Blog Post 5 By Oliver Egger Oppression: Defined in To Kill a Mockingbird and violence and shootings that define us all.

Blog Post 5 By Oliver Egger

Oppression: Defined in To Kill a Mockingbird and violence and shootings that define us all.

Oppression. A word that has defined so much and too much of human history. From Egyptian slaves, to Colosseum killings, to forced conversions, to foot binding, to witch trails, to monarchs with infinite power, to Women-less elections, to Nazis, to minority turned away from lunch counters, burning sky scrappers, a persisting hatred for the Islamic community and of course unfair racism defined trails and cops killing unarmed African-Americans in broad daylight. Oppression was my motif and it is infinitely broad topic, with infinitely broad branches off of it. Its complex and characterized with millenniums of hatred not always documented in best selling novels or front page articles plastered upon shop windows. I was thinking of what to say and how I could pick out one bit of oppression in a year that seems to be so filled with it. I gazed through the news and through the words of my peers. It ranged from reverse racism, to school dress codes, to Donald J. Trump,  (Isn't he just the best?) to school shootings, to gun violence, to ISIS, to unacknowledged genocides, to Americans closing the doors on drowning innocent Syrians and the lingering racism in our country leaving the African Americans ostracized from society with bullet holes and injuries bestowed by the people who are supposed to protect them. I decided what I could do to solve this heartbreaking problem was to go online and find one truthful piece of oppression and see how this related the fictional oppression in To Kill a Mockingbird. What I saw instantaneously was the Laquan McDonald killing which if you have gone on the internet or clicked on the news over the past two weeks you've most likely, maybe even unconsciously  heard about this tragic case. A young black man was again shot and killed by a police officer several times,  which was then covered up by the corrupt police department  leading to destruction and hiding of security footage and in the end he should not have, by any means, had his his life stripped from him in this unlawful fashion. His life was unrightfully pried from his hands and in end his execution was not fair, he was never given the rights to a trail or to have his life last longer than seventeen years. In the end he was another black man with seventeen bullet holes who could have been forgotten in the concrete. Strangely he was not because the judge said the footage should be publicly released which helped make Laquan's case a case that wasn't drowned in the concrete sea of other undocumented oppressions.  What was wrong in this case is obvious. What should have happened did not involve pistols and final words, in fact what should have happened was that the police office, Jason Van Dyke should have paused and thought before acting. The man was not attacking him or anyone else. Jason should have taken a deep breath and acted accordingly to what he knows is truly the right thing but sadly that never occurred and Laquan is dead because of that. Whats even more tragic about this story is that I didn't say "oh my god!" like I said in the previous unexplained and unreasonable deaths but now all I said was, "oh again." and that is tragic because these events are so common we don't even think twice about them. This is exactly like To Kill a Mockingbird. In the trail Tom Robinson is found guilty and then killed and the white people aren't even surprised  about this "senseless" killing because in the end its the norm. On page 323 Scout says it the best, " Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed." That is where the true tragedy and oppression lies, "in the secret courts of men's hearts." The people who charged Tom didn't think and neither did the ones who shot him from the sky, they did it because thats was the norm. For the real man, Mr. Jason Van Dyke, killing a black boy is the norm and for the fictional men of Maycomb, Alabama, that is the norm. The oppression is engulfing and terrible and in the end Tom and Laquan shouldn't have died the way they did. If the people sitting on that jury had actually taken a deep and acted accordingly to what they knew was truly right, then maybe they could have given a dire victory to the battle against falling into oppression and hatred, which is a battle we as people are losing. Its time together as we people that we take a deep breath and act. 

Nassim Kartaoui Blog Post 4

Im sure we can all agree when I say that the case was biased
 She sued Tom and brought no evidence to prove her point at all. It was basically the blaming game. Tom was accused for rape and there was no evidence for both side but still Tom was still found guilty for something that had no evidence in the first place. Notice that I am saying evidence a lot. Evidence is key to winning any case and if you bring no evidence then you are just saying that someone did something with no proof. If you have nothing to prove your point and the other person does that is an instant loss for you no questions asked. That was not the case in TKAM. The case was completely biased.

Atticus brought proof and they didnt so he and Tom shouldve wont right? Nope. It 100% was depending on race. Back then if a black man was accused of something he would instantly be convicted. Once the white person blames a black guy, poof he is jail, magic. He may have went to jail but that was just for them to say that he was giving a chance when he actually didnt at all. Here is a speech from Atticus from the movie inside the court.

 

Post Number: ATTICUS FINCH IS A HERO

No matter if he was a racist, a member of the k.k.k., or just against blacks Atticus Finch is a hero who risked his and his families life for a chance to save a black man's life. And I don't appreciate the way that people have hopped on the gentleman bandwagon for a character that they have loved since the beginning. I have heard people argue that he said the k.k.k. was a political party. If he was a member, to him it would be. He wouldn't be out lynching and burning crosses when he stopped the very people who were going that very thing. The more racist he was, the more a hero he was. If he completely hated blacks, then to defend one it would take a lot of bravery. Obviously the town disagreed with him (again brave) and called him and his kids n-lovers. He let his kids go to black churches and even his black servant's house. To do all that would (OBVIOUSLY) not seem gentlemen-like to his town. What would have is if he wither turned down the case and served his sentence or have thrown the case. Even against the impossible odds of an all white-male(talk about oppression)  jury he took it. If you had a chance to take a case that you knew the odds were 100 to one, I bet you wouldn't risk your life and your family's for a person who was almost certainly condemned to death, I mean who would? Atticus Finch would, and he would even get an appeal and try again. Anyone who calls him a racist could be completely true.At that time (and even now) to discuss certain topics you have to attribute certain characteristics to a group of people (the definition of racism). If you take into account "Go Set a Watchman", which is a first draft and should not be used because there are differences between it and "To Kill a Mocking Bird" page 109 of the book tells you about the first draft's Tom Robinson rape case, with Atticus talking about white being white and black being black he could have easily meant that he didn't think that they should together and should be segregated because they would not be equal. There would be more Mayellas crying wolf and killing innocent men because they were embarrassed. He brings up how it's a sin to take advantage of black people because black people wouldn't (and couldn't) defend themselves in the court of law or outside for that matter. He was trying to protect black people from desperate whites who were angry. Atticus could be a racist, he very well could be a member of the k.k.k., but he is definitely a hero and please read this entire post before making comments (and make sure they're your own). 

It's No Secret That The World Isn't Perfect (Post 5- Modern Sad Stuffs)

     A few weeks ago, Paris was attacked by terrorists, killing over 100 people. A repercussion of this attack is the increase in the already moderately high oppression of innocent Muslims. Literally a bit after a day within the attacks France bombed parts of Syria in an attempt to destroy an ISIS location, but instead killing many innocent civilians. Such actions are not new. In the U.S, we have all heard of the events of 9/11; that event triggered a social decline in the acceptance of the Muslim people. The U.S has also been bombing Islamic countries to get back at terrorist groups, a lot of the time unsuccessfully as 'the war on terror' continues.
     In the presidential debates that have been going on recently, the candidate Canada has been waiting for (since face it, if he gets elected we are all going there), Donald Trump* called out the Muslim people for being a "problem." On top of that, he straight out shows his planned oppression of Syrians if he gets elected. According to an article from the Daily Mail News in the UK, Donald Trump has said that "any Syrian refugees who decided to come to America having fled the violence will be deported," that is, if he became president. Trump claims that the refugees "...could be ISIS, I don't know. This could be one of the greatest tactical ploys of all time. A 200,00-man army, maybe."  Now I may not be the brightest, but this sounds a lot like oppression to me.
    Trump is not the only one guilty of oppressing Muslims in the country. Ever since the 9/11 attacks, more and more people have gone on the oppression bandwagon. Due to ISIS' continuous horrible activity, it doesn't look like it's going to get better for the innocent Muslims for a while. This oppression is quite similar to that of blacks in TKAM but without segregation and terrorists.
     For example, we all knew Tom Robinson was innocent, but he was convicted out of racist and expressionist beliefs. Whereas a recent story in the news saw a teacher calling 911 on an Islamic kid who brought a homemade clock she believed to be a bomb. The similarity between the two? The teacher just assumed that because the kid was Middle eastern and Muslim that the clock he made was a bomb (basically stating that the kid was a terrorist) which is not only racist but shows a piece of modern oppression. In Robinson's case, racism and oppression by the jury against blacks also made their decision bias and convicted an innocent man of rape. Thus oppression and racism was shown in both cases and made both the teacher and jury make bad calls against innocent people.
    What I can't really seem to understand is that so many people in the world say "this is bad, unjust, and needs to be changed!" yet nothing like racism or oppression gets truly changed, just shifted to a new people. For instance, majority of the people in the United States are what the Islamic people called "Dhimmi" aka people of the book (people who follow the bible) and all of those religions preach some form of "love thy neighbor as yourself." Yet, no one seems to follow that as it was supposed to be followed. As someone who doesn't actively participate in religion, I ask why is that? I mean yeah there's the separation of church and state but that 'love thy neighbor' is VERY reminiscent of the "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" from the Declaration of Independence.

  

  In essence, the world today still has oppression and racism similar to that of To Kill a Mockingbird's, just in a different form. While segregation has been dealt with, there is still racism and oppression against blacks and in recent years Muslims shown in the news a lot lately. Heck, sexism is still a prominent thing with oppression against women, but thankfully not nearly as much as there was from Mockingbird's time. Though the world seems to be improving, even if it's just every so slightly. Sad thing is, the "big important adult world" that's almost completely full of itself is only able to take baby steps when it comes to owning up to and fixing your mistakes/problems. This just means that it's going to take a lot longer than ourselves and our founding fathers hoped it would to get rid of racism, oppression, and sexism. 

    Though our generation can fix that. We can hopefully fix these problems ourselves in the future. Or at least make the world take normal steps towards fixing the problem. After all, it starts with us. 

                                                                       
                                                                            -TP
 

* I do not support Trump at all on anything nor will I


                                                                        Sources:
War On Terror article- http://www.globalissues.org/issue/245/war-on-terror 
Trump deportees- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255742/I-m-putting-notice-Trump-pledges-deport-Syrian-refugees-elected-saying-ISIS-fighters.html
CNN on the clock thingy- http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/16/us/texas-student-ahmed-muslim-clock-bomb/
LTN-  http://newsite.karenhousecw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/love-thy-neighbor1.jpg
Preamble- https://pearlsofprofundity.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/preamble-123-declaration-of-indep.jpg
Political Cartoon- http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/55/62/556234d9f2a1cccb73c8798aade39533.jpg?itok=qIX6BYtl

Blog Post IIIII: Reverse Racism

As everyone (hopefully) knows, black people, and all PoC have been oppressed by white people. White people are oppressors. White people cannot experience systematic oppression. This leads me into that reverse racism is not real. There is confusion between, discrimination, prejudice, and racism.  White people can experience prejudice and discrimination, but not racism. Prejudice is basically the feeling/opinion of dislike towards a race, in this case. In a broad case, it is an opinion not based on reasoning or experience. Discrimination is prejudice with actions to go against that group you are prejudice towards.

On the other hand, racism is slightly different, but white people cannot experience racism. Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism is about privilege and power. To include white people have never been oppressed. People of color never had more privilege or power than white people. Racism is a system built on power and oppression. You can not oppress the oppressors. Racism also goes back into history.

Until white people are denied jobs, because they're white, reverse racism is not real. Until white people are denied jobs, because of a hairstyle, reverse racism is not real. Until white people are shamed for their hairstyles, skin, facial features, and then seen others being praised for copying them, reverse racism is not real. Until white people are being seen as only 3/5th  of a person, reverse racism is not real.

Scene from "Dear White People"

                   


Going with this, white people have never been oppressed, and this has been seen. I mean, with the #BlackLivesMatter and everything in that. We've been seeing a lot about innocent black people being killed for the simplest of things, and sometimes for actually doing nothing. (Also with the acts of terrorism recently. Side notes: my heart goes to those affected in all of these.)
Just to name a few unarmed PoC that have been killed.
Tamir Rice (Nov. 22, 2014) was shot and killed while holding a BB gun seconds after being spotted in a park.
Akai Gurley (Nov. 20, 2014) was shot in a dark stairwell unarmed and didn't know what was happening.
Rumain Brisbon (Dec. 2, 2014) was shot to death by police officer who supposedly "mistook" his bottle of pills for a gun.
And there's many more.

Bearing the Brunt of Police Brutality

Northeast Columbia, sunny and warm year round. Many parks and pools for people to enjoy. The perfect suburban area for you and your family to grow in. That is, if you and your family are white. At first glance this district is beautiful and well groomed. But interact with the people, and you can smell the rotten core. Racism runs through the south, everyone knows that. But no one was expecting the public display of brutality (PDB), videotaped and documented for the world to see, the assault on a peaceful, black student at Spring Valley High school. An unnamed student was flung across her classroom by deputy Ben Fields.
I don't know about you, but I've seen kids get caught on their phones in class that have NOT been thrown and dragged across a classroom, resulting in a broken arm, head bruises and cuts. The force this officer used was completely unnecessary. The girl in this video was arrested and arrested and charged. Later on Niya Kenny, a student who also goes to spring valley was protesting the arrest, she too got arrested, just for standing up for what she believes in, just for having a voice. Many black (and Hispanic) children and adults do not have a voice in America. 40% of students who were expelled each year are black. 70% of in school arrests were of black and Latino students. Black girls are arrested six times more than white girls and Black boys are suspended three times more. (source)  Black students are being sent to prison and jail from school in waves. In most of these cases the 16-17 year old will be charged as an adult. This is what many are called a school-to-prison-pipeline. The term was first coined because of the alarming rate at which young black men are being incarcerated. White kids have more options when they are being sentenced, courts rule in favor of taking a more "medicine" based approach  with them. When white kids bring guns to school and shoot people they get offered psychiatric treatment, individualized education plans and even counselling. Now it's not bad that they are getting the help they so obviously need, but wouldn't it be correct to give black and Latino students the same opportunities? Wouldn't it be nice to not base disciplinarian actions on race? In TKAM Tom Robinson was put in jail not because he was guilty, but because he was black, the highest crime of all. A crime every black person in this world has to pay. We payed it back in the time of Tom Robinson, and we still pay it today. Lets not forget about Stephen Perry, arrested and charged with weapons possession while trying to avoive a school water balloon fight. (source) . Or Rashe France, 12 years and in 7th grade, the only child arrested in a minor hallway altercation. (source) . Or in Wisconsin when a teenage girl was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmates meal. (source) . All we see when we look at arrests made in the US is color, looking at someones race is not a bad thing at all, but judgement based of of their race and and racial profiling is. Lets add this kids names to dictionary, lets end police brutality and fix the racist and messed up courtrooms in America. Here is the full article on the Spring Valley brutality 
and a link to the full video. Please beware that this video is disturbing to watch.

Here is the deputy, smiling in front of an American flag, like an American hero

                                                               

Blog Entry #5

   

   With my motif being oppression throughout this project, I was easily able to find topics and articles that really got my attention. Something that I'm pretty into regarding oppression is the school dress codes. There are cases across the country and even other areas all over the world that discuss the sexism and breathtaking hypocrisy involved. One example of what schools consider "breaking the dress code" was pushed upon a Canadian girl named Lauren Wiggins who was punished by wearing a full-length maxi dress. Her teachers and administrators deemed it "inappropriate" and a "sexual distraction" to classmates. Lauren is now pushing to change the way school systems perceive and sexualize the bodies of their students.

     Another story comes from a young transgender student named Jeydon Loredo, who's yearbook photo was cropped out because he chose to wear a tuxedo. In the community he lives in, Jaydon's fem.-to-male transition had "been pretty chill", and he was accepted by his peers and parents. However, when he asked the principle for permission to wear a tux for the school photos, he said it "wouldn't be allowed". Jaydon's peers, friends, and family all spoke out and supported him on the issue, but the school board wouldn't budge. Unfortunately, school districts still seem to neglect the basic LGBTQ+ rights even today.

     I feel like these two stories really connect well to the section in TKAM where Scout is almost pressured by her Aunt Alexandera to start wearing dresses and acting more like a lady (pgs. 107-109). Scout feels that she should be able to wear what she wants, as her typical overalls or shorts are probably much more comfortable than an over-starched skirt. There is a quote on page 108 where Scout is hurt by her aunt's suggestions, which is as follows:
"I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge, but when I asked Attucs about it, he said there were already enough sunbeams in the family and to go on about my business, he didn't mind me much the way I was." I actually really enjoy Atticus's reaction to Scout telling him this information, because it kinda shows how he loves her for who she is inside, and not just how she appears on the outside. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/opinion/the-battle-over-dress-codes.html?_r=0 

http://time.com/3892965/everydaysexism-school-dress-codes-rape-culture/