Just recently, I went to watch Melissa Harris-Perry speak on Black Lives Matter. In the speech she has said that many say that we live in a post-racial society, people believe this because of the election of Barack Obama in 2008. People said that we were not racist anymore because we had a black president to represent the United States of America. She states that this is not true, we are not in a post-racial society just because we have a black president. People referred to his votes as "The Black Votes"
She notes that it is "common" more expected to see fail black bodies. When she say failed black bodies she is talking about dead bodies. She mentions that is it not surprising at all to see that a black person is dead. I like that she notes that not all the dead bodies that we see of black people are not only from cops and white people. Trayvon Martin was not killed by a cop but still cops get looked at as one of the man people who kill black people. Most of the killings that we see are not done by cops but we do see some like Sandra Bland that did die in police custody.
Throughout the speech she mentions that social media is starting to become a part of our society. Our current president knows how to use social media in his advantage. We are starting to see a change in who has power and privilege. Being black seems to automatically put a person at the bottom of the food chain. It is not about having a problem but actually being the problem is how people view you. When you look at Universities they tend to be "too white" which reinforces who has privilege. People want to be seen, and have a voice in society. She ends with "don't be afraid to fail, failure is certain."
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