Call to Action: Another Racialized Arrest at School « Oh No a WoC PhD

In yet another case of racialised over-policing, Oh No a WoC PhD
reports that a young African woman was aggressively assaulted by police
for not cleaning up a spilled slice of birthday cake to the
satisfaction of a school security guard.  I'm convinced, Americans are
losing their minds. 

Just to prove my point, here is a comment
left by a YouTube member within the post containing a video of a news
segment on the issue:

As written by blastingcaps: 

"that woman is worried about a book deal, not her kid, whos father she
probably doesnt even know. Yeah, where is dad? or is that a sore
subject in the black community? where is daddy? in jail? being a
fucking loser who shirks his responsibility. eh...blame it all on
whitey. i didnt see anything in that video that tells me this kid didnt
deserve what she got..there is no evidence of ANYTHING. its just a big
white gut with a little black girl..so you assume its racism..you dont
know what happened." 

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Welcome back to the 1960's, Bush-style.  - The Angryindian

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[q
url="http://angryindian.blogspot.com/2007/10/call-to-action-another-racialized.html"]Call
to Action: Another Racialized Arrest at School « Oh No a WoC PhD: "A
young black woman was attacked by a Knight High School security guard
in Palmdale, CA, for not sufficiently cleaning up the floor after
dropping a piece of birthday cake on it. He subsequently broke her arm,
then he and his buddy attacked the folks who were using their cell
phones to videotape and take pictures of their attack. The mother who
complained was herself arrested and is now suspended without pay from
her job WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT! The young woman and the two who bore
witness to the attack by taking photo and video evidence WERE ALSO
ARRESTED for assaulting the officer of the high school security. [In
addition to assault charges] The young woman was also arrested for
littering as well. The student who took the crude images with a
cellphone has posted to youtube. Like the Burma protesters that got out
the Burma incident overnight before the Myanmar government shut them
down, youtube may in fact be one way in which the revolution is in fact
digitized."

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Palmdale - Knight High School Update II

So I went looking for update information on the cake incident,
beyond what I have already put in the original post and the update. I
had hoped to report that the students records (both school &
police) had been erased clean of this incident, the charges and record
against the mother were dropped, the security guard was fired, and the
security team was placed under a citizen’s accountability board. Well,
it looks like the case is going to have to go to court because the
school has remained silent beyond the initial statement referenced in
the previous post & now there is a counter protest movement for
“Justice for Palmdale Highschool.”

They did hold their regularly scheduled District Meeting Oct. 2. The
NAACP attended and attempted to get answers not only about the cake
incident but other incidences that have been aware of in the last three
years. Their report corroborates the report of the organizers of the
parent protest.

In response to accusations, parents like the one quoted in my
previous post who claim any act of violence is justified in a school
“overrun with gang bangers and hoodlums,” organized a counterprotest.
The Antelope Valley News Talk 1470 am radio station released the
school’s main phone number and the following plea:

Please support Pete Knight High School! Please if you are concerned
about justice a phone call voicing your support . . . to the staff and
school district, they are being hammered by idiots from all over the
country.

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more and more:

October 4th, 2007 ·



some, in other forums, have argued that bloggers of color and their
allies are akin to antebellum white Southerns who took isolated
incidents out of context in order to stir up a violent fervor targeted
at a named enemy.  In other words:



    * bloggers of color & white ally bloggers = the new klan

    * school racism = the myth of the black rapist

    * nooses/brutality = isolated events



What is telling about this accusation is not only how easy it is to do
a basic search and discover the number of incidents we are talking
about but also the ways that once again standing up for the basic civil
and human rights of people of color is being seen as inciting hatred
and violence.  D.A. Walters said the only thing that saved Jena from
violence was God despite evidence that the only people behaving in a
violent way were Klan from neighboring areas. Adriene Curry argued that
black history month was the real culprit of segregation and racism in
this country and only encouraged people to avoid one another and hate
each other.  Now, people discussing the Palmdale wrist incident are
being likened to antebellum white supremacist propagandanists?



Well there is a pattern, a pattern that has been well documented by the
SPLC (as I have said before) and was also documented on CNN tonight. 
One month into the school year, we have the following examples at our
disposal:



    * Noose Jena Louisiana (happened earlier)

    * Noose University of Maryland

    * Noose NJ middle school

    * Noose NYC high school

    * Noose Coast Guard training center and on ship (twice this summer)



Despite the argument made by people as varied as Jena residents, school
officials, and even CNN, these incidents are not done by people who are
ignorant of the racial significance of the noose.  There is a clear
pattern to the usage:



    * Jena - hung by white students after black students sit under “whites only tree”

    * Maryland - hung by white students outside of a building housing African American student groups and services

    * NJ - hung by white students outside a black students locker

    * NYC - hung by white people outside a black teachers office

    * coast guard incident one - placed by white members in a black member’s bag

    * incident two - placed by white members in a black diversity trainer’s bag



In other words, white people are targeting black people showing a clear
sign that they recognize the racial connotations of their actions even
if they cannot quote names and dates on lynching history in N. America.
Like the nooses of old, they also seem to be primarily aimed at people
who have transgressed the boundaries of white supremacy, ie students
who sit where only whites have sat before, teachers and administrators
who have engaged in lesson planning, recruitment, or diversity
initiatives designed to critique white privilege and/or increase the
access of people of color to higher education, etc. 

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