Police Brutality: We Can't Forget [Anyone Who Isn't a Cisgender Hetero Man]

Hello, everyone.

I am Feminista Jones

and today I want to talk about my thoughts

on why the erasure of Black women
and girls from the discussions

about police brutality is- or may be-
more about racism

than it is about sexism.

I've been thinking about this.
I was gonna write a blog,

but I didn't feel like typing.

You know, I used to make a lot of videos,
so I wanna kind of get back to that.

And I feel like it's way better to
convey my tone,

my thought, my sentiment,
through this format.

So I'm hoping that this
makes sense to people

I'm going to see if I can have it
transcribed for the hearing impaired

and the Deaf community as well.

So I've been thinking about this.

Those of you who know me,
know that I do a lot of advocacy

and activism around issues related to
Black women and girls.

I focus on the Black community as a whole

But I really dig in when it comes to
Black women and girls.

I think that's because I noticed a
lack representation,

or this idea that we come second
after our boys and our men.

And I'm raising a son.

I have an eight year old son.

I understand- like no one else-
the value of protecting our sons,

particularly from the racism that we see
in our schools,

that we see with the police,
that we see on the streets.

Stuff within our community,
stuff even within our homes are

really damaging to all of our children.

And our boys definitely need
special attention.

And that's why I'm glad that there
are programs like My Brother's Keeper-

or initiatives, I should say
like My Brother's Keeper,

and why there's a lot of advocates
out there that are really, really

pushing to look at the condition
of Black boys and Black men in America.

The country, the world,
really has been talking

about police brutality in America.
Now, we all know that

this is something that's been
going on for centuries.

State violence against Black people
is nothing new.

It is well documented,
it has been well studied,

people have been talking about
it endlessly.

However, it seems that within
the last four years or so,

maybe six years or so,
it seems to be an uptick, right?

In state violence against unarmed
Black people.

And I don't know if it's an uptick
in the violence, or just that

we are learning more about it
because we have social media, right?

Social media gives us
instant access to things.

Like, somebody could get shot,
and within a couple of hours,

we are there on the scene,
there's pictures, there's news,

there's reporting from so many outlets.

It's almost like we're in the moment,
watching it happen live.

And news was never like that before.

Who knows how many people
have been shot and killed by police,

who had been unarmed,
the stories that we haven't heard,

and I just wanna take a couple of seconds
to really reflect on those people.

I think those names that we
don't know are important.

But we do know some names.
And,

When we talk and have these discussions,
we've been hearing a lot of names.

Names that you should be
familiar with at this point:

Michael Brown, out of Ferguson, Missouri.

Tamir Rice, recently a 12 year old
boy that was killed.

Eric Garner was choked by NYPD earlier
this summer. A father of six.

You've got people like Kye Girle, who was
just shot in New York City Hallways

You've got Aiyana Stanley Jones,
the young girl.

She was seven when she was asleep
and killed during a police raid.

You've got Rekia Boyd, who was shot
just after Trayvon Martin was shot.

She was shot in Chicago
by an off-duty police officer.

You've got Tanisha Anderson,
who was just killed by a police officer.

She had a psychiatric disability. She
was killed by being slammed to the ground.

You have Miriam Carey, who was shot
in front of the White House,

and reportedly suffering from PPD,
Postpartum Depression,

reportedly leaving a domestically
abusive situation,

her car was lit up with bullets.

Just point of note, in the past
couple of months, there's been

at least four or five attempts of
people jumping over the gates,

getting into the White House
and living to tell about it.

None of them Black women, by the way.

There's Perle Golden, a 93-year-old,
I believe, woman who was shot

in her home by police officers.
Now, she had a gun in her hand.

Now, this is an old woman protecting
herself, and she had it in her hand.

Wasn't pointing it at the police officer,
but he did feel the need

to shoot her three times.

Marline Pinix, she didn't die,
but she was beaten severely

on the side of the road.

If I'm naming people- oh God,
just so many.

If I'm naming names that you've never
heard of, these women and these girls,

I encourage you to look them up.

And that's part of the problem.

We're hearing so much about the boys
and the men who are victims of

police brutality and police violence,
and the narrative is that it's not safe

out here for Black men.

You're right. It's not.

Black men are targeted by the state.
They are victims of state violence.

We know this.
We know the incarceration rates.

They say that 1 in 3 Black men
will be involved in the justice system

in his lifetime, as compared to
1 in 17 white men.

1 in 18 Black women will be
involved in the justice system,

compared to, I think,
1 in 111 white women.

I think the number is
1 in 46 for Latina women.

So we've got this issue here, right?
Police seem to have this really negative,

you know, impact/connection
to the justice system.

But we're not talking about everyone.
We're not talking about girls

and women; we're not talking about
transgender individuals.

We're not mentioning queer people.
We're not really doing anything but

focusing on Black cisgender,
heterosexual men.

And I haven't thought about that.
I mean, I've had a lot of discussions

about it and we've talked
about this a little bit,

but I just kinda want
to get my thoughts out on video.

And I'm hoping that they make sense.

I had two pieces of chicken
before I started this,

so I'm hoping that my articulation
is what it needs to be.

Okay.

And if you are a [? N-word]
watching this video,

I really need you to put the [?] down.

I need you to pick your thesaurus,
and I need you to focus on what

I'm saying right now, and not take this
as a condemnation of all Black men.

It's not.

I'm actually speaking to the
systemic issues that we have,

and the historical issues that we
have within our entire community

that may have an effect on why we all have
been ignoring the girls and the women.

Okay? So please don't get mad.
If you're one of those

"Not all men" people, turn the video off.

You've got 7 minutes and 20 seconds
of Feminista Jones.

Now you can turn it off,
'cause fuck you.

Okay, so, we live in a society, right?

Western society, American society,
where White supremacy is the standard.

Whiteness is the standard.
Whiteness is the norm.

When you say "man,"
it means white man.

When you say "woman,"
it means white woman.

These are the standards of what it means
to be an American, right?

And so these Americans, by virtue of
being the standard, they set the tone.

And they make the rules,
the societal rules,

and they establish the social norms
about how we're supposed to live,

and how we're supposed to function
as human beings,

in order to be recognized as
human beings.

Most of us that are not white women
or white men are hyphenated-Americans.

We are either Black-American,
African-American, Asian-American,

Latino-American, whatever it is,

we're not just Americans, right?
'Cause Americans are white people.

So in this setting of this standard,
there's this idea of the family.

And in the family, there's this idea
of the male patriarchy, right?

You've got this patriarchal supremacy.
The man is the one who leads the family.

The man is the one who
takes care of the family.

In American society, and many
societies around the world,

a man is defined by his ability
to take care of his family.

He's supposed to have a family,
first of all, and he's supposed

to take care of that family.
So he's judged by his ability to do both.

So it's even down to the basic things
of what makes a man

more attractive as a partner
to be able to create a family,

to be able to take care of it.
That's why people tend to prefer

taller men, they prefer men
with more money,

bigger penises, whatever it is, right?

I'm talking about cisgender, non-trans
men in this situation.

This is what they're expecting.

So when a man has these things,
he has this ability to produce a family,

he has desire to produce a family,
he takes actions to produce a family,

and he can take care of that family.

That is how he is able to prove
his manhood in America.

However, America is set up
so that certain men cannot ever achieve

the fullness of manhood.

And that is because of racism, right?

So, racism is a part of our
educational systems.

It's a part of our employment.
It's a part of our prison systems.

It's a part of our social services.
It's a part of every single thread

that binds together the fabric
of this nation.

This nation was founded
on genocide and enslavement.

Okay? That is who America is.
That is what America is.

There is no getting away from that.

So, if being an American man
means that you need to provide

and you're trying to provide in a country
that is systemically denying you

access to do that,
because you're Black-

we're gonna use Black for this example.

You're never going to achieve full
"manhood" according to how its defined

by "American society."

And that's tough, right?
As a Black man, as a black boy,

growing into a man,
you're getting all of these things from

within your own community about
"This is what a man is. A man is

supposed to do this. You're not
a real man. Be a man."

All these things, right?
But all these ideas you're being given

are coming from men who look like you,
men who will never fully

be accepted as men in this society.

And I know that's hard to hear,
but we all know it's the reality.

Same for Black women, we'll never be fully
accepted as real women in this society.

'Cause we keep looking for acceptance.
But that's another thing. Fuck them.

You're sticking with me
through this, right?

You're still here? Okay.

So, Black men are denied the opportunity
to take care of their families

in the ways that white men can. Okay?

You'll have white poor men, talking
about [gibberish].

Well, fuck you.
You're still white.

Clean up, put you in a business suit,
you'll get a job before a brother does.

Brothers are being denied access to
quality education.

Whether they're not being accepted,
or they can't afford it,

or they're not given the support that
they need, or there's this,

there's this demand that they take
care of their families, even at

college-age. I've encountered
so many brothers in my days,

who had to leave college after 1 or 2
years because their mothers

needed them to come home and work,
and help with their younger siblings.

So there's a lot of things that go
into why Black men maybe have to

drop out of school.
And again, that's sexism.

That is patriarchy.
That is the demand that the men

are supposed to work and
take care of their families.

So, sending a man to college
is a waste of money if he's not

investing that into some-
getting a job.

Then he can come back and
take care of his family, right?

So, if a brother can't go to college,
or he can't get whatever this

trade certification is that he needs
to get a job,

that is more than a livable wage,
because we've got minimum wage,

we've got livable wage, and then
we've got sustainable wages, right?

And many brothers are denied access
to sustainable wages.

They can barely take care
of themselves.

And Black women, we've
always had to work.

There's never been a time in this
history where Black women have not worked.

Yes, there have been some stay at home
Black mothers, but as a whole,

Black women have worked.
And Black women have

contributed financially to the
maintenance of the household.

That's just what we have done.

So, how does a man
prove he is a man?

If he is unable to take
care of his family.

Because the country that he
lives in will not allow him

to earn the wages that he
needs in order to do so.

The country he lives in won't give
him access to the types of jobs

that will allow him to earn these wages.

The country that he lives in makes it
very difficult. Even if he gets that job

then he's likely working in an
environment that is so damn hostile

and psychologically terrorizing

that he can't maintain
working there, right?

'Cause maybe he's 1 or 2 of a few,
and going to work everyday

is eating at his soul
and destroying his brain.

There's a whole lot of
things going on there.

So how do you face that?
As a man trying to be

seen and accepted as a man,
and a full human being in a country

that once had a law that
you were not a full human being.

There's other ways to do that.

And I wrote A Piece in Time where
I talked about domestic violence

and things like that within
the Black community.

Some of the reasons why Black
women struggle with it more-

I wrote about how it's connected
to this racist issue.

It's this anger, and this frustration,
and this helplessness and hopelessness,

that many Black men experience
as a result of systemic racism

that is taken out on the
women in their communities.

'Cause it's the only way that
many can feel

some sense of power.

What happens when they're
stripped of that power, though?

I want you all to go read The Truly
Disadvantaged by William Julius Wilson.

It's a really amazing sociological
perspective of why men

abandon their families. And there were 2
things that I pulled out of that book.

1. Men don't wanna contribute to
being just another mouth to feed.

Again, let's take it back to the
racism that denies men access

to jobs to help support their family.
So what happens?

The women end up having to work.
And if we go back to the Vietnam War,

what happened when they
drafted our boys,

sent them to fight a war
they had nothing to do with,

and then sent them back home,
many of them broken

and/or addicted to drugs.
And then when they got back,

they couldn't get treatment for
the PTSD that many of them had.

Or when the Agent Orange was
taking over and scrambling their brains,

they didn't get treatment for that.
And then there was general

discrimination against veterans,
but definitely against Black veterans

when it came to employment.

So you have this whole
generation of Black men

who cannot get work.

And many of them are going home,
and they are hooked on drugs,

or they're turning to substances because
that's the only way they know how to cope.

They don't have mental health care,
they barely have medical insurance,

so they're turning to alcohol
and these other things,

either to quiet the voices that they're
hearing, or dealing with the PTSD,

or just trying to cope with this.

And then they end up being another mouth
to feed, of a woman who is probably

already struggling.
Maybe she's on public assistance,

maybe she's working 2 jobs,
whatever it is she had to do.

So, waking up everyday to that was
miserable for them, and many of them

left their families for that reason. They
didn't wanna be another mouth to feed.

And the other side was-
many couldn't wake up every single

morning and face the fact that they
could not take care of their families.

And they looked at their kids,
and they looked at the women,

and they could not bare that emasculation.
It wasn't coming from the women.

It was coming from the state.
It was coming from the country.

It was the country denying them access
to the things the country said,

"This is what you need
to do to be a man."

They couldn't handle that.

Many left their families rather than
have to face that embarrassment,

that emasculation every single day.
They left their families.

And so, in the mid-70s and late-70s,
that's where you get my generation.

The first single parent generation.

Many of us that are in the 30-40 range
were raised by family- in homes where

mother and father were not
in the same home. Right?

Let's bring that to now.

The power is still not there.

You have police coming into the community,
and what are the police doing?

I'm gonna issue a trigger warning,
because I'm gonna talk about some things

that have to do with sexual assault.
So if that is triggering for you,

you might wanna skip the next few minutes,
or you might wanna take a moment

and back away, and then come back.

We have police coming into our
communities, and they're raping our women.

I was at a protest the other day and I
asked the police that I stood near,

I said, "What are you gonna do about
your colleagues in Queens

that are stopping Black and Asian women,
and accusing them of being sex workers?

And in exchange for arrest,
are making them perform sex acts on them."

In Oklahoma, we've got Daniel Holtzclaw,
who is sitting at home right now

out on bail after being charged with
sexually assaulting over 13 Black girls

and women. I say "girls" because
the youngest one was 17, that we know of.

Coming into our community, they're
sexually harassing us on the street.

In our conversations with the [?] hashtag,
we have talked about police

street harassment, and how police
sexually harass us as we

walk down the street, so we can't turn
to them for help.

And then police kill us.

Check out Bougie Black Girl, she got
a whole chart where she has

26 unarmed Black girls and women
that have been killed by the police.

Most of you won't be able
to name 80% of them.

You've never heard of them before.

Why are we silent about this?

Here's the thesis.

It is embarrassing for Black men to admit
they cannot protect their own women

from police violence.

And rather than talk about it, and
rather than show it to the whole world,

that Black girls and women
are also being killed,

they would rather remain silent.

Because for some, it is embarrassing.

That they can't protect their own girls
and women from police.

Because that's what makes a man
"a man" in this country, right?

Being able to protect your women.
Being able to protect your daughters.

But see, for Black Americans,
and for Black men in particular,

there's never been an opportunity
for Black men to stand up and protect

a Black woman against the
White Supremest state

without it being a direct threat
to his own personal safety.

We saw it in slavery,
we saw it in Jim Crow,

we've seen it in every period
that we've been here.

When Black men stand up,
and defend Black women and girls,

to white men, particularly,
or white women, because there were some

horrible, horrible white women in history,

they face their own violence.

They could die for that.

And over time, as a preservation,
you have parents teaching their kids

"She ain't worth it."

"She's not worth your life,"
because, for a Black man

the cost of defending a woman
is way greater than for a white man.

For a white man, it's a valiant act.

It's an act of bullshit-ass chivalry.

But for a Black man, it could
cost him his life.

So as a self-preservation kind of thing-

And I've talked to men about-
I'm not pulling this out of my ass.

A lot of men have said that they
were raised to dismiss Black women

as not being worth it.
They're not worth the trouble

because you can get killed.

So here, you have police coming in
and they're raping, sexually harassing,

sexually assaulting, and killing
Black girls and women.

And Black men can't do anything about it.

Because police are killing them too.

Now how does that make
you feel as a man?

To know that a police officer is
standing right in front of you

and may have a gun
to your woman's head.

And you can't do shit.

If you try to defend her,
you're probably gonna die yourself.

So perhaps, as a coping
mechanism for some,

and this is not just for men,
it's for women too,

perhaps it's a coping mechanism
for those of us who want to believe

in the strength and leadership
of Black men in our communities,

and in this world.

To not have to face the fact that
they can't protect us from the police.

So maybe it's easier to focus
on saving our sons, because

that's the patriarchal narrative.
That is where the sexism comes in,

and that is where the
gender issues come in.

It's about protecting the sons,
and President Obama does this,

a lot of people do this,
"If you build strong boys to become

strong husbands and strong fathers,
then we can save the Black community

by strengthening the Black family."

Perhaps, perhaps that's one way.

But what if a boy doesn't want
to be a father or a husband?

What if that's not what he wants to do?

What if a girl doesn't want to be
a wife or a mother?

What if people just want to exist,
and be free,

and not have to change and alter
their own lives

to make racism stop?

Why is the responsibility on us
to protect each other from state violence?

Why are we measuring the worth
of Black men by whether or not

they can protect Black women
from police violence?

That's a rather White Supremest
patriarchal narrative.

We don't really need to get into that,
and I think one of the things that's

amazing about feminism is that
we don't charge men with those

responsibilities, simply because
they're men.

Perhaps if we all took care of
each other, and defended each other,

and didn't make it about, "I'm a man.
I gotta take care of my woman.

Perhaps you wouldn't feel that burden.
You wouldn't feel that embarrassment.

When you watch "your woman"
get shot by the police,

or sexually harassed by the police,
or raped by the police.

And perhaps that would not lead
us to not talking about it.

Because you're not striving to
achieve this idea of manhood that

has been constructed by this White
Suprematist model.

Perhaps if Black men were more comfortable
defining their manhood for themselves

within the cultural context in
which they were raised,

outside of these very racist, often
classist, definitions of manhood

and masculinity, maybe they wouldn't
feel so embarrassed

by the fact that there's nothing they can
do to prevent police from killing us.

So I just had some thoughts about that.

I'm always open to your thoughts.
I'm hoping that you are listening to this

with an open mind and
not on the, [low voice]

"I'm just gonna rant. I'm gonna Tweet
her some shit about threatening to

kill her. She's a CIA agent. She's a plant
trying to destroy the Black community."

And all that dumb shit that y'all
keep Tweeting me,

making yourselves look like fools
to the entire world.

Y'all know I got 40 thousand
fucking followers?

Like, if I Re-Tweet you,
you look stupid for the whole world.

I've got a 1.5 million reach.
You'll look stupid to a lot of people.

So think before you Tweet,
and try to digest some of the things

that I'm saying here, because
what I'm saying is that

I'm not making this about a Black men
don't wanna acknowledge us kind of thing.

I think most do.
I think they don't know about us

because we're all kind of suppressing the
violence against women, just in general.

I mean, every time we talk about
sexual violence against

Black girls and women,
everybody's like,

"I don't believe it. That doesn't happen."
Despite all of us telling you

that it has happened, right?

So again, you can't protect us.
Even from your own fathers,

and brothers, and cousins, and uncles.

So you'd rather not talk about it.

You'd rather not talk, and listen
to all the Black women in your life

who say they've either been
molested, sexually assaulted,

forcibly raped- which, I'm
just using that FBI designation.

Beaten, emotionally abused,
all these other things.

You don't wanna heart that.
You don't wanna believe that.

And if you're a person who's like,
"No, no, no."

Chances are they won't tell you anyway.

So, in that same way that you don't
wanna hear or accept that

Black women and girls are subjected
to more violence than any other group,

aside from Native women,
Native Indigenous women are-

we're like, neck and neck.

The violence that we're dealing with
that primarily comes from within

our own community,
we don't wanna talk about that.

Because for those of you that are
the good guys, right?

There's so many of you
that are the good guys.

But you know there's very little
you can do to protect us.

And so, sometimes I think that
we just don't wanna talk about it

because it's hard to accept that
there's little that can be done.

Who are we gonna return to?
The police?

The racist ass cops?

I've shared a number of stories where
women and men have called the police

for help, Black women have called the
police for help, only to be raped.

Or, Black men have called the police
for help only to be shot.

So who do we turn to? Right?

So, I'm thinking that we have to
do more to talk about the fact that

police brutality does affect more than
just Black, cisgender, heterosexual men.

We have to talk about it's affect
on queer men, on trans men, trans women,

girls, boys, women, everybody.
Your grandmama.

Everybody.

And I'm hoping that this video can get you
to talk more about that

and to think about how sometimes
the ways in which our brothers strive

for manhood is not the manhood
they have constructed.

It is based on a violent, savage,
White Suprematist ideal

of what manhood and masculinity is.
And we, as Black people,

need to never strive
for anything like that.

We have a community to rebuild.

We have people to heal.

And we have to stop waiting for
handouts from other people to do it.

We have to heal ourselves.

But the only way we're gonna do that
is if we're having honest conversations

about what is happening to us as a
result of racism, and the impact

of White Supremacy on our communities.
Okay?

It's not about blame.
It's about understanding

the core of the issues and
working towards fixing them.

I hope that this was okay.

Check me out, FeministaJones.com

Follow me on Twitter @FeministaJones
Facebook, same thing.

And, hey. Let me know what you think.

I'm open for the dialogue.
I want us to carry on this conversation

and maybe take it to some other levels.
I know I didn't cover everything here,

but we're getting on 30 minutes, so,
I wanted to keep it short.

[laughs] My lectures are usually
about a half hour, 45 minutes

Alright, talk to you later. Bye.