when they call you a terrorist

introduction

• lists all of the ways black lives were treated like they didnt matter

• michael brown-was shot by police officers in st louis and was killed while in the middle of putting his hands up

  • officer got away with it

• several incidents of people being killed without warning because they had toy weapons

• pulse nightclub shooting, batman shooting, march in charlottesville-none of these individuals were labeled as a terrorist

• muslim groups, blk civil rights groups, all labeled terrorists

• BLM movement: labeled as a terrorist

  • asking to be treated like their lives matter, not saying that other lives dont matter

  • refusal to admit that ther is something systemically wrong

drugs

• self medicating, and way to make money, when drugs are in the neighborhood it is hard to escape

• police assume you are a drug dealer if you live in these communities

• people plead guilty to a crime u didnt commit to lessen a charge of another crime u didnt commit

  • need to come home and provide for your family

• communities became prisons-thru the war on drugs, mass incarceration, justice system

• book ex. white friends brother is the drug dealer of weed (bags full) in white neighborhood never even feared police

who is Patrisse?

• born in 1983-tail end of genx

• recieved some of the benefits of the mvoement

  • gets lunch and breakfast through the Black panther party

  • lives in a food desert-no grocery or nutrition

• racism was in the closet thru the war on drugs

• lived in a mexican neighborhood

• complicated family relationship, living in poor, poverty conditions

Patrisse’s family

• ends up having two dads (Alton from childhood, gabriel as biological later in life

• Mom works several minimum wage jobs to raise 4 children

  • Paul: older brother ends up being a father figure when alton leaves

• monte: younger brother who has mental health issues, drug problems, ends up in prison

Welfare queen

• stereotype created by reagan: driving a cadillac, designer clothes, babies, living like a queen (on welfare)

• push to end these programs

• in reality, from welfare you did not even get enough to feed ur kids

• defunds welfare

• is a dogwhistle: Reagan is the one who starts his campaign in philly Mississippi (where civil rights leaders are killed)

clinton and welfare

• could only be on public assistance for so long

• have to be in school and have a child on the way

• further stigmatized, harder to finish school and succeed

• triangulation: keep social beliefs separate from economic ideas to get republican

• result was a greater gap between rich and poor

Policing in her young life

• kids would hangout in alleyway (no parks, green spaces)

• brother gets ambushed in alley for no reason-they never speak about the event

• when Patrisse is arrested in front of classroom a removal of her personal dignity and integrity

Patrisse’s early education

• was in a gifted program in sherman oaks-sees the economic disparity

• driving to school in borrowed, beat up car

  • similar guilt or shame as anne moody

similarities to moody

• working your ass off for success-yet the system still [laced you at a disadvantage (assumed to be criminals who should not have access to housing or food)

• seeing the system at work/learning class system, race and gender system

• housing: building is dilapidated, run down

  • patrisse knows the owner of her building-dad of rich friend

black masculinity

• moynehan report, yet you send their fathers to jail

• men gather around monte to comfort and help him into the hospital

• differing perspective on mainstream black masculinity

  • Masculinity as a way to survive

  • richie and their visit to jail

generations

• gabriel: born during jim crow, when anne moody was starting the movement

• grandma: from cajun country, anne moodys age, louisianna, sun-down town, remnants still there

• Patrisse feels connection and warmth of family there

Networks: anne vs patrisse

• found family: patrisse (queer) has a found family as well as connections with new father-growing up w single mother, her brother was a parent

• anne is similar as the oldest child

  • creates community in canton due to trauma bond

community support and personal responsibility

• when things happen, the community steps in bc the police and justice system dont help

• society treats the wat on drugs as a personal responsibility, not systemic

• 12 step: useful for her dad, but puts all the blame on the individual, no one is held accountable for the systemic issues

mental health

• seen as behavioral issues, and society attacks black ppl for this at higher rates

• monte: institutionalized, drugged, sedated with no solution or name to his condition-treated as a criminal

• helplessness in the trial

  • treated him with violence during an episode

• charged with terrorism-3 strike risk of life

• mom felt that she was guilty-idea she couldn’t nurture him but had to work to survive and provide

super predators

• seeing addicts as a direct connection up to the head drug lords

• treat these individuals super harshly as a solution to a drug problem

• no addressing why people get addicted

prison industrial complex

• prison represents: putting bad people in jail

• put jails out in countryside

• building a prison produces jobs: builders, guards

  • often privately ran

• prisoners are used as a cheap labor force: Gabriel sent into wildfires before firefighters in order to get out earlier

• make mass produced products

economy: 80s and 90s

• free trade zones

• production is going overseas

• mechanized formerly human jobs

• sending these jobs to prisons with cheap labor and 13th amendment loophole

race and criminalization

• urban areas

• racism is not written in law, but resides in the language and implementation

• white lifestyle is maintained (in neighboring areas) by impoverishing others

patriarchy and religion

• patriarchy affects patrisse’s religion (jehovahs witness)

• mother wanted back into group even after being ousted for having a child

  • like toosweet looking for miss pearls attention

  • Patrisses mother had been middle class, and her sexuality ousted her-raymond’s family was middle class

• class, shame, and sexuality

Patrisse going into campaigning

• works for non for profit group (strategy center) created between moodys work

• rebuild social safety net (a lot of black panther work)

  • stop to school to prison pipeline

• non for profits ran by black women (like the black clubwomen)

  • ACORN, abortion/reproductive care groups

militarized police force

• police gets underfunded

• military donates weapons and tools

• police starts to use tanks, distopian, instilling fear

• now-militarized force of ICE

rodney king

• 90s

• pulled over for dinking an driving

• cops call other cops, started beating him profusely

• guy catches it on video camera

• tap got out and put attention on LAPD

• publicized court case: officer ferman uses the n-word on the stand

• they get acquitted, leading to riots in LA

• influenced the OJ simpson trial: needed to show the world a black man having a fair trial-aquitted

intersectionality

• gumbo yaya article

• clarence thomas and anita hill case

• HW bush appointed thomas

  • during hearings: stories come forward from former employees

• Anita hill and intersectionality:

  • white feminists lifted her up to represent all women in a colorblind sense

  • disregarding the history of sexual violence as a black woman

• white men mobilized Thomas’ black masculinity-labeled the accusations as a political lynching

hindsight

• patrisse learns the cause behind alot of her experiences in adulthood

• alton and gabriel leaving:

  • impacts her relationship with Mark anthony

• in hindsight

  • Gabriel: outside conditions of drugs, masculinity, self-sufficiency

  • Alton: losing job, unable to provide for family, ideas of performing male autonomy

gentrification

• monte wants to come home from Vegas

• no one is left at home bc they are in jail or have been pushed out

• section 8: housing that is supposed to be left in new developments-doesnt actually happen

Lawyers

• access and skill levels'

• public defenders are paid nothing and overworks-cannot provide good service to people like Monte

• Patrisee fought to get a lawyer and organized to get 10,000 from community and family

Life after prison

• jobs check that you haven’t committed a crime

• some states revoke voting rights

• cannot say with people on public assistance (section 8)

• leads people back on the street

  • leads to more guilt and shame