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I never considered the house I grew up “home” for a variety of reasons. I’d say “I’m going back to the house” and was reluctant to call it home because it never felt like that. While I lived there, I never wanted to be there. Since being here, I’ve said “I want to go home.” People think of home as their own bed in their own room, and a home cooked meal. I however think of the support system: my family who believed in me when I didn’t and my family friends who cried when I moved.  I feel as if I took them for granted as I never realized their integral role they played in my character development. I took for granted they’re warmth and acceptance of me in their homes, physically and as a collective.

In bell hooks’ Homeplace (a site of resistance),she described the homeplace as “the one site where one could freely confront the issue of humanization, where one could resist”(384). Through this piece and investigating the concept in class, I rationalized the the thought in my own life. Home, to me, is the people who I feel I can be my goofiest self with, with whom I don’t have to intricately plan out exactly what I will say – how I feel here sometimes.

Home goes beyond that, though. Racism, sexism, ableism, and so much more push people to put a mask for their own safety. Madison Moore asked “who can safely get a sandwich?” While a simple gesture to some, others have to worry about the way people will perceive them, affecting how they’ll act in public. Many don’t have the privilege to disidentify, to pass as what society defines as  socially acceptable. This directly differentiates between the homeplace and the rest of the world. The homeplace provides a safe place for those people, and everyone in general, to resist status quo and be themselves, in a world where society may not accept them.

I came to this definition with Ryan Dunn and Dana as we compiled our experiences here and where we came up. All different ages and different backgrounds, I find it interesting that we came to the same conclusion that it is the people that both make Richmond and our hometowns home.

When They See Us

There is no other way to describe this series than painfully real. The chain of events that occurred to the Five was disgusting but the story is one that needs to be told. The level of discomfort felt in the fourth episode needs to be experienced. And the anger at the repetition of “guilty” needs to be felt. This series provides conversation that needs to be had yet has been avoided due to our hierarchal system of the US. This piece opened my eyes to the atrocities that happen everyday. It made me delve into aspects in my life, particularly with my position as Youth Development Professional at the Boys & Girls Club. The majority of kids at this specific club were African American or Hispanic, and almost everyone coming from a title one school — the exact targets of the perpetuated pattern of racism and injustice. It made me think about how they probably have to be raised differently in the off chance they become a victim of the criminal justice system. This thought crossing my mind developed an even more emotional lens to watch the series through.

           

 

 

 

 

In “When They See Us Now”, a sit down with Oprah Winfrey, director Ava DuVernay expressed, “She’s (Linda Fairstein) part of a system that’s not broken. It was built to be this way. Okay? It was built this way. It was built to oppress. It was built to control. It was built to shape our culture in a specific way, that kept some people here and some people here.” This quote reminded me of the reading Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, where the author described white privilege as a system passed on generation to generation putting one group dominant. I agree with both women that this system is further ingrained into our society as people don’t make the dominant aware of the problem. I hope that the Netflix series is the first step to bringing awareness to the issue and holding the true perpetrators accountable.