“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay
Regarding the forgiveness of Chrisbrown for hitting Rihanna.
A picture I took on the freeway 2019: “NO ICE”
I decided to include this image because it reminded me of immigration detentions where asylum seekers are being detained which then reminded me of PIC and how prisons are geographical solutions to socio economic problems (Angela, pg 9-20). Immigration detentions are also geographical solutions to socio economic problems.
Screenshot of personal group conversation on Instagram May 11, 2019.
“Nothingness is no-thing (Martin Heidegger’s [2013]“thing-ness”), an exclusion from mattering (see Fanon 2008), whereas“don’t exist”indexes a plot, a social condition for making killable (see Haraway 2008), an insistence on not-existing such that killability is unnecessary to articulate or make conscious.“Don’t exist”articulates an attack on ontology, on beingness, because beingness cannot be secured” (Hayward, 2017, p. 191)
This conversation is taking place on Instagram in a group message I am in with my sister and her husband. When he had sent the first message, I immediately was taken back. Due to the fact that he is my sister’s husband and the father of my niece, I attempted to not cause an “issue” and replied with something not as confrontational. His last response was: “Nah.i don’t like confusing little kids”; referring to schools giving children the option to choose the gender they identified with. This confrontation was intentional since he is aware of my stance on issues like these. Thus, this conversation made me uncomfortable and although we were not talking about trans people, this conversation reminded me of Hayward’s “Dont Exist”. His response, in my opinion, is violent. It is violent because he is encouraging the idea of having anyone that isn't binary as “non-existing”. He is erasing their chances of beingness. This hurt me most because he is the father of my niece; whom he has already taken away that opportunity from. Having that kind of immediate response goes to show how inconsiderate and selfish one can be. Neglecting someone the opportunity to have that agency is immediately inflicting possible violence on that person if they ever do choose to reside outside of the binary. They are choosing to have these people not exist when it is not their choice or business. Having such values inflict so much violence and it confuses me how unaware people are of it.
Post by Justin Bieber on Instagram 5/3/2019
Similar to R. Kelly, what do we do with people like Chris Brown? Of course he was wrong for hitting Rihanna, but would putting Chris in prison be the answer? Rihanna has kept silent in regards to the topic and thus we do not know what she may even want.
“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay
“That moment made us believe we too could be beautiful” (61).
Roxane Gay shares her childhood idol as a young black girl. Reminds me of Beyoncé and how she is an iconic image for young girls of color. Through Gay we are able to see an example of how important these icons are to young girls.
“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay
Regarding the forgiveness of Chrisbrown for hitting Rihanna.
My Horrific Experience at Coachella
I was at a stage ready to see the rapper YG perform. First of all, he used to be apart of the Bloods and is very open about his gang affiliation. He centers his image around his affiliation with the gang and is known to have his crowd wear all red. Although I do enjoy his music, once he started performing, I was horrified when i realized I no longer was in a WGSS classroom and started to hear everyone sing the “N” word. As if they were tied to the history; as if they were black themselves, and as if they were apart of the Bloods as well. Overall, it was absolutely bazar seeing the people around me. One guy next to me was Asian and had a grill . The images these people are recycling are images that are expected of black people and are images other people decide to put on and take off when they please. Overall, we’re well aware there’s Black violence but choose to ignore it in order to enjoy certain things about “blackness”.
CSUN News Paper 2018
In the picture: Savannah Elahian
CSUN was fighting to keep classes such as WGSS classes, apart of GE requirements.
Allowing such classes to not be a requirement will further hide cultural, racial, gendered, and systemic issues from college students.
Savannah Elahian, Washington DC, 2019
Twilight Zone 2019 Episode 3 “Rewind”
The episode also visually captures how Black geographies can be limited. Her constant replays and changes in not only words but in pathways to her son’s university physically shows how she has to negotiate what spaces she can safely encompass (Mckittrick, pg. 144). Mckittrick also argues that Black geographies include safe spaces where other black communities reside. Which coincidentally, Nina’s safe spaces were at her home with her brother and at the all Black University; all black geographies.
Twilight Zone Episode 3 “Rewind” 2019
Jordan Peel and Simon Kinberg
In the 3rd Episode of the new Twilight Zone “Rewind”, directed and written by Jordan Peel, I argue that the show captures Hortense Spillers’ ideas around beingness in “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book”. The episode revolves around a Black mother, Nina, who repeatedly revisits her past, attempting to change it in order for her son to have a good future. While changing her destiny with each rewind in time, she finds that every outcome leads to police brutality towards her son. Although the episode had a happy ending, I argue that her experience shows how the constant fear and need to accommodate to police or authority is dehumanizing as a Black individual. As Spillers explains, blackness has never been included in the category of human (1987, 66). I argue that Nina and her story was a physical representation of how one is minimized and not able to reach full beingness. Nina’s experience is a reality for Black people throughout history; where the constant fear and negotiation of decisions is a major part of their daily lives; further denying them the category of being or human.
Tracee Ellis Ross Instagram, May 7th 2019.
Including Lorraine O Grady’s “Art Is...” 1983.
Images of Black women have been cultivated through ideologies and have long been used as images that define them and make it excusable for structures in power to violate and discriminate Black women (Collins, 2002, pg. 69). Collins argues that these images, based on ideologies, encourages the idea of the “other”; the “other” being separate from beingness or human, which associates with whiteness (2002, pg. 70 - 71). Through Marquis Bey, in “ When We Enter: the Blackness of Rachel Dolezal”, we are also able to understand that such images of blackness are determined by society within that time and place in history (2016, pg. 38). Furthering my understanding and argument that although such images have power to control the oppression of Black women, such images are also man made and not absolute. Thus, although those images have long defined and controlled the way society views Black women, with an Afrosurrealist approach, Black women can strip themselves of those images and reimagen or redefine the images of today.
In Lorraine O’Grady’s, “Art Is…”, the Black community of Harlem celebrated he African American Day Parade of 1983. Through the holding of the frames throughout the parade, I argue that they were attempting to make their own images of what Black is. They were taking back the power and agency that was stripped from them through stereotypical images society had created.
I then see that such practice was used again by Tracee Ellis Ross in the 2019 Met Gala. Ross states on Instagram, “ RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE ~ black camp”, not only talking about herself with the frame, but also addressing the irony of how an extravagant event chose the theme of “Camp”; a theme stolen from Black Drag Queens. Overall, Tracee Ellis Ross’s post on Instagram has us revisit how Black individuals must take control of what images define them.
My friends and I discuss Transgender vs. Transracial
ME: Considering Rachel Dolezal and Laverne Cox: We have no problem with anyone being transgender but how do we feel about transracials? Are they the same?
SAVANNAH: Race is a man made construct like gender. You can’t be transracial, that’s a person adopting another culture for their own benefit and interest. It does nothing to help the community, it is purely a selfish act. Sex is a complex biological spectrum! I don’t have that much research on transgender issues but I do know it’s more than just a preference. If it’s anything similar to being gay (which I have experience) then it’s something that can’t be changed.
JASMIN: Yes! it’s all about choice, especially since race assigns so much privilege and oppression in our society- and I would say it’s more visible? Unfortunately, it’s a source of worth and value. Gender and sexuality is much more of a modern issue and I think our society hasn’t had a chance to really process what it means.
I grew fond of the conversation because of how difficult it is to pinpoint where Transracial goes wrong compared to that of Transgender. I hope that in the future i have better words to describe why Transracial cannot be compared to Transgender. But for now, as discussed in class, we have to understand that the racial stereotypes society has created and set upon Black individuals are the stereotypes one may use to “transform”. Yet those stereotypes do not come along with the socio-economical challenges and spaces that black individuals encompass. One can not come from a place of power (Dolezal) and adopt socio-economical struggles that are often inherited because of how society has failed black communities. I also argue that trans-gendered people still experience a heavy amount of violence and that is a kind of violence a transracial such as Dolezal would be able to remove herself from because she is still white.
“Critics of Billboard's decision, including artists like Moses Sumney and Billy Ray Cyrus, say it's proof that the music industry doesn't afford black artists the same creative license as white artists.”
After fully listening to the original song of “Old Town Road”, I was taken back by how the song was denied the ability of being a country song. Yes, Lil Nas X added some trap to the music, but I strongly believe the song was highly country. This incident had me revisit the film “Black Is... Black Ain’t” by Marlon Riggs because the rapper’s whole experience involves everyone policing his genre capabilities because of his race. Thus, was the country music industry stating that Black artists cannot do country? Are they “too black” for country? Lil Nas X was doing something no one expected of him and stepped out of the rapper image popular culture wanted him to be in. The song is on the top charts and people seem to really enjoy it, and yet there was still a huge dispute between whether it was country or not simply because of his race.
Source: NPR