by Thug Scholar Ever since #Blacklivesmatter went viral on social media, particularly on Twitter, there's been a tendency on behalf of the general public to appropriate the hash tag into #____LivesMatter after a momentously tragic occurrence. Why exactly is this a problem, you might ask? It's a problem because it essentially means erasure, inappropriate demand, and silencing; it is an erasure of how state violence and racism affect Black people on a 28 hour basis. It is a demand to be centered in someone else's suffering. It is silencing towards the very people who are continually working to eradicate anti-Blackness on a daily basis. Appropriation of #BlackLivesMatter is not an act of solidarity; it is shoving your way into a specific issue, and neglecting the resistance of Black folks. Implicit in the phrase of Black Lives Matter is not the assertion that other lives don't matter. It is saying is that Black people's freedom is key to understanding the myriad of oppressions that exist. Respecting the movement without co-opting language is necessary in order to establish genuine solidarity. WE KNOW THAT OUR STRUGGLES ARE INTRICATELY CONNECTED AND WE NEED EACH OTHER TO GET FREE. THE ARGUMENT THAT WE’RE MAKING, HOWEVER, IS THAT BLACK LIVES ARE CENTRAL TO EVERYBODY’S FREEDOM. FIGHTING FOR BLACK LIBERATION IS ALSO FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIBERATION. ONE’S NOT BETTER THAN THE OTHER. BUT BLACK LIVES ARE CRITICAL, SO WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THAT, STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THAT AND NOT CHANGE THE CONVERSATION. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN WE LUMP ALL PEOPLE TOGETHER IS THAT WE REALLY LOSE THE COMPLEXITY OF THE EXPERIENCES THAT WE HAVE IN THIS COUNTRY. IF WE LOSE THAT COMPLEXITY, WE LOSE OUT ON BUILDING SHARP STRATEGIES THAT CAN INCLUDE EVERYBODY.
1 Comment
By Thug Scholar
After Craig Steven Hicks, a white man in his forties, executed Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, the media was eerily silent. As opposed to the outrage that took place after the terrorist attacks against Charlie Hebdo, major news networks ignored the murders of the three students until social media caught wind of the story, and it went viral. The blatant disregard by the media delivers a painful reminder to Muslims as to how they are generally perceived: those who commit acts of terrorism, but are not capable of being the victims of it. This is how Islamophobia wrapped in American white supremacy can manifest itself: it doesn't necessarily have to openly call someone an evil terrorist. It can be the implication that the murder of these three young Muslims was unimportant because they weren't the ones behind the trigger. It is suggesting that Hicks shouldn't be investigated for a hate crime because the issue was merely over a parking space, that his lack of sanity was the sole cause of the murders (a statement in itself that is ablelist), and any preconceived hostility towards his neighbors shouldn't seriously be questioned. It is, essentially, stripping Muslims of their humanity in subtle, yet dangerous ways. When we dismiss the murders of these three students as merely the acts of a "crazed" neighbor over a parking space, we fail to grasp at the root conversations of whiteness, social marginalization and the threads of Islamophobia that have affected the American perceptions of Muslims, as well as our perception of victim hood and terrorism. The increased surveillance, profiling, and harassment of Muslim, as well as Arab, African, and South Asian communities since 9/11 has led to increased fear in these collectives . Standing in solidarity with Muslims and other profiled communities demands that we examine our history of moral panics and the othering of Islamic people in America. by Thug Scholar Let me tell you this from the jump. I’m not a fan of Empire—corny dialogue, weak story lines, not to mention this joint is basically a rip-off of the show Platinum that used to come on UPN back in the day when I was a shorty (only watching that show was much more interesting)….but this ain’t about that. I’m beyond tired of the trope that Black people are ultra-homophobic, as if the heterosexism in our community exists in a vacuum, and that we are monstrously more discriminatory of LGBTQ folks more than any other group in society. |
Details
ATS MagAgainst the Stream Magazine is an urban platform. We edify our readers by finding noble, pure, and true talent and giving it a stage to flourish. While we love bragging about the folks around us, we also tackle urban issues by giving real world solutions. Archives
October 2015
|