Author: sdjvs

“An Army of One”: Congresswoman Barbara Lee is America’s Anti-War Hero

May 4, 2019 / sdjvs / 0 Comments

As I was recently scrolling through my Twitter feed, I came across one of the most courageous progressive politicians in 21st century America: U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Particularly, Lee, who has represented Oakland, CA in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1998, has gained notoriety by leading the fight against U.S. foreign military intervention, being the only member of Congress to have voted against the authorization of use of force following the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As a result of her “No” vote on AUMF, Lee was not only called a traitor by pundits and constituents alike but also received numerous death threats. Yet, Lee didn’t back down. Instead, as one of America’s most vocal anti-war leaders, Lee also led the opposition to the war in Iraq and American military intervention in Syria, even working with Republican Members of Congress to oppose President Obama – a member of her political party – and his foreign interventionist plans. Detailing her coalition-building approach to opposing military intervention and recognizing her idealistic power, defense reporter Austin Wright titled his 2017 Politico Magazine profile of Lee as “How Barbara Lee Became an Army of One.”

In addition, Lee has worked to improve U.S. foreign relations with CARICOM nations, authoring the Shirley Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act, which sought to enhance U.S. education-related foreign aid to Caribbean countries. In regards to domestic policy, Lee has also been in the frontline of advocacy efforts for progressive causes to help America’s marginalized communities, including the poor and working classes, racial minorities, and Women. In Congress, Lee has been a leading proponent of legislation to reform America’s criminal justice system, legalize marijuana, impose stricter gun control measures, abolish the death penalty, and provide healthcare coverage for abortion and other reproductive procedures. Finally, I was also intrigued by finding out that Lee was a Black Panther activist, having volunteered at the Black Panther Party’s Community Learning Center in Oakland during her 20s. Thus, overall, I chose Barbara Lee as a figure that represents 21st century radical politics due to her courageous and often-lonely anti-war advocacy efforts, her introduction of progressive legislation that seeks to empower marginalized communities in the U.S. and fix American foreign policy in the Caribbean, and her own personal past, which includes being a member of the Black Panther Party.

With this in mind, my online archive of Congresswoman Barbara Lee features three artifacts that vary in scope and digital method.

First, I include Lee’s speech against the authorization of military force after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which demonstrates her anti-war activism even when alone and under threat. In this historic speech, Lee urged Congressional leaders to not let the United States “become the evil we deplore.”

Second, I present a series of tweets that highlight Lee’s restorative approach to progressive domestic policy-making. On February 28, 2019, Lee, who was named as a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, introduced legislation to end federal cannabis prohibition, bar the federal government from using funds to interfere in state-legal marijuana programs, and encourage reform policies to help communities of color participate in the legal market.

Lastly, I include a press release and congressional speech video that emphasizes Lee’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Both highlight the atrocious ways in which Black people have been killed in the United States by the utilization of deathly police force. Lee calls on the Department of Justice to “help [to] stop the killings.” Click on the following images for full access.

Imagining a new world: Black Panther Film Review

April 8, 2019 / sdjvs / 0 Comments

Black Panther is a 2018 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and directed by Ryan Coogler. With a running time of 134 minutes, this film explores power struggles in Wakanda – a fictional, advanced African kingdom that has developed technology by using the fictional metal Vibranium while keeping their resources hidden from the rest of the world.

At the beginning of the film, Wakanda’s King T’Chaka, the original Black Panther, dies during a terrorist attack, opening the door to the rise of T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa, to the throne. At his coronation ceremony, T’Challa successfully overcomes a challenge presented by M’Baku – the leader of the Jabari Tribe. In consequence, T’Challa becomes Wakanda’s King and the Black Panther. In one of his first rulings, T’Challa decides to seek to bring Wakandan enemy Ulysses Klaue to justice, organizing a capture mission that takes place in South Korea. With the help of the head of Wakanda’s armed forces Okoye and his ex-lover and Wakandan spy Nakia, T’Challa captures Klaue, giving him to American intelligence operative Everett Ross. Eric Stevens – the son of T’Chaka’s brother, Njobu, and a U.S. black ops soldier that goes by “Killmonger” – helps Klaue to escape, later killing him and bringing him to the Wakandan border. As he is allowed in, Killmonger challenges and defeats T’Challa in ritual combat. While everyone thinks T’Challa is dead, Killmonger takes power and prepares to share Wakanda’s vibranium-powered weapons with marginalized people around the world, seeking the violent overthrow of powerful governments. T’Challa, who wants to keep Wakanda’s vibranium hidden from the rest of the world, is rescued by the Jabari, and healed by Nakia, Ross, his sister Shuri, and his mother Ramonda. T’Challa returns to fight Killmonger, causing a battle between Okoye’s army and W’Kabi’s army. With the help of M’Baku and the Jabari, T’Challa and Okoye’s army win. Killmonger commits suicide. The movie ends with the creation of a Wakandan outreach center in Oakland, CA and with T’Challa’s appearance at the United Nations to reveal Wakanda’s power.

Overall, this film makes us think about competing notions of racial consciousness and Black internationalism. Primarily, it showcases the differences between Africans and African Americans. While T’Challa wants Wakanda to remain isolated from the world, US-raised Killmonger seeks the international unity of all people of African descent. Clearly, one of the factors creating such a competing notion could be the varying ways in which each character was raised; T’Challa was raised as a member of the Wakanda kinship and Killmonger was raised in a poor community in Oakland, California. As well, these two characters differ in regards to their support for the potential emergence of international Black revolution. While Killmonger strongly believes in overthrowing governmental structures around the world to empower historically marginalized people, T’Challa takes a more cautious approach, eventually utilizing the United Nations as a forum to establish avenues of international cooperation with other countries. This difference in perspective is also perceived through a generational lens, with the elder leaders supporting caution while younger leaders like W’Baka support a more revolutionary approach.

Significantly, through the characterization of T’Challa as the hero and Killmonger as the villain, it appears that the film takes a stance on several issues, especially in regards to global Black solidarity. Primarily, the film sends a clear message against the kind of Africa-led-global-revolution that Killmonger wants. Instead, it argues for international cooperation between people of African descent around the world. Most importantly, through the utilization of the United Nations, the film’s message is not one against the global status quo. In fact, as I read it, the film asserts the role of predominantly western institutions in the construction of global Black solidarity. In doing so, the film also stood against T’Challa’s initial isolationist perspective, which was not only criticized by Killmonger but by other key characters that surrounded T’Challa. For instance, for a long time, T’Challa’s ex-lover Nakia has advocated for the end of Wakanda’s self-imposed isolation. She thought that Wakanda could use its resources to help African descendants around the world. Therefore, in general, the film takes a moderate approach to questions about Black internationalism.

Finally, through the conceptualization of the powerful Wakanda, Black Panther provides an imaginative, alternative history of the African continent and its descendants. Particularly, the film accentuates Wakanda’s historical efforts to protect itself by maintaining its power and resources hidden from the rest of the world, leading audience members to ask two important questions. First, what would be Africa’s reality today had it not been colonized and exploited by Imperial super-powers? Second, can a Black State only operate successful if clandestine?

Ultimately, history has shown us the inability of global super-powers to respect the sovereignty of Black and Brown countries. Imagining the film’s continuation, it is likely that now that Wakanda’s power has been exposed to the rest of the world, the international community will demand the redistribution of the country’s vibranium. Or, perhaps, an anti-Wakanda international front will be formed to extract the Black country’s wealth and natural resources. If not, can we imagine a world where global white supremacy allows a Blackity-black state like Wakanda to become the World’s super-power?

Wakanda, Forever!

How police brutality and white supremacy fueled the Black Lives Matter movement

March 28, 2019 / sdjvs / 0 Comments

For this project, I utilized TimeMapper to track the different horrendous killings of Black people in the United States that fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, which occurred due to the combination of white supremacy and police brutality. Particularly, from the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 to the killing of Philando Castile in 2016, this digital tool allowed me to create both a timeline and a map tracker of these discriminatory incidents. While the timeline illustrates the closeness in time of each of these shootings, the map positions police brutality and white supremacy as national issues. Furthermore, through the provision of summaries, this tool also allowed me to give more insight into the unfolding of each of these incidents. Specifically, in all of these summaries, I noted five significant aspects: date, location, victim’s name, the fate of the killer, and whether protests followed. Lastly, the tool allowed to post pictures and portraits of the fallen.

Afro-Colombian Trailblazer Zulia Mena: From the Community to the Government

February 20, 2019 / sdjvs / 0 Comments

Zulia Mena is a remarkable Afro-Colombian community leader and government official who has dedicated her life to the organization of Western Colombian black and rural communities with the goal of achieving social, cultural, and economic justice.

Zulia Mena, Afro-Colombian Trailblazer

Mena was born in the Campo Bonito neighborhood of the Colombian municipality of Quibdo on November 21^st, 1965 to a large, humble peasant family. Since, she has called this predominantly black town, located in the rural Choco state, her home. There, Mena graduated from an all-female high school, the Integrated Feminine Institute of Quibdo. She went on to successfully pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in social work with a concentration in social management from the Choco Technical University Diego Luis Cordoba. She obtained a Master’s in territorial and community management from the Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES) in Washington, D.C., United States.

Mena’s work as an organizer began in 1982, starting to mobilize rural communities. In 1988, she founded the Organización de Barrios Populares y Comunidades Campesinas de la Costa Pacifica del Choco – an organization that brought together poor and farming communities from the Colombian Pacific Coast. This organization was mainly formed by black families, reaching a total membership of 7,000 families at a point. Their goal is the defense of their territorial, cultural, economic, social, and political rights as a black ethnic group. Most importantly, the organization has provided a new pathway to leadership for Afro-Colombian women through different empowerment events that seek to legitimize their position in society in the eyes of the local and state governments. To achieve this, their work has ranged from making presence at local city council meetings to holding sit-ins in different state buildings.

Mena was key to the political mobilization of black Colombians that led to the inclusion of black rights in the Colombian constitution reform process of 1991. Due to her work, she was named as the Choco’s Special Commissioner tasked with defining the legal framework for article 55 in the constitution, which established clearly delineated rights for Afro-Colombian communities such as rights to property, identity and cultural protection, and economic and social advancement. This eventually led to the passage and implementation of the 1993 Law 70, or Ley of Negritudes (Law of the Blacks), which officially recognized Afro-Colombian territorial rights.

From 1994 to 1998, Mena served as an elected member of the Colombian House of Representatives, becoming the first person to serve the specially-defined, national Afro-Colombian district. In 2003, she founded the Colombian council of Black Women (COMUN). In 2005, she co-founded the Ethnic Movement of Black Women. During this time, she served her community in different capacities, working as an advisor to local and state elected officials and government boards as well as a Professor at her alma mater.

On October 30^th, 2011 Mena was elected as Mayor of Quibdo as a candidate of the progressive Radical Change party. She earned a seven-point margin over her nearest competitor. In her acceptance speech, Mena promised to bring people and participatory democracy to the local political process. “This is not just a personal triumph; this is a triumph for all of us,” she emphasized. Her work as Mayor focused on education, infrastructure, and social equity. In 2015, she was recognized as the second-best Mayor of Colombia, based on polling results. As Mayor, she gained national recognition by bringing-in the advice of nationally-known, high caliber advisers. Her term ended in 2015.

In 2016, Mena was named as Colombia’s Deputy Minister of Culture by then-President Juan Manuel Santos. From early on, she focused on working to eradicate poverty through culture by providing impoverished communities with public libraries, technical schools, and community centers. She served in this role until 2018.

In an interview for a digital documentary, Mena claimed that her passion to help the community originated since an early age, when she started thinking about how to improve the life condition of her own family and other similarly impoverished black families in the Choco state. Her family’s support has also been critical to her work in the community. Her mom pointed to the importance of her education in allowing her and her sisters to have a better future. On the other hand, her dad claimed to fear for her life, stating that “in Choco, those who are trying to help the poor are never safe.”

These fears materialized when, in 2018, the Colombian Attorney General’s office ordered the arrest of Mena on corruption charges. Mena, and members of her administration as Mayor, were accused of violating the Contract Law when wrongly assigning contracts during the planning of the 20^th National Games in 2015. Mena was quickly freed, but was banned from being able to run for office for the next ten years.