This blog is used to discuss insight on being LGBT and living in Wales. However there is a news case which needs to be looked upon from the racism and lesbianphobia point of view, especially from someone who is non-binary.
The case is teenage Jesse Hernamdaz, a lesbian Latino who was murdered by police officers over a car. Yes that's right, she wasn't dangerous but the car happened to be valued more then brown lives. Jesse, along with four other friends, stole a car. Yes theft it wrong and no one is trying to justify that she's stealing a car but Jesse is not the first teenager to joyride. Sometimes teenagers screw up and make mistakes. The issue is not that she committed theft is that police officers in Denver opened fire on a car full of teenagers and killed Jesse. They were just children; can you imagine the fear and horror they must have been feeling? In schools we are taught from a young age that police are the "good guys" and they are going to protect us but here they are murdering a teenager?
But what happened?
On the 26th January police were called over what was described as "suspicious" vehicle, the car was stolen and had five teenagers messing around in it. Taking videos, laughing and having a good time. None of these children were doing anything dangerous, none of them were doing anything that meant lethal force would have been necessary. It was a parked car with teenagers listening to music. Now what police officers would have done is question the teenagers, run the number plates and made peaceful arrests. That's how it goes when children are joyriding. You give them a slap on the wrist-of course never literally-and you hope the process of being caught makes them never want to joyride again. That's not what happened in Denver.
Police approached the car and started yelling for the teenagers to get out of the car. A scary experience for a group of teenagers to have police officers yelling at them. Before they got process what was going on a police officer fired as Jesse from the window. You're sixteen and you've just been shot. I can not imagine how terrified Jesse and her friends were, they must have been so terrified beyond belief. How is a car worth more then the life of a sixteen year old child? These children weren't doing anything that required brute force, just cowardly police officers who opened fire on a car full of children. Jesse then started the car and one of the police officers got hit. Jesse was being shot at, she was a scared sixteen year old who had no one around to protect her. She either hit the police officer in self defence as he was firing bullets at her or in accident as she tried to get the car full of her friends away to safety. Police however kept firing bullets into Jesse until she was dead so we'll never hear her story. They silenced her, they murdered her.
Unfortunately the ordeal they experienced was not over. The four other passengers were left screaming and terrified as they watched helpless as police officers dragged Jesse's dead body from the car, handcuff her and search her before leaving her on the floor. A video captured this, Jesse is limp, motionless and unresponsive as police officers move around her, rolling her on her stomach and back searching her. Eyewitnesses stated that they could hear the terrified teenagers screaming that she was dead. This trauma they'll have to live with for the rest of their life. Jesse was murdered in cold blood; that somehow stealing a car justifies being murdered. Yes theft is a crime but last time I checked murder was a more serious crime.
Here's the thing Jesse was brown. She was a brown Latina. She was also dressed in a masculine way. We need to realise that what happened to Jesse was police brutality but it was also a hate crime because Jesse was a brown lesbian Latina. You can make claims that they couldn't possibly know but that's not how bigotry works. Bigotry works based on stereotyping and using that stereotype to fuel their prejudice and ignorance. The terms "you look so white" and "you don't dress like a lesbian" come from that some people don't fit the narrow minded stereotype that bigots want them to fit. Because people aren't so simple to fit into one role but prejudice demands that oppressed people do. Jesse was stereotyped because of the way she dressed. Someone on Twitter posted that gender expression is a privilege that brown and black people don't have, this is because this could mean life or death thanks to white supremacy.
When the police officers saw Jesse's clothing they stereotyped her as a "thug" and a "butch lesbian". Both are always meet with open and deadly violence. Look back at the Travon Martin case, Travon was a teenager who was murdered after being stalked about he was wearing a hoodie. Travon went out to buy a bag of Skittles and was seen as a "thug" because he wore a hoodie. George Zimmerman decided that Travon was a thug because he was black and in a hoodie. A more recent case is that of Mike Brown, another black youth who was murdered by a police officer simply because he was stereotyped as a thug based on what he was wearing. I walk though the streets and see teenagers in hoodies and baseball caps and sweat pants or baggy jeans and scuffy teenagers all the time, its just street fashion. They all want to dress "edgy" and look the same as their friends, we sometimes forget that boys face social pressures of dressing fashionable as well. However a white person is never considered a thug for the way they dressed but when a brown and black person does they are considered a thug and therefore dangerous.
As a DFAB person I know that discrimination is different when you are masculine and when you are feminine. Butch lesbians or lesbians who dress masculine when they don't like the term butch are targets of violence. This is the myth that because a lesbian dresses like a boy she must apparently won't do be a boy-gender expression and sexual orientation are often confused. Jesse didn't want to be a boy she just enjoyed more "masculine" clothing as oppressed to dresses and pink t-shirts. There are some days that I dress more masculine then I do feminine. In a world where the minute a straight girl wants to dress more "tomboyish" she's automatically seen as a lesbian until she gets a boyfriend what do you think this means for lesbians? The butch lesbian is the "default" image of a lesbian, ignorance leads people to believe that feminine girls are straight and all masculine girls are simply gay. This is hardly realistic but bigotry is never created to be realistic. I remember reading a news report on Pink News a few years back about a lesbian parent was beaten brutality because she was butch. In the attacker's mind she wanted to be man so he'd treat her like a man, even though she was reported crying and pleading and reaffirming that she was female. Butch lesbians are faced with more physical assault and violence.
As we have a brown lesbian who's sitting in a stolen car. Police walked over to her and once they get a good look at her their minds jump to "thug." "dyke". They stopped caring about the law and they stopped caring about the life of a brown lesbian. This was a hate crime, this is why everyone should care including the non-binary community. Jesse could have been all of us. Anyone of us could be dressed masculinely and many of us are brown.
Some people don't think stereotyping is harmful or hurts anyone. Jesse proves that it does. She was murdered because of her appearance. She was murdered because cars are valued more then the life of a brown child. Jesse's parents will never see their daughter again, they won't be able to visit her graduation because Jesse will never be able to graduate, they won't be able to see Jesse off the college because Jesse will never be able to go to college, they won't be able to ever see Jesse again because Jesse was murdered over a car. The police who opened fire on a car full of unarmed teenagers aren't be charged with murder even though they killed a child and endangered four more. They are being allowed to continue their life and Jesse will never be able to live her dreams, grow up, experience the world, even wake up.
Jesse was a victim of racism and lesbianphobia. We need to address this as a hate crime because it was a hate crime. Jesse was murdered and police brutality needs to be addressed. Why did they even need to be weapons to investigate a car full of unarmed teenagers? Why wasn't Jesse given the chance to exit the car? Why was the first reaction of every racist police officer to murder unarmed children like Jesse?
When the police officers saw Jesse's clothing they stereotyped her as a "thug" and a "butch lesbian". Both are always meet with open and deadly violence. Look back at the Travon Martin case, Travon was a teenager who was murdered after being stalked about he was wearing a hoodie. Travon went out to buy a bag of Skittles and was seen as a "thug" because he wore a hoodie. George Zimmerman decided that Travon was a thug because he was black and in a hoodie. A more recent case is that of Mike Brown, another black youth who was murdered by a police officer simply because he was stereotyped as a thug based on what he was wearing. I walk though the streets and see teenagers in hoodies and baseball caps and sweat pants or baggy jeans and scuffy teenagers all the time, its just street fashion. They all want to dress "edgy" and look the same as their friends, we sometimes forget that boys face social pressures of dressing fashionable as well. However a white person is never considered a thug for the way they dressed but when a brown and black person does they are considered a thug and therefore dangerous.
As a DFAB person I know that discrimination is different when you are masculine and when you are feminine. Butch lesbians or lesbians who dress masculine when they don't like the term butch are targets of violence. This is the myth that because a lesbian dresses like a boy she must apparently won't do be a boy-gender expression and sexual orientation are often confused. Jesse didn't want to be a boy she just enjoyed more "masculine" clothing as oppressed to dresses and pink t-shirts. There are some days that I dress more masculine then I do feminine. In a world where the minute a straight girl wants to dress more "tomboyish" she's automatically seen as a lesbian until she gets a boyfriend what do you think this means for lesbians? The butch lesbian is the "default" image of a lesbian, ignorance leads people to believe that feminine girls are straight and all masculine girls are simply gay. This is hardly realistic but bigotry is never created to be realistic. I remember reading a news report on Pink News a few years back about a lesbian parent was beaten brutality because she was butch. In the attacker's mind she wanted to be man so he'd treat her like a man, even though she was reported crying and pleading and reaffirming that she was female. Butch lesbians are faced with more physical assault and violence.
As we have a brown lesbian who's sitting in a stolen car. Police walked over to her and once they get a good look at her their minds jump to "thug." "dyke". They stopped caring about the law and they stopped caring about the life of a brown lesbian. This was a hate crime, this is why everyone should care including the non-binary community. Jesse could have been all of us. Anyone of us could be dressed masculinely and many of us are brown.
Some people don't think stereotyping is harmful or hurts anyone. Jesse proves that it does. She was murdered because of her appearance. She was murdered because cars are valued more then the life of a brown child. Jesse's parents will never see their daughter again, they won't be able to visit her graduation because Jesse will never be able to graduate, they won't be able to see Jesse off the college because Jesse will never be able to go to college, they won't be able to ever see Jesse again because Jesse was murdered over a car. The police who opened fire on a car full of unarmed teenagers aren't be charged with murder even though they killed a child and endangered four more. They are being allowed to continue their life and Jesse will never be able to live her dreams, grow up, experience the world, even wake up.
Jesse was a victim of racism and lesbianphobia. We need to address this as a hate crime because it was a hate crime. Jesse was murdered and police brutality needs to be addressed. Why did they even need to be weapons to investigate a car full of unarmed teenagers? Why wasn't Jesse given the chance to exit the car? Why was the first reaction of every racist police officer to murder unarmed children like Jesse?
No comments:
Post a Comment