#SayHerName: Black Women in the Fight for Black Lives

By Maya Alexander

"Breonna Taylor, George Floyd Memorial, Minneapolis 8/5/20" by Sharon Mollerus is licensed under CC BY 2.0

On May 25th, the death of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer was captured on camera. The officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 48 seconds, ignoring Floyd’s repeated remarks that he couldn’t breathe. Three officers:  J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane, and Tou Thao, did nothing to correct Chavin’s actions. Thao mocked Floyd’s struggles and the bystander’s pleas for Chavin to release him, saying "This is why you don't do drugs, kids." After five minutes, Floyd was unconscious, Chavin still refusing to remove his knee. George Floyd was pronounced dead at 9:25 PM, just under an hour after the ambulance arrived at the scene. George Floyd’s death was just one of the several incidents this year that had a Black life ended much too early by the hands of the police. 

The #BlackLivesMatter movement began in 2013 following the murder of a Black teenager, Trayvon Martin. The movement was a response to the acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman, and the disregard for Black lives in the United States, especially within the justice system. Since then, the unjust killings of Black people largely due to the actions of the police have become more and more visible, in part because of the rise of video recordings from smartphones and the accessibility of social media platforms.

High profile cases like the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling have proven that the fight for Black lives socially and systematically is far from being over. 2020 has seen a string of gratuitous killings and harassment of black people, from Ahmaud Arbery’s death while jogging to the harrying of Black bird-watcher Christian Cooper by a white woman in Central Park. 

While the discourse surrounding #BlackLivesMatter and police brutality has been necessary for the current climate, there has been a notable lack of attention paid towards Black women in these discussions. The trend of leaving Black women out of the dialogue for racial justice is not new but needs to end if there is truly going to be a drive to acknowledge Black struggles within this country due to systemic racism and the broken justice system.

Historically, Black women have played a central role in the movements for racial equality despite the history books’ tendency to focus on Black male leaders, specifically Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the two most palatable Black leaders that don’t make white people too uncomfortable to study. Yet, the range of Black female leaders is vast. From Fannie Lou Hamer to bell hooks to Angela Davis, Black women have been consistently advocating, writing, and teaching about the struggles of Black people in America, but they are rarely elevated to the same status as their male counterparts. 

This phenomenon of mistreating and overlooking Black women in the fight for racial justice is nothing new. The Black Panther Party (BPP) was notorious for its duplicitous displays of progressivism and traditionalism while women were relegated to behind-the-scenes roles within the organization. Despite this, at the time the BPP was the most dynamic Black nationalist organization at the time. Social activist Assata Shakur noted this experience saying, “There was a whole saturation of the whole climate with this quest for manhood.” Why do we center masculinity in an organization that, at its peak, was 60% female? Putting manhood at the forefront of these movements has consistently isolated Black women from being fully recognized as equal.

The development of the theory of intersectionality by Black feminist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw has provided a deeper level of understanding of this issue. Intersectionality at its most basic is a framework used to understand how an individual or group's experience is affected by their overlapping identities and how they interact and intersect with each other. For Black women, this is the dual identity of being a Black person and being a woman. Both inform the unique experiences of Black women. 

The need for intersectional thinking within the conversation of police brutality against Black people has led to the creation of movements like #SayHerName, a response to the lack of attention Black women have received in movements such as #BlackLivesMatter. The recent death of Breonna Taylor has proven the need for organizations solely dedicated to the police brutality, abuse, and overall plights of Black women. Taylor, just 26, was shot eight times by plainclothes officers while sleeping in her own home in Louisville, Kentucky. The reaction to her death did not directly lead to nationwide protests; Instead, her death has been made into an internet meme. Thousands of people, including celebrities, have turned a plea for justice ("Arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor") into a punchline. The same joking atmosphere was not created after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and the other countless Black men who have had their lives horrifically and unfairly taken from them. 

Black women are neither jokes or memes. Black women are not emotional cudgel to take advantage of nor political fodder to be used to serve an agenda, so stop treating them as such. In 1962, Malcolm X proclaimed, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” Nearly 60 years on, his words still resonate.

Tania Speaks Brow Boost

AUTHOR Crystal Chunnu

Growing up, Tania Speaks faced problems due to her naturally bushy eyebrows. No matter where she went, her bullies would taunt her, lowering her self-esteem while poking at her insecurities. “I would cry every day to my mom and tell her that I wanted to cut my brows,” Speaks said. “She would just tell me to embrace them and then one day someone’s gonna love your eyebrows.”

But Speaks wasn’t convinced by her mother’s words. She took a razor and decided to cut her own brows, by herself, without any assistance. The path to beautification took a bad turn. 

“I was bleeding really badly and I had to go to the hospital and get stitches. I really thought I knew what I was doing,” she said. “I actually didn’t understand how sharp the razor was, and after that, I went to school with cut-up brows and I was still bullied.”

She had enough. “I knew that there was nothing I could do to change myself to stop the bullying, so I changed the way I saw the situation,” she said. Thus, Brow Boost, the organic eyebrow gel company Speaks started at 15 years old, was born. 

The majority of eyebrow gels on the market during her childhood weren’t organic and Speaks feared that if she used any of them, she’d eventually get bullied for rashes and pimples as well. This prompted her to research organic ingredients and create her own “secret sauce.” 

Her bullies stopped and people envied Speaks’ new brows and Speaks knew she could capitalize on this opportunity. She brought her eyebrow formula to school, put a sticker on it, and sold one for $3 and two for $5 in her high school bathroom. All of a sudden, her label as “the brow girl” went from an insult to praise.

 “My mission is to make Brow Boost a part of women ages 24-38 and adolescent girls’ beauty routines who need a little help redefining how they feel about their brows,” Speaks explained as the company’s mission statement today. “When you look good, you feel good.” Her tenacity, resilience, and story got her featured in Forbes, Black Enterprise, and named one of Time Magazine’s most influential teens. Her infamous eyebrow gel was also seen in NY Fashion week. 

Today, Speaks, now 18 years old, spends part of her time giving speeches to aspiring entrepreneurs advising them of the power of turning “pain into a booming business.” 

She has four pieces of advice for the up and coming entrepreneur. The first is research. According to Speaks, entrepreneurs need to do three types of research — a quick search, a competitive search, and a legal search. A quick search is a broad search typically done on Google where she learned about organic ingredients she could use for her brow gel. 

A competitive search targets other companies that are offering similar products to yours in order to identify what makes your product unique. “I attached my story to it. It’s not only a brow gel. It’s about me, what I overcame and how I overcame it. When you’re looking at these competitors, you need to be able to attach something to what you’re offering,” Speaks said. 

The third search is a legal search where entrepreneurs will meet with a lawyer to find competitors they didn't know existed. “Don't start with that because that will easily discourage you … You do that towards the end, because after you’ve already started, you’re not going to look back.”

The second piece of advice was to ask for trusted options. No matter what product or service you’re bringing to the market, Speaks advised entrepreneurs to test it on people whose opinions they value, and listen to the feedback and criticism they give for product improvement. 

The next and most unique advice is practicing “instamicacy” or “instant intimacy,” a concept Speaks identifies as the tip to discovering your company’s purpose by making a connection with someone based on sharing an experience. Speaks explained that to practice instamicacy, you need to pick a group of people you regularly interact with, and choose three feelings you’ve felt recently towards them. After writing what triggered those feelings and why it was significant to you, come up with a business idea that resolves those negative feelings. 

Writing down your emotions helps us release negative feelings, reflect on our personal growth as humans, and discover creative solutions. “A lot of times we just keep going, going, going. We kinda forget about what we’re going through,” Speaks said. 

Lastly, she advised entrepreneurs to do the hardest thing: start. Get out there and make yourself known. “How are you going to start a business and nobody knows who you are?” she said. “I was 15 years old and didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know who to talk to, where to go. But now, I learned from just putting myself out there, I was able to get recognized from these big names,” Speaks said, referencing the publications that recognized Brow Boost’s success.  

“You need to start. Today. Whatever you’re thinking about, do it today.”  

A New Kind of Bodega

AUTHOR Katherine Hernández

When Puerto Rican immigrants started opening small shops on street corners in the 1950’s and 60’s, they probably didn’t know they were setting up landmarks and traditions for centuries to come. Bodegas are integral parts of New York City identity, economy, and community, but Bronx born entrepreneur Dinorah Peña added another level to the term bodega. 

In Bodega 7 you won’t find one dollar Arizonas or a bodega cat, because it is a talent management company led by powerhouse native Uptowner, Dinorah Peña, who is dedicated to the progress of her clients’ career. “Bodegas are part of the community,” says Peña, founder and jefa of the organization. “I remember going to one every single day before and after school.”

Born to Dominican parents in the Bronx, Dinorah Peña founded Bodega 7 to correct how talented people of color are represented in the media today. With that mission in mind, some may ask why a bodega? To that Peña says, “A bodeguero saved my life”, while recounting the time when a bodega owner saved her from a bad encounter. “I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I had like a mob of people coming after me. So I rushed into the bodega and the bodeguero saw that I was in trouble and kept me in back.” 

The bodeguero sent the mob away and stayed with Peña, taking her all the way home until she was safe. Peña named her talent management agency after the same place that kept her safe, evoking that atmosphere in the space she created for her clients. 

“I’m a publicist, an agent, whatever my clients need. I go into meetings with their trust because I’m going to be representing them.” Peña clients range from YouTube influencer Franchelli Rodriqguez to actor and former NFL player Devale Ellis. Her interactions with each of her clients are tailored to their individual missions and goals. 

When asked how she can manage such diverse clientele, Peña replied, “Alignment.” She continued saying, “So long as we are focused on the same purpose and goal, we’re alright.” 

Peña credits both her faith and her experience in the field for her and her clients’ success. “Listen, I’m a loud and proud Christian. I know that this is something that God called for me to do and He has a way of building you up to what is He wants you to do. In my previous job, I was led by people who believed in their clients and would get into the work they do. It was contagious to be around people like that. ” And what job was that?

“SheaMoisture.” While working with Richelieu Dennis, founder of SheaMoisture, Peña felt his approach to his work spurred her in the right direction. “It was like God putting something in me that kept building and burning,” says Peña while describing the time that led up to Bodega 7’s birth. “You know, I would talk to my brother about this, how I felt like I didn’t have a talent. Like some people are singers or dancers – my brother looked at me and said ‘your talent is that you can see talent.’”

Since her time at SheaMoisture and while building Bodega 7 from the ground up, Peña has had her fair share of struggles. “There’s been countless times where I’ve not only been the only woman in the room, but the only person of color in the room,” says Peña talking about representation. “I’m going into these meetings knowing that this isn’t just about me.” 

Peña invests much of her time in the getting to know and accessing the needs of her clients. You’ll often see her in the Instagram and YouTube videos of them, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.  “Yeah, it’s not usually that common,” says Peña regarding the close relationship she holds with her clients, “But that how I work. I need to know you and see what’s your drive and purpose so I know if I can get behind you and help you get where you need to go. It doesn’t matter if we have different views or beliefs, so long as that alignment is there, we’re good.” 

Peña plans to continue the expansion of the currently bi-coastal organization, traveling between Los Angeles and New York City to work with clients in either location.

When thinking of advice to give women trying to get into business or pursue an ambition, Peña says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear. He’s given you everything that you need. So take it, and do it, fearlessly.” 

Pole to Pole Fitness

AUTHOR Kenneth Fremer

“I’d never thought I’d be able to have my own business in East Harlem,” admitted Jennifer Rivera, who recently opened the third location of Pole to Pole Fitness, a pole dancing fitness studio, in her home neighborhood. Her first location opened in Woodbridge, New Jersey back in 2005. Rivera first saw pole dancing on TV and realized that she could open up a studio of her own. “In the beginning, a lot of people had their reservations of what I was trying to actually do,” she explained. Though some people may not take pole dancing seriously, or don’t see the benefit of pole classes for fitness, Rivera has been able to expand her business to include locations in Staten Island and East Harlem.

“I grew up with a single mother and I’ve been around a lot of strong women, and pole dancing promotes that strength, both from a mental aspect and a physical aspect,” said Rivera. With Pole to Pole, she is able to pass on that strength to class attendees, regardless of their size or level of confidence. “Sometimes I have girls or men who are not too keen on wearing short shorts or showing skin, or have body image issues,” she explains, adding that having a bigger or smaller body type can enable you to accomplish your fitness goals in different ways. “As the months and years go by, they don’t care if they have stretch marks or if they’re too big or too small.”

After years of teaching pole classes and operating Pole to Pole, Rivera has been able to accomplish a longtime dream of opening a studio in East Harlem, where she grew up. Opening this studio has been difficult, largely because of high rent prices in the neighborhood. “The people that live here don’t have those opportunities to build their community,” she said, adding that a lot of the tax credits and aid given to entrepreneurs are often hindered by requirements that are too specific and don’t help most business owners. “They’ll advertise and say hey, we’ll give you a tax abatement, or we’ll do this for you,” she says, “but then there are barriers like it needs to be in this area, it needs to be a non-profit, it needs to be this type of business—it’s a lot of bullshit.” 

As a result of the many funding barriers, Rivera had to open the first Pole to Pole location in New Jersey, working full-time at a hospital while developing her business. “I had to fight for it,” she said, and though it’s been a long road to get to open up a studio in East Harlem, she is proud to finally be able to grow her business in the neighborhood she grew up in. “I’m starting to realize that fitness has a lot to do with community—that’s what Pole to Pole is, community.”

eeBoo's Toy Company

AUTHOR Crystal Chunnu

She started building her business in her basement, and worked at home with her children for several years until she was able to afford an office. Although eeBoo has no flagship stores, their toys are featured at 3,500 small specialty stores, gift shops, airport stores, museum shops, and retailers, such as Barnes and Noble. 

To promote eeBoo, Galison attended toy fairs and regional shows in New York and decorated her booth in the best way possible to get noticed. She even created a big robot holding a sign that said “thank you” for a trade show she attended. There was no doubt that her unique line of toys propelled her to success. 

“No parent ever put their kid in front of a TV and said they're going to become smarter,” Mia Galison said. “That was the novelty of eeBoo that made it do well when we first came out. I had no competitors at all ‘cause nobody was doing what we were doing.” For the past 25 years, Mia Galison has been the proud owner and founder of eeBoo, an eco-friendly toy manufacturing company that uses the original designs of children book illustrators to bring the imagination of children to life. 

After graduating college, Galison briefly worked in the film industry and was married to her husband, who was a figurative painter. Unfortunately, they were able to make ends meet on their salaries alone. 

“We had a baby and then five seconds later we had twins. We had three kids in less than two years and we knew it wasn’t a sustainable thing for me to have a full-time job out of the house because it was just not possible,” she said. She needed money fast, so she took a moment to examine her skillset and the marketplace. 

“I knew how to curate things and I knew a lot of painters and illustrators and I thought there weren’t a lot of nice children’s things in the market … it seemed practical and interesting to make really beautiful children’s products. There was just sort of a lack of specialty toy market for 20 or 30 years.” 

Galison, like most parents, was concerned about her children spending too much time in front of the TV which motivated her to create tangible toys, books, and products that revolved around free play, which she engaged with frequently as a child. “You don’t have to be Sigmund Freud or have a doctorate in child therapy to see the difference in kids that have the benefit of being read to versus the kids that don’t spend time with their parents and grow up in front of a screen,” she said.

Her mission was to have children participate in a screen-free environment with activities that foster visual creativity and literacy, problem-solving and cooperating, storytelling, quantitative learning, motor ability, social and emotional literacy, and social imaginative play as much as possible. 

When children spend time with their parents, they are more likely to develop greater emotional success and social intelligence. Allowing them to play with dominos, board games, conversation cards, is a good parenting technique and essential to eeBoo’s theme of “developing the whole child.”

They believe that some of the best tangible gifts children can receive are ones that can teach them—whether it be about natural history, weather, plants, animals, or the food chain—to get involved with and question the natural world around them. 

“I have a classic game called I never forget a face which is a memory game with kids’ faces … we've gotten so many letters from parents and I think people really love it” 

Galison noted that eeBoo has received recognition because it was one of few, or possibly the only company out of the 60-80 toy companies at the NY Toy Show that was women-owned and not couple-owned or family-owned.  

Galison received 201 Oppenheim Toy Awards—45 of which are platinum and 156 of which are gold—and publicity from magazines like Parents and Good Housekeeping. “They wanted to support me and I got a lot of free ads, free editorials, free everything because I was really an anomaly,”  Galison said. “People expect the guy to run the business and the woman to do all the fun soft stuff. I didn’t know any woman that runs a business”

Galison recently joined a female organization group two years ago and advised that young women thinking about going into business should also join national or local groups immediately for the camaraderie of connecting with others who share their plight—whether you are married and running a business or are a mother and are running a business, there are supportive groups. 

 “I should have done it 20 years ago. I wasn't thinking about it then, but that was the best thing,” she said. 

Books Are Magic

AUTHOR Arianne Gonzalez

Cobble Hill’s local bookstore was closing, and Emma Straub knew that the community couldn’t afford to lose it. “We can’t live in a neighborhood without a bookstore,” she thought. “We either have to move or open it up, a store.” And so, by spring of 2017, Books Are Magic opened its doors.

From the unassuming entryway to every shelf, the store was built with the community in mind. Inside is a lively space full of books, pink walls, neon lights, and upbeat music providing a fun and comfortable atmosphere. The owners Emma and Mike Straub, who are parents themselves, have made sure they made a kid-friendly space, accessible to the many families throughout the neighborhood. This can be seen by the many kids roaming around the store, reading with their parents on bean bags, or in a quiet corner in the cutaway “hidey-hole.”

“It was such a passion project for them,” says communications director, Colleen Callery. “It really was about like, creating a space they wanted to come to every day.”

Callery has been with Books are Magic since the beginning, and emphasized the idea of civic-engagement the Straubs for with the store.  “I think it was like mostly about being a community space,” she stated. “At least, in our ideal world … We try to host, you know, lot of programming that we feel like is engaging, that’s supporting authors that we love, that are, that also is like serving people that live here and nearby that can come and visit. We have like, a lot of kids programming for those families and people that are around during the day.”

Books Are Magic has run multiple campaigns to aid the community. Most recent, they just ended a campaign with Everytown, the movement calling for gun safety in America. In collaboration with designer Carson Ellis, they sold tote bags, with the proceeds going to the movement, and raised over $10,000 for the cause. “We’re just always trying to be really good neighbors,” said Callery.

 As small as space is, they have also held multiple events for book releases and readings. With an event practically every night, they are booked out months in advance. The importance of hosting different authors and various launch parties is also a key factor for Books Are Magic, as Emma Straub is a writer herself. Her knowledge of the publishing industry has invariably aided them in the business and helps inform their book and author selections. This, Callery expressed, is what makes Books Are Magic unique to other bookstores—especially retail chains. “We need to make sure that we are hosting people we want to host. That we’re reaching the kinds of people that we want to reach. That people feel like they can know they can call us to order a book even if we don’t have it on the shelves.”

Books are Magic also has a monthly subscription service—both fiction and nonfiction—composed of books the staff love and want to share. “I try to think of them as the books that we really love, that we want, that we want other people to read that they may have not picked up on their own,” Callery shares. “We just try to do things that we all feel really good about internally. Again, and just hope that people love what we’re sending them.”

They are aware that they may be one of the many indie bookstores in Brooklyn, but Callery stated, “I feel like Brooklyn has a ton of indie bookstores, but they’re thirsty for them. When we were first opening people were coming in just being, like, ‘I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you’re here. Please don’t ever leave.’ Even if things aren’t as fast, or, as like, perfect.”

Being a small storefront does present its challenges. With a small team and space with limited shelving, it is hard to know when to say no to authors or events that they would not be able to cater to. “I think it’s realizing our limitations,” disclosed Callery. But that does not discourage them. “We have dreams of like, one day, having a much more, bigger space. It would be really cool to have a proper space, or like, I don’t know, like a writing residency, or something. Like, have visiting writers, or even booksellers, like traveling booksellers to come in.”

Independent bookstores are important fixtures in the community. As Callery expresses, “I feel like you can really find yourself in places like this, which I know sounds kind of corny and cheesy, but, as general spaces, they tend to be really interesting. They have really cool people. And there’s a ton of freedom here.” She also mentioned an online platform that supports independent bookstores all over the country and emphasized used bookshops. “Somewhere that you can go to that isn’t this huge monolith that is slowly crushing--maybe not so slowly, that is quickly crushing all of our retail structures.”

When asked on how to support your local bookstore, Callery said, “You should always try to check out your local spots, even if they’re not, even if you think you know they’re like… like, check them out yourself. Whether it’s a bookstore, or I don’t know a restaurant or clothing store.”

Swiper, Stop Swiping: Recognizing the Tinder Effect

Written by Justine Galvan

I told her I was scared. My friend insisted I make a Tinder account because it was fun looking and talking to “hot college guys” online, but advised to not take it too seriously and meet up with someone.  I was 16, sitting on a kitchen stool almost having a panic attack as I came up with ways on how to sneak out at 2 AM to hook up with a 19-year-old who lived at Park Avenue and wanted to send me an uber from Queens, doing exactly what my friend had told me not to. It wasn’t love per se, but I felt some type of way for someone who cared well enough to not let me go through the MTA in the middle of the night.

Tinder, established in 2012, has forever changed the world of romance. Designed for their users to anonymously swipe left (if they don’t like them) or right (if they do like them), dating turns into a game. Now with a whopping 57 million people signed up on the dating-app worldwide, almost two billion swipes are being made each day. People create and brand their best selves with calculated profiles, such as putting their best pictures, quirky bios, and Spotify anthems. With 26 million matches made each day, hook up culture – the quick and uncommitted sexual bonding between two or more people – is romanticized. As a result, this glorification of the new technosexual era has completely strayed us away from the traditions of conventional romance. Whether that is good or bad is subjective. What’s truly concerning is the way Tinder affects the brains of those using it.

Psychologists explain the term instant gratification to be the seeking of pleasure or quick contentment without any delays and interruption. Getting matches on Tinder serves as instant gratification. Living in the most advanced technological era, we are raised to be impatient. A lot of people, unfortunately, and subconsciously, rely on social media platforms, such as Instagram for instance, to evaluate their worth, based on the number of likes or followers they have. It becomes a jungle of comparison and competition with each other’s lives. The more likes or matches they get, the more their egos and acquired narcissism are fed. Consequently, a study conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) conveyed that Millennials and Gen Z members are most likely to have poor mental health, with social media being a major responsible cause. Talking to a friend of mine about being on Tinder, she says:

“When I get a match – not gonna lie – I feel happy because I have very low self-esteem and I’m like ‘Oh my, God. This hot ass boy actually thinks I’m cute enough for them to swipe right,’ but when I don’t I’m like, ‘Holy shit, I’m really that ugly… they didn’t even try to actually get to know me before disregarding me.’”

As human beings, we seek pleasure and avoid pain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when human beings feel pleasure such as eating food, having sex, or taking drugs. In comparison, dopamine is also released when one gets a match on Tinder. So Tinder users take part in this obsessive ritual of swiping more and more until they get their next reward, which in this case is another match, to get instant gratification. This whole process is subconsciously addictive, as compared by psychologists to drug-addicts, feeding onto an array of mental health issues. Contradictory to matching, not getting as many matches as one hoped for accounts to a feeling of rejection, which affects one’s mental health negatively if they don’t know how to deal with it. Another study also pointed out that “Tinder users, regardless of gender, reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with face and body and higher levels of internalization, appearance comparisons, and body shame and surveillance than non-users.” Tinder becomes a swiping game based on superficiality and instant gratification is the temporary fix to deeper mental health issues.

This is not to say that everyone should immediately delete the app and be conscious about participating. Tinder, as with other dating apps, is majorly responsible for diversifying humanity. It’s fun and thrilling talking and meeting new people. There is definitely an adrenaline rush connecting with someone you get to pick. So go talk, flirt, have as much sex as you want, or fall in love – but know yourself, what is best for you, and keep in mind that in every good thing comes a consequence.

The School to Prison Pipeline: Tackling Unjust Disciplinary Action in Schools

Written by: Kendra Shiloh

There is an alarming disproportionate tendency for students of color and students with disabilities to become incarcerated—known as the school-to-prison pipeline. The combination of zero-tolerance policies along with a strong police presence in public schools has facilitated the pipeline, normalizing the idea that even the slightest misstep is worthy of negative disciplinary action.

Police presence in public schools has increased dramatically over recent years, which may be attributed to the influx of school shootings. After the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, every public school in Florida must have at least one armed guard, in compliance with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act. Although this piece of legislation is meant to be a solution, it has had disproportionately negative effects on minority students. The line between “teachable moments” and  punishable crimes has become blurred, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds are suffering at the hands of a system that does not work in their favor. According to a nationwide study by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, black children are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white counterparts. 

In my personal experience, during my years of high school, the in-school suspension room was always occupied. Students were suspended for a variety of trivial reasons, ranging from talking excessively in class to dress code violations. This method of punishment meant students were lose vital class time, a possible cause for falling behind in class or ultimately failing. As the years passed, it appeared as though a specific group was being targeted in my school: black and latino students. As our grade moved onto our junior and senior years, a large percentage of this group dropped out. And while I cannot account for the path each student chose to take after high school, the ones whose paths I am aware of are less than favorable. Several fell down the path of substance abuse and the sale of illicit drugs, leading to arrests and for a select few, time in jail. This could have been avoided, had there been positive disciplinary action procedures in place. 

By taking students out of class, they are set further behind in their coursework. As students advance to junior and senior year, each class session is vital to their success in the world after graduation, especially if the student plans on attending college. Students can miss out on information that may be useful for standardized testing such as the SAT and ACT, impacting chances for higher education and a better future.

When a child faces extreme disciplinary action at school (such as one that involves interaction with the police), they are often labeled as a “bad kid” no matter how juvenile the incident was. In turn, this leads to the student being isolated from the class, which in turn can affect their emotional and mental health.  And due to the disparities in minority mental health care, these students may not receive the help that they need to cope with these feelings. If the student reaches a point where they lash out as a result of the isolation and internalized feelings, more often than not the student will receive yet another irrational disciplinary action. These feelings can be extremely discouraging for students, and a lack of resources can lead to a vicious cycle that further facilitates the pipeline.

It is not enough to just simply attempt to improve the school-to-prison pipeline when dealing with the future of our children. Eliminating the pipeline is a collective effort, and it starts with training teachers, especially in regards to positive disciplinary action, such as counseling. Students of color and students with disabilities enter school with a disadvantage from the very first day, due to a complex structural system that has never worked for them. They shouldn’t have to climb another barrier in order to receive a fair education.

Raise Awareness to Madan Sara

Written by: Julia Cuttone

“Growing up my mom was a Madan Sara and that stayed with me for many years. I was inspired by how so many women raised their kids and ran their businesses while still keeping Haiti’s economy running” said Etant Dupain. A Madan Sara is a woman from Haiti who works tirelessly to buy, distribute, and sell food in markets throughout the country. Dupain explained in Haitian society it is not very common for women to be seen as people who hold positions of power, but in everyday life, it is a Madan Sara sitting on sidewalks and marketplaces fighting to make a living.

The Madan Sara live each day with the local economy’s weight upon their shoulders. They can be found in the marketplace or even on top of cars leading the charge. “There is no aspect of the Haitian economy where women are not at the base. If the Madan Sara does not go to work, the city does not eat. If the Madan Sara does not go up into the mountains and back down into the neighborhood, the market will not operate. Without those women, there is no market, without the market there is no economy, and without economy, there is no country” said Dupain.

“The Madan Sara is at the forefront of the battle for a more robust and inclusive economy in Haiti,” he said. These women are facing obstacles everyday while working in districts that lack investment, infrastructure, and state assistance, but he said: “they continue to be one of the most crucial parts of the Haitian economy and of who we are as a country.”

Dupain realized that he needed to make the voices of the Madan Sara heard throughout the world and tell the stories of the persistent women, who work at ends meet every day to make the Haitian economy run. “I decided that I needed to make a film...working on the film in 2016 it was a small project because I used my money to make the film. It took me a lot of time to shoot. There were many ups and downs but I am proud that we are almost there” he said. 

Dupain plans on having the film, The Madan Sara, finalized this upcoming December. Despite the hardships and social stigma that Madan Sara face, they can put their children through school, provide for their family with shelter, and help ensure a better life for generations to come. Dupain is one of the many generations of Madan Sara children who went on to achieve success in his life.  

Dupain studied at a production school in Venezuela and is now the founder and director of Kombit Productions. As a Haiti-based freelance journalist and producer, he started his career as a reporter for Telesur in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Since then he has worked as a producer for international news media outlets such as British Broadcasting Corporation, Vice, Discovery channel, Raw TV, CANAL+, Venezolana Televisión Vive TV, and the award-winning film “Where Did the Money Go”? After watching his mother growing up, and seeing the obstacles she faced, he decided to work on his first personal film called “The Madan Sara”.

This film raises awareness to the Madan Sara as they speak directly to society to share their dreams for a life in Haitian society that is fair. “I want to show the film in every community across Haiti and eventually throughout different countries. It is an ambitious dream but the Madan Sara team is ready to rise to the occasion,” said Dupain.

“By launching popular universities, or open public debates after each free public screening event, will give opportunities to start conversations about the matters of concern related to the well-being of the communities.”

“Our goal is to create a film that serves as a powerful tool that can be used in Haiti and beyond to help gain support and visibility for the struggle of the Madan Sara. And now after a year of hard work, we have wrapped up the production, and we are ready to finalize the film,” he said.

A Conversation on Immigration: What it Means To Be Hispanic in America

Written by Kendra Shiloh

CUNY students Andrea Gonzalez and Enrique Pena sat down to spark a dialogue on the topic of immigration. Andrea is a student at Baruch College studying Sociology, and Enrique is a sophomore at Queens College majoring in Urban Studies. Andrea and Enrique met through school events and since then have moved forward in their goals for immigration. Both students discussed their paths to becoming activists for their communities, and the highs and lows that come with being on the front lines of such important, radical movements. Rather than dwelling on the cyclical nature of injustice in the world, they are setting out to change the conversation: encouraging youth to speak their truth; to flip the switch on injustice in their communities.

We began this conversation with Enrique’s immigration story.

He came to America in January 2016, after his brother obtained his citizenship and was able to place a request for him. Enrique came here on a tourist visa, expecting to get his green card after two years; however, after 4 years, he has still not received his residency. 

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Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

Enrique: I came here to study engineering, but I realized that I wanted to do something different because, I saw myself and I was like, okay, in two years this is going to be over for me. But it was probably never going to be over for some students. And I know that education, like most of them come with their parents and they would be like, “okay, you need to come here and get an education” and they don't have those resources and that's just painful, right?

So yeah, I became like a mini like guidance counselor, just like pushing students to apply to college and just like talking to them, everyone, about like “you have to go with it” like “you’re great or you have a lot of like energy and like that's everything that you need, just like push for it.”

And yeah, like I became a president of this club Aspira, which was kind of a nightmare, but at the same time, so beautiful because the club had like three people that no one else wanted to be president. That's how I became, because literally it was like,

“Okay, you want to be?”

“No”

“You want to be?”

“No.”

“Okay. Enrique, you are.” 

It was supposed to give opportunities for immigrant students, mostly Latino students to go to college, scholarships, you know, guided trips to colleges. Um and yeah, that was basically like, it was supposed to be a side thing. I was still going for engineering, but I went to this program for scholarships. Um, it was like some kind of like, you know, event called the Puerto Rican Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute. We will learn how bills become lost in New York state and then we would go to Albany and like debate actual bills in the actual assembly. 

And I hated politics. I hated law because I'm from Peru. I know corruption, I know everything. So it was like, no, not happening, but I will go to like every day, every weekend. That was like that Institute before going to Albany to the, um, like advisor to the person organizing it and be like pleased. Like I come here with a bunch of students, they're all amazing. They're all wonderful. They're all like so smart, but they need the opportunities. If you care, like any special thing that you can think of, just like, let me know so I can let them know because he really wants your help. Like, I'm not interested in this at all. Like I can be honest with you. But I really want this for them. 

So somehow she saw that, and she pushed me to the front. And she was like, okay, now you've got to speak. And she ended up giving me this like special recognition to be like, um, representing like the New York City delegation. And then we went to Albany. I won first place statewide. I won a scholarship. Um, and it was crazy because, uh, the day that like it'll change was because they told me that one of the bills that we had to debate was an actual bill proposed by Republican from Ben [inaudible] that proposed that and no quote-unquote illegal aliens should be allowed to go to public higher ed institutions.  

So, um, I just thought of all my students and how they will be denied an opportunity to go to college. And I remember that same day I just went home and I just cried and looked in my computer, different ways to approach and attack that bill as many times as possible and like just argue it, um, because I, I just, I couldn't believe it. 

Um, so I went to Albany. I debated that, I cried on, on that fricking place. And I got that award, I got a leadership award, which is crazy because I got it because she saw that I was asking like for other students to be given the opportunities. 

But I just came home like that weekend and I just told my mom like, you know what,  I'm not studying engineering anymore. Like I'm studying like politics and law. I want to do something different. And I was just like expecting her to hit me, but uh, didn't happen. She actually trusted me more. And that's how it started. Just pushing for immigrants, you know?

Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

Andrea: Gosh, no, it's so crazy. I've known you for like about a year now. I did not know any of that. It's so crazy. No, but it's, it's funny that you say that too because like there are so like my family too, like they were always against politicians. I think it's like a Peruvian thing. We just don't like politics. We don't like government. And so like now I'm also really involved in that. And so it's, it's really funny the similarities. 

But so that's how you started and now you just passed the Dream Act. Like you supported that and you were in Albany doing that. What was the process of passing the Dream Act in New York state? 

Enrique: Hmm. I know that it was for many years. Um, I think more than 10 that activists have been going to Albany talking to politicians. One thing that I just didn't enjoy as much as the fact that, I’m one of the reasons why it was never passed it was because of, because of the IDC, you know, like the state Senate was controlled by Republicans because of some Democrats  in that caucus with them and didn't let them pass those progressive bills. And like one thing that I felt that it was like, uh, like betrayal, like it was just like betraying, like the students, the person proposing that bill, um, [inaudible]  was also in the IDC. 

So he was asking for students like to have that opportunity, but at the same time he allowed the Republicans to not have that bill passed. When like the IDC was destroyed and it was years, and I was only participating in like the last one. I mostly helped like kind of like pushing like against the IDC because they knew that it was like one issue. And like, I volunteered for Jessica Ramos; I worked for Cynthia Nixon. 

It was just trying to bring that at like progressive politics because I knew that like the Dream Act was one of the things being played in that game. Right. And yeah, it was in Albany that day. That was with Catalina Cruz, that is like the first formerly undocumented person in the assembly.

It was beautiful and it was such a closure because I went to Albany and my first time to um, fight against Republicans pushing SOL document, the students are not allowed to college. And my last time in Albany was seen like an opportunity for undocumented students to go to college. So it was like such a closure.

Andrea: That's like beautiful or you came all the way full circle and it's just, it's so amazing to like see people from our community being able to thrive like that. Like being able to support change and be in these spaces and create change. But like something I definitely experienced or know about was like when I'm in political spaces I also often feel like tokenized, right? 

So like we talk about really important stuff, but then like I always feel like I'm just that little check on a box. Like oh, we have that woman of color in this space. Like we good, we're going to talk about something really important and now we have representation. Like, what has been your experience with tokenization and being marginalized and inclusive spaces? 

Enrique: Well I always feel like there is some of that happening. Like there's a bunch of progressive places, gatherings where I'm just given an opportunity to speak; not because of like me actually having something to say or because something that I did, but because they know my immigration status and they're like, “Oh, let's give the undocumented the opportunity to speak,” like  “it's gonna look good.'' 

Like I understand that and I consider that despite the disadvantages I recognize that it's like also privilege in some way ,because like I can use that opportunity to actually push for issues. 

`For example, like you know that like my best friend is a white lady; a white woman. So it's like I tell her, okay, I’ll use like my male privilege or my, sometimes my like, you know ,“undocumented privilege” to speak; to give you a platform. And you use your woman or white privilege to let me speak. Right. If you are given an opportunity like no matter the space, like you have to fight it so that personality is not only yours but you give it to someone else that also needs to speak.

Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

Andrea:  It's like a thing that happens in activist communities that we've developed bonds and we realize that like when I'm in a space like we’re a package deal; like if I'm here, she's also here, and this person is also there. 

And then usually I feel too like whenever I speak at places, like they have an intention of me being there. Like they want me to say a certain kind of thing. And so like I will say what they want me to say, but I will also put in my 2 cents and say what I think needs to be heard. Like, I know that people are listening to us and know that they need to hear affirmation that like, you know, their struggle is real and that their struggle is going to be solved and they're going to be helped one day. 

And so when we come into spaces and we talk about this kind of stuff, we need to say what our community is actually feeling. Like it's so important to be in those spaces cause we like ultimately we give hope to people because we made it and then we can change the conversation once we get there.

Enrique:  Even the slightest thing that you can do, it's already like setting up something for the next generation. I think yesterday or two days ago,  I went to this event at Queens College, to kind of, um, how can I say, remember the events of 1969. The students took over the campus, just to demand like more funding and the creation of the S.E.E.K. program. And yeah, students just organized and got it done. And now some of those students and professors that were in 1969 went to campus to talk to students and I was there and I, I just felt that like they did at once. 

It's possible, like I can make it happen. I can just make sure that I organize and get more funding for more students in the future. Like I can do it too. Right? Yeah. 

Andrea:  No yeah, whenever I think about those situations, like it just makes me think about how far we've come already and like how we could do that again. Like people have been thinking radically about what it means to be free and what it means to be liberated. And you know, I just, I get so excited thinking about like, what can we do to make people feel that again. 

Like, we see what's happening at the border, we see who's in power and we just get really, um, I don't know, we get cynical about what's happening in the world and we need to like remind people if there are things to be done then there's things that we all can do. 

Do you have any tips for folks that aren't activists? 

Enrique: It's just a matter of, yeah um, I was going to say showing up but if you can't, at least know what's happening. That's halfway through it. Like just understand that there's issues because as soon as you understand that, there is a way to solve them.

So many times, I cannot even count like how many, I have been told by people even like close friends or family that are like, why are you criticizing this country so much? Why don't you go back to Peru? The answer I always give is like, okay, I criticize because it's like in a relationship, right? And when you're in like in a relationship with someone, it's to grow together, like to help. So how are you gonna help that if you don't recognize mistakes? So it's the same with like a country. Like I'm here, if I actually didn't care about this country I’d go back to Peru. 

It's like you're here; at least understand that there is an issue. Even the slightest thing, just like vote, right? If you feel capable, like if you feel that you can do it, run for office, um and just make sure that everything you do in life is gonna affect someone else. So try to do it consciously; try to do it for the betterment of someone else as well. Right.

Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

Andrea: And I totally agree. I like to think that like, the word that represents my activism is love and empathy. And it's everything that I do, even when I'm out in the street; in the road shouting to burn down the system. I do it out of love. Like you know, I love my people, I love my community. I love that I'm here in this space, but I also want things to change, you know?

I think the way that I love is really radical and like, you know, revolutionary in a way that like, I love you, but I want you to be better and I want this to be better for my future generations too. So yeah, I don't know. I'm so happy that this community exists. I think CUNY is like a breeding ground for leaders and people who want to change the world. We don't get enough credit for that.  

I think people are changing everywhere. I would like to think that it's smaller out there cause there isn’t like outlets. Like you know, I'm from Staten Island, Staten Island is known as like a conservative borough in New York City. Like we're like the outcast of the city or like the forgotten islands; we’re a bunch of other names. Um, 

No, but yeah, and so I've had my experiences with activism and it was just like my voice into the wind. Like nobody heard it, nobody talks about it with me. My dad was an activist in his country in Peru. And he is the only one that listened to me and without his help, I wouldn't have like, you know, looked elsewhere for opportunity. 

But if you have the access to learn vocabulary and like ideas and theories, it becomes something so much bigger. Like if I didn't decide to go to an internship in Manhattan when I was in high school, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And so I feel like it's our job like folks in New York, folks in like really big liberal cities that have access to resources; I think it's our job to like go there and give them this knowledge because they're, I think everyone, unconsciously, we all want justice and liberation. Like at the core of us, we all want what's good for our people. And so when we give them access to these resources, we like to allow something to grow in their brain. 

And so if like kids in Alabama, I think that there's something in them that wants change and wants something better for them. Cause I'm 100% sure there is. There is somebody just like me; a queer woman of color out there in Tennessee that is really confused about the way that the world works and the way that her parents are treating her because she's queer and the way that she looks. And so I think, I think that is just like ours to bring that to them. I think that the United States is changing as a whole and people aren't really waking up like wherever you are. But I don't know. I think I'm a very hopeful person. 

Enrique:  Same for me. Like it's totally, um, I think we brought up those issues that as sometimes we're just like forgotten, and like people from even the most red states and just like, oh I didn't know this. Like, it's actually important. And let's talk about it more, um, just like see the case with Texas; it like almost turned blue with the Senate and even though Beto is not the most progressive person in the world, his campaign was like, “Oh, what's happening in the border?” Right. So like it's a small step, but I think it's just getting bigger and bigger. 

I've had conversations with friends that are Republicans. I had like real, like really nice conversations from where we both agreed and like “okay, there's an issue.” We might have different ways to approach it, but like we must understand that they should exist and they actually agree with me They actually came with me to some events, protests and stuff. And I think that it's just a matter of because you were raised in a certain way, sometimes your beliefs or just like something that you inherited from your parents, from your family, from like your surrounding. Uh, so it's not your fault. Right? Yeah. I will never be able to attack a young person that is a Republican just because they probably never found something else around them. You just need to show them that there's another way, that there's some things need to, um, like you need to actually think about, and sometimes the issues here in this country sometimes I was just like so hidden. 

Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

Like if you don't actually look for them, you won’t know. You will not find them because that's how media works. It's just like they try to portray everything as if it's perfect; as if this is the greatest country in the world and everything is just working out perfectly. But it isn't. And  again, like it's the first step as I said, like for you to fix an issue, you first need to recognize the issue. Um, one quote that I always love to say from [inaudible] is like “to know more is to be more free.”I always associated it with how in this country when you're a person of color, you're sometimes given two options: college or prison. Like to know more is to be more free by going to college, by having an access to an education. Um, you're sometimes like buying your own freedom. And so in the end it's just like a matter of getting those same ideas that are “okay, you need to recognize that these people are having like an awful time” and you're not helping it by just ignoring it. Just like talk to everyone and make sure that it happens and it's happening right now. So yeah, like I'm definitely hopeful and I think it's something that is going to change soon. 

Andrea: If you don't have that much to risk, I think people should try to go out into the streets and like really research about what you care about. I think it's important to find what we care about and it's, it's hard. I think like talking about passion is a really difficult thing to comprehend nowadays. I feel like a lot of folks like don't know what their passion is, but I think everyone, there's something that makes your heart beat. I think everyone has that and I think you should find something. Everyone should find something that they care about and go to the street and fight for it. It makes you feel better. It makes me feel like “you're doing something and it's worth it in the end.”

The activist community, it's like a family. We go out and we support each other with our events and what we believe in and  when you need something and we'll be there for you too. I think that that goes back to what I'm saying. Like I think activism is based in love and like everyone that works in activism, we all love each other. Like we are always there for each other. Um, I think it's a super beautiful community here. We're always just there for each other. And even one of the things, even when things are so bad, like in the world and in our personal lives, like people are there for you, they support you. 

Marwa Mouaki | Illustrator

What’s Drugs Got to Do with It?

WRITTEN BY Kyrah Brown

4/20 – An informal, annual “holiday,” acknowledged by non-smokers, but beloved by weed heads, blunt rollers, and junkies alike – waiting anxiously for their next high. Yet, for some, the day is a painful reminder of the raging drug epidemics which have killed off so many of our loved ones.         

A term coined so frequently, yet, the story of its beginnings often go untold; how did the date, 4/20, originate? Over the years, rumors have spiraled in regards to how 4/20 was recognized as the yearly celebration of cannabis culture as we know it. One, possibly a code among police officers for marijuana smoking. Another, slightly more comical and ironic, theory attributed they day with Nazi leader and war criminal Adolf Hitler’s birthday, April 20th. However, Time reports that the most plausible and credited story for the origination of the day begins with a group of five teenagers at a high school in California – San Rafael High School.

Each day, at 4:20 PM, this group of five would meet at the campus’ statue of Luis Pasteur, a famous chemist, for their daily round of passing the joint. Thus, 420 became the new code word for one their favorite after school pastimes. This group of teens, later known as the “Waldos” because they met near a wall, included Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich. How did the phrase spread? Reddix connected with a popular band, Grateful Dead, through his brother, and the band began to call out 420 in reference to their cannabis breaks. Used more frequently and on a wider platform, the phrase launched globally and has been used ever since.

Mary Jane, the Waldos, and the fight for decriminalization of marijuana lives on, but the new drug epidemic that is heavily circulating around America is the use and abuse of opioids. According to CNN, more than two million people in the United States alone have a dependence on these drugs. Opioids are dispensed to patients with acute, chronic pain, due to their ability to replicate the pain-reducing properties of opium. Legal forms of the painkillers comprise morphine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone. Those which are illegal include heroin, banned in 1924 in the U.S., and synthetically-made fentanyl. The statistics are astonishing; opioid prescriptions were 122 million in 1992, and the number increased to a peak of 282 million in 2012 – just a 20-year difference. The number of prescriptions administered has declined, but opioid-related deaths that occurred between 2002 to 2016 have increased to a dumbfounding rate of 533 percent. Painkillers, however, are expensive. Many who become dependent on painkillers turn to the street drug, heroin, which is cheaper. Opioids may pose a more lethal effect on society due to the ease of attainability – they’re legally prescribed drugs, but can doubly be retrieved on the streets. The concern, therefore, falls on who is accessing the drug, and at what dosages.

Amidst the opioid crisis, the abuse of the pharmaceutical industry and physicians should not go amiss in this situation. In 2007, criminal charges were brought by the federal government against manufacturer Purdue Pharma who mislead doctors and consumers that their pill, OxyContin, was a safer and less addictive version than other opioids. Eight years later, in 2015, 280 people consisting of numerous doctors and pharmacists were arrested for fraudulently over dispensing large sums of opioids. The prescription drug bust, deemed Operation Pilluted, is the largest in the history of the DEA. In 2016, the CDC published guidelines for properly administering opioids to patients, but several “pill mills” still exist in the shadows.

These are just a few highlights of the abuses of drug-makers and distributors across the country, but with opioid addiction and fraud on the rise, what has the government accomplished in improving our health care system? In 2016, legislators passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which allotted $1 billion in opioid crisis grants. This funding allows for addiction treatment and prevention programs to expand nationwide. Additionally, the launch of an Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit within the DOJ was announced in 2017.

The death and destruction opioids have imploded upon families across America cannot be undone. Nevertheless, hope for future generations lay within increased transparency, accountability, and a dose of compassion.

Sources:

http://time.com/4292844/420-april-20-marijuana-pot-holiday-history/

https://www-m.cnn.com/2017/09/18/health/opioid-crisis-fast-facts/index.html

Political art must be better scrutinized for cultural nuances

WRITTEN BY KENNY FREMER

Tamil artist M.I.A. continuously faces critic backlash for misconstrued elements in her music. Marred by slanted writing, her affluent lifestyle is often misinterpreted as a gap in her art’s authenticity.           

There is no better example of how political work in music can be misinterpreted than the discourse surrounding M.I.A. Her music is often written from the perspective of minority groups in third-world countries, and she herself has had to flee her home country to avoid political warfare. At her most contentious, she has written from the perspective of a man driven to war to provide for and protect his family, in the song “Sunshowers.” Perspectives like this make her extremely divisive and a scrutinized performer.

             M.I.A. is no stranger to the problem of struggling to control her public reputation. As a Tamil individual, she has had direct experience with the civil war in Sri Lanka. The war centered around efforts by the majority Sinhalese government to contain a Tamil revolution sparked due to a lack of representation for the Tamil people. In a 2005 interview with EGO Magazine, her perceived association with the Tamil Tigers, a controversial group considered a terrorist organization by the Sri Lankan government, is mentioned. Because she had used tiger-related imagery in some promotional images, many linked M.I.A. to the group. She said “I’m not some manufactured propaganda machine by the Tamil Tigers, but I think people assume that I am. I’m like, hell no! Tamil Tigers f—ed my life up and so did the Sinhalese government. They both f—ed my life up.” Although M.I.A.’s decision to use tiger imagery in promotional pieces was clarified, her reputation as being sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers has not gone away.

             A half-decade later, in a lengthy New York Times Magazine cover profile published in 2010, Lynn Hirschberg paints a distinctly unflattering portrait of M.I.A. as a contradictorily bourgeois outsider to the people she sings about.  Hirschberg writes, “Unity holds no allure for Maya — she thrives on conflict, real or imagined. ‘I kind of want to be an outsider,’ she said, eating a truffle-flavored French fry.” As it turns out, however, that moment in the interview was actually prompted by Lynn, who was recorded pressuring M.I.A. into ordering the expensive fries, guaranteeing that the New York Times would pay the bill. Throughout the interview, Hirschberg takes further issue with M.I.A.’s rich lifestyle, including her relationship with the wealthy Benjamin Bronfman and her purchasing of multiple homes in an affluent, mostly white Los Angeles neighborhood. In this 8,500-word profile, only two lines of music are quoted; the conversation has become no longer about the message, but the artist’s flaws and associations.

             In the interview, Hirschberg even writes that M.I.A. “allied herself” with the Tamil Tigers. Once an artist chooses to take a political stance, their character becomes more open to scrutiny, criticism and discourse – especially when the view they espouse is controversial or easy to take out of context. And especially when the artist is a race other than white, or a gender other than male. We need to be more critical of our own biases when evaluating the political statements of others. Instead of dismissing radical ideas as impossible, or reactionary, we should try to understand where that other person is coming from so that we can better understand everyone around us, absorb other perspectives, and make better art ourselves.