African American Experience

The US is notorious for its spurious conspiracies which leads the neutral bystander to automatically call into question any shifty news articles that crop up. The "Jena 6" incident is one of those news items. The Jena 6 is the local name of a group of 6 individuals who were prosecuted to the full power of the law after supposedly attempting to murder a fellow, white, schoolmate. The case is documented in this video (take this with a pinch of salt - the hard facts are found here). With regard to this case, alongside my week's readings from African American authors, such as Lisa Delpit, Nathan McCall, and Shani Damila, I commented on the class discussion board: "[concerning airport security] Whether a white person or black person was wearing clothing commonly attributed to crime and violence, it would not make any difference (there is no suggestion of racial discrimination here - the girl who put her hand up in class today should have thought about this possibility). As we know, stereotypes are founded on fact, however absurd and extremetised. It is natural for people to make subconscious assumptions concerning people's dress for their own safety; if we associate a thick gold necklace with violence, we'll be afraid around that person. [...] With regard to this weeks readings, I felt the personal accounts were more concerned with endearing themselves to the sympathies of the reader, employing deliberately evocative examples, than portraying faithful accounts of their past experiences. Delpit encapsulated this feeling with her self-pitying, almost tearful, repetition of unique anomalies that were unidentifiable to the reader. I felt that this sense was further undercut by the suggestion that her experiences were exasperated and partially fabricated." I am continually being force-fed overblown, fantasised, exaggerated perspectives; so much so that I can no longer pick the relevant from the stupid. This is wholly depressing. I seem to use this blog as a vehicle for my angst. In related news, the Guardian online has some stereotype-dispelling facts for us.