Sunday, September 9, 2012
On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses
While I was leading the poetry discussion last Friday about On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses by Toi Derricotte, I brought up a point about racism in social justice today, and I specifically mentioned a special case about a 17 year old girl named Phylicia. Since we were pressed for time I didn't get to elaborate on the case more, but Phylicia Barnes had been an honors student from Baltimore who was getting ready to graduate and looking forward to attending university. She was also pretty, which apparently impacts whether or not a case gets substantial media coverage. Unfortunately for her, she was also African American, which was a point that hindered her case more than helped her. There was no reason for her to run away, no leads, no one with motives, it was just an extremely puzzling case, and it needed a lot of attention, but didn't get too much at all. One Baltimore police offer even explicitly said that Phylicia's murder may have received more attention if she had been white. Ultimately Phylicia's sister's ex-boyfriend was found guilty of the murder, a man that Phylicia had exchanged over 500 texts with, and who she had been called a 'little sister' by. How she was murdered, how the police got the lead, and even why a protective big brother like figure chose to murder her, are still mysteries that police refuse to disclose. Sometimes we like to think we've come a long way, and we honestly have, it's great to see how much progress we have made, but other times it feels like some things haven't changed at all. I guess that's what keep people going.
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Hi Tanisha,
ReplyDeletePhylicia's story is a very interesting parallel to the poem that you presented in class. The police's unfair treatment of African-American people seems to be an ongoing theme in the literature that we have read in class. For example, you brought up the connection of the black corpse in the poem to Bessie from Native Son, whose body is exploited by the white lawyers for the purpose of appealing to the angry mob's emotions.
Kanye West's rap, "Gorgeous," also mentions the police's unequal treatment of blacks and whites: "Face it, Jerome got more time than Brandon / And at the airport they check all through my bag / And tell me that it's random" (7-9). Though I cannot figure out to whom "Jerome" and "Brandon" refer specifically, it is implied that two men committed a similar crime, but one was sentenced to more jail time due to his race. Then, West mentions that he gets extra screening at airports because the TSA assumes that black people are more likely to be carrying illegal substances.
All of these instances of present-day racism make me wonder if there is a way to for this to stop. How can our society enforce equal treatment of black and white people? As you said, we have come a long way in terms of racial equality, but there is still lots of room for progress.
Something else I was thinking about during your poetry reading that the bell gave me no time to say, was how with crimes against white people committed by white people, the emphasis seems to always be on the victim, but crimes against minorities by other minorities (not exclusively black) seem to always concentrate on the perpetration. Because, while white victims are in the news way more than black victims, black perpetrators are in the news way more than white. This is just another level to police/news inequality you're talking about that I wanted to note.
ReplyDeleteWow Sierra that's a really interesting observation that I actually never thought about before. Definitely a trend that I notice, but never really paid much attention to. And Lara, I definitely understand your frustrations but I don't think there will ever be way to 'enforce' absolute equality. Even if we were all one race of humans, it would be in our nature to find some other uncontrollable trait to judge and separate people by.
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