Strange Fruit in 2014: Lessons Learned from Black Bodies

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

-Langston Hughes

 

Black bodies…Swinging in the southern breeze…

February 26^th, 2012. Trayvon Martin: An unarmed 17-year old African-American male was shot fatally by George Zimmerman, in Sanford, Florida, who claimed that Martin was suspicious and possibly armed. Martin was only found to have an Arizona Iced Tea and a bag of Skittles in his possession.

September 14^th, 2013. Jonathan Ferrell: A 24-year old unarmed African-American male (and former FAMU football player) seeking help after a car crash, was shot fatally 10 times by Officer Randall Kerrick in Charlotte, North Carolina.

November 2^nd, 2013. Renisha McBride: A 19-year old African-American woman, shot fatally by Theodore Wafer, after crashing her car in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She knocked on Wafer’s door for help. She was unarmed.

November 23^rd, 2013. Jordan Russell Davis: A 17-year old African-American male fatally shot by Michael Dunn over loud ‘rap crap’ playing from a Davis’ friends car at a local Jacksonville, Florida gas station.

And in most recent news:

August, 9^th , 2014. Mike Brown: An 18-year old unarmed Ferguson, Missouri teenager was shot multiple times by a local police officer, after a supposed scuffle between the officer and two other people.

It is clear by the above fore-mentioned (and the many others not listed, who were unjustly slain, may God rest their souls) that America still does not care about Black bodies. Though Langston Hughes, in one of his most renown poems, brings attention to the notion that Negroes, Blacks, African-Americans are too, America, it is in these very instances that it becomes clear to many African-Americans that being that “too” in this nation is still not the case. Although America should thank those Black bodies who nurtured and built (and continue to build) her terrain, it is in these heinous circumstances of outright bloodshed based on racial and prejudicial pretenses – these modern day lynchings — that being that “too” of America, even in 2014, comes with a price: and that price could ultimately be one’s life.

When I was younger, I remember my mother having an intense conversation with my brother about being a Black man in America. In my innocence and ignorance, I could not understand for the life of me, why my brother (especially at his tender age) needed such special attention and guidance on the ‘makings of being a Black man in America.” I remember her vividly, on many occasions – whether it was at the dining room table, in the car, or after church – ingraining cautionary phrases and (now, what I know) words of wisdom into my brother about his status of being a man of deep melanin.

She would tell him:

“If you ever get pulled over, son, place both hands on the steering wheel. Don’t make any sudden movements. Only do what the officer tells you to do, when they tell you to do it.”

“Son, try not to be out too late in the streets. The police are watching. You may not be doing anything, but they will still deem you suspicious. I know when you are grown, you will do what you want to do, but always be watchful of your surroundings and who you are with.”

“Don’t wear your hat backwards or have your hood on in the store.”

“As a Black man, son, you have to be extra careful. You are a Black man, and that is the first thing that anyone will see. They don’t care about how well you do in school, or if you are a state-champion in track. All they care about is that you are Black and that you are a man.”

My mother exasperated my brother with advice and lessons such as these, and also stories from the news and from her childhood about what it meant for my brother to Black in America. These ‘race lessons‘ were repeated like clockwork — it was almost like his homework, as my brother repeated time after time what my mother had taught him to do if he were ever to get pulled over or stopped by police officers. She was teaching, preparing and equipping him with these lessons – hoping to ensure that his life would not become the ultimate example.

At the time, my brother, did not fully comprehend what my mother was trying to teach him, but he was forcibly hit with the reality when he was pulled over by police officers in our hometown. He was walking a friend home, and his friend happened to be White. They frisked him and patted him down, while asking his friend whether she was okay or if he had bothered her. They claimed that he looked like a suspect that robbed a local Rite Aid – which is over a mile away from our home.

This was his first, and unfortunately not his last time, being wrongfully accused by a racially motivated law enforcement.

It is a shame that in contemporary times, that this type of cautionary rhetoric must given to Black men, but just like the stories from and of our ancestors, this advice has been passed down from generation to generation. Just as my grandmother told her sons, and my mother told my brother, I will eventually have to tell my son what it means to be a Black man in America. But, my mother’s advice and the advice of many parents of Black youth should (and does) not start and stop with just Black men, but Black women, too — as all Black bodies, regardless of gender, are susceptible to be targets.

Take for instance, what unfortunately happened to a 51-year old California woman who was beaten mercilessly by a California Highway Patrol officer along the Santa Monica freeway, and her assault was recorded by a passing motorist. Also, as mentioned above, the incident concerning Reneisha McBride, who was fatally shot, after knocking on a door for help after surviving a car crash.

And these women too, were also unarmed. 

There are many questions to be asked: When will “we” be safe? Our sons and our daughters? Our brothers and sisters? When will we finally have refuge in this very place that was built by our ancestors? When will stop having to tell our children to be careful of every step they take? Will we ever be free of racial profiling and repetitive nature of the slaying of black bodies? Which one of our sons and daughters will be the next Trayvon Martin? ? Jonathan Ferrell? Reneisha McBride? Or Mike Brown?

How many more lessons must the Black community learn from innocent Black bodies?

Langston Hughes’, at the end of his “I, Too” poem wrote:

“Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—“

When will America truly see how beautiful and valuable Black bodies are and be yet ashamed?

Or will it continue to see the value of our Blackness, only when we are hanging?

 

The Miseducation of Post-Racialism

The pejorative term that is ‘post-racial’ has seemingly been a common fixture in American society since the emergence of President Barack Hussein Obama, as the first African-American president. Though representing a milestone in race-relations, the notions of race-transcendence has become an ingrained fallacy in the minds of many – especially in some representatives of the American political spectrum, who believe that the hostilities of race are less blatant and a kind-of, sort-of socio-economic and political playing field has been provided to the historically disenfranchised and perpetually marginalized. With this ideology, the notions of post-racialism and universalism are now applied, and the race-specific and civil rights policies that many African-Americans fought and died for are now becoming diluted.

For example, most recently in April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan’s ban on affirmative action in public college admissions, which ultimately thwarts the diversity-flow in its school. In 2013, the Supreme Court also abolished the Section 4 preclearance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which now allows nine Southern states the ability to alter their voting regulations without federal approval.

With these subsequent color-blind changes in civil rights policies, it is a fear among many African-Americans that these initiatives in the future will ultimately be castrated; thus possibly inversing African-American rights to that of the state prior to which these policies were instituted.

The call for post-racial policies aims to be a tool to transcend the notions of race under the guise of ‘progressive’ politics. Race-neutral politics essentially promotes a newly-found universality, in which everyone is considered to be politically, socially and economically inclusive, centered and where race-specific initiatives are excluded from the political conversation. The question that must be answered is: who is ultimately benefitting from these so-called progressive/race-neutral policies? Certainly not members of the Black community.  Just as political scientist and author Frederick C. Harris states in his book, ‘The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics” “not every issue facing Black communities fits under the rubric of universalism.” (Harris, 2012) Although Harris notes that issues such as access to healthcare or ‘tuition free-education at public colleges and universities” (Harris, 2012) are clearly inclusive to all Americans, he also poses excellent questions to combat the idealism of universal politics when made applicable to the Black community.

He writes:

“But what should be the political strategy for issues that overwhelmingly disproportionately affect blacks such as mass incarceration? What, for instance, would a national anti-racial profiling act – a law that would ban [and] prohibit police from profiling individuals because of their race – look like under the principle of universalism? Does the principle of color-blindness in advocating issues and policies that are rooted in racial bias actually continue to perpetuate racial inequality by ignoring it or burying it under the rug? And does ignoring the persistence of racial inequalities capitulate to the idea that the United States has become a color-blind society, a concept that declares that race does not – or should not – matter in law and policymaking?” (Harris, 2012)

Ultimately, with this new wave of policymaking, a non-racialized or deracialized approach to politics is applied; essentially disregarding and “disrupting the observance of [racism]” (Gilroy, 11) as a perpetually crippling phenomenon in an institutionally racist American paradigm. These policies also ignore the historical remnants and current manifestations of systematic racism against African-Americans, which is embedded in every facet of society. Therefore, the absence of race-consciousness is therefore racism, as it denies social justice to those deliberately, historically and consistently bastard by the system. (Morris, 2014)

If race-consciousness and race-specifity were acknowledged in the American political sphere, it would imply a systematic flaw within the societal, political and economic paradigm of the United States, and not merely a defect in some of the individuals that comprise it – which is why race-specifity will not be applied on a universal scale. (Morris, 2014) Therefore, to many scholars, the call for post-racialism is not a call for post-Jew; post-Hispanic/Latino; post-Asian/Pacific Islander; post-gender; post-women’s rights or post-immigration or post-LGBTQA (because the rights of those listed are currently recognized and not mitigated) but rather post-Black — as it aims to deny historical and contemporary white supremacy as a ramification(s) for the present socio-economic and political prejudices and inequities many African-Americans still face in 2014.

But many will disagree to this reasoning  and will cry and apply the ideologies of liberalism and behavioralism as the reasoning for the current state of many African-Americans; citing perhaps lack of productivity, laziness, idleness, inferiority, ignorance, preference for leisure and instant gratification as to why many people of color are in the predicament they are presently in. But can lack of productivity incite perpetual gentrification or the mass closures of schools in urban America? What about the increase in prisons and the mass incarceration of Black males? How about a crippling education system in predominately Black communities? Is the contemporary resegregation of schools also attributed to lack of Black productivity? What about stop and frisk? Oh, and can someone explain what has caused African-American unemployment to double that of white-Americans in the last five years, even if the African-American is college-educated? Is this attributed to Black idleness and inferiority too?

And post-racial policies are to be applied when these issues in the Black community continue to be overlooked and unaddressed?

Post-racial my ass.

 

References:

Giloy, P. (2000). Against Race: Imagining Poltical Culture Beyond the Color Line . Boston : Harvard University Press .

Harris, F. C. (2012). The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics . Oxford: Oxford University Press .

Morris, L. (2014 ). Introduction to Black Politics: Graduate Course Notes . Howard University, Department of Political Science .

 

Is the World Cup doing more harm to Brazil than good?

As Brazil gears up for the World Cup in July, reports detail recent violence against Brazilians – specifically Afro-Brazilians and the indigenous of Brazil – has been brewing, as gentrification measures were enforced to build parking lots for the highly-anticipated ‘futbol’ competition.

According to Revolution News, World Cup gentrification was carried out via gunpoint in early January, as armed and aggressive police officers sent in by the Brazilian government, forcefully and brutally evicted locals from the Mangueira slums of Rio de Janiero. Threatening locals with loaded guns and even going as far as threatening to kill children in their mothers’ arms, this recent attack, according to Francisco Chaves, a reporter for Midia Informal, a Brazilian news source, speaks to the discrimination against poor and defenseless Blacks living in Brazil.

Armed police officer forcefully evacuating residents of a favela in Mangueira, a city of Rio de Janiero. January 2014. Photo Credit: Midia Informal

“The social context is the prototype of (social) exclusion in Brazil: Black. Poor. People living next to open sewers. Fountains without water. Houses without light. Muddy ground. Low self-esteem. Disquiet. Loneliness. Revolt,” Chaves wrote, after uncovering the aftermath of the exploitative and violent event of gentrification.

“The sadness of seeing a squalid abandoned population as the one from Favela do Metro is chilling,” Chaves continued. “Women, pregnant girls. Babies crying in convulsion. People unemployed, children who cannot go to school. There is no life here. Nothing.”

Midia Informal also described and detailed the violence executed by the police.

According to the report: “A group of armed cops came from an alley. Everyone screamed in desperation. A crazed policeman pulled his gun and threatened to shoot a handcuffed guy in the middle of all the other residents.”

“When a [policeman] was told not to point his gun at people, an armed cop shouted: ‘Hold that bitch. I’ll shoot these children. That pregnant girl is the one who threw stones at us.”

To many poor, Afro-Brazilians, these injustices are but a common fixture in their communities. A resident quoted by Midia Informal said, “We are deprived of everything here. But we do not lack thug police.”

Police blockading residents from Brazilian slum in Mangueira. January 2014. Photo Credit: Midia Informal

Although recent World Cup injustices were executed on poor Blacks living in the favelas of Rio de Janiero, Revolution News also claims that the very first casualties of the 2014 World Cup were a group of indigenous people living in an Indian Museum, known as Aldiea Maracana, which historically was revered as a village for indigenous peoples living in Maracana, also a neighborhood in Rio de Janiero.

In March 2013, the Aldiea Maracana was demolished in order to create a 10,000 car parking lot, which was part of a $500 million renovation of Maracana Stadium, a host stadium for the World Cup, which is located adjacent to the Indian Museum.

A native man gestures as he protests against eviction from the former Indigenous Museum — aka Aldea Maracana — next to the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on March 22, 2013. Indigenous people have been occupying the place since 2006, which is due to be pulled down to construct a parking lot for the upcoming Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup. (Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images) 

As stated by The Atlantic, several protests were staged, as the indigenous group and supporters tried to prohibit their eviction, but on March 22, they lost their battle, as both indigenous residents and supporters were gassed and arrested by riot police after a 12-hour stand-off.

The deaths of four Brazilian stadium construction workers last year also incited anger among Brazilians, when in November, at a stadium in Sao Paulo, two construction workers were killed when a crane collapsed and fell onto a vehicle they were sitting in. In December, Marcleudo Del Melo Ferraira, died in a hospital, after falling 115 feet when working on the stadium. That same day, another construction worker died of a heart attack.

 Lib.com reported that the victims’ families told Brazilian media that “the construction workers hard to work seven days a week in order to get the stadiums ready for deadlines.” The site also stated there were several serious health and safety issues on the construction site, but Odebrecht, the construction company heading the project, denied the allegations.

Odebrecht is also said to be a prominent donor to Brazil and its political parties during elections, which many Brazilians feel is a conflict of interest.

If extreme gentrification measures and construction site deaths were not enough, FIFA and other world cup organizers were under investigation for allegations of racism, as many popular Afro-Brazilian artists were dropped from representing the event and subsequently replaced with lesers-known Euro-Brazilians.

FIFA denied any allegations of wrong-doing, claiming that, “Our stance against any form of discrimination and racism which is enshrined in our various regulations amongst others is well known.”

Several riots and protests in Brazil have since ignited, as many organizations and social activist groups are calling out FIFA and the Brazilian political elite for their execution of discrimination, racism and cultural terrorism against Brazilian citizens. Black Bloc activists, a Brazilian anarchist group known to execute violence to promote their anti-capitalist ideals, announced plans for protests of the World Cup.

A chilling statement was issued by the group, stating: “Don’t come to Brazil for the World Cup.”

In more news, Black Bloc activists as well as many other anti-World Cup protest organizations are currently under surveillance by the Brazilian government. As reported by Reuters in a recent article,  “Brazilian security forces are using undercover agents, intercepting emails and rigorously monitoring social media to try to ensure that violent anti-government protesters do not ruin soccer’s World Cup this year.”

A man wearing a mask holds a banner during a protest against the 2014 World Cup, in Sao Paulo January 25, 2014. (Reuters)

Jerome Valcke, the Secretary General of FIFA, stated last year, that despite the onslaught of injustices, now is not the time for Brazilians to be protesting.

“It is the wrong time to be protesting. It is right to protest, but for me, it is the wrong time,” Valcke said. “[It is wrong to protest] because it is a time where Brazil should enjoy a unique time, a time they have not enjoyed since 1950.”

“We are not asking them to support FIFA, we are asking them to support the World Cup,” he stated.

In a 2012 article by The Guardian, the news source reported that Brazil said it would no longer deal with Valcke after he said Brazil needed a “kick up the backside”, in regards to the preparation for the World Cup. Vackle later apologized and claimed that his words were ‘mistranslated’ from French to Portuguese.

To many Brazilians’ surprise, Brazilian football legend, Pele, also agreed with Vackle’s statement about suppressing protesting.

“It is now time for people to be quiet because this is a great moment for our country, it is good publicity and good for tourism.”

Sources:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/04/brazilian-police-evict-indigenous-squatters-from-2014-stadium-site/100491/

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/mar/06/jerome-valcke-apology-brazil-world-cup

http://libcom.org/blog/brazil-world-cup-2014-workers-deaths-racism-gentrification-cultural-terrorism-15122013

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/22/239860341/brazils-black-block-activists-criminals-or-people-power

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-brazil-protests-insight-idUSBREA141JO20140205

Q&A with Kadesha Holder: Immigrant from Trinidad & Tobago

“I had an incident where this girl asked me, ‘So do Trinidadians swing on trees and do you have television?”

Name: Kadesha Holder

School: Temple University

Major: Public Relations

Minor: Theatre

Age: 20

Country of Origin: Trinidad & Tobago

Q: When did you come to the United States?

A: “January of 2012.”

Q: How has your adjustment been to the United States?                                    

A: “Well, I wouldn’t say too rough but I would say it was a big adjustment. Because you know Trinidad is always hot and when I came here it was cold. The first day I came here, I had no sweaters or anything. So, it was ridiculous—I cried the first day I came here. In that aspect, it has been kind of hard because I am not accustomed to the cold.”

“In terms of adjusting to Temple, it is kind of difficult because I have a heavy accent. I have to keep repeating myself to everyone and I have to speak slower. Certain dialects, I would you use—like, if I say, ‘wa-is-de-seen?’ people would be like, what? And I would say, ‘oops, I mean, what’s up?’

“I understand that some people are not exposed to different accents but when they hear my accent, they say, ‘Are you Jamaican?’ Most people only know about Jamaica and when they hear my accent and I tell them I am from Trinidad, they ask me to say hello in Trinidad. And when I say hello, they thought that Trinidad was another language. Some of my teachers say to me, ‘you’re an international student and you speak English so well?!’ That is because English is my first language.”

“I had an incident where this girl asked me, ‘So do Trinidadians swing on trees and do you have television?”

Q: Do you feel like Americans accept you? Or do you find that people are or are not open to you? Is there any negativity that you have faced from being an immigrant?

“Some Americans are different—some people are welcoming to different cultures and some people are not. They look at you weird and they look down on you like [I’m] just some immigrant.”

Yes, I would say, yes, a little negativity. Some people may find it difficult to connect with because I am from the Caribbean and my accent is different but some people are amused by it and what to learn more about my background.’

“One of my closet friends is Asian, and me coming from Trinidad, I thought that I would be closer to Black Americans because we are Black and we have that connection. In terms of Black Americans, I do not believe that we connect as much. I am disappointed by that.”