Monday, October 19, 2009
How has technology been used to mobilize Hip Hop generationers in the wake of Kiwane Carrington's death?
In the wake of Kiwane's death by Champaign Police, young people have been mobilized by the hundreds in Champaign, Illinois to bring awareness to the issues young African American youth are facing everyday, particularly with law enforcement. What have you noticed thus far, what are you hearing? How are they moving the crowd? Please discuss how this has played on similarly on a national level. Think Jena Louisiana.
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There were 2 aspects of the city council and the movement surrounding Kiwane Carrington's death that I thought involved information in particular:
1) as the lady from the Friends Society mentioned, and was reiterated later, the police department made it very difficult to get a copy of their Use of Force policy; people had to use the Freedom of Information Act to request it. Obviously, the powers that be are still invested in keeping certain info under strict control and unavailable to the public. Maybe if people had known about the policy there could've been an outcry before this tragedy occurred.
2) The Independent Media Center's website (www.ucimc.org) is serving as a great central locus for information about past and future events surrounding the shooting and its protests: there are articles about the vigil, council meeting, video and audio of the press conference, and a list of upcoming events (i.e. the march on Thursday). The IMC might gain a lot of traction for its participation in this movement, while other news outlets offer less robust details; for one thing, the IMC sources above are the first hit in Facebook when you search for "Kiwane Carrington".
As for the council meeting itself, I thought it was extremely moving and powerful. There were a lot of good speeches and positive ideas about how to move forward, and the community was so angry (or maybe more frightened than anything, as a few speakers said) that it's hard to believe a big change isn't coming. Let's hope.
-Eric
Sitting at Champaign City Hall listening to the people of Champaign was hard for me. The people of Champaign was crying out for help and just to watch the mayor and his actions killed me tremendously. Technology has really been moving the crowd in the death of Kiwane Carrington. Students from all over have been using everything they need to to get the word out and make people aware of the police actions in this situation.
Facebook has been a tool that the high school and college student used to send out mass messages and links to the website to read about the death of Kiwane.
Text messages have also been sent out in the thousands, with at the end of the message saying "pass this on." There has been a link of text messages since the death of Kiwane. As Shaun from the Whip Barbershop said; as soon as this incident happened text messages came to him and Councilmen Kyles. That is how fast the word traveled when this happened.
Also people like the NAACP, the Friends Society and more have been working around the clock trying to spread the word. Now that this hands on policy is out about the police dept. Use of Force Policy the city now has problems that I can not even being to imagine.
Everything that I have been hearing from the community of Champaign and Urbana has been positive reaction from the community. They want justice and they are hunger as ever right now. I came home to watch the city council meeting on tv and it it went on for quite some time after I left. The community is speaking form the heart and like most said they will not rest until justice is serve. "Enough Is Enough"
This morning I read the article in the Sunday paper regarding the death of Kiwane. The headline read: City in No rush for review board, Council members unlikely to reopen discussion soon. My question is why doesn’t Champaign police department have or want a citizen police review board? Urbana and Danville have one. The article talks about how 50 people spoke expressing anger, frustration, fear and sorrow over the death of 15 year old Kiwane. If the citizens of this county are asking for a Police review board and if the Police department claim to have nothing to hide and want to better community and police relations, for me I feel having citizen review board would be a step in the right direction or show some promise that they’re trying to make things better in this community. But what I’m hearing is that this is not something they want. I could go on and on about the Champaign police department but I will stop myself here.
Unfortunately, I was out sick and was unable to make the city council meeting but was able to catch a little of it on television. As my classmates have stated in their previous posts, facebook, TV, newspapers, cell phones are some of the ways they are able to move the crowd. I didn’t attend the vigil, however; I heard that cell phone lights were used instead of candles, which is another way to use your cell phone in addition to texting.
The technology used in the wake of Kiwan Carrington's death was massive. The coverage from the black community has really been awesome. The news media (TV clips and newspaper articles) had extensive coverage, emails, blogs, class posts, class discussions, texts, phone calls, written speeches, websites *internet/intranet, sincere expressions of concern from the heart, VOICE, to name a few. This doesn't mean the coverage via various forms of technology was accurate, but it was spoken, the word was heard. The crowd was moved by the "POWER OF THE CULTURE" - like the Baambaatta Effect (leader of movement of the crowd with the loudest box)the "Black Community" moved the crowd with there voices - heard throughout the community.
I personally enjoyed the City Council Meeting, it was upclose and personal. I really had a chance to see how out politics work in Champaign Urbana. Not sure if anything will be changed on the political end anytime soon, but if we, the people continue to stand up and be heard in massive numbers, someone has to hear us and move in a positive direction. I pray all goes well of us all within the area.
I was informed the "March" to the Boys and Girls Club on Thursday was a success, even though a particluar area of the community was blocked off and you could not walk on that side of the street.
INTERESTING.
Kiwane's death was heartfelt by many and this will be remembered for years to come, if not forever. RIP
The event at city hall was eye opening. Not only was it difficult to hear about the injustices this young man faced but that those injustices are part of a much larger community of inequality.
It was amazing however to see Democracy at work, It was interested to know that on a local level if there is enough outrage people can tie up a city council for hours. The idea that a city counsel meeting airing the grievances of a community of inequality was aired continuously on a local network channel is amazing.
The fact that we still receive most of news from secondary sources rather than direct broadcast of the people involved is outrageous. I watched the Nixon interview just recently and on national television a reporter spent hours breaking down the presidents argument and ultimately changing his position to one of a apology. This simply does not happen any more unmediated information is almost impossible to come by. And that mediated information is privileged in such a way that only what is deemed appropriate by network officials is aired.
This was a moment of activism a moment of a refusal to accept the actions of others more powerful in the political arena. This was a moment of organized democracy and I am glad to know that it was aired continuously on television.
As activists we need to make sure that this is where we are headed in the information age.
the use of technology was powerful in that in not only got the word out to people but watching the people respond. it was amazing to see Kiwane's peers at the city council and participating in the process. If they were not able to attend the meeting personally they were watching it on TV. How do I know you may ask, one of our classmates was receiving text about being seen on TV.
Technology has been used in many ways to mobilize Hip Hop generationer's in the wake of Kiwane Carrington's death. It all began in the Champaign county where newspapers, text messages, and t.v. broadcasts publicized the loss of Carrington. Many in the community have organized prayer vigils, marches, and forums to discuss the death due to police brutality. Police brutality has long been a unique situation for the minority community. As with Carrington's death, marches, protests, and many other forms of action have been taken to bring awareness to a progressing problem.(i.e. Bus Boycott, Sit-Ins, Jena 6, etc.)
At this point I am constantly hearing "oh wow, this does not surprise me, and a combination of how could the law be so heartless and not protect its own." After hearing of Kiwane Carrington's death students from coast to coast have begun to take a stand against violence. This has ranged from starting blogs to speaking out on national television of the plague in communities. Unfortunately, it has taken the death of another youth to raise a community to being sick and tired of it's conditions. Technology has most certainly raised awareness and forced react ions out of many that may have subsided with time.
Okay, now that you have said all of that, where do we go from here?
Lot of types of technology were used to mobilize Hip Hop generationers in the wake of Kiwane Carrington's death. The biggest form i would have to say would be the TV clips and Newspaper clips as well. Other forms that spread the word and knowledge of this situation were texts, email, phone calls, voice mails, im chats, etc. The extent to which kids have came around and warmed up to technology today is crazy. A lot of kids could teach adults a thing or two on how to use some of these new technologies. It is just the world they are growing up in and the resources they have available to themselves they past generations did not have for them. It is a good thing that they have a chance to communicate in so many ways because this information needs to be spread. Such infomation like the police being able to shoot someone for "resisting arrest" and other things like that. To protect the lives of kids in the future.
I have to concur with Marques about the Mayor’s body language at the City Council meeting. I was so upset with him my blood pressure hit the ceiling and never came down. I wanted him to know everyone who were there representing Kiwane are registered voters, if not they need to get registered; we voted OBAMA in now we need to vote the Mayor OUT. Him being the Mayor and X policeman or police chief there will be continuous problems with our police department. WE NEED TO VOTE HIM OUT ASAPPPPP.
Technology has been used to mobilize information through the media, text, word of mouth, church groups, Pastors, pictures, NAACP and flyers. We shouldn’t underestimate our children and how they get information out quick among themselves. The information got to me about Kiwane’s death through a text from a teen that was getting her hair braided at my house saying, “NO JOKE, Kiwane is DEAD”. I did attend the vigil, March to the church and the Boys and Girl’s Club March. It was beautiful. I did take pictures if anyone would like copies.
I’m very proud of Darcy who is the girl that led the group of teens to the courthouse in support of Jashawn, I think I got the name right. That was POWERFUL. That day, policemen were expecting these teens to act a fool and make more arrests but these girls showed them something different. I applaud them.
As a citizen and tax payer, I’m willing to walk, talk, kick and scream to make sure there are citizen review boards that consist of more Black, not one here and one there. I might consider running myself.
Diane Pye
The technology used is an extension of people actually being present in the lives of others. I have seen email as the foremost way of accepting information. This form of communication we take for granted as it is instantaneous and does not depend on mail carriers or outside structures.
The book warns us about the outside bureaucratic structures that are depended on."We also observe that currently practised forms of
communication and participation in geographic communities do not always match
the criteria of a democratic participatory process."
Instantaneous messaging should be a huge counteraction against this problem. but more importantly ratyher than depending on technology we need to realize the only way to act for social change is to be always acting. Silence is the death of democracy.
I spoke on this in class the week before last. I learned about much of the movement via e-mail. The e-mails came from the IMC and faculty and staff that had comments regarding the incident. Outside of e-mail I had students that sent me text messages with times and dates of what was going to take place (light, funeral, march). After the march I did not receive any texts. Also, I noticed that my students attended the City Hall meetings but they came with their parents. The second time we went I had one student there who again came with his mother. This showed me that the parents need to be informed as much as students because they are important to movement of the youth largely due to their age (middle/high school) students. Shawn Williams stated that everyone needs to be responsible for keeping themselves informed. I do agree with his comment but I also feel that someone should also be in charge of informing the Black Community. Albeit through a mass e-mail, text message (that says "pass on"), signs, Black Thought newspaper, etc. This will keep the movement organized and representation from the Black Community will be better. Without this we loose the Bambaata affect because nothing is keeping the movement going.
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