MLE 3 – Black Lives Matter – Truth and Reconciliation series

At 7 p.m on Monday, October 5, I wandered downtown and into the Attic Room of the State Theatre. Amongst the many programs and events Penn State can offer, the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities welcomed professor James Braxton Peterson to give a speech about Black Lives Matter movement, as part of its Truth and Reconciliation series. Before attending, I reflected upon the “Truth and Reconciliation” title. I first hypothesized that all that is related to this must be about really dwelling on the truth and facts of the subject, in this case Black Lives Matter movement. Wikipedia states: A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government. By now I’m putting two and two together and realizing that by attending this speech, Professor Peterson might be able to shed some truth and facts on the matter of this movement, because it is widely misrepresented. When I say this I mean to say that I have noticed the black community saying that Black Lives Matter, while other racial communities will go to say that ALL lives matter, and that it is unfair to only enforce that black lives matter. While I stand by 100% that indeed ALL lives matter, the black lives have suffered numerous unjustifiable actions taken against them, and with this mindset I was excited as I waited for Professor Peterson to give his speech and give me the ammunition to fuel enforcements in the cause of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Right away I knew that I had chosen the correct MLE opportunity for me to attend and write about and Peterson hooked me in when he talked about Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright.” I love Kendrick…one of the best rappers of this time and I stand by that AND I could go on for many paragraphs on reasons why he is a genius overall, but I will talk about his song “Alright” and speak of what Professor Peterson had to say about it in relation to the movement.

Peterson pointed out that in “Alright,” Kendrick creates an allusion with his lyrics in reference to the Bible. Whether Kendrick is religious or not, he was raised by a religious mother. I believe Kendrick alludes to the bible because if there is a God, many always come across the same question: why is God doing this? Why does he treat some different than others, and why does it seem that the black community is so greatly affected, in this case? Kendrick is singing his lyrics as an anthem to those that want to hear it, and the black community, that they WILL be “Alright.” Very powerful.  Peterson continued to talk about police brutality towards black people. I took one single criminology course at Penn State so far (it has nothing to do with my major but it is entirely fascinating and relevant) and I can sum up what I learned in the class by saying that we are putting people in charge of incarceration, and they are making all the wrong choices, and what’s worse is that they are unequally tough on the black community as opposed to any other race, and especially white people. I understood this concept more when Professor Peterson stated that “there are different levels to discrimination.” Discrimination itself means the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. So in relation to the black community, it is not only that they are already being discriminated as a race but the problem on top of this problem is that there are even DIFFERENT LEVELS of discriminating. Black women, black men, white women, white men, gay, straight, blue, purple, all these categories are being treated harshly in more or less ways. Discriminating is not okay at. all. but what’s even worse is that if you are already going to discriminate, you’re even going to put more effort in hating a black person over a Mexican or the homosexual over the cross-dresser??? All human beings should be treated with equal respect, equal rights, and given equal respect.

It wasn’t a very long event and the Professor was having some technical difficulties with his presentations, however I found it interesting that he said he was unsure if he even wanted to show us the videos that he had prepared on his presentation. He said is evidence could be too much for the audience, and that may be so but discrimination against black lives is real, and it is terrible, and if the audience cannot handle seeing evidence of this, than we should not discriminate people at all, ever. If these videos were to be shown to the entire population of America, would people cringe? Would they realize racism is wrong? Would they understand the different level of discrimination that black people endure?

Peterson also touched upon the subject of the #SayHerName movement. Keisha Jenkins…rest her soul in peace, because lord knows she suffered both discrimination against her race and her gender identity. This is an example of “discrimination on different levels.”

The speech was very interesting to me, but now I’m all heated as I’m writing about what I remember all over again. I have preached in my blogs about equality, and I strive to act in such ways to everyone I meet. We will never have changed until each one of us personally makes an effort to bring about change. It was a pleasure to hear Professor Peterson speak.

My evidence that I was there was that I wanted to include a link to the song Peterson talked about. Listen to it, and understand why Kendrick is a lyrical genius. 🙂

 

2 thoughts on “MLE 3 – Black Lives Matter – Truth and Reconciliation series

  1. wjs5218 says:

    Love Kendrick, he’s very powerful in his choice of poetry. I think its crazy how he just comes up with powerful lyrics right off the top of his head. He’s truly headed for greatness.

  2. cpb5191 says:

    The Kendrick Lamar song is a very powerful song, by a great musician. I don’t understand why police officers are discriminating blacks so harshly, but it is good to see people of the community standing up for this and what is right.

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