We continue with Intersectionality...Racism, Class and Heterosexism

Well, class was interesting this week...Although I was certainly incensed by the thoughtless cartoon portrayal of the Trayvon Martin murder, I hope that the author is not somehow "murdered" by us in the same way.  I can respect the opinion of others even when I don't personally agree.  I think it's important to recognize that everyone will not always agree and that it's alright.  Social Justice requires a call to action.  I attended the Rally for Trayvon Martin held on Monday and even though it wasn't as large as the rallies I watched on tv in other parts of the nation, I was deeply moved.  First, let me be honest and say that this was my very first rally.  As a social work student, it served as a reminder of just how important social justice is to our profession, but as a human being, it served to remind me of the senseless and often brutal ways in which we continue to treat one another.  I made a video which included short interviews from Professor G, Dr. Aguillar, Dr. Gilbert and another visitor that has been to our class but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to upload it to my blog from my cellphone.  Hopefully, I will be able to include it next week.  More than anything, I wanted to show the diversity of the crowd and  how solemn of an occasion it was.  It also brought together every population that we have discussed in class. There were people of every race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and age represented in the crowd.  That, more than anything else, moved me the most. How does something as horrible as murder bring us all together and yet, also continue to push us further apart?  It's really fustrating and maddening to realize that we are still just as divided as we have ever been.  Someone mentioned the fact that a black man had killed another black man here in Austin two weeks ago and noone was making a big deal about that.  In the "hood" where it happened, there was a big deal made about it. A block discussion was held and flowers, balloons, and crosses decorated the corner where it occurred.  It mattered to the family of the "dead" son and to the family of the son who will be "lost"to the prison system.  It mattered to everyone in that community.  Who it didn't matter to was the media.  It garnered very little media attention but that's predictable considering that it happened in the "hood".  I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see that it mattered enough to garner the front page of the American Statesman in Saturday's paper.

East Austin neighborhoods want downtown-style safety measures

Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Enlarge Photo

Balloons and flowers mark the area on 13th Street near Chicon Street where 32-year-old Nicholas Jarmon was fatally shot on March 17. Area residents say the slaying is a repercussion of a troubled neighborhood.

So, yes, any type of murder matters.  I guess the only question left to answer is why it should matter?

 

To keep with the reading, I really liked the poem, 'To Stop the Violence against Woman", by Alice Walker.  It speaks to the fact that we as women must first stop the violence against ourselves and against one another.  I'm still not quite sure why we as women are always condemning each other or in competition with one another?  I understand that male domination likes to keep us oppressed and by inciting these two main C's (condemnation and competition), they keep us in servitude to them.  What will it take for us to unite and stop the violence against woman?

 

Finally, just a short comment on heterosexism.  For years, I lived in this place where I practiced the beliefs of the majority when I desperately needed to define and be my ownself.  So, in 2005, I shed the jacket of heterosexism and stepped out of the closet to embrace my own sexuality.  This created quite a disturbance and a disconnect in my family and almost destroyed the bond between me and my children and me and my mother.  It has taken several years for us to move past some of the stigma of my being openly gay.  I was pleasantly suprised when this past spring break my mother for the first time embraced my partner and my youngest daughter decided that if anything happens to me, she wants to be allowed to remain with my partner.  That's a miracle and a blessing!  There is still a long way to go as far as the stigma that society attaches to being gay but thank God for those who have advocated for the LGTBQ community so that I can remain free and feel good in my own skin.

 

Unitl next week....