Black Success Stories Do Not Negate Other Black Stories

One story that often goes around on Facebook is the story of a black man who was stopped by the police and everything went well. He was cordial, he gave the officers all the required documents, they settled whatever the issue was, and he was on his way. He drove away, he didn't leave with a gunshot wound to the head, he still had his freedom, etc. In my opinion, this story detracts from the real issue at hand.

Michelle Alexander, in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindess talks about black exceptionalism a lot. The basis of her argument is that we use stories like those of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, etc to discount the stories of African Americans all across the country. Black success stories are important, because we can compare the stories of not so successful blacks, say "See you CAN do it," and then not get at the root of the real issues in this country.

There is an issue in this country. One black person's story of a good meeting with a cop does not negate the stories where that has not been the case. As a country we should consider what exactly the criminal justice system has done to minorities in this country. Here are some interesting facts about the Criminal Justice System here in the United States. These are taken from The Sentencing Project website:

1. 1 in every 10 black men in his 30s is in prison or jail on any given day.
2. More than 60% of people in prison are people of color.
3. 1 in 9 men born in 2001 will likely be in prison at some point in his lifetime.
4. The United States has the highest International Incarceration rate at 698 per 100,000.
5. State prisons, federal prisons, and jails have all expanded since 1980.

I am pretty well off when it comes to my life--even as an African American woman. I graduated high school and college and now I am working on my Master's. I have found great mentors to help me work towards my PhD in Sociology. I have never gone super hungry (more hungry in the broke college kid sense.) I have been blessed to have a nice library of books, both parents, internet access, an iPhone, etc. I am blessed with the ability to know how to read, write, and do basic math (even though I hate doing it). I am not struggling, I have never been harassed by a cop, been in jail (or anywhere close to the criminal justice system), all my teachers have enjoyed my presence or at the very least didn't hate me or try to be unnecessarily rude to me (except for a couple of substitute teachers here and there.) I have been unbelievably blessed in my life.

At the same time though, I DO NOT and I REFUSE to step over the stories of black and brown people whose stories are different than mine. I know that my story is not replicated over and over. I realize this in the lack of students in my college classrooms who look like me, the lack of professors who look like me, and the overabundance of prisoners and fast food workers who look like me.

My story is unique, all our stories are unique, and I know that my story won't be the story of all the people who share my complexion. When we are discussing the movements of our day such as Black Lives Matter we must understand that there are a wide array of stories that this movement is telling. Some of these stories are successful like Olympic figure skaters, lawyers, a president, business owners, doctors, actors, rappers, etc. Some of those stories though are the stories of prisoners, the homeless, the mentally ill, etc. Some of those stories are the stories of average citizens and citizens trying to make a difference in the world but who don't get the same name recognition as the president.

These stories combined make up our existence in this country. Do not push the success of others down the throats of people who are trying. Do not put those success stories up on a pedestal and refuse to acknowledge all the other important stories we need to tell.

Success stories are fun, but we can't all be success stories. Let's focus on the everyday stories, the more realistic stories, etc. The more focus and energy we put on the reality instead of the exception the more amazing work we can get done for the entire community.

Here is another story from The Young Turks Interviews with Tawanda Jones and Abdul Salaam. Salaam was harassed by cops in Baltimore and Jones lost her brother to police violence. Their stories touched me deeply and I hope their stories touch you as well. Making sure all our stories get the time of day is how we make change, not by forcing success stories down people's throats and refusing to acknowledge the other important stories.

Divisions In The United States Are Not New

Today's blog will be quick, but only because I have uploaded a video where I talk all about what this blog post is about. As a sociologist who is very interested in learning about race, social movements, and inequality it bugs me when we talk about divisions in this country as if we have never had them.

Today, while browsing the comments section of a conservative video I came across comments that said Obama is dividing the country. Well, the sociological side of me had a lot to say about that, so I filmed a quick video (about 7 minutes long):

If you are all TL; DW, these are some of the main points I made in the video:

• Democrats have more fun, I am obsessed with this t-shirt y'all...
• Obama didn't divide the country.
• Obama's presidency is in a strange time of advances in technology and social media.
• Divisions in the country were there long before Obama.
• Now the divisions are harder to escape because of technology.
• Don't tell me or any group to be 100% perfect before I/a group can lodge a complaint and change the world.

We Must Fight Injustice Everywhere

One of my all-time favorite quotes says the following:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  --Martin Luther King Jr. 

I really adore this quote because I think it is so important to understand as we talk about injustice in our society. One of my favorite shows lately has been W. Kamau Bell's The United Shades of America and this past week the show covered community policing and police brutality. W. Kamau Bell mentioned the fact that while not all cops are doing bad things there are enough cops doing bad things for this to be a problem that we need to step in and solve.

So why is fighting injustice so important? A lot of people only consider what they and maybe their close friends are doing in the world. They might say something like "I'm not racist and none of my immediate family and friends are racist either, what else can I do?" In this age of social media it is so easy to get involved and change the world around you for the better. Sending a tweet, sharing social justice issues on your Facebook wall to educate your friends, and not being quiet when you see something wrong is so important.

You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train.

Another one of my favorite quotes is from the amazing Howard Zinn who said, "You can't be neutral on a moving train," I think about that quote so often when it comes to social justice issues and the injustices happening all across the United States today. If the train is moving toward inequality and you are not doing anything to stop it, that can't be great for society as a whole--even if you aren't the initial one making the train head toward inequality. 

You may not feel like you are contributing to the trains pace by being silent and still, but in a way you are. Back to W. Kamau Bell's statement, yes there are a lot of amazing cops out there, but by taking up for the cops who are horrible, they are not doing anything to get rid of police brutality in this country. There are amazing cops and there are cops who aren't amazing just like there are amazing and not amazing people. It is important that we don't stay neutral. It is important the the amazing cops actually say what some of these cops do isn't good so that we can train more amazing officers to take their place. We should be making sure that all of our cops have the proper training and are following proper protocol because they have a very important job--to protect and serve the communities they police.

Our train is moving in the wrong direction in a variety of ways from police brutality to LGBTQ+ inequality and so much in between. Instead of siting idly by like the injustice only affects a small amount of people, we have to come together as a nation and fight these injustices. We may not be able to clean up every single part of the country, but trying is the most important part. We can't continue to ignore these problems, because these problems feed off of being ignored. The longer these problems are ignored the harder it will be to control these problems later down the road. 

We have to act now, not later.

We have to stand up, show solidarity with the people who are affected by social injustice, and help them to the best of our abilities. We have the power to do amazing things, if only we act on that power. 

The Glamorous Guide To Understanding Privilege

In today's internet age, one word keeps haunting the nightmares of everyone on the planet, privilege. This word seems to haunt some people more than others, and I am here to offer some insight into understanding this word. Hopefully at the end of this post you will be able to better understand privilege as well as educate your friends on this important word.

Google defines privilege as "a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people." On the internet it is often determined that there are privileges that help you more than others, but in my opinion:

Everyone Has A Little Privilege

I know, that's insane to think right? Think about it though. There are certain privileges that various people have. There is the privileges like skin color, but there are also privileges in your gender, gender identity, sexual preference, age, able bodied-ness, wealth, etc. Each privilege carries a certain weight to it. So yes, not all white people have the privileges assigned to a rich, white, young, able bodied, straight cisgendered man but there is privilege in being white. There is also privilege in being straight, cisgendered, male, rich, young, able-bodied. Most people would have one or two of these privileges, but they don't always have all of them.

Today's Word Of The Day Is Intersectionality

I think an important word when we think of privilege and oppression is the word intersectionality. Each of these various oppressions or privileges compound upon each other. So being a black male and a black female carry different privileges and oppressions based on how gender and race interact and intersect with each other. 

So you have a better idea of what intersectionality means, Google defines it as, "the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage."

This is so important to understand because just as privilege builds, so does oppression. I feel like privilege and oppression are two sides of the same coin and that they both must be studied.

Stop Comparing

So, some oppressions may or may not be harder to live with. I am going to quote Patricia Hill Collins. Hill Collins is an amazing sociologist and the author of Black Feminist Thought. She states 

Adhering to a stance of comparing and ranking oppressions-the proverbial, "I'm more oppressed than you"-locks us all into a dangerous dance of competing for attention, resources, and theoretical supremacy.

This is a short quote from her piece Toward A New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories Of Analysis and Connection.

I feel that Hill Collins definitely has a point. Privilege and in turn the oppression has an affect on everyone. If we want long term change we have to stop trying to be the most oppressed and work together to create viable solutions for dealing with oppression.

Doing this won't be an easy tasks. We have to start actually working together despite our oppressions to get things done.

Want some extra resources? I adore this video by Franchesca Ramsey with MTV's Decoded:

Beware of the Expert

Often times as students we get so caught up in an article that we are reading that we forget to critically examine the content of the article. When I first started reading sociological articles I would often take what they say at face value because the articles have been peer reviewed. One lesson I learned this semester is that being critical is important--and most of all that is how the field of sociology grows.

Most Fields Of Study Have Been Around For A Long Time

One of the most important things to realize about any field is that most fields of study have been around for a very long time. Some of them include all sorts of biases like bias against certain races, classes, and genders. The article may be very valid, you may just have to dig through a little bit of racist rhetoric every once and a while. This is a sign of the mass amount of change we have over the years. It's crazy the sheer amount of amazing things we have done in just the last 100 years as far as bias is concerned.

Studies Are Peer-Reviewed, But Sometimes That's Not Enough

Just because a study is peer-reviewed, doesn't mean that bias won't rear it's ugly head within the articles you read for class! As I stated in point one, these fields of study have been around for a very long time. When the study was published, other people probably felt the same exact way as the author, and therefore didn't feel the need to point out these mistakes and biases. 

If You See Bias, Definitely Call It Out

Don't be a sheep when it comes to reading for any class. Critically examine the articles, figure out the implicit and explicit biases the authors may have. Even if they are well known in your field, you are more than likely correct about that bias. Fields of thought don't grow unless a new generation of leaders question the existing leaders. We can learn so much when new people give their perspectives to a discipline. Your voice counts.

The next time you read an article or book for your class I hope that you actually read between the lines. I have been doing way more critical thinking while reading articles. This semester I realized something important.

~I don't have to agree with the sociologists in my field!~

This has been such a freeing revelation. I mean, I always knew I didn't have to agree with every single thing I read. For instance, I am definitely more of a conflict theorist versus a functionalist theorist. For some reason though, I never actually questioned the validity of the statements from sociologists I adored or ones I didn't adore. I figured that the peer review process would take care of that. Honestly, it doesn't always do it though. Sometimes you need someone completely outside of that process to do the job. Don't be afraid to be that person for your field!