Why is Mental Health Ignored in Schools?

by with 3 Comments FeaturedGen Z

Everyone remembers the Parkland, Florida shooting that occurred in February 2018, taking the lives of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just recently news has come out that two MSDHS students have committed suicide. I personally found out about this news on Twitter, where people took to tweeting about mental health, particularly PTSD in this case. 

I believe that schools do not do an adequate job of addressing and working with mental health issues. At my own university, there is always a waitlist, sometimes a month-long to see a therapist on campus. My school does provide counseling services for free on campus, which is amazing, but they are severely understaffed. As college students, many of us cannot afford to go to therapy regularly. My school has good intentions with the free counseling program, but overall they need to expand their efforts. A student should not face a month-long waitlist when they choose to seek help.

Thinking back to my high school experience, I cannot remember a single mention of mental health outside of learning about different disorders in psychology class. I’m not quite sure why high schools don’t generally address the topic of mental health, but I believe this is a huge mistake. High school environments are home to bullying, stress, and expectations that all take a huge toll on students’ mental health. I thoroughly believe that high schools should not only be educating students about mental health, but also offering more services for help.

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survived an extremely tragic event that will undoubtedly stay with them and shape their lives forever. It is highly likely that many of the students at MSDHS have or will develop PTSD due to this experience. Especially after a tragic event, schools should address mental health and work with the students to work through grief or trauma. MSDHS already lost 17 students to gun violence, and it is horrible that they are losing even more to suicide.

Various news articles say that students of MSDHS were feeling what is known as “survivor’s guilt”, ultimately leading to suicide. After such a traumatic event as the mass shooting, MSDHS should have been much more focused on mental health for both the students and the rest of the community surrounding the school. Tweets from MSDHS students revealed as early as a week after the shooting, students were expected to return back to normal school life as if nothing had happened.

News has also recently come out that a parent of one of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting has also committed suicide. We all know the deadly effects of gun violence, but it seems that the lasting mental effects afterwards are not addressed or sufficiently treated. Although losing a child or a friend is not something a person can easily get over, the mental health effects can be handled better if we just addressed them. Those who survive shooting situations should, without a doubt, be provided with adequate mental health care. No one can effectively walk away from such a situation and be completely fine. Mental health concerns should be taken far more seriously if we want to stop these tragic suicides.

This article was originally published on 15 February 2019.

Similar Read: The Veiled Epidemic of Suicide

Reflections from a First-Generation African

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

Immediately when I stepped foot in Ghana-it changed me. The air was dry and dusty, the pace immediately slower, relaxed, and the people busy but conversational and friendly. Ghana was different but surprisingly familiar. Nothing like I thought it would be, but not distant from what I’d experienced growing up. I didn’t grow up entirely like the Africans I knew—in a two-parent household with children running around and rice and stew being served for dinner three times a week. I grew up in a home that was rooted in African ideals but preoccupied with the American pressure to “make it.” Our family friends were Ghanaian, Jamaican, and Nigerian, yet with the demand of my parents’ work, they dwindled in how frequently I saw them and size. I remember when I was younger attending loud Nigerian parties where the music boomed and shook the house. My dad played his old man hits of Nigeria and welcomed the friendly atmosphere of like-minded Africa. This faded as my father grew older and farther apart from my mother. They eventually separated then divorced, only leaving the authoritarian ideals intact.

Divorce is not talked about in African families—at least not in mine. African families are supposed to be strong with formidable ideals and the strive to create a more prosperous future for children. But every African family is different. Some may engage fully with their African cultures, others may be “Americanized.” Yet, we all bond through similar cultures. I could claim to be African but knew it was not valid until a native African confirmed my claim. I could claim to be Black but knew I could be invalidated at any time, leaving me to choose what was convenient. I was Black when defending myself against White classmates, but African when it served me and suited my ego.  I fluidly navigated different social identities but knew I wanted to explore my African roots when I was forced to engage a Black world that didn’t fully accept me.

These intersecting identities drove me to travel abroad to Accra, Ghana. Where I knew family resided. Family, I had not met, and my mother spoke little of. Family brings worth, memories, and a perspective of your parents that you never would have gathered from them themselves. But families also expose truths that shock you and may even harm the interpretation you have of your identity. My family greeted me with warmth when they visited me at the University of Ghana. They brought laughter, wisdom, and tenderness. I learned about my mother and pieced together the missing puzzle piece to complete the mosaic of who my family was. Yet, upon leaving I realized that it was only one piece of the puzzle and there was a multitude of other insights and knowledge, I’ve yet to discover.

From my experience aboard, I learned I am a lot like Ghanaian and African people—despite the continental divide. The way I look, my expressions, and the foods I love to eat relate. However, I also learned I am different than many Africans as well. I am not religious enough. I do not know the local language and my bargaining skills are subpar. I am a coalition of identities. We must acknowledge that Africans have relatively different experiences and ancestry. Ghana is a heterogeneous state made up of people from various ethnic groups, religions, and ancestral stories. The journey to America to achieve the American dream may be presented as the same but is not—an obvious observation but something that is not quite explored. Identities are not linear. They are multilateral and even though I had the privilege of visiting a country where my parents were from, African identities and culture are not far from any of our descendants. I write this piece to give thanks to those who granted me the opportunity to study abroad, but also to acknowledge that a person is not simply a result of their parents, but created by experience, exploration, and aspiration to compose their own identity. 

What a Fall From Grace

by with One Comment CultureFeaturedGen ZGun Debate

While I’ve been in college only for four and a half years, it feels as if I’ve been there twice as long because so much has changed from the time I enrolled and to now.

I entered college under Barack Obama and will be graduating under Donald Trump. I’ve watched Trump gradually tear down what little Obama was able to build, branding it as ineffective, but was unable to come up with anything better.

In my junior year, I interned with The Japan Times when I studied abroad in Japan. Every day without fail, Trump would be on the front page with new or recurring shenanigans. Through a different cultural lens, I was able to look at my president, at my country and see how we are continuing to plummet from grace.

The mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL happened while I was abroad. When I returned home, there were many more mass shootings. There were many more shootings in general, which claimed the lives of innocent people for unjustifiable reasons.

If we put forth legislation to regulate the gun market, people will claim that it’s an infringement on their second amendment rights, and/or use under-the-table methods to obtain a gun. It turns out that the more you tell someone to do something, the more likely it is for them to do the opposite.

This holds true in terms of immigration as well. Everyone’s circumstances for emigrating from their home countries are different, though more often than not, it is a better option to take a chance on America versus staying home. Under this anti-immigration presidency, immigrants have been treated worse than I’ve ever seen in my life. Separating children from their adult relatives, housing these children and adults in separate detainment camps without the barest of essentials, and making these children stand trials without translators or juries are just a few of the inhumane efforts to deport these immigrants.

America was built on immigration and continues to thrive today because of immigration. Yet, xenophobia has a vice grip on some Americans. The fear of foreignness coupled with the misconception that immigrants are taking over our economy result sometimes in fatal events like the mass shooting in El Paso, TX.

I continue to watch as our “magnificent” country further deteriorate because that’s all I can do when I don’t know what to do or what can be done. 

Similar Read: Fascism 101

I Can Hardly Remember A Time When Reports of Mass Shootings Weren’t a Regular Occurrence

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

The first time I remember being informed of a mass shooting occurring was on December 14th 2012, the day that Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I was twelve years old, sitting in my living room, viewing the news coverage with my mom. I remember crying, and her asking me if I was crying out of fear of something similar happening at my school. My response was, “No, this is all just really sad.”

Seven years later, and I still experience the same feelings of sadness when I hear the news of yet another mass shooting occurring. However, reports of mass shootings have become so frequent that it would be impossible for me to remember how I reacted to the news coverage of each one, which is not okay. Sadly, many people are way past the point of caring and become more and more desensitized after the story breaks. After receiving so many breaking news reports that a mass shooter has opened fire in various locations, some people are able to shrug and move on, which is the kind of complacency that NRA members and the lawmakers they support are counting on. Despite their indifference and inaction, the repetitive loss of life at the hands of mass shooters is not something to be normalized. Active shooter drills are not normal. Students being given bulletproof backpacks as they venture off into high school is not normal. Students fearing that their lives will be cut short if someone were to enter their place of learning with a gun (whether it be an elementary, middle, high school or a college campus) is not normal.

The treating of mass shootings as if they are inevitable is where a majority of my frustration comes from. Lawmakers ignore the issue, offering “thoughts and prayers” and visiting locations in the aftermath of shootings, while refusing to actually do something by utilizing their power to create structural change that could prevent so many of these tragedies. In New Zealand, the Prime Minister worked to prohibit access to semi-automatic weapons weeks after a mass shooting took place. In Australia, 35 people were killed at the hands of a semi-automatic weapon, and twelve days after the shooting, Australia’s Prime Minister announced a number of changes to their gun laws: “High-caliber rifles and shotguns were banned, licensing was tightened, a “buy-back” scheme took some 650,000 guns out of circulation and remaining firearms were registered to national standards.” These are just two examples of leaders swiftly taking action to protect its’ citizens from senseless gun violence. America has done nothing like this. 

In addition to policy changes, an end to mass shootings cannot be brought without addressing two of the often-ignored factors that contribute to it: misogyny and racism. Many women—myself included—fear being gunned down for rejecting men, and way too many women have been. Black Americans get gunned down by police on a regular basis. The Charleston shooting that took place in 2015, the 2018 shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and the recent shooting in El Paso were all motivated by White Supremacy. (When you include the intersection of marginalized identities, the issue becomes even more dire). Mental illness, rap music, and video games are just a few things that have been used as scapegoats to avoid addressing these factors and doing the work to dismantle the systems that allow them to persist.

While I can hardly remember a time in my life where reports of mass shootings were not a regular occurrence, my hope is that the next generation won’t. While I’ll continue to advocate for comprehensive gun reform, I’d be lying if I said the feeling of hopelessness didn’t affect me. Countless lives have been lost; countless people have been traumatized—so honestly, what else is there to say that hasn’t already been said? What can be done to undo the years of damage that has been done by the normalization to mass shootings in the U.S.? Who else has to die before change comes? 

Similar Read: Bulletproof Backpacks, a 2019 Back-to-School Essential?

Bulletproof Backpacks, a 2019 Back-to-School Essential?

by with 2 Comments FeaturedGen Z

New anxieties emerge with the return of the school year in the wake of multiple mass shootings. 

I had never seen someone look so brave holding up a broom as a weapon. As all my peers and I hid against the wall, many crying softly, my teacher stood by the door barricaded with desks and held the plastic pole ready for whatever might emerge. No amount of active shooter drills prepares a child – or anyone – for the fear of a lockdown. That was in the sixth grade, and now as a college student, that same experience feels like it could repeat itself at any moment.  

After the mass shooting incidents in El Paso and Ohio, it does not come as much of a surprise that some parents are opting out of purchasing their children Barbie and Star Wars backpacks for bulletproof bags. On Aug. 5 2019, when I received an email from Temple University’s President addressing recent safety concerns, I thought maybe it wasn’t so ridiculous after all. According to CBS Philly, Patrick Buhler, a Bucks County man was arrested and charged with terroristic threats and harassment. Buhler bought several boxes of ammunition, as well as knives and propane bottles from Walmart locations. While he was purchasing five boxes of ammo, he asked a customer about Temple University’s security and its campus police. 

Democratic presidential candidates, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Senator Cory Booker, and Julián Castro have called on Walmart to stop selling guns. The company is one of the leading sellers of guns and ammunition in the country. ABC News reported Walmart is pulling violent displays, but will continue to sell firearms. An internal company memo obtained by the Associated Press instructed Walmart employees to unplug Xbox and PlayStation consoles that show violent video games and shut off hunting videos in the vicinity of where guns are sold. The truth is though, no amount of active shooter drills, bulletproof backpacks, or removal of violent displays will save us from the gun culture that has become normalized in the United States.

According to USA Today, the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio may also prompt the Supreme Court to delay hearing cases that could expand Second Amendment rights. Proponents of gun rights say the violence should not hinder the Supreme Court Justices from pushing their agenda. To this, I agree. Change can not purely be catalyzed in the face of tragedy. The lives lost in Dayton and El Paso, is only one story in a string of devastation. The Atlantic reported the United States has witnessed nearly 2,200 mass shootings since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. 

This new anxiety from mass shootings is not only present in people with loved ones returning to school, but in many Americans when entering public spaces. People recently took to Twitter to share their respective fears. Geraldine DeRuiter posted her sentiment in a tweet that instantly went viral: “whenever I’m in a public space, I think about what would happen if a mass shooting broke out. It’s a constant, low-level anxiety that follows me everywhere. I wonder if it’s just me. I don’t think it is.” Buzzfeed News said DeRuiter received a slew of responses from individuals scared to be in classrooms, movie theaters, churches, etc. This concern recently became even more tangible to me when my cousin declined an invitation to go to a street festival because she was anxious about walking in a highly-populated open space.

The recent attacks highlight issues that go beyond gun violence, namely the El Paso shooting and the animosity it carries towards people of color. According to the New York Times, the suspect, Patrick W. Crusius, 21, who is a White male, told police that he had targeted Mexicans. Crusius wrote a four-page manifesto that said he was carrying out the attack in “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Hate crimes like this become even more incomprehensible when public figures like Fox News host Tucker Carlson declares on-air that White supremacy is a “hoax.”

This summer I worked as an English language teacher for high school students from Spain. It was heartbreaking to me that a majority of the students were eager to get answers about the presence of guns during our presentation on campus safety from Drexel University Police. It was sad that neither I nor the police officer had a substantial answer, but it was also a reality check. America, we need to do better. 

Similar Read: Guns Are Here To Stay 

Pointing Fingers

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

There is a monster within our midst. This monster was born and bred in the Land of the Free, fed from the bosom of bigotry, and taught how to survive by means of trigger happy fingers. Now that the monster is running amok, we are quick to point fingers at each other. Did you know that when you’re pointing the blame at someone or something else, there are three fingers pointed back at yourself? 

This monster has been taking the form of mass shootings, which have unfortunately become endemic in the United States. From theaters to parks to schools to nightclubs to Walmarts to downtown night scenes, gun violence has become increasingly more pervasive and its reach keeps extending. It continues to take over any and all remaining safe spaces, if people even feel safe here anymore. 

On the first Sunday of August, many lives were threatened and many lives were claimed. 

Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old White man, traveled 600 miles from his hometown of Allen, TX to El Paso, to this Walmart. It is inarguable that he was a man on a mission to “get as many [Mexicans] as he [could]”. Given that El Paso is comprised of roughly 80% Mexican and Latinx, it is accurate to deem this as a hate crime. Crusius allegedly posted a “manifesto” on a dark website, 8chan, which includes strong anti-immigrant sentiments. 

Authorities reported that Crusius unabashedly confessed to this crime, saying “I’m the shooter”. Crusius is being charged with capital murder, but it is still uncertain whether he will be charged for this mass shooting as a hate crime. According to The NY Times, authorities are still looking for a definitive link between the manifesto on 8chan and Crusius. If they are to find it, then they may prosecute him for the shooting being either an act of domestic terrorism or being a hate crime. Personally, I don’t understand how it can’t be both. 

There are people who claim that this rhetoric sounds like President Trump’s election and re-election campaign, which both contain antagonistic views of immigrants, legal and illegal. This is finger-pointing. We are looking for someone to blame for this and Trump fits the mold, close enough. 

In Dayton, OH, Connor Betts finally got to enact his desire of becoming a mass shooter. Betts had expressed his desire to be a mass shooter since he was in high school. According to his old classmates, all he talked about was guns, extreme violence, and his “hit list.” This list was divided into two sections: a kill list for guys and a rape list for girls. With someone as vocal as he was about his intents, it begs to question why there was no further action taken against him. Betts had been a ticking time bomb since he was a high school student so I want to know how we could have given him the chance to explode. 

Something’s got to give. 

On Monday, August 5th, President Trump addressed these tragic events. While his sincerity could be called into question, if we focused on what he said, there is still a bone to pick with it. He blames violent video games and the internet for corrupting the minds of youths like Crusius and Betts. He also blames these violent acts on mental illness. Trump wants to start putting Red Flag Laws into effect through a bipartisan effort so that we can prevent arming “mentally ill monsters” in the future. Mental illness, video games, and the internet can be factors in decisions and intents such as these, but they are not the blame for them. 

Trump is pointing fingers at other reasons for these tragedies, but his remaining three fingers point at how he seems undecided about whether he’ll protect the people or the second amendment rights, how he feels there’s an influx of immigrants that are ruining our “great” country and making America lose its identity, and how his words and actions can be construed as misogynistic and racist. During his presidency, racist and sexist agendas have become more forthright. If our president can do and say these things, why can’t we the people do the same? 

One thing that stuck with me from Trump’s address is how mass shootings have steadily increased since Columbine twenty years ago. This increasing frequency needs to be stopped so innocent lives won’t be taken. This needs to stop now, but what would the solution look like? 

I like the idea of running background checks on individuals who are looking to purchase a firearm. It is certainly tedious work, similar to getting clearances for a new job, but this extra work can ensure that individuals like Crusius and Betts do not get their trigger happy fingers on them. This can be invasive, and it surely wouldn’t be infallible, but it would be a move in the right direction.  

The second amendment grants us the right to bear arms, and by placing the gun market under stricter supervision, it can be seen as an infringement of this right. I don’t see how we can more strictly regulate the sale and resale of firearms in America whilst remaining completely faithful to our second amendment right. However, as the saying goes, you can’t make everyone happy. 

I also like the idea of raising the age from 18 to 21; however, it is ridiculous to enforce because we are allowed to enlist in the army at the age of 18. We’ll be handling guns at 18, home and overseas, but will not be able to purchase them upon our return if we enforce a policy like this. 

Change is a ripple effect and it doesn’t happen immediately. Decisions have to be made in order for change of some sort to occur. We won’t know if it’s a bad decision or a good one if we don’t put forth the effort. President Trump is pushing for us to put our political differences aside because we need to stand together to make change. We need to relinquish ourselves of this monster we’ve created in the hopes of being and feeling safe within our own country. 

Similar Read: Gun Control: Could It Be That Easy?

40 Acres & A Mule (Why Reparations Can No Longer Wait)

by with 2 Comments FeaturedGen Z

Reparations are defined as “the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.” Throughout history, numerous wrongs have been committed towards African-Americans, including (but not limited to) unequal education access, medical racism, housing discrimination, mass incarceration, etc., and yet no attempt to make amends has been made.

In 2009, The Senate issued an apology for slavery plus the years of oppression that followed, and expressed commitment to “rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.” However, the apology remains empty since the rectification is nowhere to be found. The United States of America refuses to sufficiently acknowledge its’ long history of oppressing, dehumanizing and exploiting Black folks, and restitution is long overdue. The Compensated Emancipation Act was passed in 1862 to repay slave owners for the income they would lose once their slaves were freed. If reparations could be given to repay slave owners for lost wages, then why is giving reparations to the descendants of slavery for centuries’ worth of lost wages viewed as unthinkable?

Reparations continues to be a pressing issue due “to a series of changes that have occurred in recent years — namely, the increased academic understanding of and public attention to the ways a history of slavery and discrimination has fueled disparities like the racial wealth gap, which shows that the median white household is 10 times wealthier than the median black one.” (The 2020 Democratic Primary Debate Over Reparations, Explained) People are aware of the glaring racial wealth gap, and that slavery, plus the centuries of disenfranchisement that came after, have fueled it. 

Enslaved Black people were denied the opportunity to build wealth. Meanwhile, America gained wealth from their work. The early American economy was built and dependent on slavery. The income from the forced labor of slaves was so lucrative that defenders of slavery went so far as to argue that emancipation would lead to the collapse of the American economy as a whole. “By 1860, there were more millionaires (slaveholders all) living in the lower Mississippi Valley than anywhere else in the United States. In the same year, the nearly 4 million American slaves were worth some $3.5 billion, making them the largest single financial asset in the entire U.S. economy, worth more than all manufacturing and railroads combined.” In addition to plantation slavery, slave labor was used for the development of The White House, The Capitol, Wall Street, JP Morgan Chase, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington & Lee University, and The University of Virginia. These institutions profited from slavery in the past and continue to make a profit in the present day. America benefitted greatly from slave labor, while those who were enslaved never received any benefits.

Furthermore, America has never acknowledged that slavery can’t be an issue of the past when it still impacts the present. The harms of slavery didn’t just go away with emancipation. When slavery was abolished, it evolved into other forms of oppression. Black people were denied educational opportunities, adequate housing, good jobs with decent wages, discriminated against by businesses, and their labor was once again exploited through the prison system. Harassment from police and White residents was common, and the subjugation of Black people continued, taking a toll on the entire community. This toll still exists in the present day.

It is not logical to enslave a group of people for over two hundred years, repeatedly railroad them into less than adequate schools and neighborhoods, incarcerate them at unnecessarily high rates as well as repeatedly brutalize them by those who are sworn to “serve and protect”, only to tell them that they are “undeserving” of proper repayment in any form. The United States has done nothing to help Black Americans recover from centuries worth of marginalization, which needs to change. Reparations have proven to be an important issue among Black constituents for the 2020 election, and a hearing was held last month to discuss a bill (H.R.40) that would establish a commission to study and develop reparations proposals. It is obvious that the demand for reparations is not going away anytime soon, nor should it. The impact of slavery is still something that negatively impacts the Black community on the social, political, and economic levels, proving that reparations are long overdue.

A POC Undefined

by with 6 Comments CultureFeaturedGen Z

I am exoticized, and my olive skin, my big brown eyes, and black hair that falls in loose curls are the culprits. I am quick to be labeled as anything that will make everyone else comfortable: Latina, Indian, Asian, and etc. I am objectified with “Hey light skin” and “Hey Mami,” and the contours of my body are to blame. “I want to get to know you,” they will say. However, they only want to get to know this body that is the physical embodiment of the unknown. I am just a rare commodity.

People tend to not look beyond my appearance because it is too mysterious. It is truly baffling because you cannot tell ‘what’ I am by just looking at me. Get-to-know-you questions always begin with, “What are you mixed with?” My answer is never satisfactory, and therefore, people will argue with me about how I identify. At the end of the day, it is no one’s business but mine what my genetic makeup is unless I choose to make it their business.

I am a multiracial woman, but more often than not I am not accepted as such. I can distinctly remember in high school, this guy pestered me about what I am. After a while, I stopped dodging the question and gave him an answer. He kept telling me that I wasn’t that. He kept telling me that I was Indian and that I should stop lying and saying that I’m Black. It is funny to me that people already have an answer to their question, yet they still waste their breath on asking me anyway. It is as if verification is needed for them to feel the way they do about me, to think what they want about me. 

I am too Black to be White, too White to be Black, and not enough Native American to claim my heritage. Growing up was difficult because there were racial cliques. My being multiracial made me the outsider to all of them. I ‘didn’t understand’ the struggles of thick, coarse hair management. I was ‘privileged’ for my lighter complexion, but was still overlooked to favor my White counterparts. I knew nothing about the reserves and the fight to keep those sacred grounds sacred, to defend against industrialization. I wanted to belong to something so much that I denounced everything that wasn’t Black and made that my new identity, but that only made matters worse. It gave way to incidents much like the one with the guy from high school. 

All of my experiences bred a level of self-loathing for being different. I have never wanted anything more than to be able to not stand out wherever I go. I wanted to be able to just go about life without being questioned in most conversations about my race. Now, being a young adult, I’m learning to love the melanin in my skin that allows me to be pale like butterscotch in the winter and dark as cognac in the summer. I’m learning to appreciate each curve of my body and not try to diminish myself every time I step foot out of the house. That is doing myself a disservice.

I am a Person of Color, and never will I ever again be ashamed of being more than just one color. 

Similar Read: I’m Tired of “Wokeness”

This article was originally published on 12 February 2019.

Albert Wilson

by with 2 Comments CultureFeaturedGen Z

“Whatever that is done in darkness will come to light.” This is a saying that I live by to keep myself from harboring hatred and resentment towards the unfairness that runs rampant in the quotidian. This isn’t foolproof by any means, as can be seen of the Albert Wilson rape trial. Did he do anything in darkness that warranted this level of retribution in the light?

The law was created to punish those who did wrong, and protect the ones who did right. How is it that now those who are wrong and who are right now have a certain appearance? How is it that retribution takes different forms depending on what the defendant looks like?

Brock Turner, a White man, raped an unconscious White woman behind a dumpster in 2015 and was convicted in 2016. There was hard evidence that proved these allegations to be facts. There were even witnesses of this assault. His retribution took the form of a six-month sentence. He served only three of those months because prison was detrimental to his young psyche. He was even allowed to have a cellphone during the time he was incarcerated.

Albert Wilson, a Black man, was accused of raping an underage White woman in his apartment in 2016 and was convicted in 2019. There wasn’t even evidence to call circumstantial. Unlike with Turner, semen was not found in or on the victim, and I use that term loosely here. The only DNA found on the victim was on her chest, where he kissed her. Wilson testified to having done sexual acts with the victim but did not have sexual intercourse. Hell, there is surveillance footage of the apartment complex, showing the consensual and mutual exchanges going into the building and coming out of the building five minutes later, not stumbling incoherence that the victim claimed. 

But when the White girl screams rape, it seems that our justice system does not stop to examine the evidence or lack thereof, ask the right questions to the right people, and get to the bottom of what happened. It didn’t matter to the all-White jury, most of whom were women, that there wasn’t any actual evidence to pin the proverbial tail on the donkey. It didn’t matter because the case boiled down to hearsay, and they only listened to the White voice.

The light’s retribution for what was not done in darkness is twelve years, and reportedly the “lightest sentence” issued for rape in Kansas. Wilson was sentenced to twelve years for a crime that there is no actual evidence saying that he committed. Where is the innocent until proven guilty? It seems that this kind of consideration is not colorblind, rather it sees color and discriminates accordingly.

If this case remains closed, Wilson might be on the fast track to joining the statistic of being a Black man wrongfully incarcerated via the lack of due diligence by the people who enforce these laws, meanwhile, White men like Turner are wrongfully freed.

We sweat the same sweat, bleed the same red blood, shed the same tears. While not all of us have melanin or the same amount of melanin, that should not determine how the law is enforced on us. The system is designed to protect, but the judges and the juries, they are the ones who turn it into a weapon. 

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper / And every tongue which rises against you in judgment / You shall condemn,” Isaiah 54:17. While everyone might not have the same faith, I think it can be said unanimously that these weapons are indeed prospering. The voices that rise against us, though we do condemn, we still fall.

What can we do? What we have been doing: raising our own voices. People have taken to Twitter to put out the word and raise awareness. The articles written by news platforms and the website www.freealbertwilson.com had been retweeted several hundreds of thousands of times.

At this time, that is all that we can do besides hope and pray for either an acquittal, like what Michael Rosfeld received, an appeal, a retrial, or complete exoneration. Unfortunately, it seems like our justice system will provide neither. 

Similar Read: Antwon Rose

Beyonce’s Homecoming – For Us, By Us

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

If there’s any artist that’s capable of stopping the world, it’s Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

In 2018, she delivered her highly anticipated performance at Coachella as the festivals’ first Black female headliner and left observers completely in awe. A year later, on April 17, 2019, her Netflix documentary Homecoming premiered, which chronicles the journey she went on to craft her legendary performance. In the film, Beyoncé says “When I decided to do Coachella, instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella.” Watching Homecoming was very impressive, as it gave me more insight into the hard work, sacrifice and intentionality that went into it. There were many aspects that made Beychella pure excellence, but my favorite aspect was seeing the celebration of Black culture taking center stage. 

Beyoncé mentions in the documentary that she grew up near Prairie View A&M University and spent a lot of time during the early years of her career rehearsing at Texas Southern University. Her father is a graduate of Fisk University and she always dreamed of attending a Historically Black institution of higher learning. Beychella paid homage to the nine Black Greek Letter Organizations and an HBCU Homecoming ceremony, with the inclusion of steppers, majorettes, and a marching band. Although I don’t attend an HBCU, I appreciate and respect the importance and significance that they hold, and have witnessed over the years the way that they’re often undervalued. But in the words of Beyoncé, “There is something incredibly important about the HBCU experience that must be celebrated and protected.” With Beychella, she did just that. 

Beychella also included her own rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”—which the NAACP dubbed the Black National Anthem—which transitioned into her pro-Black anthem, “Formation.” She and her dancers swag surfed, danced to a mix of her hit “Crazy in Love” and Juveniles’ “Back That A** Up”, and included the instrumental to C-Murders “Down For My N*****”. The same day that Homecoming was available for streaming, she released her live album of the same name, which featured her cover of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Before I Let Go”, which is a staple at Black functions. Although Coachella’s audience is predominantly White (which made it all the more special that in Homecoming, the camera repeatedly focused on Black audience members), Beyoncé took the opportunity to shine a light on the pure greatness that is Black culture.

While watching Homecoming, one of my greatest sources of joy was that a light was also shone on Black women through voiceovers of icons Nina Simone and Maya Angelou, as well as the many Black women on stage. During Beychella, dancer/choreographer Edidiong Emah was given a solo, and in the film, she says she once felt she was “too short and too thick” and never dreamed she would be there. The space that Black female performers like Edidiong were given onstage was amazing.

In a voiceover, Beyoncé makes a statement that I—and I’m sure many other Black women—could relate to… “As a Black woman, I used to feel like the world wanted me to stay in my little box. And Black women often feel underestimated.” She adds, “I wanted us to be proud of not only the show, but the process and proud of the struggle. Thankful for the beauty that comes with a painful history and rejoice in the pain. Rejoice in the imperfections and the wrongs that are so damn right. And I wanted everyone to feel grateful for their curves, their sass, their honesty. Thankful for the freedom. It was no rules and we were able to create a free, safe space where none of us were marginalized.” Ensuring that her performance made Black women feel prideful, represented, and appreciated was clearly a major priority for her, something that I found very special since the world treats Black women as an afterthought. These women had various skin tones, body types, and skillsets, making Beychella all the more beautiful.

Homecoming provides an insight into the hard work and dedication that was put into Beychella: a stunning display of the beauty that exists in Black culture, Black womanhood, and Black colleges. Black people are the owners of Black culture despite constant attempts to hijack it, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the love of our culture being celebrated by one of its’ actual, rightful owners. Beychella was the embodiment of “for us, by us” and I will forever appreciate it. 

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