Speaking Truth To Power in Ferguson

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been conducting fieldwork in Ferguson, MO for the Voices of Ferguson project. One of the themes I have been investigating is the idea of truth, especially when it is understood as being multiple and subjective – i.e. when we all have different truths about our lived experiences. Today, I interviewed an African American man from East St Louis, IL who has come to Ferguson as an activist. I asked him the same question that I ask all participants: “What does it mean to speak truth to power?” This was his beautiful, poetic response.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of my personal dealings with police officers.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of all my life how I’ve seen the grocery stores crowded at the beginning of the month and empty at the end of the month.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of all those ticket violations in Ferguson and the courts and all the racial slurs in government emails.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of how many young guys that I’ve known who were very intelligent but never got an opportunity because they don’t think they can.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of these religious divisions where we take religion out of the schools, but put it in the prisons. Maybe if they talked about the love of God in the classroom, the prisons wouldn’t need to be filled up with Bibles, and people wouldn’t feel like now they need to turn to Jesus and be saved so their minds can be freed and not have to deal with their current situation.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of all the officers on whom indictments have not been served. I think of Eric Garner, and I think they should have given him a chance, shot him in the foot instead of choked him up.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of those white construction workers who said they saw Mike Brown’s hands up in the air.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of the unemployment rate in my community and how no one really cares about it.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of all the potholes and empty lots that are just taking up space that could be used for a community baseball field or basketball court.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think of Ferguson and how it was triggered and how that can go on anywhere, in any city in America.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think if we don’t hurry up and get control of police brutality, there’s going to be more deaths, more killings, more murders on both sides.

When I think of speaking truth to power, I think it’s the things that I think about everyday, speak about everyday, and dream about everyday, and think about the ways that I can do something to change things.

What do you think it means to speak truth to power? What is your truth? I’d be interested to read your thoughts and perspectives.

If you’d like more information on the Voices of Ferguson project, visit http://www.laurakgraham.com or email laura.graham@tufts.edu.

Truth and reconciliation in Ferguson and beyond

Written for the Truth Telling Weekend/Truth Telling Project: March 12-15, 2015.

forgiveness and reconciliation

“The word ‘Truth’ makes me uncomfortable. The word ‘truth’ still trips my tongue. […] I hesitate at the word, I am not used to using it. Even when I type it, it ends up as either turth or trth.[…] I prefer the word ‘lie’. The moment the lie raises its head, I smell blood. Because it is there … where the truth is closest. The word ‘reconciliation,’ on the other hand, is my daily bread. Compromise, accommodate, provide, make space for. Understand. Tolerate. Empathize. Endure…without it, no relationship, no work, no progress, is possible. Yes. Piece by piece we die into reconciliation.” – Antjie Krog(1998, p. 36), Country of My Skull

What role does truth play in reconciliation processes? In justice? In peace? In uniting communities divided along the lines of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, etc.? Does truth unite or divide us? Can truth bring to light the injustices of generations of…

View original post 966 more words

Hannah Arendt’s lesson on the “banality of evil”

For PJS 150-03 Spring 2015.

The Human Rights Forum

By: Laura Graham

“In the face of death, he had found the cliché used in funeral oratory.  Under the gallows, his memory played him the last trick; he was ‘elated’ and he forgot that this was his own funeral.  It was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us – the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil” – Hannah Arendt, 1963, p.252

In Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, we are invited into the trial of Nazi transportation officer, Adolf Eichmann; a man whose obedience to Nazi authority would ultimately lead to his demise.

Just who was this Nazi collaborator whose actions were so abhorrent that he was kidnapped by the Israelis in Argentina and forced to stand trial in Jerusalem years after the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials?

Adolf Eichmann was born in 1906…

View original post 889 more words

Discussion on the Herero and Nama Genocide

Please answer 3 of the following questions in separate comment posts. Interacting with the comments posted by your peers is strongly encouraged. You may also post any questions that you have about this case study and I will answer in due course.

1) How did the Scramble for Africa set the stage for the Herero and Nama genocide to occur?

2) What is Lebensraum and what makes it genocidal? Is it possible for a country to pursue lebensraum in a non-genocidal fashion?

3) Explain the genocidal intent of General Von Trotha’s “annihilation order.”

4) Describe the conditions of the concentration camps in German-occupied South Western Africa. How do these conditions compare with those in Nazi Germany (e.g. Auschwitz)?

5) How were “racial sciences” used by genocidaires to justify the mass murder of the Herero and Nama people? In what other countries and times have racial sciences been used to dehumanize one group of people?

6) In your opinion, how can the German government repair the irreparable in Namibia today? Is an apology enough or are reparations necessary? If so, what kinds of reparations (e.g. monetary, symbolic, etc.)? See Repairing the Irreparable.

7) What links do you see between the Herero & Nama genocide and the Holocaust?

Discussion on Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations and Pinker’s Violence Vanquished

Please choose 5 questions to respond to in the comments section. Please write 1 response per comment – i.e. you should have 5 unique comment responses for this activity. You should also aim to form your comments in response to what your peers have said in their comments. You may also raise questions of your own about any of the material covered over the past two weeks in the comments, which I will respond to in due course.

Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations

Huntington’s main argument: The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural rather than ideological or primarily economic.

• What evidence does Huntington provide to support his claim that civilizations will clash?
• What are the 7 or 8 major civilizations? How might these categories be problematic?
• To what extent do you agree/disagree with this assertion: “As people define their identity in ethnic and religious terms they are likely to see an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ relation existing between themselves and people of different ethnicity or religion.”
• What do you think accounts for the popularity of Huntington’s clash of civilizations hypothesis?
• Why does Huntington claim that that there is a clash between Islam and the West? What are some of the problems with this claim?
• If Huntington’s hypotheses were true indicators of international relations, what would be the implications for those engaged in conflict resolution?

Pinker’s Violence Vanquished

Pinker’s main argument: “Violence has been in decline for thousands of years, and today we may be living in the most peaceable era in the existence of our species.”

• What are the 6 major historical declines of violence as outlined by Pinker?
• How does Pinker define violence? What challenges might his critics level at his understanding of the decrease in violence as per that definition?
• To what human characteristics does Pinker attribute to the decline in violence – i.e. what are the “better angels of our nature”? What other factors contribute to the decline in violence?
• Compare/contrast Huntington’s clash of civilizations hypothesis with Pinker’s violence vanquished. What are the merits/limitations of each? With which are you more inclined to agree?
• If Pinker’s arguments about violence diminishing are true indicators of international relations, what would be the implications for those engaged in conflict resolution?

The Eight Stages of Genocide

For PJS 150-03 Spring 2015.

The Human Rights Forum

Authors: Alex Kolodner and Stina Stannik

1. Classification

2. Symbolization
ID Cards

3. Dehumanization

4. Organization

5. Polarization

6. Preparation:

7. Extermination (Genocide)

8. Denial

The 8 stages of genocide developed by Gregory Stanton are a necessary framework for structuring discussion of genocide. The stages, listed above, help to highlight the various precursors to genocide as well as provide early warning signs to conflict areas that could move from one of the earlier stages to a more serious systematic destruction of human life.

There are several questions to consider given the framework, first and foremost of them is “What should the national response be to individuals or organizations that actively engage in the early stages of genocide?” For example, Arizona has passed laws to actively allow for the segregation of immigrants to America. These laws allow for law enforcement to question the identity of any person in the state.

Additionally…

View original post 766 more words

Raphael Lemkin and the “crime without a name”

For PJS 150-03 Spring 2015.

The Human Rights Forum

Raphael Lemkin was a Polish lawyer credited with coining the term “genocide” in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.  The term stems from the Greek word “genos,” which refers to a nation or tribe, and the Latin word “cide,” which means killing.  Prior to Lemkin’s conceptualization, Winston Churchill described the act of genocide as a “crime without a name.”

This week in class, we explored the history of the concept of genocide and how it came to be listed as a crime that “shocks the conscience of mankind” in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in 1948.  Indeed, Lemkin was a vociferous advocate for the act to be codified in domestic laws and in international treaties.  He was one of the drafters of the Convention and the main intellectual force behind the articulation and inclusion of genocide as a crime to be…

View original post 429 more words

Coming Full Circle: One Last Discussion on Ferguson

Coming Full Circle: One Last Discussion on Ferguson

By: Safiya Nanji

The semester has flown by at an alarmingly fast pace. A few months ago, we started the course by talking about current events, especially focusing on Ferguson, Missouri. Much has changed since we last delved into the topic and I thought that it seems fitting to come full circle and end with the current issues in regards to Ferguson.

To recap, on August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting prompted various protests and rallies across St. Louis County.

Just last week, the grand jury decided not to indict Wilson. From there nation-wide protests have taken place. Many of the protests were peaceful but some were quite violent. Many felt that a grave injustice was done to Brown and his family. Wilson has since resigned from the police force, due to the numerous legitimate death threats he received, which put both his life and the force’s life in harm’s way.

This issue, from the get go, was very much centered on race, in conjunction with the loss of a life. A white officer shot a black teenager in a predominantly black neighborhood. Of the 53 cops apart of the St. Louis County task force, only 3 are black.

Based on data from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, young Blacks are 4.5 times more likely to be killed by police than any other age or racial group. In fact, a black person is killed extrajudicially every 28 hours, and Black men between ages 19 and 25 are the group most at risk to be gunned down by police.

Brown’s death was the spark necessary in order for protestors across the country to start a movement. The reason that so many are able to identify with the Ferguson movement is because it provides a narrative about race and justice in America. To them, Ferguson serves as a blatant reminder that the United States criminal justice system is not fair – it doesn’t treat blacks and whites equally; young black men in particular are often killed with impunity. Moreover, no one should be able to get away with murder.

This trial has left many with unanswered questions. Was it a fair trial if witness 10 reportedly made racist remarks in the past? Why did Wilson change his testimony? Why did Wilson not immediately call for back up? Why did Wilson shoot a boy who was running away from the police vehicle, when he knew that the boy was unarmed and already slightly injured from the bullet shot that grazed Brown’s hand? What are your thoughts on the matter?

Michelle Alexander, a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer and scholar, is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. She has spent years studying American society and the creation of “a contemporary system of racial control.” She says:

“Arguably the most important parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow is that both have served to define the meaning and significance of race in America. Indeed, a primary function of any racial caste system is to define the meaning of race in its time. Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. That is what it means to be black.”

Do you agree with Alexander? Is there a parallel between mass incarceration and Jim Crow or is that an exaggeration? How would you view the issues of Ferguson? Do you think the nation’s reaction to the grand jury’s decision to not indict Wilson is justified? Or are their reactions simply fuelling in the stigmas associated with black men (i.e. the looting, setting fires, violence etc.)?

What role, if any, do you think race plays in the current caste system? Do you see a disparity in how crimes are dealt with, in regards to race? Can you think of any other examples within the past 10 years?

Extra Information:

I don’t think it’s fair to address the race issues in Ferguson without talking about gun control. Here’s an interesting read that I recommend you check out: http://www.vox.com/2014/11/26/7292963/gun-control-police-shootings

DA hands grand jury an unconstitutional law: http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/shocking-mistake-in-darren-wilson-grand-jury-364273731666

Legal analysts question evidence presented: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9EggKoHTwg (1:41-5:43 was very interesting!)

Review: “I Came to Testify”

Guest blogger: Joshua Harriman

Recently in Intro to Human Rights we watched the documentary film “I Came To Testify” as part of our discussion around the Bosnian war and investigation into war crimes.  I was particularly drawn to several scenes in the film, which portrayed Bozniak rape victims giving testimony to the International Criminal Tribunal in 2000.  In these scenes, the faces were blocked out as we would expect from footage of sensitive interviews.  Normally when it is an issue for someone’s identity to remain hidden, their face or voice will be distorted in some way.  In this video I was struck by the effort that was taken to include the colors of the witness’ clothing and body.  Its as though the figure is not just blurred to protect their identity, but instead “pixelated” in order to honestly portray their disposition.

The idea of creating an image that is intentionally pixelated has a lot of precedence in fine art from recent decades, not to mention pop culture.  Several fine artists who are doing work in this area include: Chuck Close, Peter Halley and Julie Mehretu.  I would argue that one major reason for this visual strategy is that we live in an increasingly digitized culture, where our daily lives become mediated by screens.  So to use this cultural reference as a means of portraying victims of a modern day war machine seems appropriate.  In this particular context it seems even more fitting, because the technique of breaking down and distorting a person’s face suggests a loss of identity, dignity, and/or self-respect.  These are all things that a Bosniak rape victim giving testimony on their experience would likely have experienced.
One example of an artist who creates portraiture that appears pixelated is Chuck Close.  Close became known for working in a style of realistic portrait painting that is composed of “cells.”  When looked at from a distance the viewer sees the accurate representation of a portrait, but when you go up close you see that the image is actually a series of small abstract squares.  While his goals may be different from the images portrayed in “I came to Testify,” it seems clear that we could draw a parellel between the two in terms of visual strategy.

Chuck Close Paul the 4th , 2001. 104” x 82”

Another painter whose work has bearing on this discussion is Peter Halley.  Halley’s paintings specifically reference cells and prisons and the fracturing of space in modern society.  Halley’s paintings employ diagramatic drawing as a way of depicting this fractured sense of space.

Peter Halley CUSeeMe, 1995.  108 x 110 1/8 inches

Julie Mehretu is another artist that comes to mind when dealing with a fracturing of space and and how society has been defined visually by power structures.  Mehretu explains:

“I think of my abstract mark-making as a type of sign lexicon, signifier, or language for characters that hold identity and have social agency. The characters in my maps plotted, journeyed, evolved, and built civilizations. I charted, analyzed, and mapped their experience and development: their cities, their suburbs, their conflicts, and their wars. The paintings occurred in an intangible no-place: a blank terrain, an abstracted map space. As I continued to work I needed a context for the marks, the characters. By combining many types of architectural plans and drawings I tried to create a metaphoric, tectonic view of structural history. I wanted to bring my drawing into time and place”  (Firstenberg 70).

Julie Mehretu  Retopistics: A Renegade Excavation, 2001.  101 ½ x 208 ½ in

While watching “I Came to Testify,” I was reminded of work by these artists for both their content and their visual strategies.  In the scenes of Bozniak women testifying, the filmmakers also employ a visual strategy that brings to mind a kind of de-humanization.  The identity of these women becomes a crude but not unappealing set of shifting color blocks that loosely designate how we would see their visage.  By blurring the details of their appearance, its as though we are not intended to see them as persons.  We instead see them as a set of exploded color blocks.

WORKS CITED
Laurie Firstenberg, “Painting Platform in NY,” Flash Art Vol. XXXV No. 227, November/December 2002.

Spotlight: Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone

Guest blog by Rebecca Iafrati (Peace and Justice Studies, Tufts University)

The use of children in war has been an issue that has proliferated over the past fifty years. In this blog post I will examine the role of child soldiers in Sierra Leone as a case study. Sierra Leone is often at the center of the discussion of the use of child soldiers because of the prominent role children played in the eleven year long civil war. As much as 80% of the combatants in the civil war were children, and children were used from the start of the conflict, not just once there was a shortage of adult soldiers. The conflict in Sierra Leone was a civil war between the Revolutionary United Front and the existing government in Sierra Leone, headed by Joseph Momoh. The fighting was particularly focused on the struggle to control resources, in this case the diamond mines in southeast region of the country. Child soldiers were an appealing option for the RUF because children were easier to manipulate than adults and were a cheaper option. The Sierra Leone government was also guilty of using children fighters to some extent, but the majority of the children in the conflict were on the side of the RUF. The use of child soldiers wreaked havoc on the traditional way of life in Sierra Leone and reintegration of these children into society has been extremely complicated.

It is significant to note that the conflict in Sierra Leone was being fought primarily to control resources and so that certain individuals could profit, rather than for a nationalist or religious cause. Adults would not be willing to risk their lives so that other people could profit unless they were receiving a huge reward themselves, so children are exploited because they are an inexpensive alternative to adult combatants, such as mercenaries. As one analyst notes children “are cheaper than adults, and they can be drugged or conditioned more easily into violence” (Singer 55). The increase in the arms trade over the last decade due to the absence of conventional arms control has also led to the proliferation of the use of child soldiers because now even small children can be used as a cheap source of fighters. It was relatively easy for the RUF to get access to AK-47s which are light enough for children to use and are extremely inexpensive. The use of child soldiers allowed the RUF to continue fighting no matter how weak or unpopular they became because war did not have an ideological goal, it had and economic one.

Child soldiers were recruited in Sierra Leone through both abduction and “voluntary” methods. Children often faced the choice of starvation or military enlistment and would typically choose the later in order to survive. One study done in Sierra Leone described how many parents would encourage daughters to join the military if their marriage proposals were poor. Additionally, the RUF would pay a minor soldier’s waged directly to the family and the looted goods that children would bring home encouraged impoverished families to send more children to war (Singer 63). The Human Rights Watch reported that the RUF would also attempt to trick naïve children into joining their forces by going to refugee camps and telling the children that they would be sold when they left the camp, or stating that the RUF had located their families and would help them reunite. One boy recalled that the RUF recruiters had told him “We’d all have our own vehicle. They told us they’d build houses for us. They told us many things.” (Singer 66). More forceful tactics are also used including RUF fighters coming to the camps and telling the children that the RUF would kill everyone in the camp if they did not rejoin the rebel army. Also, RUF fighters would go into villages and forcefully abduct children and force them to join their ranks, their only alternative being to be murdered.

Once the child is recruited they go through a brutal military initiation process, the goal of which is to “foster a child’s dependency on an armed organization and inhibit escape.” (Singer 57). As part of their training for violence, child recruits are often subject to grueling physical tasks as well as ideological indoctrination. The Human Rights Watch reports that children in the RUF accused of the slightest infractions may be subject to extreme physical punishments including beating, whipping, caning, and being chained or tied up with rope for days at a time. Additionally, they report that commanders supply child soldiers with marijuana, cocaine and opiates to make them “brave” and lessen their fear of combat. Child soldiers in Sierra Leone were particularly renowned for their cruelty, which is often attributed to their drug use. The addiction that child soldiers inevitably develop also ties them to the RUF because they are the source of drugs that the children have come to be reliant on. Finally, commanders typically force children to watch someone being killed or beaten immediately upon arrival at the military base in order to desensitize them to violence, as well as to show them what happens if they attempt escape. All of these methods utilize fear as a way to motivate the child soldiers to be obedient without question.

Discussion Questions:

What does the use of child soldiers tell us about the societies that utilize them?

What kind of social and economic conditions lead to the use of child soldiers?

What kind of effect do you believe child soldiers have on communities both during and after conflict?

What methods would you suggest for reintegrating children back into society?

Works Cited

Singer, P. W. Children at War. New York: Pantheon, 2005.

“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers | Human Rights Watch.” Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers | Human Rights Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

“Statistics.” UNICEF. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.