Black Lives Matter Reflection

The Black Lives Matter demonstration resonated deeply with me not only due to my personal identities, but also my continued learning of society and how one can inspire change. The deaths surrounding the Black Lives Matter’s movement reminded me of Maria Grabe’s “Television News Magazine Crime Stories: A Functionalist Perspective”. Her research into news media reflected that the African American criminals chosen to be reported on were armed a majority of the time. She goes on to explain, “These portrayals of the African American as armed and dangerous deepen this group’s marginalization and perhaps even perpetuate justification for police brutality against African American offenders”(Grabe 167). I agree with this conclusion as the conventional

As an actor, African American’s have to interpret in nearly every situation, including those involving police, whether or not they are being perceived as a threat. Many African American’s imaginatively rehearse how they will react to police when stopped in their cars, when walking in a “nice” neighborhood at night, and even in their own homes. At times these rehearsals and improvisations do not out way the conventional wisdom for some that African American’s are dangerous. Furthermore, it adds to the “the culture of fear” Barry Glassner argues in his book of the same name. He points out that “serious problems remain widely ignored even though they give rise to precisely the dangers that the populace most abhors” (Glassner 109). Assuming that African Americans are a threat once again disregards violence and public issues about the

There are countless misconceptions I have heard about transgender individuals and Aiden, the male transgender speaker, and co-speaker Syke, Aiden’s gender nonconforming partner, covered many of them in our short hour and half session. One of the most topical is the argument that it would be harmful to allow those who identify as transgender to use bathrooms designated for their gender identity instead of their assigned gender. Those against it argue that allowing transgender people in these spaces will create an unsafe and uncomfortable environment for the other bathroom users. Some naysayers go as far to say that passing laws to support transgender bathroom rights would enable rapists and sexual predators to enter the bathrooms. Aiden pointed out studies that tracked transgender bathroom habits, in both gender binary and gender fluid bathrooms, showed no evidence to support this theory. In fact, no crimes were reported involving transgender individuals as the aggressor. It’s once again the Glassner’s “culture of fear” that distracts from the real sources of sexual assault in restrooms. It also ignores the violence against people who identify as transgender. Likewise, it detracts from the high suicide rate of transgender people for reasons similar to the ones presented in Donna Gaines “Teenage Westland” and David Rosenhan’s “Being Sane in Insane Places”.