Good morning!
For this week’s blog post, many people focused on many aspects of our CAP Stream. While most of them centered towards ASTU, and the novels we’ve been reading in that class, a few of them encompassed the Group Lecture we had with all our CAP Stream Professors (With the exception of David Ley!)
The Group Lecture focused primarily on the #BlackLivesMatter campaign, which originated in the U.S but has since then gained global power. It is a campaign movement that addresses the harsh systematic inequalities of African Americans and calls for action a more equal treatment of their lives.
The blog posts discussing this campaign brought up very interesting points, which I will now share with you.
Firstly, Ben‘s blog post talked about how you can never really understand something without living it. He mentioned how he could read every single article on the campaign, but it would only serve as primary data. For him to fully understand the #BlackLivesMatter movement, he had to also understand the significance personal anecdotes. Statistics are definitely one way of understanding a topic, however, testimonies and stories can sometimes serve as much more valuable (and accurate?) depictions. People are not just numbers!
On the topic of personal anecdotes, next comes Mariana! Mariana gives us her own testimonial perspective of the globalized movement of Black Lives Matter. She mentions how she, as a Latino Woman, has less of a chance of success, simply because of where she’s from. She questions the fairness behind culture and colour having an impact on one’s future. Additionally, Mariana discusses the kids who are affected by this movement. She explains how this specific movement is vouching for kids who’ve been told their whole life that their dreams are subpar and secondary to those of perhaps their white classmates.
“…if kids can’t dream, if they’re not told that they have just the same opportunities as everyone else, if they don’t believe that they are entitled to rule the world, then what can they hope and aspire for in life?”
Lastly, I want to talk about Ramon’s blog post. Ramon also, like Ben, emphasizes the importance of personal testimonies. Ramon mentions how his Geography TA shared his own experience, and, therefore, contributed to Ramon’s understanding of the campaign, highlighting the “circumstantial frailty of the situation”.
This just goes to show that the personal can be just as, or even more, important than the total. You can hear about the statistics, and watch the videos, and share the hashtag on Facebook, however do you really understand a campaign that advocates for rights you already have?
This brings into question the counter-movement All Lives Matter. All Lives Matter was created as a sort of backlash to Black Lives Matter, dictating that we should not only be concerned with Black Lives, because – well, All Lives Matter. The problem with this counter-campaign is that it trivializes the opinions and perspectives of the members already in Black Lives Matter. It’s telling them that yeah sure, they matter, but hey – so does everyone else, you’re nothing special!
Black Lives Matter was created as a way to combat the systematic racism present in the United States, however, it does nothing to trivialize the harshness faced by other minority groups – it simply states it’s own presence in the Global fight for rights. All Lives Matter is taking this advocacy and lowering it to diminished standards, ignoring that while All Lives Matter, not All Lives Are Equal.
Until next time!
Naima