Posted on

Mentally Ill Are Gun Violence Victims, Not the Culprits

Experts Say Finger Unfairly Pointed at Mentally Ill

Jason Harrison is an example of how the mentally ill are often victims of gun violence, instead of perpetrators.  Harrison, 39, was shot and killed after his mother called police to take him to a mental hospital when he was having a psychotic episode.  Five seconds after Harrison and mother met polilce the door of his home, he was shot when he didn't follow commands to put down a screwdriver.  Photo courtesy Atlanta Black Star.

 

WASHINGTON –When the mother of a mentally ill man called 911 for help from her home in Dallas a few years ago, she did not expect him to be shot to death by police right in front of her.  When she called in, she specifically requested officers with mental health training and told them her son, Jason Harrison, 39, was suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.  

He needed to go to the hospital, she said.  Her son’s erratic behavior was nothing new. She had called for help before.  So, when she opened her door, she casually informed them of her son’s current state.

“He’s just off the chain, she told the officers as her son ambled out the door just behind her.  “Incoherent, talking about chopping up people.” 

Harrison seemed calm.  He was twiddling with a screwdriver.  Immediately, the officers began shouting at Harrison to drop the screwdriver.  He didn’t.  Five seconds later, he was dead after being shot five times.  He lay dying in the driveway of the well-kept, middle-class home as officers continued to yell at him to drop the screw driver.

What happened to Harrison in 2014, even according to police, happens far too often when the mentally ill encounter police.   Additionally, it is a startling example of the relationship of mentally ill when it comes to guns and shooting. 

Despite statements by President Donald Trump and others regarding mentally ill Americans and guns, they are most likely the victims instead of the shooters, statistics show.

According to a study by the Treatment Advocacy Center, for example, at least half of the people shot and killed by police each year have mental health problems.  

Research suggests that the rhetoric around mass shootings can supports an invalid stereotype that people with mental illness are responsible.  The mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were murdered, is an example.

While students and others focused on gun reform, President Trump’s initial reactions to the shooting were a commentary on the shooter’s mental health and the failure of school officials, friends, family and others who knew him to report him.

In a tweet sent out the day after the shooting, Trump said, “So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”

Ironically, while Trump has recommended an improved mental healthcare system as a solution to this nation’s gun problem, he signed a bill last year that makes it easier for mentally ill people to purchase guns.  Additionally, his latest budget proposal would cut public funds for mental health treatment as well as cut funds for an educational department program that is supposed to support safer schools.   

The constant focus on a shooter’s mental stability in mass shooting creates a false image of mentally ill people, experts say. According to the American Mental Health Counselor’s Association, less than 5 percent of all violence in America is attributable to the mentally ill.  

Instead, mentally ill people are more likely to be victims of violence than to commit violence, researchers found.  A study in 2014 by researchers at North Carolina State University, RTI International, the University of California, Davis, Simon Fraser University and Duke University found through their study group of mentally ill individuals, only 2.6 percent of the violent acts they committed were in school or workplace settings.

According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental
illness are 16 times more likely to be shot by police than other civilians.
Photo courtesy Flickr.

Instead, the researchers reported, 31 percent of the mentally ill individuals had been victims of violence in the same time period.

Dr. Tanya Alim, a psychiatrist at Howard University Hospital and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, said while some point to the mentally ill regarding gun violence, the nation is not providing the care the mentally ill need.

According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, more than half of adults with mental illness in the U.S do not receive mental healthcare treatment.

 “We need better access to care,” Alim said.  “We need to decrease the stigmatization related to mental health treatment, and we need prevention, meaning helping children at an early age and identifying illnesses early on before things get out of hand.”

Dr. Harold Koplwicz, the founding president of the Child Mind Institute and one of the nation’s leading child and adolescent psychiatrists, said early care may have an impact on gun violence. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 75 percent of all psychiatric illness occurs before the age of 24 and 50 percent before the age of 14.

“If we change the system so that people are better able to recognize it, you can treat something a lot more effectively if it’s only a year old or two years old, than someone who gets psychiatric illness after 25 or 30 years like any of us,” Koplwicz told CBS News.

Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University has done extensive research on guns and mental illness and argues the two subjects should be separate parts of the public debate. He was the lead author in a study that says Americans with severe anger issues are more likely to be the cause of shootings, not mentally ill people.

 “Gun violence and serious mental illness are two very important, but distinct public health issues that intersect only at their edges,” he said in a discussion of his study.

Brian Hepburn, program director at the National Association of State Mental Health, agrees and says better mental health care is desperately needed, but it would have little effect on gun violence.

“Gun violence statistics in general would not be impacted, because in general, there is not a relationship between gun violence and mental illness,” Hepburn said.  

Still, there is a link between mental illness and crime, if only because when the mentally ill do not proper treatment and medication, they commit acts that are deemed criminal and they are arrested and locked away.  

The National Alliance on Mental Health estimates that between 25 percent and 40 percent of mentally ill Americans will be jailed or incarcerated at some point in their lives. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

 

The National Alliance on Mental Health estimates that between 25 percent and 40 percent of mentally ill Americans will be jailed or incarcerated at some point in their lives. The most glaring example is Cook County Jail in Chicago.

Cook County is the largest single jail in the U.S, housing about 6,500 prisoners. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, an estimated one in three of its inmates has a form of mental illness. Consequently, every morning, correctional officers hand out thousands of doses of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication and other anti-psychotics.

Those who have untreated mental illness and are not incarcerated run the risk of being shot and killed during any interaction with police. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be shot by police than other civilians. By comparison, African Americans are three times more likely to be shot by police.

Family members of these victims call for better training of police officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations with mentally ill people. In addition, experts say the traditional tactics officers use in these situations are the opposite of what they should be doing.

For example, instead of yelling and encroaching on a mentally ill person’s space, they should speak calmly and give them space.

One of the keys, law enforcement officials say, is Crisis Intervention Training, which trains officers in how to deal with the mentally ill and others during intense interactions. Only about 3,000 of the nation’s 18,000 police departments, however, have their officers go through Crisis Intervention Training, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

 

 

Posted on

D.C’s Youngest Mayoral Candidate Will Make Big Changes within DCPS if Elected

Washington’s youngest mayoral candidate, Michael Christian Woods, has plans to implement a series of programs within DC Public Schools (DCPS) that will help K-12 students to develop life skills, social skills and a familiarity with entrepreneurship.

Michael Christian Woods, 19, is the youngest candidate in D.C.'s Mayoral Elections.

"These programs are designed to help students to feel comfortable at school, and to prepare students for the world after graduation," he said.

Woods, 19, who is a political science and Africana studies double major at George Washington University, believes that an effort must be made to ensure that DCPS students become more engaged in school.

“I want to introduce life skills courses,” said Woods, “these would be adaptive and restorative programs that would be a part of the curriculum.”

Woods wants students to take courses that will prepare them for the real world by teaching them how to create resumes and cover letters. The courses will also teach job interview skills and college preparedness skills. Woods believes that students should have lessons on how to navigate the Common Application program before applying to college.

Woods also addressed the increase in truancy rates amongst DCPS students between 2016 and 2017. DCPS truancy rates increased from 26 percent in 2016 to 31 percent in 2017. In response, Mayor Muriel Bowser initiated a city wide effort to increase school attendance by bringing together the entire community to support students and families through a public awareness campaign, and a taskforce coordinating public agencies and stakeholders, and investments in data-driven strategies to increase attendance.

Woods believes that low attendance rates in Washington D.C public schools can be attributed to a lack of student interest in school courses.

“I don’t think that the problem is attendance,” said Woods, “The current administration is saying that every day counts, I think it’s more of an issue of student engagement because students can attend class but really not pay attention. What we need to do is figure out how we can make students want to go to school.”

Woods also addressed gun violence in schools. He wants to incorporate “circle sessions” into elementary school curriculums in order to foster positive relationships between students and their peers, and students and their teachers. Woods believes that circle sessions, where students and teachers sit in a circle,  will help teachers and therapists to recognize students with antisocial and dangerous behaviors at a young age.

Woods believes that school shootings like the one that occured in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, can be prevented with circle sessions.

“What I want to do is implement circle sessions starting in preschool and kindergarten,” Woods said, “these are focused on socializing kids and developing kids so that they can feel like school is a safe environment. Circle sessions will foster better relationships between students and peers and students and teachers, and it could also help us figure out which students might need therapy or other emotional assistance.”

As mayor, Woods plans to introduce DCPS students to entrepreneurship through a series of Shark Tank competitions. Woods plans to teach middle school students about marketing and entrepreneurship through a citywide Shark Tank-like competition that will incorporate local business owners. After judging a citywide entrepreneurship competition, local business owners will have a chance to invest in products created by DCPS middle school students. Woods believes that underserved youth should be exposed to more opportunities to develop business acumen and entrepreneurship skills.      

“The competition will definitely help to maintain student engagement,” Woods said.

Woods will also address the lack of grocery stores in Wards 7 and 8. Woods believes that access to healthy food will help DCPS students to perform better.

Residents living within Wards 7 and 8, which also have the city’s highest obesity rates and are home to the largest food deserts within D.C., have access to only seven full-service grocery stores. Woods plans to build grocery stores in Wards 7 and 8. Of the city’s 43 full-service grocery stores, only four are located in Ward 7, and three in Ward 8. By contrast, Ward 3 – the highest income Ward– has 11 full-service grocery stores.

Woods believes that the next mayor- whoever it may be- should focus on addressing the issues in Washington D.C.’s most impoverished communities.

“Washington D.C. is only as strong as its weakest ward.” Woods said.

Posted on

Black Millennials Say Student Loan Debt Crippling Their Chances to Advance

Higher Education

For the first time ever, young adults with student debt have a negative net wealth

For the first time ever, young adults with student debt have a negative net wealth, according to a recently released study.  The study says college graduates with student loans owe $1,900 more than than all of their assets.   Photo courtesy Flickr

 

WASHINGTON– When Danielle Douglas began her career after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from Howard University, things were tough.

Danielle Douglas received a pay raise and a promotion after receiving her
master's degree, but she also is spending $290 a month to pay off a $28,000
student loan, which has hampered her mobility. Courtesy Photo

“I was living paycheck to paycheck, just breaking even,” said Douglas, 27, who began working immediately after graduation at Meridian Charter Public School in Washington. “At first, I was in the ‘hood’ for three years, because I couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. Then, I finished my masters and moved to a better neighborhood.”

After receiving her master’s degree in 2016, however, Douglas, was promoted to sports director at Meridian.  Her new income, which was “abundantly

better,” she said, allowed her to move from Southeast Washington, to Silver Springs, Md.

Her new degree also came with a price tag, $28,000 in student loan debt. Now, she must pay a minimum of $290 every month on her student loan, she said, so she has had to cut back on some of her favorite activities, such as traveling.

She said often she pays even more than required in order to retire her debt earlier. 

“I try to pay more than the minimum per month because I’d be paying for 10 years, which I’m not trying to do. It has definitely put a strain on me. There’s no extra money.”

Douglas’ plight is a familiar one for millennials, according to a recent report by Young Invincibles, a non-profit organization in Washington.   Millennials, according to the report, are struggling more than their parent’s generation financially, in large part because of student debt, the study said.  Even as the economy has been improving in terms of wages, home ownership, and jobs, millennials are not keeping up with the trend in terms of net wealth and home ownership, the study said. 

For the first time ever, the study said, young adults with student debt have a negative net wealth, meaning they have more debt than they have financial assets. Their median net wealth today is a negative $1,900 compared to a plus $9,000 in 2013.

Tom Allison, author of the report, as well as deputy policy and research director at Young Invincibles, explained the disparity.

“If [it is] five years after graduation and you’re trying to build assets and save money, it’s so much harder to do that if you have to write a check of $500 every month for college loans,” Allison said. “Your assets are going to stay low and your debt is going to stay high. This gives us an idea of the financial decline.”

According to a report by the Young Invincibles, young adults now have considerably lower net wealth than young adults 25 years ago. Young adults with college debt, specifically, are doing the worst out of all millennials today, being the only category with a negative net wealth according to the chart.    Photo courtesy Young Invincibles

In addition to net wealth, home ownership among young adults with college debt has also declined, the study showed. Between 2013 and 2016, homeownership dropped 3 percent. Veronika Williams, 32, says she accumulated $150,000 in loan debt while at Howard University Law School, an amount so large she said she’ll probably spend much of her life paying it off.

She currently works as an attorney in Washington where she rents an apartment. For now, she said, owning a home is largely outside of her grasp because of her student debt. 

“The issue is a down payment for purchasing a house,” she said. “They want 20 percent. I don’t have the excess income, so I can’t give them $20,000. There are some programs that will pay the down payment, but my income is too high, so I don’t qualify. I’m just stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Williams said she can see the impact of student loan debt when compared to some of the other well-paid attorneys she works with at her law firm. Some of her black and white co-workers do not share the same financial concerns she does because they don’t carry the stress of loan debt, she said.

“I make a decent salary, but I feel like I can’t compete with people who don’t have student loan debt, because I have to consider a $1,300 loan payment per month,” she said. “It limits me financially to what I can and cannot do. I don’t have the luxuries of vacationing and some stuff compared to other attorneys who had doctors and judges as parents [and consequently] don’t have student debt.”

 

Posted on

Marijuana activists want less restriction in D.C.

The implicit national marijuana "holiday," 4/20, has passed and it’s left some people with a contact high and others with a headache over the District's weed rules.

The National Cannabis Policy Summit was held at The Newseum, and festivalgoers there felt as though the police were overly eager to find a reason to make a marijuana-related arrest. 

According to The Washington Post, arrests for public use of marijuana nearly tripled in 2016. The District decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2015, but it's still illegal to sell it.

However, Pro-marijuana activist and D.C.M.J. (Pro-Cannabis organization) coordinator, Adam Eidinger, took exception to what he characterized as excessive policing and called a town meeting at Petworth Library on April 25.

At the meeting, Eidinger met with other members of the organization and created a list of laws to present to Democratic politicians before the July 25 primary election. 

On that list, Eidinger emphasized the importance of marijuana smoking zones for public housing residents. For people on welfare or Section 8, Eidinger said, “they’re not given the same freedoms as people who aren’t on government assistance. Everyone should have the right to smoke marijuana, recreationally or medicinally, regardless of where they live.”

"If people are permitted to have cigarette zones; which are proven to kill you in the long run. Then we should be allowed to have marijuana zones," said dispensary owner and D.C.M.J. volunteer Leslie Jones. "If not because of equality, because marijuana has been proven to have healing effects and some people do rely on it medicinally.”

Co-coordinator Nikolas Schiller added that it was important to highlight the community discomfort with the overbearing police presence at marijuana events. 

"Police officers scare people away with their presence and they come to bars and pop-up sessions, to try and catch people walking with more than two grams of weed. It’s like babysitting grown people. That is a violation of rights all within itself,” Schiller added.

D.C. police have cracked down on marijuana-related events and parties in the past. Metropolitan police tweeted in March that officers had shut down a "marijuana vendors" event in Adams Morgan.

After the consistent conversation about what to add to the proposal, Eidinger closed the meeting by reminding the organization members that before the primary election, they would be going door to door to ensure people are registered. He stated, “The more people that are registered, the better. If we get enough people to vote, we can pass a bill that provides opportunities for people who live in government-owned buildings, as well as loosen the reigns on how and when we smoke marijuana.

Posted on

Alexandria black history museum pays homage to past and present

The city of Alexandria, Va., located in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, has many African American historical sites to be seen by all.

One such site is the Alexandria’s Black History Museum. Audrey Davis is the director of Alexandria’s Black History Museum, and she has worked for the city of Alexandria for over 25 years. Davis noted that the museum would be celebrating their 35th anniversary this year.

Davis said, “Right now, we have a painting exhibit that will be up for another month called Before the Spirits are Swept Away."

Lilian Patterson is a retired curator for the museum and now a part-time employee.

 “Before the Spirits are Swept Away is an interesting exhibit. It shows some sites that have existed around the country that are now disappearing,” Patterson said.

The artist of the exhibit, Sherry Sanabria, was a local artist in Alexandria who passed away in 2014. Her family donated the paintings to the museum. The artwork represents different African American heritage sites across the United States.

Davis said, “We are very lucky in Alexandria that we have so much of the original fabric of history in tack.”

These are just a few of the historic African American sites in Alexandria to visit. The city has many more sites to be seen for tourist.

If you would like to visit the Alexandria’s Black History Museum located in Old Town Alexandria, the address is 902 Wythe Street, Alexandria, VA. The museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 4 pm. The museum is closed on Sunday and Monday.

Posted on

Does Music Promote Pill Popping?

One night at the popular exotic dancing club in Washington, the song titled Rock Star by Post Malone and 21 Savage began to play. “Ayy, I've been f***in’ h*es and poppin' pillies man, I feel just like a rock star.”

            Within the first few seconds of the song, popping pills was mentioned. A few people danced and rapped along as the song played. Keith Beverly, 37, was one of them. He said he doesn’t take the song literally: “It’s just music.”

            “I don’t pop pills myself,” he said, “but people in that lifestyle probably do and they just want to rap about their life.”   

Drug references in music are nothing new. In fact, the number of drug references in music spiked between 1970 and the mid-2000s, according to www.addictions.com, an addiction help site. But these drug references combined with the fact that the opioid crisis is killing 115 young people each day is raising a number of questions. Does pill-popping in real life influence music, or does pill-popping music shape real life?

            Beverly is one of many people who will enjoy lyrics filled with drug references, but does not live by it. In an interview with Clique Magazine, the rapper Future discussed the drug mentions in his music, saying that his music does not reflect his real life. He said he raps about drugs because it’s what “everybody likes to talk about.”

            Last November, rapper Lil Peep died of a generic Xanax and fentanyl overdose at the age of 21. Lil Peep not only rapped about drugs in his music but specifically mentioned taking Xanax in a song titled “Praying to the Sky.” The use of the pill fentanyl caused the sharpest increase in drug overdoses, according to DrugAbuse.gov.

            In the hit “Mask Off” by Atlanta rapper Future, the song’s chorus focuses on pills with the words “percocets .. molly ..  percosets" repeated over and over. Musicians such as Post Malone, Lil Pump, Lil Uzi, Trinidad James are just a few names that also promote pill-popping in their music.

            Although rap is known for its drug infused lyrics, music lovers might be surprised to find that the most drug references are found in country music, with rap actually coming in last for its drug references (www.addictions.com). Marijuana apparently is the illicit substance of choice in music. It is followed by cocaine, pills, acid and heroin. Although pills are not mentioned as much as marijuana, references to pills have been increasing.

            Of course, being a musician is a form of expression and the artists have a right to be free within their craft to tell their stories. But artists also hold powerful platforms and can influence many young people. But experts say science has has not been proven this correlation.

            Addiction specialist Dr. FIRST NAME Nzinga says that drug references in music, have some correlation to drug and alcohol use, but it is not a simple cause and effect.

            “The literature does not draw a straight line from drug references in music to rates of addiction,” Harrison says.

            It is more likely that the higher rates of exposure to the music and the lifestyle is what helps to fuel addiction, she explained, because it reduces the stigma that comes with using drugs.

            “Consistent exposure to music with references to drug use probably correlates to higher rates of addiction through the mechanisms of decreasing stigma of use and thereby increasing the frequency of use,” Harrison said.

            But the increase of drug references, has pushed more and more influential artists to speak out against glamorizing pill-popping. Rapper OG Maco took to Twitter to criticize Future for te glorification of drugs in his music.

            “I love Future but I also understand Future has destroyed countless lives by making it cool to be a drug addict,” OG Maco tweeted.

            But not all pill lyrics in music promote drug use. Some artists use their music to oppose prescription drug use. For example, “Pill Popping Music” by artist Cognito disses pill popping and the musicians who promote it.

             In the song “Tom Ford,” Jay-Z boasts” “I don't pop molly, I rock Tom Ford.” The musician Russ has worn a shirt condemning the use of Xanax as a recreational drug. These cases demonstrate how music can support remaining drug free.

            In the meantime, the ubiquity of the pill-popping lyrics means that music lovers have

to decide how they feel about it. While pill-popping may be a way of life for some people, club-goer Keith Beverly said, “when it comes to the kids, I think music like that shouldn’t be played.”

            A few feet away, another club-goer who wanted to remain nameless said he does pop pills but he doesn’t think it should be glorified in music. “It’s kind of lame to talk about that in your music,” he said. “Keep it to yourself.”

Posted on

Does H&M Practice the Feminism it Profits From?

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

If you log on to the fast-fashion clothing retailer, H&M’s, website, you may find yourself lost in the digital sea of clothes. Photos of attractive and interesting looking people, adults and children clad in floral print blouses and technicolor trousers break up the blank space between overbearing “20% OFF $100 + FREE SHIPPING” banners.

After stumbling through sales pages of faux-gold jewelry and earth toned home décor, you might find yourself scrolling through thousands of women’s tops. Between the avant-garde-esque tops with tassels and sheer lace, you’ll come across a slew of graphic tees with varying designs about the same theme: feminism.

A heather grey crop top with “It’s Our World,” in orange bubble letters sits two rows up from another grey t-shirt featuring an all-black rose, detailed with white trim and “NOT YOUR PRINCESS” arched over the top in bright pink. “Cosmic Girl,” “Babes Only,” and “FEMME” scroll across the fronts and sleeves of other t-shirts, jerseys, and long sleeves as you scroll down the page.

The store, which was founded in 1947 in Sweden and exclusively sold women’s clothing at its inception, built a reputation of being socially conscious in recent years. In 2013 the company launched its Conscious collection – a line of everyday clothes and special occasion get ups, all spun from organic cotton and recycled polyester – to offer an eco-friendly option at H&M’s usual affordable prices.

As environmental consciousness and social consciousness often go hand in hand, it came as no surprise to some when H&M joined the world’s rise in feminism with its 2016 Autumn Collection commercial. The advertisement, set to Lion Babe’s rendition of “She’s A Lady,” opens with a plus-sized Latina women with long, black hair walking into her bathroom wearing only her berry-colored bra and panties. Images of women with shaven heads, clad in tuxedo-style buttoned shirt and suspenders, and natural afros flash across the screen. In the ad’s one-minute run time, the viewer sees a muscular, black female boxer admiring her frame in a mirror, a women with pink hair and visible underarm hair unzipping her skinny jeans and getting down to the business of eating a burger, a mature Asian woman entering and commanding attention at the head of a business meeting, and a well-known transgender model living her best life, strolling down a city street.

The advertisement came in addition to the retailer’s relatively inclusive plus-sized, maternity, long, and petite collections, and spoke to a class of consumers who were in the midst of the fourth wave of feminism. Worldwide, google searches for terms like “feminism” and “gender equality” have been on the rise since 2012, with a noticeable spike in searches from the summer of 2016 to March 2017.

It appeared as though H&M was doing right by women and had set itself apart from other clothing retailers in the same market, like Urban Outfitters and Forever 21, which had been plague with controversies regarding a lack of inclusivity and cultural insensitivity.

 That was until the company came under fire earlier this year for an online advertisement from its British sector featuring a dark-skinned black child sporting an emerald green “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle” hoodie. While the company offered an apology for any offense and removed the item from circulation globally, it put the company under a microscope. Is it possible that the company that seemed to celebrate diversity and womanhood fails in both categories?  

 It just might. Although H&M offers plus-size options online, many stores either don’t stock those sizes. Some that did, like New York City’s 11 stores, ended up removing the section in the fall of 2016 (months after the retailer’s acclaimed commercial) to make room for expansions in the home décor, sportswear, and beauty departments. Of the garments that are kept in stock at most store, the largest is still too small for the average American woman who wears between a misses size 16 and 18 according to a 2010 study in The International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education.  

 “The overall goal that H&M wanted to achieve with women’s equality, somewhat falls flat in regards to their clothing. The limited selection of styles and an average range of sizes 0-12 in stores really make it difficult to believe that the store’s values are being utilized effectively,” Bria Good who’s a stylist at a small bridal company and has a bachelor’s or fine arts in fashion design.

On a more inhumane level, female employees further down H&M’s garment supply chain struggle to have basic human needs met. The company, like many others in the garment industry, employ laborers in underserved countries and areas to save money on wages paid to these workers. Cambodia is one of those countries. Women ages 18 to 35 make more than 90 percent of the country’s seven thousand garment workers.

A report by Asia Floor Wage Alliance detailed some of the conditions these women work in through interviews with 201 employees in 12 different Cambodian factories. Workers from 11 factories reported witnessing or experiencing women being dismissed from their jobs during pregnancies, without regard to maternity leave guidelines outlined by the International Labour Organization.

Women that were able to return to their positions after giving birth were often encouraged to work into and through their lunch and breastfeeding breaks, with some women reported working as much as two overtime hours per day. Even with the extra hours worked, the average take home pay was $187.97 per month, when employees estimated that they needed to make at least $230 monthly to “live with dignity.”  

“Fast fashion retailers that print ‘I’m a feminist on a t-shirt are the ultimate oxymoron, especially when the women, and children, making those shirts are paid pennies a day,” Autumn Dalton, a former H&M and fast-fashion shopper said. “They know their workers aren’t being treated fairly.”

The goal of a business is to earn as much capital for its product as possible, but it’s the company’s choice to decide how best to do that. At H&M’s core, the retailer is not one built upon the ideal of equality and inclusiveness of all women, but is it their job to uphold any of the ideal they market to consumers?

“I want to care,” Tierra Brown, a college-aged H&M shopper, said. “It’s easier to just buy the products than it is to do the background research, because then, who would we support?”

As the world sits precariously in the midst of its fourth wave of feminism, H&M’s woman empowerment shirts could be the company capitalizing on a trend – no differently than it takes advantage of the fashion industry’s latest color and pattern trends.

If all we ask of clothing companies to supply consumers with garments to express themselves the way each individual sees fit, is it enough for the H&M’s of the world to produce clothing that allows for the expression of ideas like feminism, even if they don’t practice them?

Posted on

“Intersectional Feminism” is more than a cute phrase, and Black Women are here to prove it

 

Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The sea of twist outs, crochet twists, wash n’ go’s, and afros nodded as snaps of approval could be heard, sending out a nonverbal, “me too, girl,” to Morgan Jerkins. She was the reason nearly 40 people –  some complete strangers, some close friends from college – crowed into the hallway-sized opening, beside the overpriced packs of pens and highlighters, in the Howard University Barnes & Noble.

Almost everyone in the room was black, with the exception of one olive-skinned man and one white woman, and two thirds were women. The one thing every guest had in common was that they all wanted to hear what Jerkins had to say about her new book, This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America. The collection of Jerkins’ personal essays comes at a cultural moment where black women are taking their stories from oral and twitter realms, to a more formal literary one.

The 25-year-old Princeton University graduate sat facing the crowd of (mostly) brown faces, clad in a terracotta colored dress with red flowers that matched her lipstick, bright blush, and daring eyeshadow. Her voice was confident and her Jersey accent was easily detectable as she read her own words, printed in the paperback book, vividly detailing her experience of being harassed by a man in a Harlem corner store.  Applause met her upon completion, and she responded with a meek, “thank you.”

Jerkins described her book as, “a culmination of the past three years.” In 2014, she said young women’s voices began to hold much more weight. And in 2016, when the United States prepared to transition from its first black president to either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, young women, especially women of color amped up their voices even further.

Leveraging the power of Twitter, black millennial women, Jerkins included, began connecting and having discussions about a topic that hadn’t yet made its way to the mainstream: intersectional feminism. Academics and feminists have been familiar with the concept, which examines how women’s overlapping identities contribute to their oppression and discrimination, for decades. It wasn’t until the most recent presidential election that public interest peaked on the idea, though.

Hillary Clinton seemed to be the living embodiment of white feminism: she benefited from a life full of white privilege, but still felt the sting of being deemed less than because of her gender. While she and her supporters had her sights set on breaking glass ceilings, she had very little to say about non-white, poor, queer, or non-Christian women. The women who didn’t quite fit the white feminist mold found themselves on the outskirts on her rally for president.

The country’s other option, Donald Trump, seemed to be against everything an intersectional feminist would stand for. From his vulgar comments celebrating sexually assaulting women, to his anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric, it is clear to see how he earned such monikers as “He Who Shall Not Be Named” with women like Jerkins.

The tipping point came on Nov. 8, 2016 when the country elected “He Who Shall Not Be Named” to be the 45th president. Women of color, black women in particular became “fed up,” as Jerkins put it, and google searches for “intersectional feminism” peaked to its second highest point ever. It reached its most googled state between Jan. 22 and 28 2017, days after Trump’s inauguration and the Women’s March on Washington. 

In her book, Jerkins describes the moment that she learned what intersectional feminism is. She was 10 years old and tried out for her elementary school’s cheerleading team. She, four other black girls, and about 30 white girls tried auditioned, and none of the black girls made the cut. She later got into an argument with a darker skinned Filipina friend, who ended up telling her that she didn’t make the cheerleading teaming because they didn’t take “monkeys” like her.

The room full of natural hair and brown skin seemed hurt, but not shocked, by Jerkins’ anecdote as there were no audible gasps, but many shaking heads, disheartened facial expressions, and even a few “yup’s.” It seemed that the only women who sat motionless and speechless was the one white women, Katy Bowman.

“Part of it is just listening,” she said. “I don’t have that experience, I don’t have that background. But a small part of [what I can do] is just being in those spaces and not taking up those spaces.”

Bowman left just as quickly and quietly as she came in (after hugging Jerkins – an old friend from college) whilst a cocoon of black, mostly female Princeton alumni enveloped the author. “Time for a Princeton pic!” one of the women shouted with a smile, scanning the room for old friends as Bowman headed down the bookstore steps.

    

    

 
Posted on

Is Religion Making Its Way Back to College Campuses?

Courtesy: muldelta via flickr

Phil Booker, a minister at a church in Montgomery County finds it extremely important for students to practice religion and spirituality on campus. He says the students here at Howard aren’t only driven to do well in school, but they’re also driven to do well in life and being overwhelmed can cause people to compromise their conviction.

Students at Howard University hold an open bible discussion every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Locke Hall lead by Booker. The purpose of the meetings is to give students a space to freely interpret and study the bible.

Howard University is one of the campus ministries for Booker’s church along with the University of Maryland, George Washington, and Montgomery College.

According to NBC one in three Americans under the age of 30, reported that they are not religiously affiliated. However, when dealing with the stressors that college has to offer, students may need a way to relieve their troubles and spirituality and religion may be the way.

Inside the little room on the second floor of Locke Hall, the table in the back corner held snack foods such as Doritos, chips and salsa. In the center of the room, there consisted a group of no more than a dozen students. Most of the students were female with the exception of three males. One boy I sat next to was the son of the leader of the discussion.

Booker starts the bible discussion with a game. Students sat with the desk positioned in a circle, and played a game in which students turned to each other in a quick manner using funny words and the next person has to keep up.

By the end of the game there was one winner and soon after the laughter came to an end, we began the discussion. It started with Booker asking the group to define hypocrisy. Different student raised their hands explaining what they felt hypocrisy was, and how it was demonstrated in the church.

Soon after, Booker began reading an article he found online which discussed the state of hypocrisy in the church. He followed by jumping right into scriptures surrounding that same topic. Booker asked questions on student’s interpretation of the scriptures and then went on to share what the scripture actually means.

The discussion lasted only an hour, and when it concluded some students headed out while others stayed behind to help clean. This is when I decided to talk with the one of the only men in the discussion.

Taieel Williams, a biology member from the U.S. Virgin Islands has been stepping up his role from attending to being a leader in ministry, saying “Right now I guess you could say I’m like transitioning.”

When asked how did he learn about the open bible discussions, he said he was approached by two guys during his freshman year and they asked him did he believe in God. After answering yes, they began asking questions about his spiritual life and he realized he wasn’t living up to it the way he should. This realization is what caused him to accept their invitation to the open bible discussion.

Although his lack of spiritual life was the cause of him coming, Williams says fellowshipping with his brothers and sisters ending with “I just love being with my brothers and sisters.”

Williams says that having spirituality while being in school is more than being in school itself. “You shouldn’t compartmentalize your life. You shouldn't be a student or an athlete, or a christian. Everything should coincide,” he adds.

Whether you’re going to relieve stress or just to freshen up your knowledge of the bible, I
can attest to these meetings being a great way to meet people and relax your mind for an hour.

Posted on

In National Gun Debate, Black Gun Owners Defend Their Rights to Self-Defense

Marcus Hyman, commander of the DMV chapter of the Black Gun Owners' Association, instructs a student during one of his training sessions at Trinity Training Academy. [photo submitted by Marcus Hyman]

WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., subsequent March for Our Lives in Washington and nationwide school walkouts last week to commemorate the lives lost 20 years ago in the Columbine High School shooting, debate over guns and gun ownership has heightened.

African-Americans who own guns and advocate for their right to bear arms, however, have been missing from this debate.  Whites, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, are more enamored with guns than African-Americans.  Of those surveyed, 32 percent of black Americans have a gun in the household, compared to 49 percent of whites. 

Still, while there are no official numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests that more black Americans are buying guns for self-defense, either from criminals in crime-ridden neighborhoods or white supremacists.  Additionally, two national black guns owner’s organizations, both founded within the last three years, report they have grown to tens of thousands of members in just a few years.

According to an NBC News report, firearms dealers and gun clubs across the country say they have seen a sharp rise in the number of African Americans buying guns recently, many since the election of President Donald Trump. Some are walking into gun shops to arm themselves, they told NBC, out of fear that Trump’s election has emboldened white supremacists and stoked tensions between the races.

Owners of gun ranges reported first-time black gun buyers were flocking in, filling open seats in gun-safety and concealed-carry classes which usually tend to consist mostly of older white miles.

For an active duty Army master sergeant who wishes to remain anonymous, firearm ownership is a matter of responsibility and accountability. As a parent of two young children, she said, having firearms in her home is a means of protection for her, her husband and their children. In a few years, they plan to begin teaching their youngest son, age 6, how to safely handle a firearm, she said.

“I think it’s everyone’s right to own a gun if you choose, but it’s also everyone’s duty to be responsible,” she said. “Proper firearm training is very important, because you can hold them [gun owners] accountable…they’re aware of what the expectation is so they’re aware of the recourse.”

Derrick Morgan, national commander of the Black Gun Owners’ Association of America, said his organization, founded in April of 2017, has seen a substantial increase in membership following the election of Trump. Membership numbers spiked in recent weeks following the death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man killed by Sacramento, Calif., police, and the series of package bombs in Austin, Texas, that killed a number of black residents.

Morgan said his organization was formed to put black Americans “in a better position to fight as a community.”  It offers memberships ranging from $40 for one year, to $140 for five years and $1000 for a lifetime membership.  The organization also sells life, home, car and motorcycle insurance.  Its website features photos of a person in black tactical gear holding an assault rifle. 

The Black Gun Owners’ Association describes itself on its web pages as a “non-profit organization which advocates gun rights for the black community and offers supportive services for gun owners.   Our organization provides legal protection for our members through alliances with attorneys who are ready to defend cases of civil rights violations.”

“We feel as though gun control is being strongly advocated right as hate crimes against us are beginning to increase,” Morgan said. “People are feeling the need to learn how to properly use a firearm to defend themselves from acts of hate and terrorism, especially from people who were otherwise against having a fire arm in the home.”

The National Association of African-American Gun Association, formed in 2015 in Atlanta, serves a similar purpose in its mission to familiarize black Americans with firearms and their uses. Its president, Phillip Smith, called gun ownership “a natural maturation process for the black community” in an interview with Maria Lloyd of the YouTube channel, “Your Black World.”

“The process of growing—to go from slavery to owning guns for self-defense to the black codes being implemented is a long and very torturous road,” Smith said, pointing to journalist Ida B. Wells and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, two famous African Americans who were known to have carried guns as a form of self-defense.

“In terms of the history of guns in African-American communities, we need to read about how we got to this point,” he said.

NAAGA’s membership demographics are majority black and female according to Smith, with both liberal and conservative members. Information about joining the organization is also completed entirely by word of mouth and through its Facebook page. Since its founding in February 2015, NAAGA has seen growth from the hundreds into the thousands. Like Morgan, Smith said he believes the desire for self-protection is the driving force behind these numbers.

On its Facebook page, NAAGA said its goals are introducing every African-American person to firearm use “for home protection, competitive shooting and outdoor recreational activities.” Information about membership is spread almost entirely via word of mouth and its corporate sponsors provide a large amount of funding for the organization so it can maintain its low membership prices. Recently Glock became the group’s official firearm.

“If you say gun in a black community, let’s face it, it’s kind of viewed in a negative manner,” he said. “You have to really clarify [by saying] ‘well, I’m not a gang banger, I’m not to the far right, I just want a gun to protect myself at home."

A student at Leon Adams' shooting range fires at a target. [photo courtesty of Leon Adams]

Leon Adams, owner of Superior Security Concepts, has been teaching firearm operation and safety through his company for more than 20 years, primarily specifically to black gun owners. He said he began after witnessing the lack of knowledge a number of black Americans in his home state of Georgia had on gun laws and policies. In Georgia, illegal use of a firearm could result in up to five years in prison according to the state’s official website.

“Most people in [black] communities take more of a shortcut as it pertains to our rights to be able to bear arms,” Adams explained, citing illegal gun ownership by many black Americans. “The foundation upon this country was built…was the right to self-defense.”

Similarly, in Virginia, Marcus Hyman, commander of the Black Gun Owners’ Association, specializes in teaching black Americans how to safely own and operate a gun. At the end of the month, he his fellow BGOA members will be hosting people from their communities in an effort to clear the stigma surrounding blacks and firearm operation.

“You have a right as a citizen [to own a gun],” Hyman explained. “You have a home, you have a family. You should have one in your home for your family, for your protection.”

Some black gun owners question if their Second Amendment right to own and carry guns is as protected as that of their white counterparts. They say even the legal possession of a firearm can be dangerous to a black person. 

They cite Philando Castile, a legal gun owner who was killed by a Minnesota police officer during a routine traffic stop in 2016, and Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot by Cleveland police while playing with a toy gun that police mistakenly assumed was real (in Ohio, residents have a right to openly carry weapons and often do). 

Carl Wilkins, a Vietnam War veteran and retired Washington, D.C., police officer who has owned a firearm for more than 50 years, said he has experienced the disparity repeatedly.

"The mentality is that black people are dangerous, black people are irresponsible, therefore black people shouldn’t own guns,” Wilkins said. “I have to sometimes show [gun store employees] my retired badge before they’ll even wait on me. But a 17-year-old white kid can go in there and buy a gun.”

Wilkins is a resident of Baltimore City, where gun violence has plagued the city for more than a decade. In in 2017,  88 percent of its nearly 350 homicides were gun-related, according to police data.

A study by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research analyzed the use of guns in Baltimore criminal cases. Its researchers found that the passage of Maryland’s 2013 Firearms Safety Act resulted in a 70 percent decrease in guns used for criminal intent.