We are an emotional society.
We want answers, justice, and peace, and we think, discuss and act based on our feelings.
But we will not achieve anything through bereavement and hate.
This kind of behavior shapes a constant cycle that renders the topic of racism untouchable, non-relatable, and non-discussible.
It is dark and we cannot see, we cannot breathe.
But our cries and our chants, our fear and our hate are not good enough.
Mourning is important, but it is an inadequate way to promote change.
Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Trevon Martin, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, these are names we should remember and honor, but they are not the platform in which we should lead off of to demonstrate our outrage.
Instead of looking at the real issues that are allowing these murders over and over again, instead of demanding that our government change in order to actually function for and by the people, we are more concerned with how what we say makes people feel.
We are talking about who has a right to say what and when, we are speaking past one another about events that have broken our hearts but that cannot rebuild our country.
Our emotions are slowing down our aspirations, and if something is ever going to be done, we must aspire to redefine this nation’s identity.
Photo Credit: Christopher Dombres/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Police brutality is an abominable action that causes men and women leave their homes fearing that their children, siblings, or spouses will be shot down and murdered for the color of their skin.
This is an intimate, deep, and powerful fear, and it should not exist in the minds of our citizens.
But police brutality is also a problem that feeds off of the systemic biases and political violence of a nation.
Read More: Acknowledging Our Built In Biases Can Make Us Stronger And More Tolerant
It is a historical and ongoing economic and political plot to keep specific people from obtaining a better and equal quality of life.
Like dust, American citizens are swept under the carpet, hidden in the fabrics of forgotten neighborhoods and overlooked schools.
And if that doesn’t do it, they are put in prisons, leaving their children alone and unsupported.
Accomplishments and success are faded or tainted because of national prejudices that disregard the brilliance of black culture by commercializing and whitening it.
As an American minority member you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t and no one ever stops to stand up and shout “enough”, but then again, no one ever acknowledges that there is a problem in the first place.
Photo Credit: 5chw4r7/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
It is important to declare ones outrage and it is true that black lives are constantly targeted, but it is ineffective to make this solely an issue of police brutality.
That is a branch on a tree of racism that is rooted through this country.
When Philando Castile was bleeding to death in his car, his fiancé pleaded to the officer, “He has never been arrested or nothing, he isn’t in a gang or nothing”.
This concept is the soil around this tree that nourishes each branch of structural and social violence.
The fact that she felt that she had to justify his lifestyle contrary to the color of his skin speaks to a horrifying notion that this country has deemed black men guilty before innocent.
This prejudice is illegal, it is sickening, and it is a long practiced piece of culture.
Slavery and Jim Crow abandoned the very idea of humanism and instead, replaced it with a beast that thrived on the over and misuse of people for economic gain.
But that is not solely about black people, our history was made on the backs and blood of Native Americans, and Latino/a Americans are perpetually treated in a socially violent and disregarded manner.
These are the origins of America, this is the problem.
The problem with police shootings besides racism is that they are not adequately trained to deescalate situations.
That, and a systemic bias make for very volatile situations.
Our prison system is corrupt and ensures that with ones sentence comes recidivism and a country that deems a perpetrator of even the smallest crime, unfit for society.
We teach our children right from wrong, and then we eradicate that ideal by producing immeasurable destruction to the lives of the marginalized.
Leon Bing describes in her book, Do or Die that just miles apart from each other, a quiet, suburban neighborhood with freshly paved roads and a school with a fenced in field sit above a dilapidated school in Compton, where the walls have holes and the ceiling is leaking and there aren’t even enough chairs for students to sit in for class.
This is a creation essentially encouraging kids to find salvation elsewhere, if the school system has failed them why should they oblige and attend it?
Photo Credit: Fibonacci Blue/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
America needs to open their eyes and mouths and own up to it’s not so ignorant ignorance.
We know the system is unfair, we know populations are being ignored, and we know police brutality is just once piece of the violence.
But why do we still only talk about that one issue?
Black Lives Matter is an important organization, but it has not yet found a way to address racism in a manner that demands national political and social change.
If you make a movement solely about the experience of African Americans, you automatically exclude the rest of the population and in doing so; exclude your own ideals from the rest of the country.
This way of advocacy is entirely understandable, but it is not as effective as demanding that as a nation we change the foundation that separates us from each other.
The Civil Rights Movement fought for shared liberties like using the same restrooms, drinking fountains, and restaurants.
We are in a new age and are desperately in need of a new civil rights movement, but just like that last one, it must fight for a shared quality of life rather than separating itself from the rest of the population.
Instead of discussing how a white person you can show support, we should all be discussing what pieces of our government are allowing institutional racism to run our nation.
That is a discussion that everyone should be involved in regardless of ones skin color, because it affects Americans and taints this country’s identity.
Supporting each other comes from identifying problems and executing solutions.
We should all be able to recognize now that the experience of a black American is far different than that of a white American, but more importantly, we should be able to identify the qualities of the U.S. that make day to day life more violent, more hateful, and more oppressive.
We can’t breathe because the air is too thick with the blood of innocent people and the ignorance of a nation that turn a blind eye after a week or two.
In the play, Angels in America, Tony Kushner writes,“The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on earth sounds less like freedom to me”.
It isn’t just the police, it is our nation, and it is in the soil and the air and it reaffirms a history that consistently belittles its citizens.
If we are going to change anything it has to be about the foundation that causes our loss and our pain.
We are outraged, and that makes sense, but it isn’t good enough to be outraged, we have to be pragmatic if we are going to redefine our history and end this cycle.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Christopher Dombres/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Can Marco Rubio Save His Florida Campaign By Rallying Young Miami To His Aid?
By Camila Saenz
RISE NEWS Fellow
Senator Marco Rubio once again set foot on Florida International University’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus Wednesday, but this time he is looking for some serious help from the students he once taught.
Rubio is a born and raised Miamian with a family background not uncommon to the 54,000 students who attend FIU.
Rubio also previously taught a Florida Politics class on Monday’s and Fridays even after he was elected to the US Senate.
And according to the college professor tracker, Rate My Professor, students enjoyed his class at the university and seemed to like him.
“Probably the most amazing professor I have ever had,” one reviewer wrote on Rate My Professor. “Not to mention that he is a sitting U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate. Would definitely take him again.”
Rubio’s political history runs deep in the southern end of Miami-Dade County. He was a long serving member of the Florida House of Representatives (where he eventually rose to be speaker of the body) and was a city councilman in West Miami starting when the future Presidential candidate was in his mid-twenties.
Marco Rubio at a MSNBC town hall on the campus of FIU. Photo Credit: Camila Saenz/ RISE NEWS
But not everyone is fond of Rubio these days.
“The people of Florida can’t stand him. He couldn’t get elected dog catcher,” Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said recently. “There will be a lot of advertising. It’s the only thing that might save him. But I doubt it.”
The question many students at FIU find themselves asking is whether or not Rubio will win the Florida primary, and whether they should continue to support him.
“I feel since he is born and raised in Florida he has a connection with the people of Florida,” FIU student Frank Mercado. “Age does not determine how well of a president a person will be, Rubio though young can still be a good choice.”
On Wednesday, a large crowd of students waited to catch a glimpse of Rubio walk through the doors of the Graham Center Ballrooms where he participated in a town hall hosted by MSNBC.
Such an honor to have heard you at FIU’s Town Hall event, @marcorubio. Wishing you the all best in your campaign!??? pic.twitter.com/H6rLFQRjDM
— megan quintana (@megan_quintana) March 9, 2016
“Rubio has made a large impact on the republican campaign in this election cycle,” A student attending the town hall said after the event. “He is the strongest candidate out of the final four, however, he lacks years and experience.”
According to RealClear Politics, Trump is currently ahead in the polls by more than 15 points in Florida.
The Florida primary will decide which candidate will receive an additional 99 delegates; it can either give Trump a tighter grip on the GOP nomination or help Rubio stay competitive.
If Rubio loses Florida, he is expected by some to drop out of the contest.
“Donald Trump makes the Republican Party look bad and Ted Cruz does not do a much better job,” Nicolas Zapata, a registered Democrat and FIU student said. “Rubio is the best choice out of the Republicans.
Florida votes on March 15th.
For more information on voting for the 2016 Presidential Preference Primary in Florida visit http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/voting/.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
Cover Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Are Millennials For Or Against The Death Penalty?
Last week, the Death Penalty Information Center Three released statistics saying that roughly 23 percent of practicing Christians born between 1980 and 2000 supported the death penalty, and only 32 percent of millennials total supported the death penalty. What was the cause for change? The United States spends millions on convicting and executing criminals on death row, but is that wisely spent? Does the death penalty take care of larger problems such as abuse, or do these problems get worse?
Mark Elliot, the director of Floridians for Alternatives To The Death Penalty, said about costs: “The best estimate is that the death penalty costs us taxpayers an extra fifty million dollars a year. That’s almost a million dollars a week.”
Indeed, a study done by Loyola Law School says that California has spent $4 million on the death penalty ever since reinstating it in 2011, and that costs expect to rise to $9 billion by 2030.
“The cost studies fail because they don’t provide an apples to apples comparison of the death penalty vs LWOP, which is required to make any rational judgement and/or they are very incomplete and/or they are very dishonest, as Nevada’s, wherein they left out 11 executions, which occurred within 4.5 years of appeals, on average, meaning, in reality, the death penalty must be less expensive than life without parole (LWOP) in Nevada,” said Dudley Sharp, former vice president of Justice for All and currently helping run prodeathpenalty.com.
Alive prisoners do need shelter, food and healthcare. So how does money influence what 20-somethings think about the death penalty?
congenitaldisease posted on her tumblr: “It’s a waste of money. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars are being wasted on a response to murder which is calculated to be carried out on a small amount of unlucky people per year and which has done nothing to stem the rise in murder, which is therefor (sp) ineffective.”
“We are only perpetuating endless cycles of violence upon violence.”
But morals remain one of the key factors determining stances for or against the death penalty. Is assigning death penalty charges to those who commit heinous crimes fix epidemics like abuse?
In the case of Lisa Ann Coleman, when she was granted the death penalty in 2006 for her role in the death of her partner’s nine-year-old, prosecutor Mitch Poe said in a report the day that Coleman was granted the death penalty: “The fact that a female has gotten the death penalty for killing a child, it’s a step forward for bringing child abuse out of the darkness of people’s homes and into the light of day.”
But was he right?
“Well, it doesn’t solve any problems. The only problem it definitely solves are a bunch of problems that local prosecutors and state attorneys may have with funding,” Elliot said.
Sharp has a different sentiment. “My theory, which I find has solid support, is that the root cause of murder is not enough respect for innocent lives. The root causes of crime, and solving those problems, has never been the purpose of sanction and, rationally, never should be….Sanction is based within justice, a proportional response to the crime, which also has the secondary benefits of safety for society, deterrence and reformation of some criminals,” Sharp said.
However, the death penalty is said to have two types of effects.
Nicholas Peterson, an assistant professor at the University of Miami who has written various articles on the death penalty, said in a phone interview: “It’s mainly supposed to be a deterrent in the sense that if you see somebody being executed for a particular crime, that’s supposed to deter you from wanting to make that same kind of crime. It can also be seen as a form of incapacitation, by actually killing somebody, you prevent that individual from committing a crime in the future…so, it’s a little bit of both in theory, but it’s supposed to be more of a deterrent.”
Essentially, seeing someone get killed for something should stop people from going out and doing the same thing. However, Peterson said that various factors such as the influence of drugs or alcohol have people go out and commit violent acts, despite punishment. Mental illness can be another factor, such as with Herbert Mullin, who felt that murdering people would stop earthquakes in California.
But some millennials think the death penalty is a deterrent from the actual problem.
“Violence is committed by those who are trapped in fear and in the most pain. When we add to their pain by committing violence against them, we are only perpetuating endless cycles of violence upon violence,” wrote a Jesse White to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty tumblr.
The way that society sees the death penalty in general could also affect how millennials see it. Pope Francis recently spoke out against the execution of a Georgia inmate named Kelly Renee Gissendaner last Tuesday, asking the Georgia board of pardons and paroles, “I nonetheless implore you, in consideration of the reasons that have been expressed to your board, to commute the sentence to one that would better express both justice and mercy.”
It’s obvious that the opinion of a world religious leader may affect the opinions of his followers.
“The main reason a majority of 20-somethings may be against the death penalty (if they are) is because 1) the media is, overwhelmingly, anti death penalty; 2) the majority in academia are anti death penalty; 3) the anti death penalty movement is highly organized and hugely funded; 4) there is no pro death penalty movement,” Dudley Sharp, a pro death penalty advocate wrote in an email to Rise News. “There’s a saying that the more you know about the death penalty, the less you like it, because people find out more about it, that’s the key. Then, if they have the information to make an informed decision. Most of the time, they’ll see that even if they agreed with, you know, the theory of the death penalty, an eye for an eye, but then practiced as a government program, it makes too many mistakes, it’s expensive, and it diverts their most valuable resources from where they could do so much good to protect the public and really improve criminal justice…”
Essentially, the way that a society utilizes the death penalty changes how people see it. Peterson spoke on Europe’s use of the death penalty.
“Just recently until the past couple of decades, they’ve had the death penalty, and because of changes in their laws and in public opinion, they no longer have the death penalty, so to them, it means the death penalty means something very different because it’s no longer an acceptable form of punishment in their society,” Peterson said.
Florida State University Professor Emeritus Gordon Waldo said in a phone interview that out of the 37 countries in the world that use the death penalty, some of them use it mostly for political reasons. “They sometimes just execute people to get rid of the complaints.”
Social context is applicable as well-Waldo also spoke of a period in the ‘70s in the United States where the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional because it was used in a discriminatory manner.
A variety of things can reflect how twenty somethings view the death penalty, from money to ethics to the world around them. Logic behind these stances for or against the death penalty differ from person to person. The most crucial takeaway to determine your stance is to research immensely, be informed and decide accordingly.
Cover Photo Credit: David Shankbone/Flickr (CC by 2.0)
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North Miami Now Has Its Own Semi-Weekly Night Market. And It’s Pretty Chill
Night markets are common fare in other parts of the United States.
But for whatever reason, they haven’t caught on in South Florida until fairly recently. (And are pretty commercial as well.)
Now, North Miami has its own grassroots night market that will be sure to make the hippie in your family jump for organic joy.
Launched just last week (Nov. 3), the NoMi Night Market had around a dozen vendors show up and a steady flow of interested passersby.
Located near the intersection of NE 123rd St and NE 13th Ave, the night market sits on a space used during the day as the Urban Habitat Farm Store.
Organized by North Miami resident and political activist Lauren Hill, the event is meant to be a weekly happening.
But not yet.
“Our beautiful opening was just a taste of what a night market can be in North Miami,” NoMi Nigh Market posted on its Facebook page on Nov. 8. “Unfortunately, we opened pre-maturely and have some hiccups in opening on a weekly basis as we had intended. We will not be able to open this Friday as intended. We will keep you posted and be back in the market business very soon.”
So while you wait for another chance to visit the night market, you can take a look at what it was like on its opening night:
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