THE Facts
Who: Desmond Cole
Occupation: Freelance journalist
Home Town: Oshawa
Relevance:
"The dominant culture must constantly strive to expand its hegemony while fending off challenges and interventions from the very classes and groups it seeks to subjugate,"
(Split Image, African Americans in the Mass Media, pg. 6) in La Pierre
Desmond Cole is a freelance journalist who writes about racism in Toronto. His work has been featured in the Toronto Star, the Toronto Life and recently in his podcast work with Canadaland. Desmond attended Queen's University for the first two years of his undergrad. Once he moved into the Queen's Student Community, he noticed that he would be followed or stopped on the street in order to show identification to polic. This was his first experience with racial profiling and carding. After his second year, Desmond moved to Toronto where he believed he could "escape the bigotry" and fit in in the multicultural and diverse community. However, the police in Toronto carded much more frequently than he expected and he testifies to the fact that he lives in a harmonious multicultrualism community that still makes feel like an outsider.
Micro Level: Queen's Perspective
Desmond's experiences are not unique. Incidents of gross racism within our very own communities are written about every single day. In order to understand the grievances of a movement, we must examine the personal experiences that people have.
The dominant culture that is perpetuated through the media has historically originated from the Anglo community. The information that individuals are receiving is structured to harbour the needs while also communicating the ideals of the controlling class.
The two minorities that are mostly excluded from mainstreem media are black and hispanic groups. In the past, network television focused its attention on blacks in roles that exploited stereotypes. Today within the news, these stereotypes are still present and their news revolves around labelling and negative connotations.
The Black Lives Matter movement is not an issolated institution in the United States. Starting in 2012 after the death of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, protesters have come to the streets to express their anger about the increased police brutality against black people.
However, the phenomenon can also be investigated from even within our own communities and within other black diasporas such as Jamaica and the UK. Individuals have taken it upon themselves to publicize and display that an integrated nation "is not only worth pursuing, but practically attainable" - Vargas
Canadian Perspective
Carding in Toronto
"Cultural Harmony"
Jan Doering did a study with the University of Toronto which examines how candidates running in municipal elections in both Toronto and Chicago addressed race and ethnicity in their campaigns. Her study found that Toronto’s dominant culture of “multicultural harmony” may actually be stifling political debate about the city’s racial problems instead of addressing them and creating solutions. Through the comparison of Toronto and Chicago, the findings found that Chicago’s campaign material was much more confrontational than Toronto’s, attacking school closings in minority neighborhoods and highlighting racist police abuse. Candidates in Toronto however, overemphasized their commitment to ethnic and racial harmony but did not highlight any important racial challenges.
National Perspective
Police Brutality Statistics
What is excessive force?
A law enforcement officer has the right to use such force as is reasonably necessary under the circumstances to make a lawful arrest. - The American Law Library
The problem?
1. It is hard to understand what is reasonable.
2. Every jurisdiction defines reasonable in a different way
3. What may be reasonable to a police officer will be different from what a review board or court may think is reasonable.
Ferguson
In 2012, the Black Lives Matter campaign started after the death of Trayvon Martin. However, the movement became nationally recognized after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. As hundreds of people created a memorial for Michael, tension between the police and the residents grew as police vehicles drove over the flowers placed for the 18 year old who was fatally shot earlier that day. - more info
Ferguson will forever be the image that drives the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
