[Maria Diana Triplett]

I wasn’t able to be in attendance for this weeks discussion on White spaces but based on other photo shares I decided to share a picture of Abigail Fisher, a white student who sued University of Texas in 2013 over beliefe that through affirmative actions her spot at the university was taken from her by an underqualified Person of color to increase diversity at the school. I wanted to point out that white spaces are not limited to public spaces but institutional structures in that through this cases we see how this white woman was believed to be more entitled to that space of the university in that her earnings were valued more. Her viewpoint was that underqualified POC was taking her spot in the institution, and the problem lies with how the assumption of them being underqualified is heavily racialized. The fact that she was given a platform and the cases reached supreme court goes to show how whiteness operations in the form of entitlement and its relation to space through the exclusion of others. While the cases lost, the persistence of it and the followers she gained in supporting her support this idea of white space and it being dependent in value on the erasure of Black and Brown bodies.

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[Maria Diana Triplett]

For this weeks photo share, I decided to share a photo from the organization “Outdoor Afro”. SImilar tot he organization mentioned in class earlier this week, Outdoor Afro aims to strengthen the connection between Black people in the US and their relationship and access to the outdoor through hosting various outdoor activities like camping, hiking, etc. They aim to “help people take care of themselves, our communities and our planet”. I chose this photo cause as mentioned in class Black peoples connection to the states in the U.S. is complicated due to a long history of slavery and segregation. Having certain spaces within nature being restricted to white people and having certain tramuas within out community association with the woods ( such as lynching, etc) has created certain perceptions on how Black people in the states navigate certain spaces in nature. In reading testimonials on the website, this organization aims to address that history and that assumption that nature and the enjoyment of it are only for white people. It encourages Black people to acknowledge and reclaim these spaces and be involved in the conversation around the health of our planet. I thought this was cool because it acknowledges the history without centering it and the website and organization I feel instead chooses to focus on Black Joy and reconnecting with nature.

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[Maria Diana Triplett]

This picture I chose this week was from the TV show empire, the scene is where one of the main characters Cookie Lyon is arrested and as she is put in the car she yells ” if I die in police custody I did not commit suicide”. I chose this because I remember watching Empire and just relaxing on one of my off days when I saw this scene and its obvious reference to Sandra Bland, a Black woman who died while being detained by the police for running a stop light. I remember feeling that little piece of reality in watching this show in that while this Black show that is known for its comedy and drama decided to include that was because this experience is all too real to the Black experience and everyday life. I know this week we talked about mass incarceration but also I think it’s important to highlight the death of Black people while incarcerated that we hardly hear about or even seem to care about. I think in Sandra’s situation it showed me how Black people already so criminalized in their natural being by society there presence and circumstances in Prison and detainment is very much undervalued being that it can always be justified by a society that sees there being as a threat. So this image for me represented that reality that I live in as a Black woman in that there is a constant reminder to that experience and reality because it is real.

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[Maria Diana Triplett]

This weeks discussion made me think about segregation and the realities of people who are forced to live in historically segregated areas made me think about my own experience here in San Diego and made me think more specifically about because of segregation, Places like Southeast San Diego have been and in ways are predominantly filled with People of color but because of gentrification they are being displaced and having to move to other parts of San Diego to maintain. So the image I picked was an image of El Cajon. El Cajon came to mind because my family lived there briefly growing up and faced a lot of discrimination, and in recent years I’ve known about of people from my community that have moved there because of rent increasing from where we are from. El Cajon has hsitorylly been a place for middle-class white people and has had its share in housing discrimination and the white supremeist group being local and active there. This week’s convo around Balwins experiance make me think about the weird juxtaposition between how Southeast as a community is becoming increasing gentrified in terms of housing and in tourism in that certain parts like logan have become a place seen for entertainment and its history and stuggle has been romatized to the point its elveate past stigma and now is a martketable place for many people outside of the community, on the other hand, you see how while the stigma of southeast is being taken away the stigma of the people who orginate from there is not. In the link, i attached below it showcases a forum of people going over housing in san diego and you can see how people view Blacks and other POC moving to El Cajon and La Mesa from inner San Diego. The forum metnions how their presence will cause violence and white flight that will make Places like El Cajon undesriable.

 

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[Maria Diana Triplett]

This week we touched on discussions from the readings, specifically on how white settlers envisioned the Americas of this ” pure” land that was seen by them as free space to embark on and because of its purity and it was seen as something they were entitled to own and cultivate. This idea of the new world I also feel like and it was mentioned in the reading somewhat tied to their own rebellion against Europe in the way that it was seen as an opportunity to see a new space that was inhabited and create a new foundation what they imagined that space could be. This imagining fueled the killing and displacement of indigenous people of the Americas because this imagining gave white settlers entitlement of space than what they imagined had to be dependent on the removal of places and people who occupied it. I feel today as mentioned we can see how this envisions of pure spaces still calls for the displacement of people, more looking at gentrification and how we can see it function. I chose the image of the white lady who wanted to open a fruteria in Barrio Logan. I feel like we can see how this envision of a pure space grants entitlement that calls for displacement. We see that how her vision of opening a fruteria and being able to bring fruit and healthy options to the Logan community was dependent on a vision of hers that displaced the deep history of Logan being a predominately Latinx community and displaced the functions of how Mexican culture had influenced the community today, being there are many fruterias there. I chose this image of her in front of the Mural of Frida Kahlo because it showcases to me that practice in that mural maybe not being so old still represents Barrio Logans historical ties and deep influence from the Latinx populations that were segregated to that area and are still predominate in that community, and for her to come and idealize her fruteria as something new to that community is dependent on this idea that these communities are invisible in that space.

Photo source:Screenshot from La Gracia’s Kickstarter video

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by Maria Diana Triplett.

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