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.

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

but I didn't feel like typing.
And, 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.
And 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, and I think that's because
I noticed a lack of representation,

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

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, 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.
We all know that

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

State violence against Black people
is nothing new.

It's well documented,
it's 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

in state violence against
unarmed Black people.

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.

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 sleeping,
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's 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.
And 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 1 in 111 white women.

I think the number's
1 in 46 for Latino women.

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

really negative 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.

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 [? nigga]
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.

And if you're one of those
"Not all men" people,

turn the video off.
You've got seven minutes

and 20 seconds of Feminista Jones.
Now you can turn it off 'cause fuck you.

Okay, so...we live in a society, right,
[?] society, American society,

where White supremacy 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-America--
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.

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, right?

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.

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,
his 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 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 way from that.

STOP 10:20