Category: #3 – Accessing the Past

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.

To best encompass the entirety of Afropunk as an annual, global music festival, I used Keynote as the digital tool by creating a slideshow with a voice-over. I felt that this was the best tool to use because, as a contemporary music festival, Afropunk is a visual experience as well as auditory experience. I wanted to mimic that in a way by presenting the audience with vivid photographs of past Afropunk festivals and with my voice coupled by the instrumental from Lauryn Hill’s “Sweetest Thing”. In particular, I chose that song to use as an instrumental because Lauryn has headlined the Afropunk stage in 2015 and the song itself evokes the black aesthetic of neo-soul music. I felt that this tool was simple to navigate, though it took longer to actually create the slideshow than I thought it would, perhaps because I had never used Keynote before. It was interesting, too, having to voice my script in such a way that it evoked a sort of storytelling rather than sounding too dry or as to make it obvious that I was reading off of a paper. I think that putting character and differing inflections into my voice made for a more engaging video experience. Since Afropunk is vibrant and entertaining, I wanted that to also be expressed through my music choice, the “movement” that the pictures evoked, the vibrancy of the colored photos, the way I was saying my words, and the transitions of the slides. This tool, too, works well for getting information across to the audience in a concise, yet informative manner while constantly being engaging. The other tools, like a timeline or a map, would not have been as useful to portray Afropunk because Afropunk does not happen in one set location as it takes place in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Johannesburg, and Paris nor do events differ enough from year-to-year to construct a meaningful timeline.

A global black solidarity to fight for a world free of hate crimes and racially motivated violence has been one of the driving forces of black diasporic collaboration from the beginning. Seeds of black diasporic consciousness were sown as early on as days of slavery,  the first and most large-scale attack of violence on black bodies and black freedom, and the largest scale mass enslavement of a race of people, in the history of the world.

Violence has been just one, but unfortunately, a prominent one, of the persistent themes in the development of the black global consciousness and black freedom struggle. Despite black consciousness and disapora encompassing the depth of the positive self-understandings of an identity, such as ethnic and cultural celebrations, and historical and artistic investigations of one’s ancestry, almost any group as part of it’s self-understanding includes a component of shared struggle.

In the history of shared struggle against violence and racial hatred, the black political movement for essential rights has been fraught with compromise when ideals have come to head against real political and economic forces. Black global consciousness has meant a fight not only for racial equality for people of African descent, but for basic human rights for all people regardless of race. But these movements were often put to a halt when faced against political incentives of the people in power. In post-WWI treaties in Paris in 1919, the Japanese Empire which had had extensive contact with representatives from US Civil Rights organizations , proposed a “racial equality bill” at the meeting to found Wilson’s League of Nations. This was rejected because it was not politically profitable to the politicians who were most influential at the Paris Peace Conference.

Similarly, many victims of hate crimes go unreported because their cases lack conclusive evidence, and their stories are not compelling enough for the media. This was not the case, however, with Jussie Smollet. His case was picture perfect. He was a famous black gay actor. He was popular in his show Empire. And the alleged attack was not inconclusively racially related, or conducted by someone who may have had underlying mental health issues along with secondary racist tendencies. Rather it appeared to be premeditated, as he had received a threatening letter a week earlier. Finally, not only was Smollet a celebrity, but most importantly, he was a sympathetic victim: just as Treyvon Martin was chosen by the media due to his youth and innocence, people who are legitimate victims of hate crimes but do not fit a model citizen (for example, they may themselves have a criminal record, or simply be less successful in social status) or attractive young person are often ignored.

As a result of celebrity status and political connections, the Chicago prosecutor’s office has dropped charges for Smollet despite interviews saying they believe he is guilty. The case is now closed, and only so much information can be deciphered from what has been reported. This timeline attempts to show a guide to elucidate the potential political influences that led to an unprecedented dropping of charges for Smollet.

True victims of hate crimes lose credibility as a result of political maneuverings behind the scenes to afford special privileges to celebrities like Jussie Smollet. As a result of his political ties, his actions are overlooked by the very people in power who claim to be advocating for rights of people who are oppressed due to racism. As usual, the grassroots struggle for black rights is jeopardized by political interests.

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1ehTNuv_3W8jDF8XL6Wq-Za2OI59j_P-3yXo_MMUiumU&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

I chose to use a timeline to keep track of the various forms of evidence and understand the political ties. I thought the timeline would help keep the many disparate facts from various news organizations clear in order to form a picture of the likelihood that political influence did or did not play a part in Smollet’s apparent special treatment in this case. In particular, news of contact from political influencers to the prosecution was learned later on but actually occurred before the police suspected (at least officially) Smollett which was something I wondered before I had put it in a timeline. Aside from that one fact, I realized there weren’t that many interesting facts to the case so my timeline was not as helpful as I had hoped.

Sources

Wbur

CNN

I chose to use Google MyMaps as a the digital tool to represent that fortification of Black diasporic consciousness that occurred after the murder of civil rights activist Marielle Franco. Her death sparked hundred of protests in urban centers all of the world, and this digital tool allowed me to showcase just how much impact this events had on activists globally. Though I did not mention every single location, I tried to highlight places where I could find the most information on the protests, like in New York, Paris, and London. I think this tool helps to give a good visual as to what locations are engaging in what diasporic process. In this case, it was political mobilizing around the unjust killing of a political leader. I thought the ability to change the kind of stickers that marked the locations was also useful because it helped me to create some sort of legend, allowing the viewer to see the different kind of actions taking place. For example,  the green star stickers represented all of the protests, while the magenta heart stickers represented more academic/artistic events held in her honor. I also liked this tool because it was very good at drawing connections between places. For example, I was able to use a line to connect Nairobi, Kenya to the Museu da Maré in Rio de Janeiro as a way to make clear the literal connection between activists in Nairobi who transported physical work to this museum in the favela that Marielle Franco was raised in.

I decided to use a Google Map (https://goo.gl/maps/m8MZoQdrJQn) to display the origins of all the attendees of the Second Pan-African Congress, which was held in London in 1921. I chose the Second Pan-African Congress over the ones that preceded it in 1900 and 1919 because to me, it demonstrated the largest moment yet of diasporic consciousness-making because it hosted what W.E.B Du Bois classified as “26 different groups of people of Negro descent.” In addition to the nearly all-encompassing nature of the conference in terms of hearing the voices of black peoples from different locales and different positions of statehood (i.e. still under imperial power, states, etc.), this pan-African congress also hosted several non-black, colored representatives from India, the Philippines, and Annam, representing the inception of a larger color consciousness. Thus, I felt that the Google Map and the breadth of origin it demonstrates was adequate in capturing the novelty and incredible impact the Second Pan-African Congress had.

Freedom Rides Virtual Tour 

I chose to display the 1961 Freedom Rides through a google tour. In my opinion, this event displays diasporic consciousness-making in that it showcases the unity of 13 people who knew that segregation had to come to an end and took it upon themselves to make a necessary push in the movement. With this tool the user is able to both geographically follow the route taken by the Freedom Riders and also read a bit about what occurred at each location on the given day. Thus, while a timeline would have sufficed, in that it would have broken down what occurred on the rides from May 4th through May 16th, the use of the virtual tour still includes all those details while also taking viewers on a showcase of the actual driving – providing a better sense of how much the riders traveled each day and what they endured at each site.