What's Going on in the Kitchen?
Thursday, May 8, 2008
There were helicopters all over Brooklyn yesterday afternoon. Thousands of people marched to protest the rulings handed down in the Sean Bell case.
In class, my students laid it out in twenty minutes. Americans have rights. But 'Americans' are white, speak English, wear suits, are straight and have college degrees. Twenty minutes.
Then later, I sat in a room of twenty LGB, Gender Variant and Intersexed folks who are outraged about the Sean Bell case, and all around the room I heard the same thing, "Where are our people?" And then the answer, "They are scared. They feel unsafe."
Three of the women in the room had been harassed by police on the way to the meeting simply for being trans and walking through the Village. The cops assumed they MUST be prostitutes, not community organizers.
I am so frustrated right now, because I feel the institutionalized poverty of queer people, of people of color, of disabled people, of non-native speakers. People are being criminalized for who they are. Their very essence is illegal. How can we make people illegal? Who has the right to do that?
Every day the Bush regime erodes away at our freedoms, the things people have literally died for in this country, and most people can't be bothered to care. Where is the personal responsibility? Where are the good Samaritans?
Lawrence.com blogs are collections of short, frequently updated posts by members of the Lawrence community. Blog writers, and comment posters, are solely responsible for what they say. (Please take the time to read our full policy.)
If you're interested in writing a blog on lawrence.com, send us a couple of sample entries.
Josh Ritter :: Besides the fact that he wrote a song called "Lawrence, KS" without ever having been to Lawrence, there are plenty of reasons to dig on the poetic verses of Josh Ritter ... More info
Comments
lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy
Posted by betwixt (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 12:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is truly scary to be an assumed danger in some armed police officers equation. To be on the wrong side of that equation can mean humiliation, fear and even death. I spent this morning on my way to the subway hoping that they weren't conducting bag searches.
More info on the swarming of helicopters... (http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad....)
Posted by billy (Billy Keefe) on May 8, 2008 at 12:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am worried that when they see all the cameras I am carrying around that I will be a special target within a targeted group. I don't feel that the camera makes me safer.
Posted by wbabbit (Will Babbit) on May 9, 2008 at 3:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've just got to ask, and it doesn't seem safe to google at work...what's intersexed?
Posted by greenjeans1 (anonymous) on May 9, 2008 at 8:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's time we gathered together. Gay, multicultural, grey panthers, economically disadvantaged and everyone who believes in freedom. Like I remember the 60's and 70's and push for real transformation. WE lost ground with George Bush and I want to take it back.
Posted by mitzibel (Misty Nuckolls) on May 9, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
That's cool greanjeans, but gather together and do *what* exactly? No snark here, I genuinely want to know.
Posted by billy (Billy Keefe) on May 11, 2008 at 6:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Intersexed = Folks who have male and female reproductive organs
Posted by billy (Billy Keefe) on May 11, 2008 at 6:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Do what? How about demand a living wage, an international living wage, reform the prison system, give local communities power over international corporations, ensure union rights for workers world wide, take guns away from the police, make more parks, demand sex worker rights, recognize the real ways in which people are disadvantaged, conserve energy, throw back beers, make music, enjoy each other, have really deep conversations, follow up with really silly conversations, make out, go swimming (in unpolluted water), buy things made by people who enjoy making them and retain the profits, sleep outdoors.
Post a comment
(Requires free lawrence.com registration.)