Post-Election Event Analysis

Drawing primarily on Bonilla-Silvia’s work, as well as contemporary events and statistics, this paper seeks to argue that any use of the term ‘post-racial America’ is disingenuous,

As I wandered down to the lower level of the Bryan center, I began to hear chatter and smell the sweet scent of waffles drifting towards me. On the night of September 19th, I rushed into the crowded room, filled my plate with pizza and waffles, then quickly sat down to listen to the presentation. The first slide flashed across the projector screen, “Waffles and White Privilege: A Conversation”. Two young men introduced themselves as president and vice president and began to explain the purpose of that night’s event. “Our goal is not to make white people feel guilty, but we must realize the abundant amount of privilege we hold” Senior, and President Conor Smith remarked.

Although efforts have been made to fight white supremacy, nonwhites continue to face injustices based on their color. The US has made efforts towards liberal multicultural era whereby white supremacy is obscured by certain events. The election of President Obama was a step towards liberal multicultural era (Melamed, 2011). Obama's government made efforts to empower people with color in the US.

Most of the discussion dealt with historical overview on slavery and how it pertained to today’s society. The audience was reminded early on in the discussion that race does exist in its consequences and that we must not overlook those consequences. The speaker at this portion of the discussion was a woman who seemed extremely fond of her topic. Her gestures and speech inflections were much exaggerated to the point where it almost drew attention away from her topic. It was just ironic to me how a Caucasian woman could speak with such “emotion” when she was never herself enslaved!

After everything was said and done the decisions by the courts were all legitimate, however, the counting of votes and the numbers that came out of them may have not been legitimate. For instance some counties would count the dimples in the voting ballots while others weren’t. Then there was Katherine Harris, all of her decisions were controversial and there wasn’t a single one that the people could be satisfied with. The results of some her choices were : direct insults to her, the delay of the election, and vote count loss. Others were going on saying that Bush was selected by Harris herself and he wasn’t fairly elected, this is based off of the choices she decided upon making. Some of those impactful choices would be her not extending the recount deadlines, the attempt to throw out overseas ballots that hadn’t arrived by the deadline, ordered the following counties to stop recounting :Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Now along with some of that information lies the fact that the election process wasn’t fully developed and thought through for a situation of this sort.

It is made clear that college students are quick to form an opinion which doesn’t expand knowledge and can show unintelligence. Many people, more specifically protesters, believe one side and won’t open up and listen to the other side. Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times and the author of 3 New York Times best sellers in 2015, 2009, and 2002, tells us that the college protesters are wrong. His argument states that the college students need to be educated more on the whole subject because lacking education can essentially lead to being biased or sticking with the one side you believe in. The students were protesting a guest speaker, Charles Murray, who is identified as anti-gay, racist, and sexist. Although the guest speaker’s beliefs are terrible, the students should hear what he has to say. Frank Bruni’s “The Dangerous Saftey of College” presents an effective logical appeal; however, it lacks clear and concise evidence along with not presenting an emotional appeal to connect with the audience.

Brian and Gloria are students at Roger Williams University who share different views on a touchy subject. Brian, a freshman, reached out to Gloria, a senior and chair of CEN, wishing to invite Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at our campus. After doing research on Yiannopoulos, Gloria believes he is “racist and sexist” and goes against everything Roger Williams University stands for. Gloria feels Yiannopoulos would offend many students on campus, possibly leading to violence. She thinks Roger Williams would not allow Yiannopoulos to speak at our campus, so we shouldn’t allow him to either. However, Brian believes Roger Williams University is an “inclusive” campus and we welcome and value all expressions of diversity and identity. Brian says Roger Williams was probably the first American to “challenge societal norms”, and we should follow in his footsteps. Brian feels Gloria is being narrow-minded and he is being denied his right to free speech and peaceful assembly.

The shift of the meaning of race and how it is socially constructed did not

These events of the election lead me to ask Alejandra and Fernando about the anti-protest that have been bursting out all over the country. I asked Alejandra and Fernando how they feel about them and if they had participated in an any of the protest. (Fernando) – “Well right after they announced the winner a lot of people at UCLA were not happy so they started a protest against Donald Trump. It was around 11:50 pm when the protest happened. I would have joined but I had a long day from work and school and I had to wake up early the next day. Is not that I didn 't care and I didn 't want my voice to be heard I was just not emotionally ready I literally started crying. Although I wasn 't there physically I was there in spirit because it was great to have a community back you up. I could hear the chants of "f*** Donald Trump," "We want equality, not supremacy," and "we hate Trump" then after that they quickly faded away. I heard from friends that the protest was around 600 students and it ended up really late like around 3 in the morning. Although I was not present my protest is getting my education and to achieve my goals. As well as to empower others and to show them that anyone can achieve anything if you believe in yourself. As well as to show my community and people of color that they belong at UCLA”.

She then introduces Donald Trump and talk about how he isn’t exceptional and follows the same ideology as his Republican counterparts. Briggs further emphasizes that 53% of white women voted for Trump. The women supported his anti-feminist agenda that targeted planned parenthood and maternity care. Additionally, they supported conversion therapy for gay people and bathroom bills aimed at transgender people. Briggs also talks about how Evangelical Christian right is more powerful in Trump’s administration than ever before which include Jeff Sessions, Betsy Devos and dozens of judicial appointees. So, in defense of reproductive labor, k-12 teaching has been seen increasingly as like care work. So, Parkland student movement and teachers’ strikes are about refusing to see schools as a “private” responsibility and they demand for political accountability for funding and safety. Briggs believes that no political party has a solution for our problems. An outsider is the solution to these reforms and the rise of new social movements in the last 5 years such #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter will bring significant change in society. After attending the lecture, I could relate some of

Ms. Johnson’s comment, “You’re never going to hear Bernie speak unless I get silence here now.” didn’t go over well as the crowd tried to boo her off the stage. Despite being asked by many in the crowd to "Let Bernie speak!”, she continued anyway with comments like, "I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is, filled with its progressives," she told us, "but you already did it for me.” As part of her point, she also accused those in attendance of being racist liberals as she yelled into the microphone, ”Now that you've covered yourself in your white supremacist liberalism, I will formally welcome Bernie Sanders to Seattle.”

In terms of the class material, the event likely incites macroaggression that have racist connotations. The speaker is using his right to freedom of speech as an avenue to spew his hateful and racist remarks. He was allowed to hide under the guise of freedom of speech to speak at the UCSB hosted

The organizers of the event stood on the steps before us. A poet was brought to the front and introduced. He was reading a poem titled “Dig Deep” that he’d written that morning. Silence washed over the crowd when he began. A tenacious passion addressed each and every person listening. The poet’s voice cracked and wavered as tears streamed down his face. My eyes widened when the words “queer black youth” were bellowed into the megaphone. He had given queer black youth a tribute, thanking me and everyone else involved in the community for stressing the importance of intersectionality. I raised my left fist as tears stung at my eyes, silently thanking him for recognizing our efforts. My fist remained up until the last words of the poem were

At the start of this semester we discuss an issue that has poisoned the dynamic of society in the United States since the beginning, white supremacy. For centuries, members of the white community have simply used the color of their skin to attain and remain in power. In my opinion, those that use their white privilege to partake in white supremacy are the only ones who benefit from this poison. White supremacy continues to be fueled in the United States, and plays just as big of a factor in today’s world as it did many years ago. There is no retaliation for uproars or

After living in a place like Bend Oregon for 18 years I haven’t ever noticed a difference between blacks and whites. Bend has been said to be “one of the whitest places to live”, yet I never viewed a city by its race. Being racist to me meant that it was the whites who had a problem with the blacks and whites didn’t want anything to do with blacks. I hadn’t actually seen racism in action from anyone here. Now, after watching the film Crash and reading the essays “Blinded by the White: Crime, Race and Denial at Columbine High” written by Tim Wise and “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” written by McIntosh, my understanding of race, diversity, and communications have changed.