Daniel Mapp is a 25-year-old poet in Athens. Mapp shares his experiences of being a person of color in America.
Mapp says that minorities have a disadvantage in America because the judicial system is against them. He goes on to talk about how there are more Latinx people and black people in prison than the Caucasian population.
He mentions that the stereotype surrounding blacks in America is a stereotype of them being “viewed as criminals and drug dealers and potential felons.”
“Black Lives Matters to me is the fundamentals that we need in our generation. It is trying to bring about equality rather than division. It gives us a voice.”
When asked about the best thing one can do to help the black population, Mapp offers this advice, “Get out, ask people what they go through every day. Don’t stereotype each other. Ask what can I do for you and what can we do for each other. It is about communicating, if you communicate it lessens the division.”
He ends by saying he has hope for the future generations and thinks America is moving in the right direction and will come together and become more integrated.
“Let us rebuild ourselves. We need to be noticed rather than labeled.”
Mayu Takushima is a 21-year-old exchange student from Tokyo. Takushima shares her experiences as being a Japanese exchange student in America.
For Takushima, she has experienced many advantages as a Japanese student at UGA. She says she is considered unique and interesting by her classmates and friends. She appreciates the advantages as a Japanese person in the U.S. She does not personally experience discrimination.
In Takushima’s opinion, being called Asian rather than individuals taking the time to understand where in Asia specifically she is from offends her at times.
“Being called Asian is a little bit offensive to me because I think originally I would not consider myself as an Asian, because Asia is very broad and vague and there are so many different countries which all have different histories, cultures, and values and just saying ‘Asian’ cannot be applied to the whole country.”
Women in Asia face discriminations and stereotypes in America according to Takushima.
“Some American people assume that Japanese women are very gentle and we will never reject them so sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable.”
Osama Mor is a fourth year Pre-Med major at UGA. Mor shares his experiences of being a member of the Muslim community in America.
Mor considers himself both a Muslim in America and a Muslim of America. He points out the destruction that American foreign policies have brought to Muslim countries around the world. He mentions how it is hard for him to disassociate himself from the struggles and the experiences of other Muslims around the world.
“At the same time that Muslims around the world are suffering from U.S. foreign policies, I cannot ignore that also at home, the Muslim community here is also facing struggles due to islamophobia, due to anti-Muslim policies, due to the United States government that marginalizes us.”
Mor elaborates on how being a minority can pose as a disadvantage in the United States.
“If you are a minority, that comes with a whole list of struggles. Simply not having the privilege of being a majority is almost sometimes in and of itself alienating.”
Mor goes on to speak on how the United States has a long history of exploiting its minorities, of making them feel unwelcome, alienating them, oppressing them – not just for Muslims but for black people, brown people, the LGBTQ community, many of the indigenous American communities, and the Latinx community. He shines light on how, in that context, there are only disadvantages to being a minority in America.
Since the Trump administration, Muslim communities throughout the United States have evidently been more fearful for their lives.
“It is without a doubt that anti-Muslims, bigots, racists, islamaphobs, white supremacists, feel like they have a platform now, an opening and a freedom to express those bigoted beliefs. They are not unwilling to use violence. They are not unwilling to harass. They are not unwilling to really disturb Muslims now.”
Mor goes on to mention the intersectionality amongst all minority groups in America.
“What happens to Muslims in this country, the oppression faced by Muslims in the United States, cannot be disassociated from the oppression faced by black people and Latinx people, the LGBTQ community, and the indigenous peoples of this country. Of course, each struggle is unique in its own way – it has its own experiences – but the fact that they are all linked is important to mention to highlight the great importance of solidarity between our communities.”
Tyler Metcalfe is a 19-year-old Journalism student at UGA. Metcalfe shares his experiences as a person of color in America.
Metcalfe mentions how though he has a lot of pride in being black, he recognizes there are discriminations in the work place and in other areas against black people.
He talks about how socially he has been affected by disapproval from mothers of girlfriends because he was black. “You just get looks and stuff in certain situations.”
Metcalfe mentions that though there has been a rise in hate crimes towards minorities in America recently, he does think that America is headed down the right path.
He says that the biggest threat towards black people in America is the war on drugs. “I definitely think the incarnation rates at the height that they are at now are a problem that needs to be addressed.”
“The whole idea behind Black Lives Matter is not to say no one else’s life matter, we are saying that our lives matter, so can you please stop shooting us.”
Beto Cacao is a member of the Latinx community in American and has been living in Athens for 17 years. He shares his experiences of being an immigrant in America.
Cacao speaks about how a large disadvantage for his community is the derogatory idea that someone who is a Latinx is inevitably also illegal.
He elaborates on how immigrants face both issues of segregation and discrimination that other minority groups face, but on top of that they also face the threat of deportation. He mentions how his community even see cases where U.S. citizens have been detained or deported, regardless of being a legal citizen, simply because of the color of their skin or their accent.
Cacao tells of incidents where individuals will ask him “where are you from,” pointing out his accent and the color of his skin and allowing those factors to legitimize why they think Cacao could not be from America.
“There is this pattern of seeing someone like me with an accent like I have and asking this question ‘where are you from.’ As a Latino, we constantly have been pushed from and denied from this ‘Americanism’ in every sense of the word.”
“Here in the USA, you cannot be an American unless you are white. We suffer every day.”
Cacao speaks on how, when one person is deported, the whole community suffers. This suffering is seen in schools where these children become depressed, aggressive or distracted because they are consumed by this thought of their deported relative, or they are consumed by this fear that they might come home to find their other family members having been deported. Through this, the whole community suffers, from the children in school losing their family, to the family losing their bread winner, to the employer losing their employee.
“It is an illness in our community. This is a real fear in our community.”
Cacao speaks about why he thinks many people are not upset with the inhumanity behind the deportation process. He says this is a twofold issue, one because “deportation happens in the shadows” and two because of the criminalization of the immigrant.
The criminality of these people is enforced through the language and the speech used, making the sole presence of the immigrant community criminal. Terms such as “illegal alien” are strategically repeated and reused to perpetuate the dehumanization of the immigrant community.
“We use this language where we say that there are criminals who are affecting our citizens, so we have a divide between the ‘illegals’ and the citizens. When people see the word criminal, they will never empathize with these people because they view them as criminals.”
Luz Morales is a 19-year-old student at UGA studying Agriculture Education. Morales identifies as Mexican and shares her experiences of being a Mexican in America.
“I love my culture. I love the food we eat and the ceremonies that we have, the celebrations we have and how close family is. Being a Mexican is just really powerful to me. I couldn’t imagine not being Mexican.”
Both of her parents are documented residents in the United States, but Morales experiences frustrations having to constantly specify whether she and her family are “legal Americans.”
“A disadvantage for me is that I don’t fit in. I don’t fit in over here in the United States and I also don’t fit in in Mexico entirely.”
Morales mentions how often she feels as if the United States alienates her and her people through certain documentation processes such as specifying “preferred race” on census documents and only having the option to bubble in “other.”
“People do ask me what am I…I don’t know which I prefer better, whether someone is assuming I am white or assuming that I am Mexican, because either way they are still assuming.”
Morales goes on to talk about personal hardships faced by the Hispanic communities in America. She mentions how derogatory terms such as “illegal alien” or “wetback” are heard by her community on a regular basis in America.
“I’ve seen on individual levels and on global and national levels of people being harassed, people being scared, people not knowing what to do. There are people who have their green cards and have their permanent residencies and are scared to visit their families in Mexico and not be able to come back. There is a lot of fear, and there is a lot more hate against people. None of it is okay.”
Morales mentions that the biggest threat in her community is deportation. Morales says that a lot of families are going to be separated because they do not have their residency papers finished. She mentions how a lot of kids are going to lose their parents and must go to social services because they are not “legal.”
“The hardest thing that we have to face is that we have to prove that we belong here and that we actually provide value to this country. We have to constantly prove that because not everyone sees this value in the same way.”
Kalah Mingo is a 20-year-old journalism student at the University of Georgia. Mingo shares her experiences as a woman of color in America.
Mingo talks about personal experiences of discrimination on an intimate level in her early years of college when she encounters her friends saying “the n word with the hard r” around her without considering how it might offend or affect her.
“It hurts a lot more to know that even though they are supposed to be your friend, that they would say such a derogatory term.”
Mingo says the biggest threat to black people in America is the cyclical phase of poverty and lack of education. Additionally, she mentions that the way in which other people view black people is an influential thing that holds the black community back.
“People who get out of those situations are the exception, they’re not the rule. You can’t really change a whole pattern of people based on exceptions.”
Kalah also touches on how black women experience a form of racism through a reinforcement of certain stereotypes. The stereotype of being the loud, ghetto, angry black woman who is overtly sexualized in media and TV is something Mingo says is a burden her community must overcome daily.
For black men, Mingo mentions a different kind of stereotype they must face, “Black men are always viewed as the villain or the thug. People are trying to paint this narrative of black me being scary or thugs and it is just not true.”
“We matter, we exist, we are individual people who have lives and those lives matter.”
By joining in on the conversation about the reality of oppression that minority groups face in America today, an understanding of the need for solidarity and intersectionality is brought to light.
Education on how best to stand in solidarity and ally-ship with minority groups in America is showcased in this video.
For further understanding of the obstacles and threats posed against marginalized minority groups in America, check out these seven short profiles below.
Click on their name or picture to read their profile in full.
To help get a better visual of where these hate incidents occurred and to whom they targeted, here are some helpful graphics and charts to depict where these post-election hate incidents occurred on a national level, across particular locations, targeting which people, and a day-to-day count of the incident reports. All data below is courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a combination of FBI reports and media reports on these hate incidents.
This graphic depicts where the hate incidents occurred on a national level. States in red are the highest occurrences down to green states which have zero occurrences.
This graphic depicts the particular locations in which these hate incidents occurred.
This graphic explains which people groups these hate incidents were targeting.
This graphic depicts a breakdown of the count of hate crime indents on each day from Nov. 9 to Nov. 18.
Overall, all my data outlets are free of cost to access. I do have to pay for the data or wifi used to access these sites. Similarly, I probably “spend” about 3-5 hours a day on social media. It is easy to gain news through internet feeds and keep up with current events that way. I also am able to stay in contact and engage with friends and family in more ways than just in person contact. I would say yes, that it is worth it since there is so much to see and gain knowledge about through social media.
Text Message: BREAKING: President Trump launches missiles into Syria in response to the Syrian Government’s chemical weapon attacks. Read the full story here.
Billboard: President Trump takes the U.S. deeper, one missile launch at a time.
Email: In response to a deadly chemical attack in Syria earlier this week, President Trump launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Al Shayrat airfield in Syria on Thursday night. Trump says the events of Thursday were done to protect national security and to send a message to Assad about U.S. intentions to use military force if chemical weapons continue to be used, leading to the U.S. taking a deeper role into the long, bloody conflict in Syria.
Out of the friends that I interviewed, I found that the most common social media platforms used included Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The most common ones used among my friends are Twitter and Instagram. Each one of these social media platforms were used for different types of outlets. When interviewing my friends, I asked what they typically used each site for and if there was an overlap of what one would post on one social media platform verses a different platform.
I found that for Twitter, tweeting casual updates about one’s day, following news platforms, and keeping up with close friends were the typical uses for this platform.
For Facebook I found that the majority of my friends use Facebook to keep up with family, old friends, watch food and animal videos, and keep up with news as well. My friends also noted that Facebook was much more private than Twitter or Instagram and that the majority of the friends they had on Facebook were close friends of theirs or family.
For Snapchat, my friends use this as a causal way to keep up with and interact with their friends. Though Snapchat has a news outlet, I found that my friends did not use it. Snapchat was a platform for casual pictures or videos or chats that would not hold value enough to be posted on a more permanent social media platform such as Instagram.
Instagram was used for pictures and videos that my friends said they wanted the most attention for. Good selfies, cute pics with friends, pretty pictures they might have taken, or pictures of the food they are eating are all things my friends tend to post on Instagram. Similarly, my friends mentioned having most of their Instagrams linked with Facebook so that the pictures they post on Instagram would also be posted on Facebook for their families to see. This is a good representation of the quality of content typically posted on Instagram.
LinkedIn was an exception to the social media platforms when I asked my friends about it. Though it is used by most, it is used less frequently and is typically only used for business and professional uses only.
Just weeks into the presidency of Donald Trump, some Athens residents remain skeptical about the new administration, telling JOUR 3190 that recent executive orders underscored their concerns about Trump.
Of the 12 people interviewed, only one voiced full satisfaction with both how President Donald Trump had remained consistent with his campaign promises and the executive orders announced thus far in the presidency.
Claudia Luna, a 23-year-old student said the Southern Wall is disheartening.
The other 11 interviewees voiced a range of opinions from dissatisfaction to disdain when asked about past actions of President Trump and his current executive orders such as the immigration Ban and the building of the wall.
When asked about the building of the wall between U.S. and Mexico, Claudia Luna, a 23-year-old student said: “I was upset because that’s not fair.”
“First of all, I think building a wall is ridiculous,” said Luna. “My family is from Mexico. So to hear that, that was just really disheartening.”
Similarly, Tom Deal, a 56-year-old resident of Atlanta, called the wall a “boondoggle,” adding that in his view it will be a “big waste of time and money.”
National polls conducted by Politico in early February found that approximately 48 percent of Americans are in favor of the construction of the wall. The same poll also said 55 percent of Americans favored the immigration ban.
Despite these national results, from the 12 Athens residents interviewed last week, a majority voiced strong displeasure in these executive orders.
Gus Elliott, a 24-year-old grad student said the Immigration Ban is haphazard.
“[The immigration Ban] was very haphazard and it had a lot of ill effects, never mind the fact that it’s totally not necessary in terms of preventing terrorism,” said Gus Elliott, a 26-year-old graduate student from Valdosta. “It is a complete political obfuscation.”
When asked if these executive orders came as a surprise, there was a general consensus that, based on Trump’s campaign promises, most were skeptical but not entirely caught off guard when Trump did in fact follow through on his major campaign promises.
“A lot of it just sounded like bull to me. It still sounds like a lot of bull so he is consistent on that,” said 23-year-old student Hannah Smith.
“I guess the stuff he talked about – what he was campaigning – we never thought would actually happen. But he has had some executive orders that do really follow through with that…in a scary way,” said Rachel Terns, a 21-year-old student from UGA studying Public Relations.
JOUR 3190 posed six questions to each of the individuals, surveying them on their opinions of these executive orders as well as the so-called “resistance” movements which followed the proposal of such executive orders.
Though few interviewees participated in demonstrations such as organized rallies and marches, the overall opinions of these demonstrations were mixed among those interviewed.
“I do not agree with them because most of those people have not given Trump a chance yet. I think it is definitely dividing everyone in the country,” Will Veringa, a 19-year-old student studying Finance at UGA said.
In contrast, some were supportive despite not personally participating in the demonstrations themselves.
Feredock, a 20-year-old visitor from Savannah, voiced a different opinion. “I think they are good. We are standing together which is obviously what everyone needs. For privileged people, our votes and voices are louder, so we need to help out.”
An unprecedented black establishment plunges its roots deep in a segregated Southern city to provide the first successful blossoming of black culture and entrepreneurship still evident in the Classic City of Athens, Georgia, over a century later.
A hub for black culture in Athens, the Morton Theatre was located in the heart of the historic black business district on Hull and Washington Street, commonly known as the Hot Corner.
Built in 1910, the Morton Theatre stands as one of the first black run business and cultural institutions in Athens. This theater provided a meeting ground for the black community and facilitated a surge of black entrepreneurship and culture that Athens might have otherwise lacked.
“From one end to the other, it was a black operation. We can’t find another one that can make that claim,” Bill Herringdine, president of the Morton Theatre Corp told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1993.
According to the Morton Theatre website, the Morton is one of the longest standing vaudeville theaters built in the United States and offered itself as the first the professional black business district in the segregated Southern city. From professional black business occupants such as doctors, dentists and pharmacists, to performing arts of both local and well-known artists, to black activist organizations, the Morton Theatre is a host to a plethora of influential Athens culture.
Unfortunately, according to a 1994 Atlanta Journal-Constitution report, a fire broke out in the projection booth in 1954 resulting in the fire marshal’s orders to shut down the lower theater level due to inefficient fire exit availability. Despite this, various street level business sections continued operation.
The theater was reopened in the fall of 1993 following a management agreement between Athens-Clarke County government and the Morton Theatre Corporation.
”The Morton Theatre provides an opportunity for cultural rejuvenation; to visit a past all but forgotten,” John Jeffreys, a Clarke County Commissioner, told the New York Times in 1988. ”It was the home of blacks when the performing arts and economic development were thriving.”
The reopening of the Morton allowed for the theater to function again as a performing arts space and stand as a continuing reminder of the cultural influences Morton left on the city of Athens.
I am from Woodstock, Georgia and our town is home to one of the biggest churches in Georgia, First Baptist Woodstock. This weekend it appears that there are several events being hosted at this location including a Men’s Conference and a variety of Christian Music Artists are preforming. I saw a lot of tweets about these different events as well as anticipations for the Superbowl and the varying plans individuals had for their Superbowl parties in Woodstock Georgia. Because this area is mainly suburban, I was not surprised to find a large amount of house listings for this area as well.
A destructive fire broke out Thursday night in Windfair apartments on the east side of Athens leaving over half of the units completely destroyed, injuring none but displacing 25 renters and destroying all of their belongings in the fire.
According to Captain Mary Smith, the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department arrived at the complex at 9:05 to see that “the flames were bursting through the roof and residents were gathered outside on the sidewalk.”
Although Smith said the fire department “does not suspect foul play”, the fire is still being investigated.
Thomas Jones, a Windfair renter of three years, was among those who lost all their possessions in the fire. “I lost everything.” Jones said, “I am not sure what I will do next.”
Though Jones’s two cats Gingersnap and George did survive, Jones is at a loss of what to do next due to his lack of renters’ insurance. Some pets of the other residents were saved; however other pets are still missing at the moment.
Sahar Ebrahim, known in her home town for always having perfect curls, shares with us her secrets to achieving the perfect hair twirl.
“The key to achieving the perfect sausage roll twirl while twirling your hair”, expert hair twirler Sahar shares, “is to start with freshly showered hair.” After brushing all the hair to one side, tightly wind your hair around your fingers and continue playing within it until it is dry.
Sahar prefers the keep her hair pushed to her right side while twirling her hair, but whichever side you choose is up to you. “What is most important is to keep playing with your hair until it is completely dry”, Sahar says. Once it is dry, you have also achieved the perfect hair twirl just like Sahar.
Caroline Harty, twenty years old, is a second year at UGA. Because of her love for interpersonal relations and natural knack of connecting to individuals with immediacy, she is pursuing a degree in Public Relations with a New Media certificate. With her first semester within Grady underway, Caroline
keeps her options open to all the varying routes she could take with a Public Relations major. In her free time, she plays intramural soccer, reads books and lounges at home with her two miniature dachshunds who she loves to play with and love on.
