Week 4 Reading Journal (Crenshaw _ Birdsong)

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Kaylien Tran The Urgency of Intersectionality Kimberlé Crenshaw The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn’t True Mia Birdsong Week 4 Reading Journal (Crenshaw & Birdsong) For Crenshaw: Summary: Crenshaw starts off the program with the audience standing up and she calls out the names of African-Americans who have been killed by the police over the last two and a half years. The people who do not recognize the names she calls out have to sit down and there were about four people still standing by the end of the list of names. The only thing that distinguishes the first couple sets of names to the last couple sets is gender and Crenshaw noticed that everywhere, the awareness of police violence that black women experience are extremely low. There’s a widespread problem with violence against African-Americans and against women, to which when we think about these problems, the names of black women never come into mind. Nobody will pay attention to these women because they were never put up in frames or put on the spotlight throughout these years. Crenshaw mentions that she started to use the term “intersectionality.” to deal with the fact that racism and sexism is overlapping, thus creating numerous levels of social injustice rather than just one factor. She speaks on the behalf of Emma DeGraffenreid, who was a black woman that applied for a job, but was not hired and she felt that both her race and gender took part of it. Though the company did hire black people and women, the ironic part was that most of the black people that were hired were men and most of the women that were hired were white. The judge was unable to see the double discrimination and dismissed her case. Instead of trying to seek a solution, they just belittled her feelings and tossed the case out of the court so easily. Crenshaw shows her great shock towards this situation, especially since she’s a feminist and antiracist. She shows the audience an intersection, to which the roads would represent the way the workforce was structured by race and gender, while the traffic would be the hiring policies. Since Emma was both black and female, she would be standing in the middle of the intersection and experience a simultaneous impact. Crenshaw eventually shows numerous women that had died countless ways for no reason, listing all of the brutal methods the police had used on them and the situations they had been in. Then she questions why nobody knows about this and why the media has never covered this even though it was happening so often on a daily basis. People took matters into their own hands and made protests and rallies to honor the lives of the black women that had to face these racist and sexist acts. Crenshaw confronts everyone and provides advice, stating that “saying their name” isn’t going to be enough, so we as a community have to be confident and stand up with others and go for what's right. She asks the audience to say the names of the

Kaylien Tran black women who faced these violences while Abby Dobson sings. The video ends off giving hope by saying that it is up to us as a community to stand up for what is right to create equality for all genders and races in such an unjust world. Significant Takeaways: I thought it was shocking to learn and realize that such a significant amount of people had sat down when Crenshaw started naming these black women who faced brutality, injustice, and violence as well. I felt also guilty of this matter because no matter how much I’ve heard about the problems regarding police violence against African-Americans, I cannot name a single black woman. In comparison to men, I can name a few. Crenshaw states, “when we think about who is victimized by these problems, the names of these black women never come to mind.” It honestly made me sad to acknowledge that statement but it was indeed true. Connecting this to when the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement was all over social media, not a single black woman was mentioned as a victim of police brutality, rather it was mostly men that was put on the spotlight. She also mentions, “reporters don’t lead with them, policymakers don’t think about them, and politicians aren’t encouraged or demanded that they speak to them.” Crenshaw spoke such truth in that statement because throughout the years, women had faced numerous conflicts just due to their gender, whether it be lower salary, expectations, and much more. To make matters worse, being black and a woman creates an even greater disadvantage for them. The section where Crenshaw shows the pictures of all these black women that had faced brutality and violence stuck with me to the very end. She states, “Black girls as young as seven, great grandmothers as old as 95 have been killed by the police… They’ve been killed in front of their parents and they've been killed in front of their children… They have been stomped to death. They have been suffocated to death…” The list will not stop and listening to such brutal methods used against black women was hard to digest because not many people are able to speak on such a matter like how Crenshaw is able to. Crenshaw is emphasizing the fact that these black women did nothing but live their lives like normal humans, but still eventually get killed for doing so, yet I feel that it is terrible that the media never picked up on this. When Crenshaw mentioned the rallies and protests in 2014 that quoted, “say her name,” I thought this was cool because now for protests regarding police brutality against black people, our society had changed it to “say their name,” which is inclusive towards both genders. Questions: 1. When it comes to problems such as brutality against African-Americans, why do we prioritize the name of men more than women? 2. Did anyone notice that a significant amount of the audience sat down when Crenshaw started naming black women who faced such violence? 3. How could the judge dismiss Emma’s case so easily? 4. Was it possible that he was belittling her case because she was a black woman as well, thus proving her case? 5. Does violence against black women happen more often than men? 6. Is the media prioritizing men over women on purpose? 7. This video was made back in 2016, but has the spotlight on women ever increased?

Kaylien Tran 8. Was there more coverage on the injustice black women had to face or is it still the same as back then? 9. Did the audience eventually gain more confidence to say the names of the black women as time passed?

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Kaylien Tran For Birdsong: Summary: Birdsong starts off by mentioning the people who have invested loads of time and money into non profit organizations that have an ultimate goal of helping the poor. They’ve done numerous things such as making books and speeches trying to explain the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Though they have made quite an effort, according to Birdsong, it is not enough and the poverty rate has not changed in the last 50 years. Apparently the most overlooked resource is, in fact, people who are poor. Birdsong tells the story of all the people in the pictures that she showed on the board, explaining their experiences with financial instability, struggles with raising children, and much more. The first story was about three mothers that wanted extra money in their pockets to help raise their children, so they created a cleaning business, to which two of the mothers would go and clean, while the other mother would stay and watch the children. The second story was about a bright, outgoing daughter who was struggling in school and the mother was at a loss on what to do to help assist her daughter in a tough situation. The mom eventually made a community meeting with other people who were in the same scenario, thus eventually coming up with a solution that they were all capable of helping their children in the end. The third story was about a man who runs a book and cafe shop for children to go after school to get help with their homework and for adults to find out what's going on in the neighborhood while also catching up with friends. Birdsong mentions that she has worked with countless people like this and they are not just working for the money, but they are assisting with education, housing, health, and community. She also points out that she is the exception, while the people she had mentioned the stories of are the rule and that marginalized communities are filled with hardworking, innovative, and smart people just like the well-known CEOs we see to this day. Birdsong believes that people, through hard work, willpower, and dedication, truly do deserve success in their lives and she’s tired of hearing the generalization that people who make it deserve it, and people who don’t make it don’t deserve it. We tend to have beliefs, creating the assumption that these poor people have something wrong with them and that has led them to failure, when in reality it is just simply untrue. There may be people who say that poor people are lazy freeloaders who cheat and lie, while others say that poor people are helpless. The people who create those assumptions are unable to see who the people truly are and Birdsong enthusiastically claims that she can tell the stories of numerous people in poverty doing their absolute best to make ends meet. She seeks possible solutions to this conflict by saying that we should approach it with a different view. We should add more passion to poor people with brilliant ideas rather than belittling them and learn from them as well. Silicon Valley, a place that has grown up with the belief that if people have good ideas and the desire to manifest them, we should give them loads of money. Birdsong takes a moment to talk to people that may be considered in the marginalized group and says lots of uplifting, positive words to them, encouraging them to continue what they are doing because “they are magic.” She also mentions that if they are ever feeling at a loss, they should read or listen to famous, hardworking people like Reverend King or Favianna Rodriguez. Birdsong ends the show beautifully by saying that even though the system was not made for those who are poor and

Kaylien Tran have less resources, this should not stop them from expressing their brilliant ideas and hard work overall and they should be proud of who they are. Significant Takeaways: The beginning was already shocking enough to hear about. To think that these people have worked so hard to get rid of poverty by creating nonprofit organizations, investing all their time and money, spreading awareness to the problem, yet it has only made such a small difference. It’s like they’re taking baby steps towards their goal, but will never reach it in the end. I’ve spent countless hours from middle school to high school volunteering at homeless shelters to help people who are in poverty out along with my peers as well. To think investing all that time into helping others was just simply not enough. Though, it did change the lives of some, it would not change the lives of all unless everyone in the world would help volunteer as well. Overall, this was quite a complicated topic because we, as humans, can only do so much to help the poor yet the poverty rates are not changing. What stuck with me throughout the video was when Birdsong even mentioned herself that she was an exception, comparing herself and her own accomplishments to those in a marginalized community that had done well for themselves. It was truly mind-boggling because she was able to separate herself from the others by describing her life story, saying how she was raised by her mother, lived in a suburban area, went to school, and had all these resources and responsibilities in comparison to others. With her children now, they cannot turn on the stove without adult supervision or do anything the same way Birdsong did when she was younger. Birdsong built a career and is extremely successful, but she recognizes that this could never compare to those that she mentioned that worked so hard to make a difference for not only their own families, for the community as well. This is because she had resources and that she was privileged, not through hard work. It’s very nice to see someone as humble and down-to-earth as Birdsong to recognize the outstanding, positive impacts and traits these marginalized communities have shown throughout the years. Questions: 1. Is it worth it investing so much into making a small difference? 2. If we work all together as a community to assist those in poverty, will the rates change a significant amount? 3. Will the people in poverty who make such brilliant ideas ever strike gold (make it big/pave the way)? 4. Are we also considered the exceptions, in comparison to those Birdsong mentioned, or could we ever make the rule as well? 5. Is the reason why today’s successful CEOs are so big is because of all the resources and help they had? 6. If the people part of a marginalized community had the same opportunities, would they have eventually been successful as well? 7. Why do we, as a society, create a negative assumption about poor people who are deemed as unsuccessful? 8. Would we have said the same thing if it was a rich person who was unsuccessful?

Week 4 Reading Journal (Crenshaw _ Birdsong)

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