Black Lives Matter advocate, Jayne Jeje, came in to speak with Y12 students about the BLM movement in America, and her experiences as a member of an ethnic minority here in Hong Kong.
Jayne opened with this question: ”What three things do you all have in common from the day you were born?”
Initially perplexed, a number of responses started to come back from the Y12s… As explained though, whereas people’s culture, nation, race, economic circumstances, religious backgrounds, gender etc. are different, all of us are united in that, in being born, we all have parents, we might have a name already, and we were all born somewhere.
The thing is, what also unites us is all of these aspects are totally out of our control.
There’s a parallel here to the work of Eric Eriksson, and his notion of The Seven Stages of Psychosocial Development, which is a foundation stone of the 5 +1 learning model and Human Technologies curriculum at ICHK. As we begin life, our fates and futures are very much dictated to us by more powerful agents and social forces. It’s only as you start to develop a sense of identity, as a teenager, that you start to exercise some elements of control, although this Stage 5 period of development can often be fraught with confusion.
Yet, the experience of many black people living in America, or other places where they are a minority group, is that they are immediately judged according to the colour of their skin, and this can lead to verbal altercations, “microaggressions” in social situations, as well as physical, and all-too-often, deadly violence.
Jayne Jeje speaks with Y12 students about her experiences as a black woman in the States.
Jayne’s goal was to share some teachable moments based on her personal experiences growing up as a black woman in the United States. She is an advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement, whose message has gained very recent prominence with the case of George Floyd, whose desperate last words- “I can’t breathe”- resonated with people around the globe.
Statistically, black Americans make up about 13% of the United States population. Yet they still face major economic and social barriers. For example, Pew Research Centre states that, “Black households have only 10 cents in wealth for every dollar held by white households.” Alarmingly high percentages of America’s prison populations are comprised of black Americans and given these barriers it is far more difficult for a young black person to be able to have the opportunity to enrol at university.
In a previous Theory of Knowledge class, students looked at a range of readings prepared by a range of their teachers at ICHK, to examine this historical implications of racism in the United States, from when the first enslaved people were sold in America as far back as 1619, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, that contains the paradoxical line that still divides Americans today:
“It is a truth we hold to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”
The Founding Fathers signed off on this document at-the-same-time as a significant number of them owned slaves.
While dates on a historical timeline: Emancipation Proclamation- Jim Crow-era of Segregation in the South- Harlem Renaissance- Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s/1960s- LA Riots- election of President Obama as first black American President of the United States, gives us a somewhat useful timeline and historical perspective, what Jayne was able to share was the personal insight and testimony of the cultural reality of living in a country where attitudes to race are still so deeply divided. Of course, it is a sad fact of life that racism is a facet of daily life almost everywhere in the world, including here in Hong Kong, where South East Asians and Domestic Helpers are two such groups that often face discrimination.
A key difference between Hong Kong and the U.S., as Jayne pointed out, though, is that people here in Hong Kong don’t own guns.
However, it is not just the overt acts of police brutality, increasingly caught on camera phones in the last decade or so, but what Jayne called the “weaponisation of stereotypes” that can lead to terrible consequences for a minority figure caught in an exchange. In one clip, Jayne showed us an encounter between a white woman walking her dog off the leash in Central Park, New York. The black gentleman, who was out bird watching, asked her to leash her dog and immediately the situation escalated with the woman threatening to call the police and tell them that he was attempting to kill her. She knew that the 911 operator receiving that call, or the officers dispatched to the incident would likely share her negative stereotype that all black males are dangerous.
“I’m going to (call the police) and tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
In her talk, Jayne played a series of other videos posted on social media that have since gone viral which show the varying outcomes that happen in very similar confrontations involving white, then, black Americans.
We got to see the nervous, law-abiding man pulled over by a traffic cop and issued a warning- without explanation- for obeying the law and driving 65mph in a 70mph zone. We also got to see a counter-example where the police had a vehicle surrounded and guns drawn as the suspect had attacked a shop owner (after being asked to put on a mask), then attempted to drive off, assaulting arresting officers with a hammer, and driving off with a policeman clinging onto his vehicle, and not one shot was fired. In this instance, he was a white man. Jayne speculated how differently that encounter would have gone had the driver been black.
Racism in America and why Black Lives Matter: Click for presentation link
Jayne pointed to the unconscious biases that fuel our behaviour. Either they are culturally formed across many years and affect our speech and general demeanour and attitudes. Yet in emotional encounters, these biases can have deadly consequences, such as the murder of 17-yr-old Travyon Martin, in 2012. His killer saw a young black man wearing a hooded top– racially profiled him as dangerous– and pulled the trigger. That event was the catalyst to the BLM movement that we see today.
“When I saw the Travyon Martin story on the news, I am back in America. And I am afraid. That could be my nephew. That could be my son.”
Nearly 10 years since the death of Trayvon Martin, there have been far too many examples of black Americans being killed when in police custody, or, in incidents where, simply because of their race, tensions quickly escalate. An example of how cultural prejudices are so deeply entrenched can be seen with the very recent prosecution of the white police officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes. This was a rare anomaly and a landmark moment in American legal history. Many observers were not sure that a conviction of a white officer would arise, despite the utterly transparent evidence of the footage captured on phones by multiple bystanders.
Jayne told students that she also faced issues of prejudice/ignorance here in Hong Kong. She has been approached by people and asked, “Are you one of those starving African people? Where are you from? You look like you’re from Africa.”
She is quick to dispel these interpretations and reveal their implicit biases. In response, she might ask her interrogator the same question and reply: “You told me you’re from here, and I believe you. Why don’t you act the same way?”
Ultimately, though, Jayne is optimistic about the future ahead. She recognises that significant change has occurred and sees the prominence and progress of the BLM as evidence of a more mainstream engagement with marginalised groups. She uses a blend of passion and rationality to build relationships, and does not think the best way to operate is to castigate someone for their cultural ignorance, but to educate people on these topics. She says, “We can accomplish more if we work together.”
There are things that we can do to shape the cultural climate that we want to see here at school, and in the wider world. Be it in face-to-face relationships, or online communities, Jayne’s view is that students can make a difference if they choose to. She urges people to call people out. Let them know that– even if they believe they are just joking– they may be causing offence.
So, what can you do?
Check your facts. Talk to people. There are ways of getting to know more about those around you. Question the things you have heard/learnt and through personal experience in the world and a rational, inquiring mindset, be prepared to confront some of your own assumptions about the world, as well as those of others.
As the conversations advanced with the Y12 group, some of the students present were able to transfer the moral perspective from BLM to their own world: if your family has a domestic helper, what can you do to help make them feel more comfortable and connected? Recognise your own privilege and be prepared to listen to others to understand more about their world. Oftentimes, helpers here have left families behind in their quest to provide financial support and are thoroughly deserving of our sympathy and support.
As Jayne concluded her talk she stated that she hoped students were left with a number of takeaways of the challenges faced by both black people living in America, but also minority groups everywhere. She is proud of her heritage and proud to be a black woman.
“Racism…” she states, “…is learned behaviour.” And if it can be learned, it can be unlearned and we are all responsible for setting the cultural conditions in which we want to exist, and in which all students, regardless of race, can thrive.
Related Resources/Sources
Sustainability, Human Technologies and Theory of Knowledge 