May

11

Analysis of a Local Public Disturbance

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Crime/Hate Crimes, Demography, Environment and Conservation, Hip Hop, Politics, Race and Racism | 18 Comments

Note: This is a long piece and rambles over a lot of ground before I get to something resembling a point. I felt the pull of the current while writing it; I just wanted to get it out as soon as possible. I’m going to take a break from guest-posting here for a bit afterwards, since I have a lot of obligations coming up. I’m sure Sewere and Lyonside will soon have some interesting posts to fill the temporary guesting gap.

What makes a viral video?

Here are some qualities I’ve noticed.

1) They show a human or animal engaged in some unique or extreme activity
2) They exhibit noteworthy artistic skill or cleverness
3) They greatly reinforce prior beliefs
4) They greatly challenge prior beliefs
5) Newsworthy: they show something that connects with our sense of the local and the current, the here and now. We can relate the narrative of our lives to what happens in the video.

These videos also generate mountains of racially-based commentaries wherever they’re posted. Actually, it’s often more a spittle-flecked monologue than it is a dialogue.

I’ll talk about two other viral videos before I show the Soulja Girl one.

I remember a video from last year that showed a high school fight. Two young men take off their shirts and square off. It’s a white kid and a smaller, shorter Asian kid. The crowd is yelling their support of the white kid; they’re on his side. It begins. Whoever uploaded it has added a soundtrack: Rick Ross’ “Everday I’m Hustlin” booms over the fight. The Asian kid moves like greased lightning and after a few punches, the white kid is down. He gets up and walks off. The Asian kid drops him again; this time he can barely stagger away, blood and bits of teeth spraying from his mouth. The video ends.

This video was popular among Asian-Americans, for obvious reasons. A narrative built up around it. The white kid was the bully. The Asian kid was the hero. The narrative had dubious authenticity, but it felt right, it fit with the video and it fit with many of our experiences. I’ve certainly had the experience, multiple times at school, of being surrounded by a circle of hostile white kids screaming at me. I watched the video several times. It created a strong surge of mixed emotion. I couldn’t think straight while watching it. I loved it and hated it at the same time for making me romanticize the violence.

Another example is a popular video I saw last year that’s much less violent but seemed to arouse equally strong emotions. A young, pretty, blond white girl sits in front of the camera and talks about her infatuation with Arab men. Nothing is pornographic or poetic; her tone is quite flat and even bland. Arab men are handsome. They’re sexy. They’re romantic. They know how to treat women well. They’re fun to hang out with. She only goes out with Arab men now. Her current boyfriend is Arab. She’s learning Arabic. She’s converting to Islam. That’s it, really.

You can imagine how the typical anti-Arab commenter reacts to this. Her positive stereotyping sends them into a frenzy. What she believes is the exact opposite of what any white, presumably Christian woman is supposed to believe about Arab men. It’s a huge challenge to their own beliefs, and they have to deal with it by turning her into a non-representative freak, someone who’s not deserving of the title of woman, even.

If it was a more common fetish for example, a white man giving similarly bland reasons for liking Asian women — there is no way the video would have gotten the same attention and reaction.

I first saw the Soulja Girl video at the Creative Loafing blog. It’s a local Atlanta blog. There are other local sources for the video. It’s viral because it’s current, it involves something that almost all Atlantans are familiar with (the MARTA train), it shows an extreme of human behavior and it reinforces some prior beliefs for a lot of people. I have to warn viewers, the video is quite depressing and is going to arouse a lot of negative emotions. I’m going to talk much more about those reactions than about the video itself.

Here are some comments from the initial Creative Loafing post. There’s a good dialogue in that the stupid comments do not go unchallenged.

Reason #3,129 guns should be kept off MARTA

# Jill Chambers Says:
May 7th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
It’s just one more reason why MARTA needs to have their police actually riding on the trains. How sad that someone would so rudely disrespect the elderly woman and that all those other riders did not even try to come to her defense.

# Cricket Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 6:46 am
This is a perfect reason that people with concealed carry permits SHOULD be allowed on MARTA. If I had seen this, and it had escalated to actual physical violence, I would have no problem giving that ghetto wh*re two in the hat.

# Ken Edelstein Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Cricket, you make the point of gun control advocates everywhere.

# DaleC Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Cricket it DID escalate to physical violence when the guy finally stood up and stopped the aggressor. No weapons needed.
That poor old woman. I can’t believe it took that long for SOMEBODY to stand up to her being assaulted.
Notice how rapidly Soulja Girl’s attitude changed when she was confronted by someone who showed force in an appropriate manner.
Bullies fold when someone calls them on their crap. It’s a shame it took someone that long to stand up to her.
As an aside, don’t you just LOVE the beautiful world of Hard Core Hip Hop culture.

# Roxie Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Dude, Dale, did you just call “superman” Hard Core HipHop?
Please, appropriately hang your head in shame.
The woman in the video was not a life threatening individual. Although, she is severely testing sanity and patience, being horrendously disrespectful, aggressive, and antagonizing..It was NOT dealt with appropriately by the young man, as you can see, it only escalated the situation. There are better ways to deal with something like this that do not involve HITTING.
Of course, armchair quarterbacking is so easy. It took so long for ppl to respond b/c they couldn’t believe what was happening and certainly didn’t expect it to last as long as it did.

Hilarious.
# nast Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Seeing as how this incident was defused by a simple act of wig pulling, perhaps Gov. Perdue should sign a bill that protects individual rights to pull others’ wigs in restaurants, parks, churches and other public places.
“A wig-pulling society is a polite society.”

In the next update to the story, the spittle-flecked monologue begins.

MARTA statement regarding videotaped lunacy

# troy c Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Is she an Obama superdelegate?

# LMM66 Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Not one of those losers tried to help an elderly woman. Everyone there was dumb*** you-know-what. As people have mentioned here already, THIS is how stereotypes are formed. And whether folks like it or not, THIS is the norm for “them”.

# Weary One Says:
May 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
M.A.R.T.A.
Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta

# Roxie Says:
May 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Wow. I didn’t know so many racists liked CL.

MARTA actually stands for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (although everyone knows the other five words). It’s a contentious intersection of race, politics and economics.

Compared to better-known train systems, such as New York City, the trains are very limited in the ground they cover. The crime rate is low and the trains and stations are extraordinarily clean. Everyday users of the MARTA trains are predominantly working-class/middle-class African-Americans. All other Atlantans take the trains periodically, usually to go the airport or to attend special events held downtown.

Central Atlanta is a diverse mix, with the largest bloc being native (Atlanta-born) African-American. White people who live inside Atlanta are comparatively progressive in their politics, especially because of the huge GLBT community. They’re not a choir of enlightened angels, by any means, but one thing is sure: if they were scared of seeing and talking to black people every day, they wouldn’t be living where they do.

The suburbs to the east are where many richer, non-Atlanta-born African-Americans have settled. And to the far north, the suburbs trace the arc of white flight. The iron claws of the northern suburbs have had a pretty bad effect on the development of public transportation in Atlanta. Their politics, plus the road-construction lobby’s dirty money, ensures that Atlanta’s traffic congestion and air quality get worse and worse every year. MARTA’s system is funded only by the two counties of metropolitan Atlanta, although people from the surrounding counties frequently use it for park-and-ride. The counties of the northern suburbs refuse to link their own systems to it, for fear of getting too many undesirable people in their neighborhoods. A well known fact: “MARTA is unique in that it is the largest United States transit agency not to receive state operational funding.”

The comments to the video illustrate an intense fear and loathing of public transportation. This fear and loathing feeds from racism, then back into racism, in a vicious feedback loop. “If only I could never leave my car,” they pray. But parking is limited at their sporting events and their centers of bureaucracy. Every once in a while, they have to bravely step onto a MARTA train. And they’re not even allowed to carry their guns on board! They resent that.

Anyone who is passionate about Atlanta and knowledgeable about Atlanta and lives inside it, no matter what their race, knows about this dynamic. We’re all hostages to it.

Getting back to a more personal level, what do viewers feel about the woman?

I didn’t think that drugs were involved. It definitely wasn’t crack. People on crack aren’t that fluid and expressive and coordinated in their movements. I think a lot of people on the train had the same visceral reaction I did the fear and awe of the mad. If you don’t look at them, maybe they won’t notice you.

In fact, that’s what happened. I read it first at local videojournalist A.Man.I’s blog: Soulja Girl Turns Herself In. The fuller story was reported here and on local radio stations.

MARTA’s ‘Soulja Girl’ Getting the Help She Needs

She’s only 25 years old, but the dark bags under Nafiza Z.’s eyes tell the story of a young life blighted by psychosis, delusions, hallucinations and mania that are the hallmarks of her mental disorder.

Yesterday afternoon, Nafiza, was in the DeKalb County jail receiving the psychiatric treatment she desperately needed. But on April 7th, Nafiza was spiraling out of control on a MARTA train traveling through Atlanta’s east side.

The scenes captured on another passenger’s cell phone of Nafiza aka “Soulja Girl” terrorizing an elderly passenger – caused a sensation on the Internet and embarrassed MARTA officials who quickly issued a warrant for her arrest.

People with bipolar disorder aren’t usually that violent or aggressive even in their manic phase. They are usually more of a danger to themselves than they are to others.

Nafiza’s boyfriend Dee, with whom she has a baby son, said it more eloquently when he called into the Ryan Cameron Show on Friday, “If she wasn’t bipolar she would be the good a person on earth,” said Dee.


“That girl got a good heart. The city don’t help her, man! They just kick her back out on the streets. The city don’t help [black mentally ill] folks like that. Once you get in that [manic] stage you can’t help yourself. It mess with your mind, man. Once your mind gone it’s a wrap!”

I don’t know exactly what it’s like to be in the grip of clinical mania, adrenaline coursing through your body, other strange chemicals surging through your brain. But I know what it feels like to be a witness to something like that. Perhaps the awe and fear of the bystander is partly because of our empathy with mania… as if we’re seeing the dial turned up to 10 on an experience we’ve felt at level 3 or 4.

It reminds me of a bizarre experience I had when I was in college in Miami. I was at a donut shop late at night, studying with some friends. An older white man walked in and set down at the booth next to us. He started talking very loudly to the air in a sharp, agonized tone. It was a monologue about being a Vietnam vet and how he was betrayed and how it was all the fault of the gooks. That sentiment, those words, over and over again.

My friends were shrinking into their seats. They were all foreign students and terrified of getting into trouble and getting deported, especially the one from Iraq. I had the opposite reaction. My skin was on fire, there was a buzzing noise in my ears, my body started shivering and trembling as if someone had plugged me into an electric current, and everytime he said the word “gook” the current spiked. After a couple minutes of this, I couldn’t take it anymore. I got up and faced him and started yelling back.

There was chaos after that point. Another older white man came over, said he was also a Vietnam vet and then took my side of the loud, disjointed argument. The staff of the donut shop got involved. There were numerous threats of ass-kicking. The police came. They tried to talk him down but eventually arrested him after he got into his car, because he was obviously in no condition to drive.

My friends, who hadn’t moved during the whole time, told me I was crazy. Yes, my actions were pretty irrational, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice. I’d waded up to my knees in something that the mentally ill man was drowning in. I suppose I won, but my victory was pretty hollow.

This was the first narrative that I connected to the video I watched today. But after that man went out into the parking lot, I have no idea how his story began or ended.

After I read a bit more of Nafiza Z.’s story, I feel almost guilty for writing this analysis. I still empathize with the bystanders and the poor elderly lady, but I also empathize with her terrible struggle. I hope these words will go to show how the hatred expressed toward her has more to do with a complicated web of politics, race and resentment than it does with her actual actions. Finally, I hope she can transcend the person shown in that video and become the person she wants to be.

Apr

14

World Wide Food Price Crisis

Filed Under Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Environment and Conservation, Original Essays and Analysis, Politics, Sociology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

A few weeks ago I walked into my local supermarket to see that a 10 oz. bar of cheese was “on sale” for $5.39. I did a double take–maybe they meant two bars of cheese for $5.39. Generally, the sale on that brand of cheese is 2 for $4.00 or 2 for $5.00, but sure enough this was somehow supposed to be a sale. I’ve been complaining about this since last year–the cost of food is soaring. Last year, I could generally get out of the supermarket paying around $65-85.00 for two people, now I’m paying $90.00 or more. The higher prices seem to apply across the board–fresh produce, canned foods, flour/rice, and most dramatically dairy. Of course, I’m fortunate to be able to suck it up and pay the higher prices, but many lower income folks in this country and other wealthy countries are struggling, and in poorer countries, people are taking to the streets in protest because they are unable to feed their families.

A quick search of Google news indicates that we really are in a world wide food crisis. I’m not so sure that there is an actually shortage of food, but the crisis appears to be the cost. Some of the countries where people are struggling with soaring food prices, include–Afghanistan, Haiti, South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand, Ivory Coast, and numerous others. The situation is getting so serious that the United Nations (and the World Bank) weighed in last week :

The head of the UN World Food Programme has warned that the rise in basic food costs could continue until 2010.

Josette Sheeran blamed soaring energy and grain prices, the effects of climate change and demand for biofuels.

Ms Sheeran has already warned that the WFP is considering plans to ration food aid due to a shortage of funds.

Some food prices rose 40% last year, and the WFP fears the world’s poorest will buy less food, less nutritious food or be forced to rely on aid.

Speaking after briefing the European Parliament, Ms Sheeran said the agency needed an extra $375m (244m euros; 187m) for food projects this year and $125m (81m euros; 93m) to transport it.

She said she saw no quick solution to high food and fuel costs.

“The assessment is that we are facing high food prices at least for the next couple of years,” she said.

Ms Sheeran said global food reserves were at their lowest level in 30 years – with enough to cover the need for emergency deliveries for 53 days, compared with 169 days in 2007.

Several factors have been cited as causes for the food price crisis including: rising fuel cost, the shift towards biofuels (e.g. ethanol), population growth, the growth of capitalist economies, and weather patterns. The greatest criticism in the range of articles I read has been reserved for government subsidies for bio-fuels, specifically ethanol. Many feel that the shift to ethanol and bio-fuels is environmentally harmful, but now we can add soaring food prices and hunger to the list of arguments against bio-fuels1.

  1. If you want more information of about the food crisis, these graphs from the BBC website have useful information about the food price crisis. The only additional point I would add is that (see the chart of trade balances) while some countries like the US will benefit in the area of trade, I don’t think that the average American is benefiting from this. A few corporate farmers may be getting rich, but the vast majority of people are hurting. We’re not hurting anywhere near as much as poor people in poor countries. [back]

Nov

3

Flood in Mexico

Filed Under Environment and Conservation, Hurricane Katrina | 3 Comments

From The Guardian:


Million people hit as Mexico flood waters continue to rise

A huge rescue operation began in southern Mexico yesterday, with rescue workers in boats, helicopters and military trucks striving to bring relief to almost a million people whose homes have been overwhelmed by the worst floods in the area in at least half a century.

Families who ignored calls to leave their homes were huddled on rooftops with no food and drinking water as murky waters surged up to the eaves of buildings and forecasters warned of more rain to come. Others were evacuated to shelters that later also proved vulnerable to the floods.

In an address to the nation in which he appealed for donations of everything from tin openers to generators, President Felipe Caldern called the crisis in Tabasco state “one of the worst disasters in the history of the country”. [...]

For the next few days it’s mostly going to be up to the Mexican military to save as many people as they can. I’m sure they are going to do their best. I’m trying to think of how I can help in the effort. Here’s one way.

From: Me
To: My Congressperson (Hank Johnson, D-GA 4th)
Subject: International Relations
via http://hankjohnson.house.gov/contact_hank_write.shtml

I am writing as your constituent to ask that you work to provide urgent aid to the Mexican state of Tabasco.

I have not heard anything in the news yet about our response to the devastating floods affecting the state of Tabasco. 80% of the state is underwater and 300,000 people need to be evacuated before further rain hits. I hope Congress is working on efforts and coordinating with the Mexican government to assist in evacuating these people and sheltering the homeless.

If such efforts are not already underway, it is our duty as neighbors to initiate them. Mexico immediately sent an aid convoy in response to Hurricane Katrina and we could do no less to aid them.

Aug

20

Congestion Pricing in New York City

Filed Under Environment and Conservation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

New York City has been debating the merits of a program that would charge drivers a $8.oo a day fee to travel into the most congested part of Manhattan during peak travel hours? (For those unfamiliar with New York, we’re talking downtown where all the big skyscrapers are.).? The fee was called congestion pricing, and it is designed to reduce pollution and traffic congestion in the city of New York.? The fee would only be charged once a day, and? tolls? coming into the city could be deducted from the fee.? Many were complaining that this is an undue burden on middle and working class people.? Some said it would harm businesses, and others felt it would not reduce traffic.? Some suburbanites are up in arms because this will make their commute much more expensive.

I have to be honest, while I’m sure this is a burden on some middle class people, I feel that many people? are being really whiny about this and? they are? refusing to take the financial hit that many of us in the New York metro area already take.? ? I don’t even drive into Manhattan, and I have to pay $8 a day in tolls.? I travel from Westchester to Long Island and route that is basically inaccessible via public transportation.? People who travel from Queens to the Bronx also have to pay the same toll, and we aren’t even talking about the most congested parts of the city.? People who drive into Manhattan at least have the chance to take reliable public transportation.? So right now the people who are not heading into the primary areas for rush hour traffic are paying out the wahzoo, and those traveling into Manhattan,? are not going to have to pay a premium to do so.? To me this seems absolutely backwards.

I know $8 is costly I’ve been paying it for years, but I don’t have much sympathy to others who are heading into a very inaccessible area and are refusing to take on any burden to do so.? I also know this is hard to understand for people who haven’t lived in the NYC metro area.? This area has horrible traffic, and the geography does nothing to help.? Manhattan is an island, and Queens and Brooklyn are part of another island (Long Island).? You also have Staten Island, which is obviously an island.? The only borough that is not an island is the Bronx.? So everywhere you go you are crossing bridges, and most of those bridges have tolls ranging from about $2.50-to $8.00 (The default seems to be $4 or $4.50 if you don’t have a EZ pass.).? The bridges are often bottle necks for traffic, and an accident on a bridge can cause major? delays (sometimes hours)? The good news is that even though traffic is really bad, public transportation is well developed, especially in Manhattan.? There are some weak spots for public transportation–traveling from suburban area to suburban ares is generally not? easy via public transportation.

However, in the long run we are going to have to make some sacrifices.? If I can already pay $8 a day to travel from suburb to suburb, my neighbors can pay the $8 to go into Manhattan.? We need to reduce air pollution in New York, and cutting down on car traffic is one way to do that.? I’m sympathetic to the small percentage of folks who are plumbers and other service workers who cannot take pubic transportation into Manhattan because they have to lug tools with them, but others who drive to Manhattan don’t get a lot of sympathy from me, especially when people who are not even driving in the most congested areas pay the same (or more) in tolls.

Aug

25

Rolling Blackouts Again!!

Filed Under Environment and Conservation, Politics, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

With the price of gas reaching record highs and rolling black outs in California. I can’t help wondering when are we going to wake up. The story says that there is sufficient power supply but that the power grid cannot handle this demand, but seriously when do we ever hear about energy conservation in this country. Shouldn’t these two things be a sign? I guess on a more upbeat note some are promoting tax incentives (why does it alwasy have to be something about taxes) for hybrid cars. But are people in this country really ready for the three Rs–reuse, reduce recycle? I suppose it doesn’t help that we have an oil rich President who keeps trying to sell us on the “you can have everything you want without paying a price” mentality. Wait until a few years when gas hits $5-7 a gallon and–mark my word.