021123 A Discussion of Standpoint Theory (Part 2)

things that we were seeing. And we like things like that, things that challenge our way of thinking and help us expand our mental framework. And if you are one of the people that likes that sort of thing, and definitely stick around for that, and of course much much more. But first and foremost, we're going to start off with becoming a better ally ba Ba Baba and Today's Baba is sponsored by Major Threads Get all the finest in men'swear and sportswear at major Threads dot com. This article

comes from Black Information Network. You can find that at bionnews dot com. And we are going to shout out for becoming a better ally an amazing man. I love this guy. I spent a lot of time skateboarding when I was in high school. Man, when I was in grade school, so this was the coolest dude when I was in grade school. He actually had had bikes and I was in like gts and Dinos and that sort of back in the day. Anyway, he had a Tony

Hawk bike. Anyway, Tony Hawk. Uh. He has pledged to donate proceeds from from autographed photos to a memorial on for Tyrie Nichols, whose family said shares the same passion as a skateboarding legend. On February third, Hawk said he and BMX writer Rick Thorne would autograph pictures to raise money for Tyrie Nichols Memorial Fund, which was launched after the twenty nine year old black man who was fatally beaten by Memphis police. Or the associated price is a

quote from him. My proceeds from these will go to the Tyree Nichols Memorial Fund, which includes plans to build a public skate park in his honor. As our worlds continue to grieve his loss, Hawk tweeted Friday, he goes on he was a talented skater, among other admirable traits. Let's keep his legacy alive. That man did not have to do that. Tony Hawk is a good man. People

like him go to heaven all right. Nichols and an avid skateboarder and father to a four year old boy, died on January tenth, three days after he was pulled over by Memphis police Officer's footage released earlier this month show's officers repeatedly punching, kicking, and hitting him with a baton as he cried out for his mother. Six officers involved in the deadly traffic stop. Blah blah blah whatever.

Half of the proceeds from the talk Hawk and Thorn's autograph photos will go toward helping nichols family, building a skate parder in his name, and honoring his love for skateboarding. So that's how you can become a better ally do like Tony Hawk? Man? I love that one, all right? Standpoint theory. While I'm here. I pulled this in as Layman's the terms as I could find from britannica dot com.

But I employ you to take standpoint theory. Put that in your lap, and at a point when you have some time, read it, read the read the the the the cerebral academic version of it. I would never be able to articulate it here on this show. I wouldn't have the time, And I don't even know if you know my understanding of it is as profound as it could be. But we have some certainly have some talking points, and I want to share with you. But first I

want to start with a story. I go for walks with some frequency, we'll call it five days a week, and let's be honest, an affluent neighborhood. And I have friends who never have to worry about money. In fact, they don't have to worry about money so much so that they don't even think about it. And their worldview

is insulated by their means and the privilege. These people are good people, and for a long time I could not understand fully and I'm still learning, I'll admit that, but I cannot understand fully how you know some people could vote for such and such or could have these ideas that center you know, profits over people, or were so susceptible to what I would consider to be fear mongering things that are not based in a real in reality. You know, we talked about it earlier. CRT is scaring children.

We've been teaching American history to children since they've been children. All of a sudden, because of what is it, the Great Replacement theory taking center stage and far right QAnon message boards online. You know, people are trying to edge kate children or rather uneducatedly is what's the word I'm

looking for? Fail to educate children so that they do not become sympathetic and empathetic, and they use the guise of oh, this hurts white children's feelings to appeal to folks who have no practical, valid certainly not substantial experience walking a path that shows full well that these notions are unfounded, entirely unfounded. Right, but good people, well intentioned, well meaning people. I'm learning myself crazy. I had a

conversation recently with a woman, beautiful woman, beautiful woman. I don't want to put her business out there, but she knows who she is. She listens to the show and while she's listening, I will say again that I love you and I thank you for this inspiration for today's segment. Shoots. You may come up one day who knows she's talking to me? And she says, why is no one listening to each other? Why are we not making progress? How is the world the way that it is? Why is

it not simpler? She's asking questions that deserve to be asked, kay, that deserve to be answered and answered absolutely, And I'm at a lost for words. I'm like, you know, if it was that simple, people would have figured it out long before I got here. And she says, like me, She's like, well you, She says, you know, black people are my angels. I promise she's the person that does not need to say that. She says, black people have

always been kind to me in my life. Black people have always looked out for me, cared for me when I needed it. Black people are my angels. And I wish that the world was better for all of us. Right, And it's so simple, but you know, how do we get there? Enter standpoint theory? All right? So first and foremost, I will speak for myself. I believe that Q is of a similar persuasion. But I will speak for myself first and foremost, I often speak for you, and I

just assume so. One of my heroes, historical heroes, is a man named Fred Hampton. Fred Hampton is known for let's be honest. Now, he's known for getting killed by the police in Chicago. Assassinated by the police in Chicago. That's a fact that is not me embellished. Assassinated by the Chicago police. Look that up. They admitted it, okay. But when he was alive, he was a very charismatic person who was around during the time of the Panthers and so forth. And you have this idea and this

sort of movement. It was referred to as a Rainbow coalition, and the idea there was that he took ideas. He basically took everyone who had a struggle in this country and set them all down at the table with black people to say, Okay, my Asian brothers and sisters, my Jewish brothers and sisters, we haven't forgotten you, my Indigenous Native brothers and sisters, my Hispanic brothers and sisters. You know, my lgbt q I A plus brothers and sisters. Of course,

they weren't called that back. Then all of us have something to gain by creating a meaningful social impact, and we can create that change more easily and more effectively together in unison. So we're greater than the sum of our parts. Right This rainbow coalition was something that I really believed in and believe in right now. And again I'm speaking for Q if I may that this is something Okay, he's nodding his side, this is something that

we appreciate on the show. With that in mind, I will say this, The standpoint theory is a feminist theory, and I will credit the author in just a minute. So this does not originate with, you know, a black power movement or struggle, rather a feminist struggle, but the idea sound. And you know, people that are looking to create a better world oftentimes look at historical change makers, and far be it from us to ignore our sisters

in the progress that they've made in their struggles. And I know that our sisters and everyone, sir, everyone looks at what black people do to try to move the needle. Everyone else who's kind of born on the strike against them. Because we have been traveling this road for a very long time and have made meaningful progress throughout history. So today we're taking a page out of the book of feminism and standpoint theory is a feminist theoretical perspective that

argues that knowledge stems from social position. That's important because well, if you don't know, it doesn't sound like anything. But if you break it down, knowledge stems from social position. Think about that. You would think, as I would think, that knowledge stems from academics. But where do academics come from.

Often academics come from means, privilege, access, et cetera. And they cannot in a meaningful way articulate the reality and solutions and approaches for people who have not they who where they have not lived in their shoes. Right, So this presupposes that your perspective is based on where you are in society. Okay, so we have to accept that, and I do believe that there is some truth there. Again, this isn't I'm not purporting this to be a reality.

It's a theory that I believe works in helping us expand our mental framework and how we choose to approach problems. Like my friend asked me, how do we approach these problems if you're not from that position? Maybe we could listen to people from that position. This is the point I'm trying to make, and I'll continue to make it here. All right, So the theory emerged from the Marxist Uh oh, there's another one of those words that.

make all those other ways bad. And if we say that they're bad enough times for long enough, you'll just agree with us and never ask us any questions.

and there's a way to walk that line. But the way things have been marketed to us in this country, and I'll admit that I've been you know, marketed to as well, and I had to unlearn a lot of things and relearn what I now know and the wise of why I was taught what I was taught, so that I didn't have to feel awful about myself. I didn't have to feel like you know, there's only one way to do things, and so I'm grateful for things

like this. I'm grateful for people like you. Was able to articulate when I said, you know, I got to Carl Marx's name, and I was like, oh, and he jumped in there, because these things often are our emotions

are manipulated so that we continue to prop up the capitalists. Right, and while I and all of us are capitalists, in practice, the real capitalists are the ones who are really benefiting from this society, and the people at the bottom of the siety, of the people that their lives are ruined because their mother is sick, you know what I mean, and they have to you know, like that sort of thing to keep those people from pushing back, from rebolting.

As I mentioned, you know, there's powerful forces that market to us fear. You know. Jim Carey said something recently and he's like, why is it that everyone in America is afraid of the socialist healthcare that we have in Canada? For those who don't know Jim Carrey's Canadian. He's like, in my whole life, I've never waited in line, I've never had to worry about anything all my medicine was paid for. Why in the world, what is the point of a government. What is the point of a government

if not to take care of things like this? And in America we have this idea. The people on the ground level are like, just do it yourselves. I got I did it myself. You do it yourself. And we're not caring for each other. And it's because we think this is the only way that it has to be, because we're afraid of doing it any other way, when we literally have examples around the world where it's just.

Burton from Reading Rainbow and star Trek Jordi LaForge my man. Anyway, Kinta. We watched that in class and I was the kid who was black on free lunch, you know what I'm saying. And I didn't feel bad about watching that. I mean, it's I had to learn to be proud of it. But I accepted it. I realized that it wasn't me. It was a long time. It was fine, you know. But now what has been sold to the public is we need to protect our children from these, you know,

these radical thinkers. And so you know we're going to get there. But I'll continue, I'll continue. The Syria emerged from the Marxist argument that people from in a pressed class have special access to knowledge that is not available to those from a privileged class. I think that's absolutely true. If you don't know what government cheese tastes like, if you didn't have rats in your house, you didn't have roaches in your house, There wasn't shooting outside of your

house two to three times a week. If you ain't never seen it dead body in the street where you live. You can't tell me about Compton because I was there. You have no idea what it feels like, what it feels like to think at age six, that the important age is not eighteen, not twenty one, but twenty. The important age is twenty. Why is that because the stories you hear all the time at age six oh such and such died he was only thirteen. She was only seventeen.

He was only nineteen teen teen teen, teen, teen teen, So I thought, if I could just make it to twenty, then I will have made it. Those of you that can't seem to have a big old afar in my hair. I started growing that afro when I turned twenty years old, because I made it. I didn't live in Compton until I was twenty, but that number stuck with me. I didn't start smoking cigarettes when I turned eighteen, never smoked a cigarette. I didn't start drinking when I turned twenty one,

never drink alcohol in my life. For me, the important age was twenty. Do you know what that feels like? Then? How can you educate me? I need to educate you. This standpoint theory, the presupposition is that you don't know everything. I want to read this. The philosophy examines the nature and origins of knowledge and stresses that knowledge is always

socially situated. Sandra Harding Grady where It's due coin the term standpoint theory to categorize epistemologies that emphasize women's knowledge. She argued that it is easy for those at the top of social hierarchies to lose sight of real human relations and the true nature of social reality, and thus miss critical questions about the social and natural world in their academic pursuits. In contrast, people at the bottom of social hierarchies have a unique standpoint that is a better

starting point for scholarship. Although such people are often ignored, their marginalized positions actually make it easier for them to divine important research questions and explain social and natural problems. I want to say this, Tony Morrison, the one we're talking about all our book span, had a masterful response to an interviews like an early nineties interview was a

white woman interviewing her. The woman asks her, well, will you ever write, sorry, will you ever write about white authors? Can you ever conceive of a time when white authors will make their way into your work? And she says, I have done that. But more importantly, you have no idea how racist a question like that is to me. The interviewer looks perplexed, right, and you would think, well, why is she saying? Why has everything got to be racist?

Here's what she says. Tony Morrison says to her, if I was a white author, would you ask me that question? When am I going to write about black people in my books. Your question assumes that the norm, the status quo is white, and therefore, by definition, is racist. It's based on race. It's a eurocentric approach. You are the center of the earth and I'm doing something that you cannot. You don't feel centered in, and therefore somehow you need to make it about you. And she didn't say that,

but that's effectually what was communicated. She was extremely pleasant, she didn't raise her nothing. She had to play her position rightfully, so she couldn't act the floor on TV. I don't think that she would probably not her way. But you start to understand where you are in society, where you come from, in society where your vantage point

is absolutely informs your viewpoint. If you've been centered your whole life, how can you speak about Compton, California and shout out to the D one time, to the motor, to the three one three. Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact? That was Eabie. Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by the Black Information Network Daily podcast Yank This Awful Wikipedia, So you can start there if you want to make sure I'm telling you the truth not you know, the research is all out there,

but please read more about these people. We're going to bring somebody to life that you may not have heard of before. She is the woman who came before Rosa Parks. That'll make sense. I'm not talking about Rosa Parks mom, talking about the pioneer. Yeah, her name is Elizabeth Jennings Graham. I'll read Elizabeth Jennings Graham, Mark eighteen thirty through June fifth, nineteen oh one. That means she lived during a hard time. It was an African American teacher and civil rights figure.

In eighteen fifty four, Graham insisted on her right to ride on an available New York City street car at a time when all such companies were private and most operated segregated cars. Her case was decided in her favor in eighteen fifty five, and it led to the eventual desegregation of all New York City transit systems by eighteen

sixty five. Graham later started the city's first kindergarten for African American children, operating it from her home on two forty seven West forty first Street until her death in nineteen oh one. By the eighteen fifties, the horse drawn street car on rails became a more common mode of transportation, competing with the horse drawn omnibus in the city. Elevated heavy rail trans insprotation did not go into service in

New York until eighteen sixty nine. Like the nearly obsolete omnibus lines, the street cars were owned by private companies which regularly barred access to their service on the basis of race. The owners and drivers could easily refuse service to passengers of African descent or demand racially segregated seating. On Sunday, July sixteenth, eighteen fifty four, Jennings went to the First Colored Congregational Church, where she was an organist.

As she was running late, she boarded a streetcar of the Third Avenue Railroad Company at the corner of Pearl Street in Chatham Street. I think that's why I say that the conductor ordered her to get off. When she refused, the conductor tried to remove her by force. Eventually, with the aid of a police officer, Jennings was ejected from the street car. Horace Greeley's New York Tribune commented on

the incident. In February eighteen fifty five. She got upon one of the company's car ours last summer on the sabbath to ride to church. The conductor undertook to get her off, first, alleging the car was full. When that was shown to be false, he pretended the other passengers were displeased at her presence, but when she insisted on her rights, he took hold of her by force to expel her. She resisted. The conductor got her down on the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress, and injured

her person. Quite a crowd gathered, but she effectually resisted. Finally, after the car had gone on further, with the aid of a policeman, they succeeded in removing her. The incident sparked an organized movement among black New Yorkers to end racial discrimination on street cars, led by notables such as Jennings's father, Reverend James W. C. Pennington, and Reverend Henry Hyland Barnett. Her story was publicized by Frederick Douglass in

his newspaper, and it received national attention. Jennings's father filed the lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against the driver, the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railroad Company in Brooklyn, where the Third Avenue Company was headquartered. This was one of four street car companies franchised in the city and had been in operation for about one year. She was represented by the law firm of Culver, Parker and Arthur.

Her case was handled by the firm's twenty four year old junior partner, Chester A. Arthur, future President of the United States in eighteen fifty five. The court ruled in her favor and is charged to the jury. Brooklyn Circuit Court Judge William Rockwell declared colored persons, if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others, and could be neither excluded by any rules of the company,

nor by force or violence. The jury awarded Jennings damages in the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars, which is the equivalent of seventy three hundred dollars in today's money, as well as twenty two dollars and fifty cents in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company orders ordered its cars desecret As important as the Jennings case was, it did not mean that all street car lines would desegregate. Leading African American activists formed the New York Legal Rights

Association to continue the fight. In May eighteen fifty five, James W. P. Penning W. C. Pennington Sorry brought suit after being forcefully removed from the car of the eighth Avenue Railroad, another of the first four companies. After steps forward and back a decade later, in eighteen sixty five, New York's public transit services were fully desegregated. The last case was a challenge by a black woman named Ella Anderson.

Thank you for listening. These are names you need to know because these people fought and it's important to say their names. So Ella Anderson, a widow of a fallen United States Colored Troops soldier, a fact that won public support for her all right. On January TEWOD twenty eighteen, jennings first biography was published, written by Amy Hill Hurt, entitled Street Card g Justice. How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York and intended for middle

grade to adult readers. The book was published by HarperCollins Greenwillow Books in New York. Jerry Mcarinda authored America's First Freedom Writer, Elizabeth Jennings Chester a Arthured and the Early Fight for Civil Rights, about the legal fight which arose from her Forcible Removal Out of the street Car published in December tween nineteen by Rowan in Littlefield, And in twenty nineteen, Shelaine McCrae announced that New York City would

build a statue honoring Graham NewYork Graham Central Terminal. So, like we said, you know, it's important for us to discuss have any excellence, because that's important. We get an hour with you every week. You're probably on a station that uses black culture in a meaningful way, and if nothing else, in a profitable way. Yes, and even if that's not the case, we appreciate our hour with you.

We realize that that's that's not nothing. And in that time we have to make you smile, we have to make you think, and we also have to acknowledge that we are a lot of people recently have tried to make us in the heroes, and we look back and we see our heroes and we see real heroes. We see people like this No Elizabeth Jennings, Graham, Ella Anderson. You know. So the way black history fact is very important too. It's a very important segment and an important

part of our clock. We appreciate the opportunity we have to share this stuff with you, and I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I knew all this stuff. I'm learning with you and many and we learned a lot from this segment. We do know, but a lot of it we're learning in real time with you. So uh so, yeah, not as heavy of a show as we normally have, but hopefully made some impact. That's about it for us here on Civic Sipher. So once again, i'm your host, Ramsy's.

We're going to figure it out together, right, that's the mission.

civic scipher. You can follow me at Ramseys shock q is I m Q wordon until next week.