Comments on: Racism in aisle ’14

By: Chris Chaky

Chris Chaky — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 02:30:26 +0000

I agree, it’s important for us as a class to remember that explicit racism does exist and happens all the times to people of a variety of racial and ethnic groups. This specific case of prejudice against a Chinese girl is also a good example of the way American identity is seen as white, or white normativity. I think we’re all familiar with such attacks on immigrants, though they tend to be aimed toward Hispanics. I hope we can all easily see the absurdity of a white American telling an immigrant to “Go back to where you came from.” The United States is a nation of immigrants, yet American identity is nevertheless constructed as being white and European.

By: brianna

brianna — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 19:31:01 +0000

I also saw posts on Facebook about the Marley Lion case. It was frustrating to me that the two cases were even compared – as Emily points out, the facts of the case are very different. Additionally, the racial motivation behind Trayvon Martin’s murder is what makes it so important to talk about. I do not mean to say that Lion’s murder was insignificant – any loss of life matters. However, to make national news, stories are generally more pertinent to our nation as a whole, like the Trayvon Martin case was.

By: EmilyBlakeslee

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:32:17 +0000

Hi Chelsey,

I looked up the Marley Lion case and found significant differences from the Trayvon Martin case. According to several news website, Lion was a victim of a botched robbery attempt outside of a bar. There were multiple persons who witnessed the events. Unlike Martin, Lion was not being pursued by someone who thought he was doing something wrong. I think the Martin case evokes so much emotion and drama from the media because a Black kid who wasn’t doing anything wrong was murdered by someone who assumed he was a troublemaker. This case doesn’t appear racially motivated, so it probably won’t get as much attention. It’s sad that when a tragedy happens it isn’t necessarily acknowledged by the media. I think the Martin case got so much press because of the racial overtones, which the media likes because it allows for a lot of debate and emotions and therefore high viewing rates.

Here are some links to online news articles about the case: http://www.abcnews4.com/category/243360/marley-lion
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20131008/PC16/131009425