structural racism that is woven into the fabric of American institutions. Not only is mass incarceration a new form of extreme segregation, but it is also a form of racial control that strips prisoners who are unjustly locked away of their human rights and dignity, and continues to perpetuate the marginalization of primarily black men.

Date: 04/02/2012

Artist: Oliver Munday

Source: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2109777,00.html

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[MEGAN CHANG]

While not a hip hop artist, SZA represents an important part of urban music’s role in shaping perceptions of the black narrative today. This illustration questions why SZA did not win any of the five Grammy awards she was nominated for at the 60th Grammy Awards. Her album Ctrl focused on the humanity of living in her normal reality as an average person with her own universal fears and insecurities. Through her lens as a black woman, SZA may not be the most conventional face of civil rights’ place in modern music, yet her musical vulnerability and ability to foster community through her lyrics and singing have added a new and refreshing layer to the conversation. She has even collaborated with renowned rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose commentaries on the modern realities of living in our society as a black person may be much more direct and obvious. Yet, SZA’s musical choices such as her stage name, meaning “sovereign or savior” of “zig-zag, Allah” have origins in civil rights history that may be more subtle to the everyday listener. I believe that her focus on her vulnerability as an individual speaks to being unable to fix the struggles that continue to persist throughout our lives, which makes her all the more relatable as a modern voice in the legacy of civil rights in music.

Source: http://www.dailycal.org/2018/02/01/the-grammys-sza-best-new-artist-best-urban-contemporary/

Artist: Jessica Doojphibulpol

Date: 02/01/2018

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo depicts the first day of desegregation at Fort Myer Elementary School. Two female students, a white girl and a black girl are seen facing each other while seated at their desks. This photo boldly explains the w<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>ays in which we characterize education as an equitable institution, especially after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, but to what extent is that true when we look at racial disparities? Educational value was and still is inherently placed in white schools; children of color are being taught from a very young age that schools with students who look like them are “inferior.” Even after the integration of schools, it is important to see the humanity affected by the letter of the law: the black student is alone in the photo amongst the rest of her white classmates, even though she is legally allowed to share that space. The photo emphasizes that even after legal actions to achieve integration have taken place, they cannot dismantle some of the things that allow segregation to happen – the photo’s temporal distance from us does not separate the gaps in our current educational institutions from the racist histories that led to their formation. </span>

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10liptak.html

Date: 09/08/1954

Photographer: unknown

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This cartoon was drawn by Mark Knight from an Australian tabloid. The cartoon was met with massive criticism, and rightfully so, as it depicted world-class athlete Serena Williams in an extremely racist way, reminiscent of Jim Crow-era imagery. Supposedly drawn in reference to William’s defense of herself against an umpire’s judgment called with racist and sexist undertones, the cartoon portrayed Williams as immature, throwing a tantrum. The artist failed to account for any contemporary knowledge that such imagery is completely inappropriate and disgraceful. Even after the Civil Rights era, someone as talented and hard-working as Williams who earned her place as a world-class athlete is still subject to such a racist worldview, such that standing up for herself still pigeonholes her image as angry and undignified. That horrid description completely discounts the history behind the fight for women’s and civil rights as it applies to Serena Williams and to everyone else in historically marginalized communities as they face these structural barriers even today.

Source: http://time.com/5392351/serena-williams-cartoon-herald-sun/

Date: September 2018

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo is of a newspaper clipping from the Detroit Free Press. In an attempt to integrate Detroit schools after Brown v. Board of Education, a suit was filed against Governor Milliken in order to change district boundaries that allowed for school segregation to continue. Bus policies took to the forefront of media attention, largely because these new policies required that buses transport predominantly black children from Detroit into the formerly predominantly white schools, and vice versa. Several buses were the target of racially charged violence in protest of these new integration policies. The final court decision resulted in “the beginning of the end of court ordered busing”; the results of which can still be seen today in Detroit’s still-segregated schools due to the state being unable to redraw district lines in an effort to support integration.

Source: http://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/post/40-year-shadow-cast-detroits-failed-busing-plan

Date: April 18, 1976

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[MEGAN CHANG]

In this photo, protesters in Times Square carry signs with the words “I Can’t Breathe” to protest the death of Eric Garner, who died at the hands of police violence in 2014. Although the deaths of leaders of the Civil Rights Movement such as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers took place as assassinations against these leaders’ activism, the incidences such as Eric Garner’s are less immortalized and more easily forgettable in a stream of senseless violence even today. Garner did not choose to die, nor was his death one made in the face of standing up for civil rights. Garner’s death was a result of structural issues that allow for officers such as the one who continued to act extremely aggressively in the midst of Garner’s cries of “I can’t breathe” to walk freely with virtually no consequences for doing so. Unfortunately, deaths like Garner’s occur disgracefully often in our society, and serve as dreadful reminders that the work of the Civil Rights Movement is far from complete.

Source: https://billmoyers.com/2014/12/07/civil-rights-movement-came-moment-like-one/

Date: December 3, 2014

Photographer: Bebeto Matthews

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This photo reflects segregation in both of its manifestations in space and resources. In this photo, a black man is shown drinking from a water fountain that is labeled “For Colored Only.” Simply from the appearance of the fountain, it was neither constructed nor maintained for ease of use or for proper sanitation. The separation between the water fountains used between whites and “colored” folks for a resource as essential as water further reinforced the racial hierarchy that permeated throughout American society then, and the echoes of lawful segregation continue to violate the civil rights of many today.

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states

Date and photographer: unknown

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[MEGAN CHANG]

This illustration is from the cover of a picture-book biography of the legendary jazz singer Nina Simone. Although she is primarily remembered for being a talented jazz singer for her unique tone, Nina Simone used her platform as a talented artist to condemn racism in America throughout her life. When researching more about Nina Simone as a Civil Rights Activist, I learned that one of the first instances in which her musical career and public condemnation of racism intersected occurred at her very first recital performance. Simone’s parents’ seats were vacated to make space for white people. Nina was only 12 at the time. In protest, she refused to perform until her parents were given back their original seats. I found that this image, in particular, speaks to Simone’s very early involvement in the fight against injustice. Simone is portrayed as a child just beginning to play the piano, with only one finger, while her name “Nina” fills the top half of the image. Although I am unsure of the intentions of the illustrator, I believe that this is meant to portray that Nina Simone was only just beginning to spur on the Civil Rights Movement through her music, even at such an early age as a budding musician and artist. Through adulthood, Simone began to use music to voice the grievances of, and uplift the black community through her songs – several of which were banned in southern states. Much of her criticism was aimed at her supposed “black rage” and anger, yet those critics had no understanding of the artistry behind Simone’s portrayal of the black community’s impatience with the seemingly endless combat against systemic racism. Simone was only just beginning to take her place at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement after that first performance as a child.

Illustrator: Bruno Liance

Source: <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone</span> by Alice Briere-Haquet (published 12/05/2017)

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