#BlackLivesMatter
Within Context of Monster
Many media outlets have recently
become saturated with articles about young, black individuals—particularly
males—being gunned down by the police force. The amount of seemingly purposeful
profiling across our nation is an epidemic and gaining a lot of ground with our
citizens. One of the most current and powerful movements of the generation is
the #BlackLivesMatter. With this simple hashtag, people everywhere are voicing
their opinions and concerns while demanding a change for minority groups. One
of the more recent young adult novels that begins to touch on these issue years
before the hashtag is shown through Walter Dean Myers’ Monster. In this text, we go through a yearlong journey with
16-year-old Steve Harmon who is on trial for murder. It is through Myer’s
language in the novel that readers can see an overwhelming amount of minorities
in negative situations compared to their white counterparts. Due to the content
of this novel, I believe pairing it alongside news articles and tweets speaking
about the #BlackLivesMatter movement would create an invaluable teaching
moment. Students will see how realistic this novel is when comparing it to
cases such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Freddy Grey. I argue through Monster and these recent events,
students will be able to gain a deeper understanding of privilege, injustice,
and the true meaning behind #BlackLivesMatter.
One of the most striking
realizations of Monster is the amount
of young, black males on trial for this murder or those already incarcerated but
cutting a deal to get a shorter sentence. Myer’s creates characters such as
“sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon” who is described as “thin” and “brown skinned”
(Myers 7). Steve is also continually described as a monster by those accusing
him of being an accomplice of this murder. The readers learn the other young
man on trial for murder, James King, is a “23-year-old” (Myer 13) through the
testimony given by Mrs. Henry. During her testimony, she admits she has
“trouble testifying against a black man” (Myer, 169). This is a very telling
line within Monster, because she does
not want to be responsible for putting another young, black male behind bars
for the remainder of his life. Mrs. Henry takes on a role to protect her own
people—so to speak—and hates to see another black male be part of the
statistic.
I would pair these facts from the
characters in the story with the #BlackLivesMatter movement in my classroom. I
would inform my students about what the movement stands for: “working for a
world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted
for demise” (Carney 181). It is through each character, minus O’Brien and
Osvaldo who are not identified as African Americans, that students can see
black individuals being a target for crimes and violations. This
disproportionate portrayal of the prison system is part of the problem to those
who follow the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Carney also points out that many
“stereotypes of young Black men, especially those who come from low-income
neighborhoods, have become so entrenched in our society [to being killed by
cops with legitimate reason]” (Carney 182). It is the difference my students
will notice between how a police official talks to a white male with a traffic
violation compared to a black woman, such as Sandra Bland, being ripped out of
her car when asking why she was being detained with no answer. Myer’s
purposefully placing minorities, especially African American men, as the focus
of this novel is intentional and speaks to the injustices many of these
individuals’ experience simply due to the color of their skin.
The next thing I would want to teach
my students through Monster and the
#BlackLivesMatter movement is the idea of privilege. This can be a very
sensitive topic because it is unfair to say all white, heterosexual males have
a privilege that African American men do not have. Many white males are born
into terrible circumstances and poor living conditions. In a recent 2014 study,
approximately 20 million individuals who identified as “white” were in poverty
compared to 10 million individuals who identified as “black” (Kaiser Family
Foundations 2014). While number-wise this is double the amount of black individuals,
these numbers translated to percentages breaks down as 10% white and 26% black,
where black individuals make up the largest amount of poverty stricken
individuals in the United States (Kaiser Family Foundations 2014). To use this
information as a teaching lesson through Monster,
we would look at the conditions Steve has grown up in. We learn from the
two talking women he lives in Harlem and homelessness is a problem in his part
of the neighborhood (Myer 119). Steve does have both parents involved in his
life, however he is growing up in poor conditions and associating himself with
the wrong crowd. This living disadvantage he is submerged in works against him.
Privilege allows a person to not experience the ugly truth about urban areas. Statistics
show that “persons in poor households at or below the Federal Poverty Level had
more than double the rate of violent victimization” compared to their
counterparts (Harrell, Langton 1). Steve was not fortunate enough to have
parents that made enough to get them out of Harlem—much like the economic
situations of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown’s families.
Part of gaining a voice and valuable
information is through social media outlets. The #BlackLivesMatter movement
gained its momentum through Twitter.com by three women after the death of
Trayvon Martin. Their rage with the injustice Trayvon and his family
experienced through his untimely death was brought to light. It gained
popularity from people of all backgrounds, celebrities, and politicians.
Students would be able to analyze the #BlackLivesMatter in many different
forms: through Monster, finding
tweets and analyzing them for objectivity, news articles or interviews, and
even in popular music such as Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video. Many students
would find it hard to accept Steve Harmon going to jail when he was not the one
who pulled the trigger. To the readers, that seems to be biggest injustice of
them all. Or maybe the readers find the plea deal Bolden could receive for
testifying against King and Harmon is a type of injustice seeing that he
assaulted someone before, which landed him in jail (Myer 54). Nonetheless,
students can use these textual examples from Monster and compare it to scenarios that have stemmed from
#BlackLivesMatter and the changes that have come about because of the
recognition it has received.
In conclusion, racial issues in
society are being brought to light more and more. Police brutality, unlawful
killings of black individuals, and movements to prevent both from happening are
coming to the forefront. It is our job as educators to provide our students
with a plethora of information, including fiction and non-fiction materials so
they are able to form an opinion for themselves that is educated and supported
by the facts. Through the comparing of Monster
and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, I believe students will have a better grasp
on the complex issue at hand currently, as well as contributing factors that
place minority groups at a disadvantage before any crime is potentially
committed. Steve Harmon is a great example for children to read about
fictionally, and when paired with #BlackLivesMatter teachers will find their
students becoming passionate about social justices and removing the prejudices
against these individuals once and for all.
Works Cited
Carney, Nikita. "All Lives Matter, But So Does Race." Humanity
& Society 40.2 (2016): 180. Points
of View Reference Center. Web. 8 June 2016.
Harrell, Erika, and Lynn Langton.
"Household Poverty and Nonfatal Violent Victimization, 2008–2012." Bjs.gov. U.S.
Department of Justice, Nov. 2014. Web. 8 June 2016.
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York,
NY: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.
“Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity”, The Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014.
Mariah,
ReplyDeleteI am constantly looking for successful ways to implement these modern-day problems into my lessons. I have thought about using #blacklivesmatter in particular several times, but every time I truly think about it, the messier the idea gets. The one thing that I think is helpful to us as teachers is the use of cold, hard numbers. I love your breakdown of poverty in this response, but I would like to see you extend it further. Take those numbers of White men and African American men in poverty and extend that to show how many white men are in prison versus black men. Similarly, it will show that the number of incarcerated black men is widely disproportionate. And that isn't speculation, those are just numbers, and people don't usually argue with numbers.
I would be careful with the cases you bring up when introducing the #Blacklivesmatter movement. In your opening statement, you mention that black men are being gunned down by police officers. Later, when referencing the death of Treyvon Martin that sparked the movement, make sure that you are clear in the presentation that Treyvon Martin was not gunned down by a police officer. Yes, those two things are connected, but its going to be problematic if it is unclear and otherwise implied that Treyvon Martin was killed by a police officer and not some toolbag neighborhood watchmen with an inferiority complex. Make sure you say that the connection THERE is with the racial profiling performed be Zimmerman on Martin, and the injustice that followed in the court room.
Similarly, while I am also very angry and want to know answers about Sandra Bland's death, the "jury is still out" on that one. So make sure it is presented as a question, as a problematic story that doesn't add up, and not as a definite claim that Sandra Bland was murdered in police custody.
Michael Brown is another tricky one. We all want to talk about Ferguson because it was such a hard moment for American society, but we must be ready to explain that the original account of the incident that started the riots proved to be untrue. The original "witnesses" claimed that Brown had his hands in the air and said "hand up, don't shoot!" when he was gunned down. Weeks after the altercation, it was determined that these witnesses were falsifying accounts and that Brown actually charged at the police officer, causing him to shoot.
I only bring up the "messiness" of these accounts because it is inevitable that we will all have the children of police officers. We need to make sure that everything we present is presented as accurately as possible so that we don't get a harsh backlash and potentially lose our jobs.
Instead of these more controversial examples, I offer these names instead: Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, and Johnathan Ferrell. In each of the cases listed above, the police officers have been charged regarding these deaths (varying from manslaughter to murder) and most (all?) are still awaiting trial. These deaths are still a part of the #Blacklivesmatter movement, but don't have that heavy grey area to worry about.
Something I didn't realize until recently, is that the #Blacklivesmatter movement actually extends beyond the wrongful death of African Americans. Their official website lists their mission statement as also including black citizens who are also part of the trans, queer, and disabled community, undocumented immigrants, and women. I just thought that was really neat and something that I think I will bring up in my own classroom. Perhaps giving students of this entire movement, instead the focus point on police brutality, would be a way that we can all keep our kids informed and our topic relevant.
Thanks so much for this response!
As we've spoke about, #BlackLivesMatter is a touchy subject but a necessary one. We need to talk about the injustices that are happening. We need our students to recognize the injustices.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you bring up Beyonce's work. That occurred to me when I first started reading your article and there it was! I have considered how to incorporate Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly into the classroom. I think it is one of the most important albums of the last few years and it resonates deeply with these issues. I think incorporating Queen B and Lamar are great ways to get students involved. They bring up serious issues while being at the forefront of pop culture. However, as Shelby says, you will have parents who push back against this. There is so much anger about these artists and race, and I'm not sure why. They use their creativity to bring up serious issues.
However, I think having students analyze #'s about BLM and other justice movements is great. It will be difficult, but it is a real way to connect with them. As Dr. Johnson says, we need to meet the students where they are.