J-walking. How many of us have done it? I j-walk across MLK on my way to work at least once a week. I'm struggling with this issue that came out in the news yesterday about a Seattle police officer who was attempting to arrest a young woman for J-walking. This happened on the corner of Rainier Ave and MLK, down the street from my school a half mile or so. I just watched the clip posted by Komo News on You Tube. I'm startled by a few things, and I can't pretend that i can make sense of them. Some facts: a guy punched a girl (social taboo, but why?); j-walking is a crime (but everyone does it and doesn't get arrested for it); the cop was white, the girl and many people watching and filming were black. And young.
Some questions: Were the students made aware that crossing the 4-lane highway was something that could put a person in handcuffs? Because, ahem, now I've learned a little lesson--though it's got to be much easier for me, a white girl, to get away with. How are cops trained to respond when people resist arrest? What would have happened if the j-walker was let go? At what lengths do police officers go to uphold the law? Could she have been fined instead of arrested? How do police officers develop non-violent strategies to de-escalate turbulent situations such as this?
I'm grappling with one other aspect of this incident: sexism. The news reports have been sure to mention that the cop (not identified as a male always, but assumed) has punched a "young girl" (since when is 17 years old a young girl?). What bothers me about this is that i was appalled that a guy would punch a girl. And let's face it, i'm a darn good feminist. It bothers me that i have been taught to think that girls and women, simply because of our sex, should be immune to violence. This, of course, is deeply rooted in the epidemic of violence against women with many twists and turns in the connections. I hear the new reports emphasize the "girl" fact. I hear the reports say in the undertones, "Girls should not fight their own battles. Girls should be bystanders while others fight for them." I'm not a proponent for violence by any means. However, women and girls don't have time to sit on the sidelines and wait for a shining knight. I don't intend to suggest that this girl should have been "saved" by a strapping dude, but the commentary implies that while many things are awful about this incident, one of them is that a guy hit a girl, and girls just shouldn't get involved like that.
i'm know that i need to continue to look at the many sides of these questions, of this incident, of the issues raised here. I don't think this is my final stance, but perhaps my final word here. More specifically for this blog, how does this translate into my work with younger girls? How do we create a culture of non-violence when force is often the most powerful voice? Even in our tame hallways, punching, kicking, hair-pulling happens and is a tool (consciously or not) to establish power among the social layers of the 6th grade. Why does an 11-year-old girl need the affirmation of popularity to be powerful? Why aren't intellect, wit, compassion, caring, generosity, acceptance, and joy used as tools for power? And why, when my students walk down the street after school, can't i believe that these tools will keep them safe from oppression?
Regardless of who was in the right during the j-walking incident, the fact remains that violence begets violence, and what i want to see are streets that flow with the headwaters of love and respect. I want to see a street where a woman who breaks a law is treated with respect and dignity and she, in turn, can claim responsibility without losing her pride and her dignity.
My ire is up.
Welcome to the Gigantic Field of Unknowing. Before i became a teacher, i thought summers were opulent breaks in which educators went sailing and drank salty dogs at two in the afternoon. huh. What do teachers do on summer "vacation"? i will attempt to explore this idea of an educator's summer with consistent entries exploring just exactly why those damn teachers get so much time off.
I'm thinking, Brenda, that part of the reason that compassion and generosity and the like aren't tools for power is because they are tools for sharing and equality, something that doesn't really allow for one person to be powerful over another.
ReplyDeleteNot that it makes it better, but if a girl is searching for power over her peers (or for herself in some way), she won't have that need met by being the young woman we know she can be.
Hrm.
Thanks for this thought-provoking entry. I had a conversation a while ago with a friend who works at a pre-school for homeless children. She was saying that a little boy hit a little girl, and that a fellow teacher (an African American man) took the pre-school boy aside and told him to NEVER hit a girl. My friend's reaction was that they need to teach these kids that you never hit another person, regardless of sex. I can't remember if she ended up saying anything to the teacher or the kids.
ReplyDeleteYour point about the young woman in the incident being referred to as a "young girl" also made me think. If she were the perpetrator of violence she probably wouldn't be referred to as a girl, and especially if she had been a 17 year old black male perpetrator of violence, she would have been legally considered an adult.
Food for thought.
I love the poem by Rumi!
Wow. I just finished watching this video. What a mess! As a Black woman, I wonder if the officer had been Black how the incident would have played out? Would the young women have been so "verbally antagonistic" towards him?
ReplyDeleteI too was appalled by the punch, but the thing that struck me was that the girl had not "attacked" the officer. If it had been a boy pulling on the officers arm and the cop punched the boy I think I would have been equally alarmed. Because up until then it was a pulling match.
Here's some food for thought- if it HAD been a 17 year old boy, how would that boy have reacted to getting punched in the face by a white police officer while dozens of his peers watched? Did the officer, perhaps unconsciously, count on the girl backing down because girls are taught not to fight?
In the end the thing that hit me was the young women's cry of anger, fear, frustration, and helplessness as she is finally handcuffed. What a mess.