Black Lives Matter Sources

Primary Resources for Black Power analysis

Malcolm X one of the leaders of the well known black panther party meeting Martin Luther King Jr. who was one of the pivotal leader of the civil rights movement. Could they have been organizing something great?

A black panther soldier standing near a sign that say "Black Panther Party For Self Defense."  He is offering his help to all the black who are being attacked by whites and the KKK>

During the October 16, 1968 awards ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, U.S. gold and bronze medalists John Carlos and Tommie Smith raise their arms and fists in a Black Power salute. A Black man showing his true nature where he supports his race by holding up a fist showing his black power. Maybe to put fear in the white men hearts to express their racial pride.

Five African American armed with guns showing that if the white man doesn't defend them then they will arm themselves. They saw that peaceful protest do not always works so they use  violence and fear to get their way. Though in their eyes they are just doing self-defense.

Urban Knitting

Piquetero movement- Burke

The Piquetero movement has Burke used in it due to the fact that it takes a series of movements for this to work. In class we discussed about the missing children in Argentina and how Argentina's government has always been struggling. Well, the Piquetero movement has demonstrated that the lack of jobs especially for women has been a problem. Back then, girls couldn't even attend high school, much less school in general for that matter. With that being said, the movement had toto take certain steps in order to have its success.

"The Piquetero Movement is now a combination of groups and organizations that essentially manage the unemployment subsidies provided by the State and occasionally carry out joint street mobilizations. Nevertheless, this collection of organizations had an undeniable presence in the streets of Argentina during the latter 90s on up to 2004, and their methods of struggle were taken up as an example by other social sectors, lending higher visibility to their protests. At the present time, for example, people in one Argentine border town use pickets and highway blockades to stop the flow of tourists and merchandize to and from neighboring Uruguay in protest against the installation of a highly polluting factory on the opposite bank of the Uruguay River.1 Teachers, government workers, oil workers and members of the student movement habitually arrive to demonstrate at the blockades"

Gay Rights Movement - Toolbox

Obviously, Burke works for the Gay Rights Movement analysis. The movement itself starts with one piece, then snowballs into something much larger by the end of it all. this is most evident with the fact that even though gay marriage is now legal, the movement is till working hard to fight back against nay-sayers and doubters of their humanity. This is shown with the picture that I shared in the previous blog post about the group of gay rights activists also marching for Black Rights.

The continuation of the marching shows that their work with society is nowhere near over. In addition, gay rights activists have also been the ones to transgress borders between different movements. This has become obvious with the fact that several gay rights groups have also been seen supporting minority rights and womens' rights.

*Was trying to implement screenshots into this, but the document was protected from taking screenshots of it*

Soul force and American Queerer

Soulforce’s main goal is to “turn this world upside down and inside out in the name of justice and equity for folks across all marginalized racial, sexual, and gender identities” and because of this the movement fits into Claire Sisco King’s Queer Feminist critiques. King analyzes Norman Rockwell’s works in a way that provides an understanding of “gender identity and potentially oppressive gender norms”. Soulforce sees these oppressive forces at work in Christianity and is trying to change the way Christians view those who identify as LGBTQ. Conservative Christians view LGBTQ people as being bad or sinful and so one of this movement’s main focuses is changing this belief. King analyzes Rockwell’s work “Girl at Mirror” as a piece that provides a commentary on gender as a social construct and that femininity in particular is subjugated to social expectations. Soulforce’s movement addresses these ideas that Rockwell’s work espoused to their Christian audience and hopes to change their conservative opinions on the idea of gender and sexuality.

Cyborg Theory and the Arab Spring

The ever-changing relationship between technology and humanity, and where the two become indistinguishable is what defines  the nature of  Donna J. Haraway's cyborg theory. A contemporary application of cyborg theory can be no clearer than in the Arab Spring protest movement. The Arab Spring movement was at the intersection of technological and classic protest.  Haraway writes "cyborg politics is the struggle for language and the struggle against perfect communication, against the one code that translates all meaning perfectly, the central dogma of phallogocentrism." the Arab Spring movement subverted the classical forms of communication through centralized media and public meeting places and used technology as the vehicle of communication. Haraway also saw cyborg theory as a way to transcend categories from class to gender through the medium of technology. This was demonstrated by the Arab Spring movement by giving a voice to individuals regardless of class. It also showed how insignificant  distinctions of class and gender can be by allotting an anonymous identity online, whereby an individual only identifiable by a twitter egg and a username of their choosing can have power in politics.

Take ur toolbox to the rally of sanity and/ or fear bc nothing makes sense

“11:06 A.M.Stelter: Seven Hours From Charlotte

Rachel Knight, 20, drove seven hours from Charlotte, N.C., to Washington with her boyfriend, Jasper Spurlock, 22, on Friday. She said they watch Mr. Stewart’s program, “The Daily Show,” and Mr. Colbert’s, “The Colbert Report,” on a regular basis, and that they expected the rally to be an in-person version of the shows — “political satire sprinkled with honesty.”

11:14 A.M.

   Stelter: Reaching Young Voters

Even though this rally is being put on by Comedy Central, a comedy channel known for, as Jon Stewart famously once said, “puppets making crank phone calls,” it has a serious purpose, some of the people in the crowd say.

Given the youthful reputation of Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert’s audience, Heather Smith, the executive director of Rock the Vote, said the rally is an “unprecedented opportunity” to talk to young voters right before Election Day.

“It’s essentially the largest P.S.A. targeting young Americans for voting in a midterm election in history,” she said, noting that some people who can’t make it to Washington will be watching at home or attending satellite rallies in cities across the country. One of the largest satellite rallies, in Austin, Tex., had 5,000 RSVP’s, she said. Also, as Michael Shear reported this morning, the Democratic National Committee is doing everything it can to capitalize on the event.

For some political activists, the rally was a distraction on the final weekend before the midterms. There were worries that the rally would draw away people that would otherwise be canvassing neighborhoods and knocking on doors for Democratic candidates. But Organizing for America, President Obama’s political organization, sought to make the most of the rally by encouraging attendees to work at a phone bank in Washington afterward”

WHERE MY BLOGS CAME FROM YO

With these two entries from the live blogging that was happening during the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear, I think it is best to draw the similarities with Delgado/Mcgee and Ideographs. In that section of the toolbox there is a lot of mention of the younger “college” aged people and it seemed that there were those younger generations populating the Rally for Sanity and/ or Fear. It also mentions “…the emergence of student and intellectual activists central to the Chicano movement…”, which makes me think of how some people believe that this Rally was a way to distract people right before midterms. A lot of what went on at the Rally was just off the wall and bat shit crazy. It was a lot of people with the same ideologies pretending to fit in with each other.

Vietnam Toolbox Theory

Much of the Vietnam War revolves around the Social Movement theory. First, it started with a public issue; the U.S. was involved in a war down in Vietnam that many Americans viewed as being unnecessary and counterproductive from what it stands for. The anti war rhetoric then became a trend spreading across the U.S., until enough Americans got involved for it to be considered a campaign and later the social movement we know today.

One interesting thing to note is that although there were several Americans involved in the Vietnam protests, "anti-war protesters were viewed negatively by the great majority of Middle Americans. According to Schuman (1972), "Poll data show clearly that open protest against the war is not well regarded by the great majority of American adults" (p. 516). Further support for this claim is provided by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan (cited in Converse and Schuman, 1970), which found in 1968 that almost 75% of Americans had essentially negative reactions to anti-war protesters." (Gustains, 204). While the war was unpopular with most Americans, it's readily apparent that not everybody was satisfied with the way in which protests were conducted. Many rallies that started off as peaceful protests would later turn into a chaotic state leading to the arrest of several.

"The relationship between the counter-culture and Vietnam War protesters was akin to that between chickens and eggs: precise cause and effect is difficult to determine. Prior to the significant commitment of troops to Vietnam, there had been a number of persons who rejected traditional American values in favor of a less conventional lifestyle." (Gustains, 206). We can see from this excerpt of the article in particular that the counterculture of the 60's (hippies) was intertwined with the Vietnam War protests. It's logical to assert from this scenario that this could've contributed to the negative public reception to the Vietnam War protests, with middle class Americans looking down upon the counterculture of the U.S.

United Farm Workers pt 2

http://ufw.org/the-rise-of-the-ufw/

The Rise of the UFW

"Things hadn’t changed. Grape pickers in 1965 were making an average of $.90/hour... State laws regarding working standards were simply ignored by growers... No ranches had portable field toilets. Workers’ temporary housing was strictly segregated by race, and they paid two dollars or more per day for unheated metal shacks-often infested with mosquitoes-with no indoor plumbing or cooking facilities... Farm labor contractors played favorites with workers, selecting friends first, sometimes accepting bribes. Child labor was rampant, and many workers were injured or died in easily preventable accidents...The Civil Rights movement focused attention on the treatment of Blacks in the south. But the situation in the fields of California proved similar enough that the largely Chicano and Filipino farmworkers benefited by the new public understanding of racism. As a result, millions of consumers stopped buying table grapes."

This quotation largely follows the ideas found in Nelson's "Resisting Whiteness." It openly uses the paradigm of race and segregation/unfair practices to juxtapose the ideas of equality. The people working in the fields experience situations of extreme prejudice while also not having a true voice. Despite all the suffering they endure, they are not heard or properly cared for by the owners of the farms. Their working environment directly correlates to the oppression of a group and loss of voice which is further supported by the identification of themselves (migrant workers, hispanics, chicanos, etc.) as being an oppressed minority similar to the Blacks in the South around the same timeframe.

A large part of the arguments posed by the UFW are describing their suffering and implying it shouldn't be this way. They are being oppressed and not facing justice. This fits with the idea that they "deserve" to be treated a certain way and are not being treated the way they should be. Therefore, they are oppressed and the victims of racism/inequality. These people are being drowned out by the majority (presumably white farm owners) and lose their right to voice. The loss of basic rights isn't just about inequality and racism, it's because their needs are being drowned out by a more powerful majority and this is used in UFW argumentation (albeit indirectly.)

Did prison turn Chol Soo Lee into a cyborg?

Cyborg Theory: After 10 years of being in prison the kill or be killed way of living stuck with Chol Soo Lee and affected him greatly outside of prison. He could barely hold a job, he used drugs to cope, and even got sent back to prison for arson due to his gang affiliation. According to Winthrop-Young and Wutz, “focusing on the intrinsic technological logic, the changing links between body and medium that factor into the conversations about what it means to be human or to access humanity in a mediatized age." Prison changes what it means to be human in what we know from outside prison. Inside prison is a very different place and it sticks with you. After enough exposure you become dependent on it like a cyborg, you can't function without it. Years of prison turned Chol Soo Lee into a cyborg, being so dependent on the kill or be killed system. Since the protesters wanted him free and helped contribute to his freedom, mostly the Defense Committee you could say that they helped turn Chol Soo Lee into a cyborg, so does that mean Chol Soo Lee was ever truly freed since he couldn't function very well outside of the prison system? According to Eto, a protestor of the movement, “Mostly good came from this movement...but the main thing was, this was a travesty and it ruined a man’s life.”
http://kore.am/chol-soo-lee-day-of-remembrance-draws-intimate-crowd-in-l-a/

Big Pharma and Robots!

Mikhayla Evans

Big Pharma and Cyborg Theory

The theory I want to use for my social movement is cyborg theory. With my movement these prescriptions and medical treatments are things people cannot live without. In class we talked about how we live a cyborg existence and used the example of our phones and how we need our phones for daily tasks and we can't seem to live with out it. In a way it is like an addictive substance. In cyborg theory there is a boundary that is being crossed and reified. The boundary that is being crossed with phones is defying that nature of humanity part in yourself. 

In my primary source from NPR, which was an interview with a mother of a child who needs the epipen and calls it "a matter of life and death." The price hike from big pharmaceutical companies has affected a lot of people who need this life saving drug to stop them from having a severe allergic reaction. The drug was originally at $100 per pack and is now at $600 per pack. So, parents cannot afford it for their children at all. The people who need it cannot live with out it. So having to rely on this epipen to live crosses a threshold. It crosses a threshold by defying that nature of humanity. The epipen is a cyborg part of people and people need it to survive. It is an extension of the person in a way that is not a part of their natural human existence. Cyborg theory fits right into the workings and rhetoric of the big pharma social movement.

This is a screenshot of the article title so people know what I am talking about:

Safe Ground Sacramento- Applying toolbox methods

Safe Ground Sacramento 

“In November 2014, 65 homeless men and women were moved from a long-time encampment on the banks of the Sacramento River to the Old Town Inn in West Sacramento. They received shelter for 109 days and found counseling and services. The program cost $152,000.

All but 12 stayed at the hotel for the entire time; of those who completed the program, 68 percent are still in permanent housing, said Karen Larsen, Yolo County’s mental health director.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/city-beat/article54025925.html#storylink=cpy

(Primary source: Direct statements given from activists that work within Safe Ground Sacramento)

With this given information, the program created from the ground up with SafeGround Sacramento is apparent to presenting that it’s effectiveness is a nature of it’s argument. The essence builds up in substantial reputation to be a dominant force against the legislation or governmental policies that would attempt to deteriorate its mission to attain the incarceration activity of homeless people at a higher rate rather than reducing and raising the commonwealth through given societies, purely out of ignorance and intentional force as the numbers are concisely apparent that the program has had much positive action already. - Toolbox connective- "Resisting Whiteness: Mexican American studies and Rhetorical Struggles..." The paradigm that is created from the text of this source creates a hand in hand bondage with the left wing justice theory that there is full equaity of every niche of humanity, as "they are entitled to be treated that way". 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2009/09/05/sacramento-police-arrest-17-at-safe-ground-homeless-camp/

“Sacramento police arrested 17 homeless residents at their “safe ground” campsite yesterday, including one advocate for the homeless.

Rev. David Moss, a Methodist Minister, was taken into custody along with other campers, charged with illegal camping, Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said." - 

This is another set of evidence that correaltes directly with the framework created in the "Resisting Whiteness..." source as it presents the nature of every advocate member of the program that is pushing for what the overall mission is of the movement as a whole which is to find a guarantee of equal rights an autonomy for the homeless as "people are individuals, not exemplars."

Soulforce

Appeal to Force/Fear             The choice to use the word supremacy in reference to Christianity makes the viewer feel as if there is something to be afraid of if they don’t act. By using the words Christian Supremacy the viewer becomes concerned that if they don’t act there will be no one to go against any of the Christian teachings and it will become the supreme authority over everything.

Color

Hue     The poster uses shades of blue, purple, and orange

Saturation       The colors are very vivid, even the light colors are clearly visible to the viewer

Light               

High Contrast        There is clearly a difference between the posters light and dark colors. They are easy to differentiate from each other.

Perspective

Geometric       The bright colors of the snake and the blue text make these images pop out from the background creating a sense of depth in the poster

Focus

Grounding       The snake is in the foreground, the text is in the middle ground, and the light purple bush is in the background. It is an important choice that the snake is in the foreground because it is an important biblical illusion.

Figures

Representationality      The image of the snake is clearly recognizable as an image of a snake. This is an important choice because the allusion to the biblical snake is an important part of the overall message of the poster.