CeCe McDonald was a resident of the Minneapolis area and identified herself as an African American transgender woman. She had experienced many times the rude comments, the jokes, and the nasty looks she received but she always learned to ignore them. While walking with her friends in a downtown area of Minnesota, the group passed a bar named the Schooner Tavern and a group of Caucasian individuals who were in their mid forties, who were standing outside of the bar. The group began using racist and hateful language such as “faggots” “niggers” and “chicks with dicks”, and also implied that CeCe was dressed that way so that she could rape Dean Schmitz, one of the attackers from the bar. CeCe stood up to them and stated that she and her friends would not tolerate this racist and hateful language, especially since it was completely unprovoked. Upon doing this, a woman smashed her glass into CeCe’s face, which punctured her cheek so severely that it lacerated her salivary gland. A fight erupted and in an act of defense, CeCe fatally stabbed Dean Schmitz with a fabric scissors from her purse. Out of all those who taken part in the altercation, CeCe was the only one to be arrested that night and placed in the Hennepin Country men’s jail (Support CeCe!).
McDonald received support from the Minneapolis City Council Member who believed that CeCe was the victim of a hate crime and that it involved many people but she was the only one that was held by the police. He believed in this case, the hate crime itself has been completely ignored and that “murder” was the only concern. Melanie Williams for the Minnesota Daily felt that, “the attack was not about one person’s body but an attack on an entire race and entire gender.” Prosecuting attorn...
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... they look, the way that they act, or the way they act, or in the way that they dress, but to just accept them for who they are and if they cannot understand the choices of others, they would choose to ignore it and treat that person with respect and dignity
Works Cited
Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman, and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey.Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011. 158-59.
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Violence Against Women." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 263-64. Print.
Pasulka, Nicole. "The Case of CeCe McDonald." Mother Jones. N.p., 22 May 2012. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
"Support CeCe!" Support CeCe. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
Angela Davis incorporates the theory of intersectionality to explain the emergence and inaccuracy of the myth of the black rapist in her paper. Within this paper, which is titled “Rape, Racism and the...
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
Kelly, Liz (1987) “The Continuum of Sexual Violence.” In: Women, Violence and Social Control, edited by J. Hanmer and M. Maynard. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International: 46-60.
National data gives us an indication of the severity of this issue. When 1 in 5-woman report being victims of severe physical violence (NISVS, 2010), we must ask ourselves if enough is being done to prevent this from occurring. From a historical point, there has always almost been a distinction from men on woman violence. Based on the disparity of cases reported, male inflicted violence on females is much higher and prevalent. When the perpetrators of DV, and IPV are predominately males, we can no longer dismissed this issue as a cultural, or
From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.)
To conclude, I chose this article as I found the discussion point interesting and wanted to bring to more people’s attention some of the underlying discrimination that is embedded in U.S. culture. Although transgender people are in the minority, they are no less than myself. I believe strongly that they deserve the same rights and opportunities that are presented to me daily. This article is relevant to the issues of Cultural Anthropology as it addresses questions surrounding gender stereotypes, gender discrimination, gender performance as well as relationship ties and kinship.
The statistics available on violence against women are startling. Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women ages 16 to 44 and accounts for more deaths and injuries than automobile accidents and cancer. The Russian government estimates that over 14,000 women were killed by family members in 1999, but there is still no legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence. In South Africa, more women are shot in the home by relatives than are shot on the streets or by intruders (web.amnesty.org).
Transgendered people in America have made many great strides since the 1990s. They have encountered violence, lack of health care, and the loss of homes, jobs, family and friends. There have been many phases of the struggle of being transgendered in America over the years. The current phase we must be in now is equal rights. There are many variations of discrimination against the transgendered community. In our society we simply do not like what we do not understand. It is easier to discriminate than to try and understand. We are all created different and we should appreciate our differences. The change must come by addressing the views of the public. There is much justification in the unequal rights of transgendered peoples. The Human Rights Campaign has been started to achieve equal rights for all Americans including the LGBQ community. A serious injustice is in the world of sports. Professional sports are one of societies major traditions totally based on rules and regulations that are meant to preserve the integrality of the games, but may not be inclusive to all its players.
The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...
Racism in the criminal justice system has been dominant for decades but has come to the forefront as of late. With several controversies surrounding both the United States and Canada, racism is a topic that will not be disappearing anytime soon. For Donald Marshall Jr. it took 14 years to finally show the country why he was prosecuted for the murder of Sandy Seal. This essay will outline how the Canadian Criminal Justice System failed Marshall as a youth. Real Justice: Convicted for Being a Mi’kmaq: The Story of Donald Marshall written by Bill Swan will show how Marshall was neglected by the justice system at every turn. Furthermore, connecting the treatment Donald Marshall was subjected to with class lectures dealing with subjects such as
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
In the book Conquest, by Andrea Smith, she discusses the importance of using an intersectional approach to understanding violence against Native women. Smith says, “It is inadequate to investigate the oppression of women of color by examining race and gender oppressions separately and then putting the two analyses together, because the overlap between racism and sexism transforms the dynamics.” (2005; p.
Renzetti, C. (1999). The challenge to Feminism posed by Women’s use of violence in intimate relationships.
Weiler, J. (1999). An overview of research on girls and violence. Choices Briefs. Retrieved November 17, 2001 from the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College: http://iume.tc.Columbia.edu/choices/briefs/choices01.html
1 vols. Issues: Hate Crimes. 14 March 2014 www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story>. Joanna Almeida, Renee M. Johnson, Heather L. Corliss, Beth E. Molnar. Emotional Distress among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation.