Week 9 - Kaitlin Zheng

Kaitlin Zheng

Section A03

Week 9

The article “Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice” by Santos F. Ramos was one of the most informative article I’ve read. The controversy over people of other communities creating their own “#______LivesMatter” hashtag or even an “#AllLivesMatter” hashtag is that creating their own hashtag to create support and awareness of oppression to a certain community, it erases the original intent of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and generalizes the oppression and inequality that Black communities face in their lives. Even if the new hashtag had the intent of showing an indication of solidarity with the Black community, it is still contentious and disregards the big picture of continuous systematic racial injustice towards them. The article gives an example of correct way to show support of the initial Black Lives Matter movement; the #APIs4BlackLives hashtag and the Oakland Police department incident presents the example of appropriate ways to show solidarity and support of the Black Lives movement without taking the spotlight away from the central issue. The article brings light to how people of other marginalized communities can come together and truly, respectfully become one force in fighting for social justice. It also discusses how there is a hierarchy of oppression in which some groups of color are granted more rights and privileges than others and how although this hierarchy exists, it’s necessary to understand that no one oppressed group has more of a justification to demand social justice. The author writes that it is necessary to advocate for social justice by building relationships with those of other racial differences in order to push for equality, which is known as relational organizing. This method allows people to connect with people of other oppressed communities and truly understand how everything relatively affects each other and comes about rather than seeing everything as separate and an isolated issue. This is important in the modern world where while the Black Lives Matter certainly is so important to push for, other marginalized communities are able to bring awareness for their cause while avoiding justifying that one is more important than another.

Question:

What are ways besides relational organizing to effectively and respectfully show support to different social justice movements without regarding others as unimportant?

References:

1. Ramos, S. F. (2016, April 20). Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://enculturation.net/building-a-culture-of-solidarity 
2. No White Supremacy. [Digital Image] Retrieved Nov. 19, 2017 from https://am23.akamaized.net/tms/cnt/uploads/2017/08/shutterstock_657670060.jpg