Racism

This personal account of my life and escape from Slavery is grounded in fact, not imagination, but though I have tried to depict the truth of my previous bondage as best as I am able, I know that this subject could be better portrayed in more adequate hands. I am just a simple woman with simple words; however, I know that I must not stand quietly by while my brothers and sisters still suffer in chains.

To share my story is to share the truth. To stay silent is to be complicit in the heinous crimes that are protected under that peculiar institution . Therefore, though my words be weak, may the readers of the North be aroused by the dark truth embedded within them.

I was born on a cotton plantation not far from the city of Memphis in the state of Tennessee. According to my mother, my father had been sold at the Great Negro Mart before I was even born. As a child, I could not understand why my parents had to be separated nor why I had to be deprived of a loving father.

As the years passed and my eyes grew accustomed to the cruelty of Slavery, I knew it was because the Negro slave was simply regarded as chattel.

My mother worked as one of the household cooks, and by the time I could walk, I was carrying pails of water and small bags of flour to the kitchens. Whenever I wanted to play, I played not with store-bought toys but with the work of chasing the birds away from the garden and competing with the other children to collect the most weeds that littered the ground. It was ability, not age, that defines the life of an enslaved child.

The first time I saw my mother beaten was when I was eight years old. I had been carrying firewood to the kitchen for one of the cooks when the mistress of the house walked in unannounced followed by a man with a whip. I heard the crack before I saw my mother fall.

Vaguely, I remember strong arms holding me back and a flour-covered hand preventing me from crying out. Though I was still too naïve to understand, the older slaves around me knew that in that moment, my mother was not my mother. She was only a slave to be beaten.

“You would do well to remember that he is my husband, not yours,” Mrs. Smith remarked coldly. Thirty cracks had now gone by. My mother, barely conscious, was lying on the ground.

A few weeks later, she was found to be in the family way , and after several months passed by, I became the older sister of a fair-skinned baby boy. Though I was still young, I could perceive the truth, and all I felt was fear. I was certain Mrs. Smith would kill my mother!

“Don’t you worry about me, Zola,” my mother had said, holding my little brother to her chest. “Mr. Smith won’t let his wife destroy his property.”

Three days later, I learned just how right she was. Mr. Smith did not allow my mother to die; instead, through the jealous urgings of the mistress, he brought my mother and newborn brother to the same auction block he had sold my father at nearly ten years prior.

At nine years old, I was alone. I was grieving. At too young of an age did I start to fully understand how the heavy hand of Slavery left no room for morality. To break apart entire families, especially as a simple exercise of one’s power, is an injustice that no one in the Union should tolerate.

When the news broke out concerning the auction of my family, one of the cooks whom we all called Aunty took me in, but nothing could truly replace what Slavery had taken from me. Having lost my mother and brother, all that was left within me was a desire to be free.

As this desire grew, my suffering also intensified. Reader, how desperately I wish that my hand may skip over this truth, but the horrors of Slavery will not be overcome by ignorance. Since I was three years old, my master’s son, who was six years my senior, often asked for me to be brought into his room at night so that he could use me to warm his feet while he slept.

When I reached the age of sixteen, this request that once merely demeaned me was now transformed into consummate shame and degradation. I could not escape the sin. Every night, it lied in wait for me.

Soon, I was in the family way, and my desire for freedom reached its peak. I refused to bear my child in a society that only sought to shackle it. My only source of fear was a law that the federal government had passed five years prior: the Fugitive Slave Law . Nevertheless, the growth of the baby within me encouraged me to continue making plans for an escape.

Weeks of passionate praying and planning went by until God sent a blessing in the form of a tragedy. Slave catchers had brought back a man named Chike who had escaped slavery several years ago, and they immediately put him in a pronged collar with bells at the tips. Though my heart broke for him, I knew I could not waste an opportunity to talk to him. That night, once my master’s son had fallen asleep, I quietly snuck out and carefully moved towards Chike’s quarters.

After pleading desperately for his help, Chike revealed to me that he had been inspired by the actions of Robert Pelham and had willfully been caught so that he could aid in the escape of more slaves from his former plantation. Though he would not tell me how we were to escape, he showed me a quilt with a pattern of tumbling blocks sewed onto it.

“When this here quilt is hanging up on the clothesline,” said Chike, “you’ll know that it’s time. Prepare, and once the moon is on top of us, meet me back here.”

Five days later, the quilt was raised. With only the light of the moon to guide me, I made out two other figures standing next to Chike, who was stuffing cotton into the bells of his collar to silence them. The pair was a slave couple who had jumped the broom this past year. Immediately after I arrived, Chike began leading us towards the house of an abolitionist on the outskirts of Memphis, creating a zig-zag path instead of moving directly there.

Though weary from walking, the sight of the lawn jockey’s lantern next to the magnolia trees in front of the house instilled within me an indescribable joy and lightheartedness. Moving aside some breakaway bricks, Chike created a hole large enough for us to crawl underneath the house, and slowly but surely, we squeezed through a small hole and arrived in the cellar of John Burkle’s estate. Overcome with the greatest of joys, I began to weep.

The cellar was cold and damp and extremely confined, but for the first time in my life, I felt freedom. I felt safe. I felt hope. In that moment, we all began to pray and to thank the Lord for His overwhelming goodness and blessed protection.

The four of us stayed at the Burkle estate for another week, taking turns to go outside and accompany John Burkle as his “slaves.” When the vessel that would bring us North arrived, each of us hid in cargo boxes that were atop the deck. Though painfully uncomfortable, the mere thought of freedom made me giddy. Reader, to think of those dark days of Slavery brings me to tears, but the sweetness of freedom always returns me to the sweetest peace.

Both movements fall under contemporary political sociology, and not only because they are contemporary movements. Traditional political sociology focuses on the direct, institutional relationship between the state and society. In this way, the field is concerned with institutional changes like elections and voting power. In contrast, contemporary political sociology asks how meaning and power is formed in a social body – particularly through social movements. Neither the Guerrilla Girls nor Black Lives Matter concern themselves directly with institutional politics. Instead, the movements focus on shifting power in society – through the language that we use, the responses that we have, and the expectations we maintain. Because these movements are focused on this shift in power, they are more a concern for contemporary political sociology.

Both the Guerrilla Girls and the Black Lives Matter movements represent social movements that focus on influencing social and cultural norms, and their power tactics reflect this. The primary tactic used by both of these movements is information – the movements attempt to spread information relevant to their message. In the case of Guerrilla Girls, this is presented primarily through protests and artistic endeavors. For the Black Lives Matter movement, information was initially spread through protests. More recently, however, the movement has gained a media foothold and has been able to communicate information through these channels.

Even though the Guerrilla Girls movement looks like a political movement, it would technically fall under Giddens’ area of a labor movement that works for the control of the workplace. The movement was created to fight against sexism and racism in the art world, a professional domain that will only be altered through the social change the movement is fighting for. The movement is not really fighting for any political change, but rather a social change within the professional world of art. In contrast, the Black Lives Matter movement falls under Giddens’ area of a democratic movement that works for political rights. The movement works primarily in the political sphere, putting pressure on policymakers to enact institutional changes that will address excessive police violence against minority citizens.

While some art professionals and critics may take issue with the Guerrilla Girls movement, it does not seem to have an official or established countermovement. However, the Black Lives Matter movement has ruffled enough feathers in conservative America as to create a countermovement. In response to the movement’s slogan, many have used #AllLivesMatter to counteract the movement’s main point – that police violence is a particular issue for minority groups. The response implicitly critizes the Black Lives Matter movement as being reminiscent of reverse racism. However, this has been limited to social media, and may not constitute a viable social movement.

The Guerrilla Girls movement can be described by Aberle’s alternative social movement category. First of all, the movement is at the individual (rather than social) level. It targets those who influence and who are influenced by the art world. Second, their message is to change the creation and perception of sexist and racist art, as well as to include the rights of female and minority artists. This can be considered a minor change in the world of art, rather than a radical change of the way art is created or perceived. The Black Lives Matter movement can be considered a reformative social movement. The movement is political in nature, and therefore is focused on changes both in society and in the political sphere. However, the movement does not seek to take any power over like a revolutionary social movement. Instead, the movement is advocating for minor changes in political and police practices.

The Guerrilla Girls is a New Social Movement (NSM) both because of its message and its membership. First, the movement is focused on cultural concerns, rather than economic or political change. Second, the movement appears to be constituted of the new middle class, as it is made up of professionals within the art field. Third, the movement is centered on just a single issue (sexism and racism in the art world), and changes in that field. The Black Lives Matter movement is also a NSM in form and function. First of all, just like the Guerrilla Girls movement, the movement is more focused on social changes in the way that police violence against minorities is perceived. Second, the movement consists of a loosely organized social movement with individual, local chapters. It is not so much made up of official members as it is made up of supporters. Finally, Black Lives Matter can be considered a NSM because it is focused on the action of civil society in response to what is seen as an authoritarian state.

Dress is very important for the Guerrilla Girls movement. First and foremost, all of the major members of the movement wear gorilla masks when appearing in public or in the media. The goal of this is not only to maintain anonymity, but also to capture the main essence of the movement. The members also appear to purposefully dress in gender neutral, or otherwise evocative clothing that defies gender norms. Dress is not as important in the Black Lives Matter movement, but still plays a part in the movement. The primary role of dress is the adoption of the movement’s slogan (and name) into a simple black t-shirt with white words: “Black Lives Matter”. This emblematic dress has appeared at protests, in media interviews, and even on mannequins in department stores. Because the t-shirt has become an icon of the movement, dress certainly does have a part to play in the movement.

The Black Panthers Party from the 1960s exemplifies a social movement in which dress had a large role to play. A sort of power response to the non-violent Civil Rights Movement of the same decade, the Black Panthers focused on black pride and advocated fighting for economic and social equality. In relation to this goal, the movement created a uniform for members: a black leather jacket, black pants, a black beret, and even black gloves. This uniform seemed to have two effects. First, it united members of the movement in an almost military fashion. Second, it gave the movement a clear image to the public, and clearly communicated its black pride. The Black Panther movement was revolutionary, and its dress reflected this.

“We declare our right on this earth……. to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary” – Malcolm X.

“Black lives matter!” cried marchers as they flooded the streets and freeways of downtown Los Angeles, California over the course of two nights in November of 2014. Together they marched in protest of the recent announcement that Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson would not be charged for the deadly shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. As hundreds marched towards the LA County jails, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) went on ‘Tactical Alert’, which is the controlled redistribution of all on-duty officers to remain deployed until further notice in order to have the necessary amount of officers needed for the adequate control of a major police incident.

Meanwhile, another group of demonstrators barricaded the 101 Freeway, halting traffic in civil disobedience as the LAPD Chief of Police, Charlie Beck, made a statement that morning regarding the arrests that occurred over the course of the two nights: “The Police Department of Los Angeles wants to facilitate genuine First Amendment activity, however we will not condone, nor will allow, individuals to trample the rights of others in pursuit of those First Amendment rights.”

The Los Angeles Times reported 183 protesters were held in police custody, from that number 167 protesters were arrested for “disturbing the peace.”4 How should we understand the political actions of the Black Lives Matter protesters? Are they, as the LAPD suggests, simply seeking to exercise their existing First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly? Or might this framework of rights-exercising individuals fail to fully capture the political impact of the Black Lives Matter movement as a movement to gain access to the status of rights-bearers at all— a status long denied to Black Americans? The hundreds of protestors, arrested and held in police custody, were marching in objection to the failed indictment by the Ferguson grand jury; they marched in support of Michael Brown’s family; and they marched against those protestors who were arrested the night before. Most importantly, however, these hundreds of protesters marched for justice and for peace with self-determination and self-possession integral to freedom.

In this paper, I propose that the above description of the Black Lives Matter protest depicts what Jacques Ranciere would deem a radical political moment: when the part that has ‘no part’ (those voiceless, abject, and misrepresented Black bodies) takes part and sets the ‘common stage’ for politics to occur through coming together, forming a community— as equally speaking beings—in which they are able to articulate their claims of injustices and expose the fundamental wrong within the current social order. I argue that the United States still requires a movement, like the one described above, that disrupts the status quo of great racial inequality and imbued white supremacist patriarchy in institutional practices, in order to voice the most basic of claims: Black Lives Matter. Black bodies in the U.S. have been racialized through domination and abjection, i.e. that which is expelled from the individual and social body.”

Through this notion of abjection, as a means to “protect” the social order from what is deemed “threatening” or “dangerous”, Black bodies have become the object that re-constitutes white identity in a “post-racialized” American society. In order to better understand this phenomenon of the racialized, abject Black body, we must first lay down the theoretical foundation of what is meant by the abject and processes of abjection. Moreover, we must understand, historically, how these processes of abjection have manifested themselves in the formation of Black bodies and re- formation of white identity in America.

Sara Ahmed, in Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality, describes the first moment of abjection as a risk to one’s individual identity, which further re-constitutes the subject’s identity from that which is considered Other; strange; and repulsive. This strange body, then becomes the abject, as best described by Ahmed quoting Kristeva: “The abject relates to what is revolting, to what threatens the boundaries of both thought and identity: ‘The abject has only one quality of the object— that of being opposed to I.’ ” Therefore, the subject formation that takes place in the process of abjection renders certain bodies as objects— both strange and un-live-able.

Through abjection, the subject expels that which is undesirable; repulsive; and threatening from his or her individual body, leaving the Other body as abject, “At one level, the abject is a jettisoned object that is excluded, or cast out, from the and the process of domain of the thinking subject. The abject is expelled—like vomit – expulsion serves to establish the boundary line of the subject. At the same time, the abject holds an uncanny fascination for the subject, demanding its attention and desire.”

Through this production of the abject body, also originates the establishing of the boundary to, and between, the self. However, there is something enticing about the abject body— something intriguing about its strangeness, which allows the subject to include the body, only to expel once more as a means to re-establish the subject’s identity as one that differs from the abject. This production of the body between occurs where the abject body becomes the marker of difference between the subject’s body/identity and other bodies within the greater social body. Thus, this inclusion of the abject body is required upon the subject as part of the abjection process in order to re-constitute oneself in relation to others.

The subject must acknowledgment his or her threatened identity (subject formation) when in contact with the the strange body which, as a result, gets expelled as a means to re- constitute the subject’s body/identity (subject re-formation) in relation to what they are not, i.e. the threatening and dangerous, abject body. Ahmed writes further, “to differentiate between the familiar and the strange is to mark out the inside and outside of bodily space (to establish skin as a boundary line).”

The abject is that which proves dangerous to both the subject, and the social order; therefore, the abject body must be identified and differentiated from the subject as a means to re-affirm the subject’s identity. This technique of differentiation between bodies is important in the process of subject formation and abjection: “The particular bodies that move apart allow the redefinition of social as well as bodily integrity: black bodies are expelled from the white social body despite the threat of further discomfort […] The emotion of the ‘hate’ aligns the particular white body with the bodily form of the community— such an emotion functions to substantiate the threat of invasion and contamination in the dirty bodies of strangers.

Within the context of this paper, and as explained by Ahmed, it is the Black body/skin that is differentiated from white body/skin, and further, white identity: “the encounter through which the subject assumes a body image and comes to be distinguishable from the Other is a racial encounter,” (emphasis added). 13 The Black body threatens the white body/identity, and thus the larger social order. As result of Ahmed’s theoretical framing of the bodily encounter with other bodies, the central marker of social difference amongst bodies consequently becomes skin: “Both incorporation and expulsion serve to re-form the contours of the body, suggesting that the skin, not only registers familiarity and strangeness, but is touched by both differently, in such a way that the skin becomes the locus for social differentiation.”

Thus, Ahmed’s model of the abject and the process of abjection produces and reproduces (or reaffirms) white identity—the subject— as differentiating from that which is abject: The Black body. Ahmed asserts that the process of abjection does not merely happen on the individual level, but also the social level. With Ahmed’s theoretical concept of the abject, and the process of abjection outlined, I now will move to provide various historical examples illustrating instances wherein the Black body has been casted out as abject, less-than, and dangerous to the individual white body and larger U.S. social body.

The Black Body Through White Eyes

Historically speaking, Black bodies have always been foreign; strange; and excluded within the United States. Since their wrongful arrival to the U.S. to be sold as chattel, Black bodies have suffered hundreds of years of dehumanization, exploitation, and bodily fixation through the white gaze. This bodily fixation, which Black bodies have been forced to endure, has ultimately constructed them as racialized objects to be manipulated and expendable in order for the white community to differentiate that which is ‘pure’ (the white body) from what taints, disgusts, and is dangerous to the social order and white identity as a whole (the black body). Throughout the first chapter of Scripting the Black Masculine Body: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media, Ronald L. Jackson explores the historical production and reproduction of the abject Black body.

Beginning with the practices of white slave owners, Jackson addresses how the system of slavery worked to diminish slaves of any sense of self in order to keep them hopeless within the system. In order to keep slaves inept, and at the hands of their merciless slave owners, white slave masters over worked their slaves to the point of exhaustion, under inconceivable conditions, day in and day out day in and day out. Slaves were only to be considered as property, liken to that of livestock; they were reduced of any value more than their listed price at the slave auction. Therefore, the enslaved Black body was physically inducted into the United States territory, however expelled from acknowledgement of their basic human subjectivity, rights, and agency. These enslaved Black bodies were constantly devalued and dehumanized in order to reaffirm the white slave owner’s unjust and inhumane actions. This treatment and regard to the Black body inevitably rendered them abject, moreover, powerless to combat their situation.

“This devaluation and objectification of Black bodies arrested any agency to define the Black self, but also intercepted any public valuation of Blacks as subject. Subjectivity was owned by Whites; they were self-authorized to see themselves as pure, good, competent, and deserving of privilege. They devised the essence of racial particularity by averting their gaze away from Blacks and applying injunctive pressure on them to behave in ways that complied with their own modernist obsessions.”

Black bodies were the marionette; the white slave owners were the master puppeteers; and the system of slavery was the white-owned and white-run stage. As a means to further rid Black bodies of any human agency, slaves were forced to suffer in isolation and familial ties were severed. Inhibiting slaves’ ability to properly form strong, emotional bonds by separating families, ultimately left the lives of family members and loved ones in the hands of their cruel slave owners.

“Fostering a climate of separation that would not allow communion of slave and slave master as human beings. The civilized-savage and human-inhuman dichotomies were intentionally arranged by the owner to maintain distance and disdain, to prove his self that Black bodies were devoid of interiority or basic thinking and reasoning skills.”

As purely an object meant for the production of labor, speculation, and ridicule, the Black body was denied its humanity and basic human rights. They were to be considered void of not only mental intelligence, but also emotional intelligence, Black bodies were nothing more than a machine for the white man to wield.

“The body can be said to be political because it, as an immediately identifiable and visible marker of difference, accounted for the distribution of material, special, temporal resources Black bodies were not allowed to share. It was discursively bound because, although it was polysemic, the primary meaning the Black body conveyed was its correspondence to an object believed to be a subhuman, heathenish utility. The body was needed to perform labor and generate revenue; therefore, as long as the slave appeared happy-go-lucky, his or her physicality and physical readiness were of the utmost importance.”

The enslaved Black body was suitable purely for its production value. The Black body was thus determined to be fit depending on the quality of work that was to be gained from the white owner’s investment. This denial of citizenship, more, human agency left the Black body abject and outside of consideration as a rights-bearing individual and denied them of basic human rights. In this value, and spectacle, of the Black body only for its potential productivity arises another form of abjection which Jackson offers within the context of “strange fruit”, a term coined by artist Billie Holiday.

These “strange fruit” hanging from the tree were lynched victims, swaying as their limp Black bodies still hang suspended from the tree: “as many a 120 Black men and women were lynched between 1900 and 1901″.20 Jackson explores this paradoxical term further, writing, ” ‘strange’, which implies something that is foreign, weird, out of ordinary, and unpredictable,”21 whereas the mental image the word fruit conjures up, invites people to envision its beauty when at its ripest; fruit is beautiful and enticing, and the inside is filled with delicious and highly valued sustenance. The strange, however, is unpredictable; it’s foreign and unknown to whomever may encounter it. Thus, this paradox of the lynched bodies resembling “strange fruit” as they hang, lifeless— both enticing and peculiar— paints a vivid picture of how the Black body has come to formation through the white gaze: “Black bodies were hung as objects of the White voyeuristic gaze.”

Jackson explains the many instances of lynch mobs that gather in the event of lynching a Black body as a form of brutal punishment for a crime they may or may not have committed, reinforcement of white supremacy rule over Black bodies, and above all: entertainment. This spectacle of the hanging Black body, lifeless and immobile, complied with the larger white supremacist laws that forbid the freedom of Black bodies within the greater, white community. Moreover that, while Black bodies may be freed from the chains of slavery, they were not free from white supremacist authority and abjection; white dominance still had its chains shackled upon the Black body, its perception, and its abject role within the larger society.

During the slave trade, and long after, Black male bodies were perceived as a constant sexual and deviant threat; Black male bodies- muscular and tall— were a constant threat to the purity of the white man’s daughter, moreover, the white bloodline, forever tainting it just just by one drop of his non-white blood.24 Thoughts of unpredictable masculine Black men freely perpetrating acts of violence against white members of society circulated the minds of many white Americans as they tried to cope with their fears and anxieties regarding the unchained Black body.

In this respect, Jackson explores a common stereotype of Black men which worked to dehumanize Black masculine bodies, following and shaping the perception of these particular bodies throughout the history of American society leading us to the present discussion in this paper. Black identity within the U.S. has been racialized and constructed by whites as a means to render them less-than, disenfranchised, and opposite to whiteness. Yet Black bodies, especially Black male bodies, remain a constant threat white identity. One particular, long-lasting and harmful process of abjection regarding the Black male body, as best explained by Jackson, is the Buck stereotype: “This character explicitly showcased two major fears or anxieties of White men: first, theft, and second, the possibility that she [the white woman, wife or daughter] might be masochistically excited by his sexual nature and accept him despite his flaws, which might lead eventually to miscegenated offspring, hence defying the code of White racial purity.”

This deviant character, ruled by his insatiable sexual desires and fueled by retaliation against the white men for the injustices of the enforcement of slavery, and white supremacist ideology thereafter, had one violent goal in mind: raping white women.25 Further, this ruthless character, in its unpredictable nature, symbolized much more for white America and its perception of the Black masculine body. That is, the Black masculine body had a natural inclination towards committing unprovoked violent crimes upon and against white America- leaving white identity contingent upon if and when the Black man would strike against a white man, his wife and/or daughter. This fearful and anxiety-ridden perception of the ‘violent’ Black male body has plagued the Black community for years and remains highly relevant to the abjection and stereotype threat exemplified through racist policing in contemporary American society.

Why Black Lives Matter

Today’s portrayal of black men in the media still embodies that white-American fear of the seemingly violent black man, so much that it has begun to actually define black men and their actions in society. The outlet of these misrepresentations? The media. Newscasts, in their portrayals of Black male suspects depict them as gangsters, drug-dealers, thugs, and the most damaging: violent. As a result of the media’s misrepresentation, this fear has situated itself nicely 25 Ibid., 41.

In the minds of many Americans today, shaping their opinions and interactions with Black bodies. It is no surprise that the media influences and shapes individual views, on a local and national level, regarding the stories which are selected for broadcast. Therefore, white supremacist patriarchal ideals, stemming from slavery, imbued in contemporary American society and its institutions, such as policing, work to disenfranchise and render Black bodies within as abject. Now returning to the aforementioned case of the slain Mike Brown, we have analyzed the outpour of political protests that occurred in Los Angeles, and across the nation, in the wake of the jury’s verdict to not indict Officer Darren Wilson; however, what has not been established are the events that took place the day Mike Brown was fatally shot in Ferguson, Missouri.

Summer of August 9, 2014 Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen, lay lifeless and bleeding in the middle of a neighborhood street in Ferguson, Missouri. 26 The cause of death was an altercation with a white Officer Darren Wilson, who consequently, shot Brown at least six times. The preliminary autopsy showed Brown was shot in his right arm, the top of the head, and through right eye exiting out of Brown’s jaw only to re-enter into his collarbone.” Forensic pathologist Shawn Parcells, who assisted in the autopsy, revealed one of the gunshot wounds on Brown’s arm could have been sustained while his back was turned towards Officer Wilson, in an attempt to run for his life, or whilst he had his hands up as a sign of surrender— contradicting Officer Wilson’s account of self-defense from Brown who had “charged” at the Officer, grabbing for his weapon.

It only took three minutes for Michael Brown to lose his life 30, but the outrage and political unrest to follow the tragic incident endures as the number of Black bodies that have fallen victim to the excessive force and racist policing of police officers across the nation, continues to increase. This event and the failed indictment of Officer Wilson for the use of unlawful deadly force to kill an unarmed teen, in particular, has fueled a large sum of the political actions of the Black Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Matter actively voice their claims of injustices and inequality against the inhumane treatment of— and unequal regard to— Black bodies, as exemplified in racist policing within the United States.

Sparked after the outrage of the failed indictment of neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, who fatally shot unarmed seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin, 31 Black Lives Matter is a movement created as a means to gain a voice, proper representation, and political traction in their claims of injustice and systematic oppression of Black lives within the United States. This oppression and disenfranchisement, as I have outlined above, has occurred as a result of this nation’s founding upon the enslavement of Black bodies and continual white supremacist patriarchal processes ingrained in institutions and social order which render Black bodies abject within society.

“Rooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our de- humanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti- Black racism that permeates our society. Black Lives Matter is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. […] It centers those that have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. It is a tactic to (re)build the Black liberation movement. When we say Black Lives Matter, we are broadening the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are talking about the ways in which Black lives are deprived of our basic human rights and dignity.”

The Black Lives Matter movement, has had more than 1,030 protests held in its name since August 2014. In each of its many protests and demonstrations across the nation, the Black Lives Matter movement employs Peter Nyers’ Rancierian notion of a ‘taking-politics. Through the movements response to the abject Black bodily experience in the United States, whose activism focuses largely on racial justice and responding to racist policing, it disrupts the social order and demands that Black lives/bodies be considered as human rights-bearing, citizens. “The abject,” writes Nyers, “suffer from a form of purity that demands them to be speechless victims, invisible and apolitical,”34 the Black Lives Matter movement, however, aims to counter the abjection of Black bodies and does so by employing some of Nyers’ tactics.

For consistency, and as a key example of the ways in which the Black Lives Matter movement is demanding their voice be heard can be exhibited in their employment of Nyers’ taking speech and space politics, therefore, I will use the movement’s interruption of the Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle addressing the candidate directly and demanding the crowd in a moment of silence in commemoration of Mike Brown.

Nyers outlines these tactics within the context of global migration, the anti-deportation movement, and its abject migrants. I argue through example, however, that Nyers’ theory still identifies crucial aspects to the activism of the Black Lives Matter movement and their response to the abject Black bodily experience in today’s society. Nyers elaborates further on the tactics of taking-politics when he writes: “These tactics have been proven to be important for how they disrupt the administration, the routines, and above all the normality of deportations. They are also significant, however, as a form of taking-politics: delegation visits allow the non-status, those who have ‘no part’, to assert their political voice […] Understood together, these tactical measures are crucial to the possibilities of abject cosmopolitan political agency.”

It is important to note for the context of this paper, I substitute Nyers’ notion of taking-politics that disrupt the ‘normality of deportations’ as tactics that disrupt the normality of marginalization, disenfranchisement, and neglect of Black bodies in the United States. More, I substitute the theoretical term of ‘abject cosmopolitan’ for ‘abject national’ (i.e. the Black body). Elaborating on the importance and use of the taking speech and space tactics, Nyers explains that “direct action tactics work best when they organize around existing weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the system […] allow for face-to-face encounters with state officials invested with enormous powers of discretion.”

A key example of the power of such tactics as it relates to the employment by the activism of the Black Lives Matter movement occurred at a Bernie Sanders rally in August 2015— a year after the fatal shooting of Mike Brown. This was Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ first event in Seattle, to discuss Social Security. However, only seconds after taking the stage, Sanders was disrupted by banner-holding Black Lives Matter activists, one of which was the co- founder of the movement, who took charge of the stage and the microphone.37 Not only did these activists jump barricades to command the space and proper representation in their engagement with Rancierian politics, but they also were able to voice their political claims in their demands that Sanders release what he plans to do regarding the reform of policing.38 Additionally, the activists were also successful in their demand for a moment of silence in honor of Mike Brown, who lost his life only a year before the current demonstration.

This is only one instance of the many instances in which the Black Lives Matter movement has commanded space which has not been theirs, and demanded that their voices be heard in order to gain representation that was never afforded to them within the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement, as outlined in their mission statement and engagement with Nyers’ Rancierian notion of taking-politics, actively works to gain what Black bodies have never been afforded within a society whose institutions have worked to expel them— that is, the Black Lives Matter movement calls for equal, humane treatment; equal opportunity; equal representation; and proper inclusion as rights-bearing citizens whose lives do matter.

From their wrongful kidnapping and unjust arrival to the United States, the Black community was left with no choice but to leave behind their cultural ties, family ties, and individual identity. Upon their liberation, Black Americans were considered of no real value to society. Continuously treated as second-class citizens and expendable objects, the Black community was left powerless without much freedom of choice in a nation that values choice as a means for individualism. When choice is forcefully ripped away, ultimately what is taken away is the fundamental key to human rights and rights protection in the United States— thus characterizing the beginning of the Black community’s struggle for equality in a post-colonial America.

The Black Lives Matter movement, through its nationwide political and racial justice activism, has made obvious its demands that the Black bodily struggle for proper representation and equal treatment on the basis of human rights be heard. Black Lives Matter is not a moment. Black Lives Matter is a political movement that is paving the way for the proper inclusion of rights-bearing, human Black bodies with agency. More, this movement is calling for systematic change to the sustained processes of white supremacist patriarchal imposed abjection of Black bodies within the United States. The Black community, and its allies, are tired of hearing about another abject Black body dead on the cement at the fault of another police officer- regardless of this fear that is so strongly ingrained in the minds of white Americans permanently attached to this notion of ‘violent black masculinity’.

If an individual fear another individual so much that his or her first instinct is to shoot, and inevitably kill, there is something inherently wrong with that framework. When will society and its institutions begin to acknowledge and believe that Black Lives Matter? This cyclical nature of history, and the processes of rending Black bodies abject and expendable, is repeating itself and it is plastered all over the media, social media news feeds and exemplified by the increasing number of deaths that are a result of racist policing. This nation was founded upon the enslavement, slaughter, and disenfranchisement of both its indigenous people and Black bodies wrongly brought here hundreds of years ago.

The struggle for Civil Rights has never ceased, nor has the racism and white supremacist patriarchy stopped persisting in and throughout the various institutions of this nation— it has only gotten better at disguising itself. The disguise, however, is beginning to falter as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement’s activism and persistent demand for the issues that lay underneath to be rightfully acknowledged and properly dealt with, so that this vicious cycle can come to an end. Until then, the mission and loud claims of the movement and its participants remain strong in their assertion that Black Lives Matter.

The writing “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement” written by Alicia Garza, revolves mostly around the creation and expansion of the Black Lives Matter Movement. It explains deeply what the black lives matter community stands for and why they stand for it. They also directly persuade/ try to convince the audience to stand with them. They go into detail explaining multiple different reasons as to how and why the black community is treated differently than the white majority of this country. The creator of the black lives matter movement also explained that by quoting “black lives matter” they’re not trying to say that other lives aren’t important, but just that black lives are also important, although the black community seems to be looked over and treated poorly in many ways within today’s generation and society.

The movement leaders say they don’t have the intentions of offending other races, but in order for them to get the respect and treatment that they truly deserve, the focus must be put on black lives specifically and must be emphasized to the fullest extent. Unfortunately there have also been some extreme errors in this movement where as people are becoming violent and shooting police officers in retaliation to the officers shooting a black man or woman, it’s happened in many states including Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, etc. The creators don’t mention this directly in the writing but it is known through the news and media. The creators of this movement however do say that they have no intention to handle these issues with violence and they just want to be progressive successfully and they know violence is not the solution to this problem.

The author starts off the writing by automatically telling the tragic story of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon was unjustifiably murdered and then held at trial for his own murder, after he was already dead, and the police officer who shot and killed him just got to walk away from the whole situation without punishment. The author did this intentionally to get the audience’s attention right off the back. Any sort of tragedy or crazy event will almost always catch the attention and interest of the reader of any kind of writing. People get hooked onto things like that and take serious interest in what people have say when it comes to things like this.

This reading is strictly trying to get people to side with the black lives matter organization/ movement, and to make everyone aware and worried about the police brutality and all the other discriminating factors against the black community. The author of this piece is clearly trying to sway the audience to her side and her side only, there is no real sympathetic reveal for any other side in this matter. She strictly is only supporting her movement and wants others to do so as well.

So in order to get this outcome, Garza has given multiple different reasons claiming to support her side. In order to do so, she focuses mostly on what her groups movement is trying to make happen, and she focuses little on the mistakes some of them have made in the process, like shooting police officers back and killing them in retaliation. She brings up that there’s been some mistakes by saying “progressive movements in the United States have made some unfortunate errors when they push for unity” (Garza, 136) but fails to mention exactly what those “errors” were. By doing this she leaves a huge gap and misses information that could and would definitely change a lot of opinions on the matter at stake. But then again, she did this intentionally. This is a tactic used to make sure the audience is more sympathetic to her side, and doesn’t even give the audience a chance to really look at the other side of things.

Throughout the whole writing she’s just giving reason after reason that the black lives matter movement should be supported and recognized. This story definitely does a really good job of convincing/ persuading the audience to sympathize with the black lives matter movement.

Something interesting that I also noticed throughout the text was that instead of referring to ‘white people’ as the problem, the author in turn consistently says “white supremacy”, therefore meaning that white people are superior to those of all other races, specifically the black community. Referring to it this way definitely makes it a lot more eye opening and relatable to many people, but also could cause even more controversy. Mostly all white people are not happy at all about being referred to in such a way. But in order to get people’s attention, the people of the black lives matter movement say and do things that may be harsh but realistic within today’s society, and they only do so to try even harder to get their point across and to get others to help in their movement for equal rights. In this sense the author is using the repetition technique to get certain things nailed into the audiences head.

In order to keep any audience interested in reading a piece of writing, the author must target the emotions and feelings of the audience with information that will keep them intrigued. This author does so by bringing in a lot of cruel and brutal yet truthful information on how blacks in our generation are treated unfairly compared to those of other races, specifically the white race. Within the text there is a whole paragraph dedicated to explaining every way in which blacks are “deprived of their basic human rights and dignity”. She says “It is an acknowledgment black poverty and genocide is state violence. It is an acknowledgement that one million black people are locked in cages in this country- one half of all people in prisons or jails- is an act of state violence.” (Garza, 135) and these are only two of the reasons she gives out of a paragraph that just keeps flowing and flowing with reasons that defend her side.

Something I also noticed that the artist does, is throughout the whole entire writing, every time the word “black” is said, she capitalizes it, every single time. The author does this in order to put a lot of emphasis on what she’s fighting for all together. It draws people to really look hard at the word and to make them think more about it than they normally would if she hadn’t capitalized the word every time it came up, this also shows the author’s strong desire to make the audience understand and feel where she’s coming from.

Another thing that stood out in this writing was the author’s sense of desperateness to get her point across and to get her voice heard. The strong words she uses and the way she goes about using them in sentences seems to somehow bring out the real fear that this woman has for not only her safety but the safety of her community, her friends, and her family. As mentioned two paragraphs above, there was a paragraph that went very into detail with a very long list of all the ways in which the black community is deprived of their rights and or disrespected by the general police population. This paragraph also strongly shows the woman’s innate inability to let these things go, it shows her fear and her frustration indefinitely and really brings emphasis to the whole situation itself.

The author also speaks directly towards the audience throughout a lot of the writing telling them directly what they need to do to help her fix her issue at hand. In the last paragraph she says “we are asking you, our family, to stand with us in affirming Black lives. Not just all lives. Black lives. Please do not change the conversation by talking about how your life matters, too.” She directly states what she wants people to do and how she wants them to do it and the way she words it by saying “please”, also seems to bring out the desperation she has to get help and to get the issues at stake fixed and ended for good.

Writers will do anything and everything to make sure that their writing appeals to and interests the audience that they are targeting. Some authors may use what seems to be defying acts of writing to get the audience to side with them (like the author not mentioning the shooting of police officers in retaliation) but sometimes, in order to get a larger point across, things must be swayed and worded in a certain way to really get people’s attention and or to get people to focus on the bigger issue at hand. The matter that this author, Alicia Garza, was arguing and defending is very clearly a topic that she holds close to her heart and would fight for any day, and that is to be assumed due to the tireless effort and detail she put into her work to defend her issue.

Many citizens would like to think the police are the defenders of justice it’s easy to see why in recent times with the stories of innocent people being killed that many have come to believe that the police are now no longer the defenders but rather the oppressors. The Black Lives Matters movement is a big proponent in this as African Americans are claimed to be disproportionally killed the most out of any race in encounters with the police indicating racism as a root for the violence. However, there are those that believe that police are simply doing their jobs and that the citizens are at fault for the increasing level of hate and violence being thrown at police officers. With tensions so high it becomes hard to see whether the anti-police hate is a cause or simply whether officers are just not being trained well enough to handle conflict resolution. This leads to the question, is police brutality a problem in the US?

Those who believe that police are increasingly brutal have reasonable evidence to support it as in a study done by the National Police Misconduct Reporting Project in 2010 roughly 23 percent of all police misconduct reports were for excessive force. The report being from 2010 might mean the number is different now but based on the amount of police brutality showcased in the media recently would have one believe that the number is higher now. Police becoming more militarized is another concern highlighted by many as legislators push to further increase the power of our police and especially our SWAT.

Equipped with much more military power the idea that the people you’re using it against are now your enemies becomes much easier to believe in as discussed by Radley Balko in his book Rise of the Warrior Cop where he discusses the rise of police militarization. Balko states that local police often have the weaponry to be able to conquer a small country which is what leads to the problem which he describes with the old saying, “when you have a hammer everything begins to look like a nail.” Along with all these other factors there is still the data supporting the fact that police are more violent against blacks as found by the Guardian which stated that in 2015 of the blacks that were killed by the police 32% were unarmed compared to the 15% of whites who were unarmed and killed. With this data it’s no surprise why 42% of nonwhites do not trust in the police and why Americans as a whole are only at 52% in their trust of the police.

Nevertheless, in the face of this evidence there are those that believe the police are not to blame due to other underlying causes primarily the proliferation of guns in America. While police killings in the US are higher than most other developed nations so is our violent crime rate as seen in a study done by the Organization for Economic Co-operation which showed that the US has a homicide rate of 6.10 per 1000 people which is ten times Germany’s and overall the highest out of the UK, Europe, and Canada. It’s been discussed that the reason for so much of our violence is due to the unique gun problem America has along with the strong sense of justice which has been cultivated here. Many pro-police supporters cite these problems as why the police have such high violence rates since in order to protect themselves they have to resort to force.

Police brutality is most certainly a problem in the US as discussed earlier just based off the data pointing to it being a problem. However, the reason for this violence is not the fault of the police but rather legislators and our culture as a whole. The US is a nation built upon a distrust of the government as it was born from a bloody revolution against our rulers the British which is why vigilantism is strong in the US. One could see this simply by looking at the responses to any child molester in the news as many would wish that they get sexually assaulted or even killed in prison. While there should be justice done to the child molester to wish further harm upon him is actually a very American idea as in places like Germany the media is not allowed to show someone’s full name even after they are convicted.

The fact that the media encourages this vigilante behavior with its sensationalism and that prisons in the US are often run for profit many criminals, who are sometimes people who just need a little help, often are forced to become violent or become what is basically a second class citizen in America. A culture of violence which pervades our media coupled with the fact that there more guns than there are people (as found in a study done by the Congressional Research Service) is a likely reason for why the police in America are forced to be so violent but also why Americans would also be quicker to violence than others around the world. However, this does not exclude the police from the murder of black people at such a high level compared to other races but this is a reality in a society which is post-slavery but still stuck with the ideas which were propagated during those times.

So police brutality is most definitely a thing but is it the fault of the police or of the legislators who allow the culture of violence and racism to continue? One thing is for certain and that is that America is not going to change unless there is a strong push to stop this culture of violence by passing laws which protect those in trials and laws which restrict guns so that gun related violence drops. Additionally, more Americans need to be aware of this skewed justice system we have and become educated about the racism still alive in America because as long as everyone remains ignorant nothing will change.

Though William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” is set in Renaissance Italy, and the worldwide adversity of antisemitism has declined over the decades, the message delivered through the plight of Shylock, the Jewish money lender of the tale, about discrimination and adversity, remain true even in modern society, as minorities, specifically African-Americans, fight for equal treatment and acceptance of their unique identities in society.

As Shylock tried to affirm his basic human rights to his Christian antagonists, who have “disgraced” him, “scorned [his] nation”, and “mocked at [his] gains”, all for the simple fact, as he claims, that he “[is] a Jew”, depriving him of his rights to carry out his work and his lifestyle and enjoy the fruits of his labor, mocking him for his religion and what he does to earn a living, reasoning that he, too is human, and does not deserve the discrimination and constant persecution and distrust he faces from living in a Christian society (Shakespeare 3.1.23).

Similarly, Alicia Garza, a founder of the modern Black Lives Matter movement, describes the social movement as being motivated by “the ways in which Black people are deprived of [their] basic human rights and dignity” by the modern establishment, ranging from racial profiling by law enforcement, to policies within municipal governments that disenfranchise African-Americans of certain rights, whether or not those laws were created with the intention to do so, as an act of “state violence” (Garza). Police forces frequently use lethal force on African-Americans in situations that typically call for less drastic measures. Prison inmates in modern America are predominantly made up of African-American men, and real-estate and zoning policies typically confine African- Americans living in urban environments to assume a state of living that many would consider unfavorable, imposed upon them by predominantly white authorities.

Even less recently, Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, called on his followers to return to their southern states and “slums and ghettos” of their northern cities, to work towards changing the future for the next generation of black Americans (King). In this way, the persecution imposed upon Shylock by the non-Jewish citizens of Venice, being unfairly scorned and mocked simply for being the person who he is, and following the religion he was born into, though not as severe, is much like the situation in America today, where thousands upon millions of African-Americans are either killed, incarcerated, or forced to live in poverty by way of the ill-conceived preconceptions of white policymakers who profile African-Americans simply for the color of their skin and not for their character.

Shylock’s monologue, continuing to express his frustration with being ostracized for being Jewish, and wishing to convince the people of Venice that he, too, is capable of fighting back and standing up for himself, can also be directly related to today’s Black Lives Matter movement. Shylock, through Shakespeare’s writing, uses an analogy to compare Shylock’s situation to baiting a fish that will not provide much food, saying, “To bait a fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge,” to show both Shakespeare’s audience as well as the people of Venice that constant discrimination and hatred will do nothing more that strengthen one’s resolve to either get fair treatment or exact revenge upon those who wrong them.

This is similar to today’s events, as more and more young African American men are subject to “fatal police shootings” or given unfair prison sentences, the people of Black Lives Matter fight back, with “high profile protests at the University of Missouri and Yale University” and activists “publicly, and unapologetically, disrupting presidential candidates at events and campaign rallies”, showing that the voices of the oppressed black community cannot be silenced and will continue to rise up and fight for equal representation and fair treatment by their fellow members of society, similar to how Shylock threatens to continue to fight for his recognition as a human being regardless of his religion (Foran).

Shylock’s monologue in The Merchant of Venice, fighting for recognition as an equal member of society, and vowing to never give up the fight for such recognition, draws many parallels to today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in which the systematically oppressed African-American community continues to fight for its equal representation and fair treatment of society, just as Shylock in Shakespeare’s Venice did centuries ago.

Alice Walker’s The Flowers discusses the theme of innocence, and more specifically how innocence is sustained and lost. We see this immediately, as Walker begins the story with the words: “It seemed.” These words are revealed as the key to reading the first half of the story itself. The summer days seem beautiful to Myop, as she skips through life with the carefree innocence of a child. Nonetheless, the story proves that life only seems safe and beautiful because Myop is sheltered and innocent. The story let’s us follow Myop’s loss of this ignorance, and consequently her innocence. Throughout the first half of the story, Walker develops a beautiful setting detailing Myop’s enjoyment of a summer morning. The air, the crops, the livestock all entrance her. As Walker writes: “She was ten, and nothing existed for her but her song, the stick clutched in her dark brown hand, and the tat-de-ta-ta-ta of accompaniment.”

Nothing exists for Myop except her enjoyment of the moment, but Walker hints at her naivete for us by naming her Myop, meant to bring to mind Myopia, short sightedness. Before she’s confronted with the lynched body, Myop fails to see that racist forces already have an impact on her life. Walker shows the pervasive background presence of racism by setting Myop’s family in a sharecropper’s cabin. While the author does not discuss this in detail, a reader familiar with US history cannot help but remember that the sharecropping system forced freed slaves into a virtual slavery almost as profound as formal slavery.

Though harvests might seem to be filled with golden surprises for Myop, historically they occasioned long hours of backbreaking labor for sharecropping families, struggling to maximize the yield of their land in hopes, typically in vain, that they would be able to reap some of the benefits. This led to bitterness, as almost the whole harvest went to the white owners of their land, while the sharecroppers slid further into debt and were often left to live off produce unfit for sale. This hint of the poverty of Myop’s family is strengthened by Walker’s passing but important reference to the rusted boards of their sharecropper cabin.

As Walker describes Myop’s walk into the woods behind the cabin, we are transported to the innocent wonderland of childhood through the detail and the varieties of flowers that Myop gathers. We are told that Myop has explored the woods many times before with her mother. Here again, Walker shows how appearances can be deceptive and what seems familiar in childhood can turn threatening. Myop discovers that she has wandered too far, and the familiar woods become threatening. Walker highlights the change as the sunlight, dry heat, and bright colors of the familiar woods become “gloomy… the air becomes damp, the silence close and deep.” The day is not as perfect and safe as we have thusfar been led to believe. This change in tone attempts to prepare the reader for the disturbing discovery that follows.

Even still, when Myop’s foot comes down between the eyes of the grinning skull, the sudden appearance of death amidst the variety of life which we have explored with Myop is shocking. It isn’t death itself though that marks the end of Myop’s innocence. Walker writes that Myop, having unearthed the body, “gazed around the scene with interest.” Tellingly, Myop is still gathering flowers, she picks a pink rose, even though it grows close to the skull. At this point she sees the rope, and it’s this revelation that shows the full story for both Myop and us. The rope is still tied to an oak branch, and we understand that the man has been lynched. The lynching, which while hidden from Myop had always been there, causes Myop’s loss of innocence. The final line, “And the summer was over”, stands alone as the last paragraph, forcing readers to think about the way in which Myop’s innocence has been destroyed. She can no longer be a child in the face of this evidence of the US history of racial violence. Her innocence is represented by the summer. Summer is over, as is the ignorance, and innocence, of her childhood.