Racism is something that I wish could be easy to fix, but it isn’t. We must learn to break stereotypes and to break these issues at hand that are making it worse for others to simply live their lives like a normal person. It’s been a common joke to associate the act of a black man running away at the site of a cop for no reason. However, how many times have we seen the same story? A black man, doing nothing violent or extreme, being shot down by a cop because of growing suspicions and racial profiling? It needs to stop and we need to bring light to these situations.

Who is the real terrorist?

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Since the beginning of American history, white people have always slaughtered other people of color. From the Native Americans that had their land taken away and the African Americans that had their freedom taken away, the cause of their problems were the white men. The article isn’t that strong of a topic of racism, but it begins to stem from the fact that police are today’s terrorist which is also a subject of another one of my illustrations. When we think of a terrorist, what do we imagine? Probably a muslim or someone of middle eastern descent. I’m guilty of that as well, because of how it’s been engraved in our minds because of the racism that is alive today that puts it onto that certain stereotype. In fact, the most severe acts of terror were caused by Christian or extremist right white men. However, when these men perform their terrorism, there is always something that the media from that group will do that will disassociate them from the terrorist and make it seem like they did it of their own accord and that neither Christianity nor their political views had any sort of persuasion to their actions. Not only are these groups defending themselves but they are also defending those terrorists because of their race and thus the association between a white man and terrorist are not there. However, when it is a person of different color, there is no one speaking out saying that their actions weren’t persuaded by their religion or race.

Black Riots vs White Riots

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With the justice that is trying to be brought with these unjustified cases of racial profiling and acts of racism, there has always been this stigma that when black people riot, they are immediately branded as thugs and destructive animals who are ruining the community. That is the opposite case. There are countless times where I have seen white people rioting for things that are destroying the community and destroying the relationship between all races of people. Some of these strong examples are pointed towards the Westboro Baptist Church which strongly and openly discriminated against homosexuals. While this doesn’t fall on racism, it still strongly points to the social issue that is brought upon in similar lights as racism. Though, the Westboro Baptist Church still are racist, not towards black people, but Jewish people, despite the fact that they claim to not abide to racism. Another is the issue on the Confederate Flag which has always been associated with racism as it was the side of the Civil War that supported slavery. Those who are fighting to keep the Confederate Flag as a symbol of pride for the South and ignoring the part where the flag has been embedded with many racial controversies throughout the years. Are these two examples not qualified to be a riot? It may not have the physicality that is associated with riots but are these not disturbances that are creating more social issues in America? Meanwhile, people who are trying to find justice for Mike Brown in Ferguson are being put in the same category as these issues.

Held at gunpoint in my own home

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This next illustration I chose simply to have as black and white because of how strong those colors represent racism. And here is another example of racism at it’s finest and it happened right in our own neighborhood. A San Jose cop was following a family and is now entering a lawsuit because the only reason for his actions was that the family was black and he has suspicions. All from the color of their skin. Once forcing himself into their home, the cop did all in his power to make it seem as if their were some kind of criminal and called back up to make it seem like they were fighting their arrest, which wasn’t justified at all. And to try and hide his actions he threatens a young girl that if she recorded his actions on her phone, she would send her to juvenile prison. When discussing this issue, the family’s lawyer said that cases like these often come up. Again, another commonplace issue that we just have to live with. But we shouldn’t. We don’t need to live with this at all and in this case, and that the punishment for something as appalling as racial profiling will be given to the cop with good measure.

You can burn down the building, but you cannot break our body

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The #BlackLivesMatter movement was launched in response to the unjustified killing of Mike Brown, a young black man who was shot and killed by a policeman in Ferguson. The evidence and reasoning behind the case was all very suspicious and had the policeman getting away with it and being reprimanded by it because of all the backlash he was getting from the community when the Brown family had no justice for their son. Through this movement, another movement came along fighting them which resulted in the burning down of black churches. This case is actually tied with the case in the post below this one. It had to do with the Emanuel AME Church burning. Responses to that crime sprung more crimes and linked to at least 6 other churches with the same intent as the one with Emanuel AME Church. The sad fact of the matter is: this is not uncommon. Through history, these events have happened because these places of worship were used by black folk to try and fight the violent oppression among them and bring about equality between white and colored people. The act of burning down those churches was replicated to bring down black people’s hopes that what they wanted to achieve would be unachievable. However, through these acts, a strong message comes which is the title of this illustration: “You can burn down the building, but you cannot break our body.” A living testament that although acts of violence is being used against us, we need to fight back by showing that our will cannot be broken. Violence begets violence and as frustrating as it is, social problems need to be solved by not letting the other side win and what the other side wants is to frustrate and anger us so that we lose control.

When is a terrorist not a terrorist?

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There has been a bit of a repeated fashion when it comes to the topic of a white terrorist and that is that there is no such thing. Why is that when any other person of any other color is immediately labeled as a terrorist when disruption and destruction is brought upon by their act but when it's a white man, immediately, people seem to find some kind of reason and illness behind his motives. Two cases that were immediately brought to my attention upon reading this article was in the case of the 2012 Aurora shooting during the Dark Knight Rises premiere where a young white man was said to be the Joker and shot at the audience with multiple firearms. While the debacle to settle what would be his sentence while in court, there was commotion going about that this young man wasn’t a terrorist but that he was a poor young boy that was just troubled and needed help to go about the right direction. Appalling, isn’t it not? There was another case just like this with at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where a young white man opened fire in the church killing several African Americans, who were the main attendees of the church. And what happened to him? An former FBI agent called it off as him having no idea what he had done because he suffered from a mental illness because of his own upbringing and that he should be a victim as well and humanized over the real victims. It’s ridiculous but that’s the power of being a white terrorist. You simply aren’t one.

RACISM: a zine by michelle choi

Even in this day and age, we have racism running rampant and it’s still being instilled into children and it’s still burning into the back of our minds. No matter how we push it down, the fact that it is still there lingering and nudging at us is a problem. Through this zine, I had picked out a few articles that really stuck out to me and contributed to the main problem that is plaguing everyone with a toxic topic: Racism. I took the time to read these articles and look back on my own personal views on it and how my past and current upbringing might be contributing to what may correspond to each topic. I also took the time to make some illustrations that reflect what the intent I’m trying to show through these different acts of racism or how racism is evolving.