Race/Gender Anti-Violence & Equality

Members: Maddie Moore, Natalie Wright, Izzy Dean, Katie Pratt

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” 

“Your silence will not protect you.” 

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

– Audre Lorde

Overview of Project and presentation
Within the pedagogy presentations our group played an excerpt of a video talking about gender and racial based statistics. The facts presented in the clip had very negative connotations and raised awareness of the problem we do have. After it was shown, we then asked the class to write down a couple of words that came to mind after watching such an oppressed piece. With every individual’s words we then created a wordle. A wordle is a mash of words presented which includes size emphasis upon repeated words. We also posted this wordle on different social media pages such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to ask our followers to input their own words and make our project even bigger. Following up, we have printed out multiple copies of this wordle and an excerpt of what this project is about around the campus of the University of Oregon, asking students, faculty, and any other bystanders to add their own thoughts on. As a team we are hoping to create more awareness, evoke thoughts, and interact with as many people as possible on the this topic.

As a whole, we asked the class what each key term meant to them then followed up that discussion with actual definitions. Interaction and conversation then took place during this time within the classroom; it was very insightful for everyone.  We also read “Power”, a poem by Audre Lorde which went along very well with our subject and what emotions we were trying to get across. These emotions consisted of hate and fear while discrimination and violence were also present. We did not want to have a negative presentation, therefore we included a clip of a very diverse person expressing themselves to the world in a positive light and through art activism. Ending our presentation we led an inspirational meditation to keep everyone in a calm, collected, and positive state of mind.

Statistics

• Average white family in America has 12x the accumulated net worth of the average black family and 8x the accumulated net worth of the average latino family
• 6% of white people said that racial discrimination in America was still a problem, as opposed to the 12% who believed Elvis Presley was still alive
• Young black men, ages 15-19, are 21 times more likely to be to be shot and killed by the police than young white men.
• There are currently more black people locked up in prison than there were enslaved in 1850.
•  White people are 78% more likely to be accepted into a University than equally qualified people of color.
• A black college student has the same chances of getting a job as a white college dropout.
• Black women make 64 cents for every dollar a white male makes.

Black Lives Matter
Say Her Name

Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based national organization working for the validity of Black life.  They are working to rebuild the Black Liberation movement.  It was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman was acquitted for his crime, and dead 17-year-old Trayvon was post-humously placed on trial for his own murder.  #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the anti-Black racism that permeates our society.  It is a unique contribution that goes beyond killings of Black people by police.  Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of Black queer and trans, disabled, black-undocumented, recorded, women and all other Black lives along the gender spectrum.  Along with #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName is just as important.  In 2015 alone, at least six Black women have been killed by or after encounters with police.  Mya Hall, who is a Black Transgender woman, was shot to death by officers after the car crashed into the seciryty gate and a police cruiser.  There were many other cases that were alike, and on May 20th, 2015, the African American Police Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Stuides at Columbia Law School, and over twenty local sponsoring organizations hosted #SayHerName which is a vigil in memory of Black women and girls killed by police and Union Square in New York City.  It has also spread through social media using the hashtag, #SayHerName.  It responds to increasing calls for attention to police violence against Black women by offering a resource to help ensure that Black women’s stories are integrated into demands for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representation of victims of police brutality.  Black women are routinely killed, raped, and beaten by the police and their experiences are rarely talked about.  #SayHerName will help the victims of brutality be seen in the media.

http://www.aapf.org/sayhername/

http://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/

Bibliography

“About.” Tim Wise RSS. WordPress, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.

“Center for the Study of White American Culture.” Center for the Study of White American Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

“The Definition of Violence.” Dictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

Defoe, Ty. “A Two-spirit Hoop Dancer.” Interview. Facebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.

Lorde, Audre. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Tucker, JB W. “The Ultimate White Privilege Statistics & Data Post.” JBW Tucker. DISQUS, 28 Feb. 2015. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

Wise, Tim. “White Privilege, Racism, White Denial & The Cost of Inequality.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.

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