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March 23, 2005
what's going on?
marvin asked the question, and i want to know.
i'm really troubled...for several reasons. six young people are gone. a grandfather and his partner are dead. a teacher and a security guard are dead. and the media has done a terrible job of covering this tragedy. what's the difference? could it be that the shooter and victims in minnesota were native american save for the one white teacher who returned to the rez because she enjoyed teaching there? the shooters and the majority of the victims in colorado were white. please tell me that it isn't that simple. please tell me that we're beyond that. please tell me that a young person dying on a monday morning at a high school on a reservation is just as tragic, sad, and painful as it is when it happens on a high-school campus in a very white, very middle class town. please tell me that this isn't about race or class or region. please tell me something 'cause i can't figure it out.
on the one hand, i'm pissed because there hasn't been enough coverage concerning what happened at red lake. on the other hand, the media went overboard with its coverage of columbine, and, at some point, i was tired of hearing about students' pleading for their lives or a teacher bleeding to death in a closet. enough was enough for me. used to be that folks were concerned about how over-exposure to violence on television may desensitize viewers. that hasn't happened to me. i turn away when the news flashes to images of blown-up buses and empty shoes in the streets. i'm tired of all the death and dying and am angry that every night, the number of fallen soldiers grows...one soldier at a time...a daughter. a mother. a brother. a son. a partner. a friend. a lover. a father...one soldier at a time.
i've been thinking about the race question a lot here lately. because i don't give a damn what anyone says, race matters. ask cornel west. even before red lake, i was thinking about the young girl, jessica marie lunsford, whose body was buried about 150 yards from her house. she was taken from her bed in the middle of the night and abused and molested and murdered. and then i started thinking about jon benet ramsey and elizabeth smart...i wonder how many little brown girls have gone missing. i wonder how many little brown girls have been found buried in shallow graves. i wonder how many little brown girls have been abused and molested and murdered.
i decided to see if i could find out how many brown girls have gone missing. i focused my search for missing girls in florida. as i scrolled thru the pictures of the missing girls and read their accompanying profiles, i noticed a pattern. the majority of the brown girls who are missing are categorized as "endangered runaway." i'm having a hard time believing that all those girls ran away. are little brown girls so wild that they are predisposed to running away? how are we constructing these girls? what are we saying about the values of their lives? are they disposable children, much like the children, including the shooter, in minnesota?
here's a list...one that the media's neglected...
Nina Melody Barrientes
Brittany S. Brisco
Kiyah Adia Edwards
Maylin Gonzalez
Brittany LaShae Patterson
Sonia L. Ortiz
Mariah Deneane Timbers
...all missing...
i'm asking these questions because i have two brown sisters and two brown brothers...because i know a brown girl who lived in chattanooga, tn and was continually reminded that she was invisible...because i am a brown girl and i love all brown girls and i want them to be safe and healthy and happy.
i'm beginning to feel a sense of dread, a sense that a storm is brewing. have you ever had that feeling in your gut that something was amiss? you didn't know quite what it was; you just knew it wasn't right. that's how i feel these days.
what is really going on?
poem for the day
"why some people be mad at me sometimes"
Lucille Clifton
they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine.
Posted by emnorris at March 23, 2005 04:47 PM