Web 2.0 Vigilante - Racism and Classism cloaked in Citizen Journalism: Holla'ed Back Video
As a woman, I totally understand what it feels like to be cat called when walking by a group of guys. when I first moved to the predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn from California, I experienced some of the most offensive cat calls - with many references to my supposed ethnicities - some days I was Korean and some I was chinese to the men on the block. Working in the South Bronx and living in Bedford Stuyvesant - both Latino and Black communities, I feel like I've heard every possible cat call. It was a definite contrast to my reserved chinese upbringing where you don't say anything positive about anyone's beauty or achievements, even if they are deserving of compliments. I also grew up in my teenage years in white middle-upper class gated community suburbs where there is a politically correct way of saying everything- essentially complements are coded in polysyllabic words. So coming from that background into the middle of a Latino community was quite a culture shock.
However, watching Ryane's video, Holla'ed Back left a very bad taste in my mouth. After thinking about it, I realized this eerily is a modern parallel to the lynching of Emmett Til in 1955 Jim Crow Mississippi. Like the construction workers, he holla'ed at a white woman by whistling at her. The woman reported Emmett's behavior. Now what's different is that Ryanne reported the mens' behavior herself. Media activism + participatory video lynching right?
While I believe Ryanne attempted to document the men's behavior to demand respect, I believe that she mistakenly took the men's unwanted attention for egregious misogyny. She ignores the racial and class issues of the men's action. Working class construction workers and Black culture has their own forms of cultural practices in appreciating women's beauty. Cat calling on construction sites is practically a tradition inherent to the job. I am not claiming that cultural norms are not sexist or even excusing the men's sexist behavior.
It's just that what was scary about Ryanne's video is that there was a spirit of citizen journalism that called for justice and signaled future punishment - when she ends the video with telling them she has them on camera. Beware Black Man - I am watching you!
I believe it's important to be critical of patriarchy and sexism (many social commentators and artists have done amazing projects on the sexist behavior of cat calling) - but when it's done with the zeitgeist of a Web 2.0 Vigilante, the dialogue is furthered in a direction that I believe is unconstructive. It worries me that more citizen journalism media will take on a neo-conservative agenda - especially when the very tools necessary for citizen journalism is reserved for middle-upper class incomes. therefore, with racial stratification based on income, I worry that we won't hear perspectives from those who don't have the disposable income or time to produce civic journalism. (this also reminds me of the Minute Men Project)
But I think women have a lot to learn from Ryanne's video, in that she was fearless in challenging sexism, and her documentation is about confronting the power dynamic that she refused to submit to. Sites like hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/ are passive in the documentation and function to empower the woman who posts a picture of her cat caller. The cat caller is never truly confronted for his behavior, therefore it's not really effective in preventing harassment as there is no true confrontation. How do we find empowerment in documentation and effective confrontation while being senstive to socio-economic dynamics?
Here is the link to kenyatta's post on what he thought - I started thinking about this when I was talking to him on the phone after I watched the video.
Amendment:
1.) Ryanne and I started e-mailing each other after my post. Here is the link to my response, please go to her blog for her replies.
2.) Hollabacktalk's Brittany and Hillary wrote a very critical post about my response on Ryanne's cat call video. They misrepresented my writing and got some facts wrong, so I tried to post my response to what they wrote, but they deleted my comment. So I posted my response on my own blog.
Comments
this was the experience i had, it upset me and i felt the need to document it.
for me it had little to do with race, but more about gender and circumstance.
cat calling on construction sites is a tradition that i'm not ok with no matter what color the guys are who are harassing me. hell there were a couple white kids at the table that you can't really see in the video. does that matter? they were yelling at me and it made me mad and uncomfortable so i confronted them and they apologized. i bet if i went up to them tomorrow, they might be rather cordial even. cool. maybe they won't yell at women on my street any more. maybe they will. this is the way i chose to deal with the situation black or white, those dudes made me feel shitty so i told them so.
Ryanne feels scared because a group of grown men harass her while she's walking alone in the neighborhood.
When did race come into this?
These guys are like any of us...they know what's appropriate and what's not.
Letting them off the hook is called "enabling".
From your post, if some guy is black and harasses a woman...he cant be called on it?
come on.
Secondly you say, "Working class construction workers and Black culture has their own forms of cultural practices in appreciating women's beauty. Cat calling on construction sites is practically a tradition inherent to the job. I am not claiming that cultural norms are not sexist or even excusing the men's sexist behavior." That sounds like excusing their behavior to me.
Then you go on to say that it's "important to be critical of patriarchy and sexism" but for some reason doing it the way Ryanne did turns her into a "Web 2.0 Vigilante" to be compared to the Minute Men Project. I don't get it. The Minute Men could be said to be racist and nationalist. They're not confronting racism and nationalism they're confronting openness and tolerance. How does this apply?
You end with, "How do we find empowerment in documentation and effective confrontation while being senstive to socio-economic dynamics?" I'd like to hear your answer to that question. How, in your eyes, can a white woman confront the offending behavior of any person of color without being seen as a racist?
I actually think what Ryanne did was good. It was direct and showed responsibility for what happens in her community. I wish more bloggers were so brave. But reading the comments that came afterward -- the comments that read more like the cries of an angry mob -- that's what felt sour to me.
The Hollaback sites are a place to feel good, to feel empowered, yet the offenders are never truly confronted in any way that changes their behavior. This makes their effectiveness rather limited (although fully satiating to the pride of anyone posting.) Ryanne's video, on the other hand, is confrontational because it is potentially publicly humiliating ("I was so not alone... I had my camera.")
But public humiliation is still just about revenge and revenge makes for an unsatisfying ending. What I'd love to hear about next is that Ryanne and the workers are able to say hello to each other when walking to work now, out of respect for each other.
this is exactly what i was thinking as well kenyatta
that this is a process
if i can document another meeting with these guys
i certainly will.
and i have faith that it could be a positive experience
as for revenge, that certainly wasn't my intention
i was more aiming for a witness to my action
when i said "i wasn't alone...i had my camera"
i felt empowered by the fact that i had witness
to what i was feeling and doing.
this is why i videoblog
to reach out and communicate what is going on around me.
and certainly at that moment, i was shaken up, angry and uncomfortable.
i think that's pretty clear in how i was communicating.
if i walked back to that work site, which i will since it's right at my co-working space, hopefully i can have a better dialog with these guys.
and to me, that would be extremely satisfying, certainly.
Interesting points, Tricia.
First of all, I think the "fact" that Ryanne is white (she looks white, so I'll assume she's white) is less important here than you make it out to be. "Jim Crow" is about "you are black, so don't interact with white chicks". IMO, this situation would have gone the exact same way if the construction workers had all been white. I have no reason to assume that Ryanne would have let white guys slide, so there's the immediate difference between "Jim Crow" and this situation.
I also have no reason to believe that she KNOWS anything about "black culture" in order to "ignore" it, as you called it. Ignoring it implies an understanding of the differences and then not applying that understanding to your judgement. Having said that, you're absolutely right that there's a different dynamic in minority neighborhoods where chicks are "holla'ed at" all day, every day, going to and from work, the store, the gym, wherever. I'm not saying this is a good thing.
As far as web 2.0 vigilantes, you bring up some good points. I hadn't heard of <a href="http://www.kenyattacheese.net/braintag/2007/01/16/smart_mob_20.php">gaettongnyeo</a> before today. I think that's a fine example of retribution getting out of hand. Did the girl deserve to be shamed? Of course. However... There are at least two problems with the <a href="http://hollabackboston.blogspot.com/">HollaBack</a> technique... well... three, if you count the one you bring up at the end of your post.
Problem #1 is for the harasser, or in this case, the harassers. By posting these guys' (I can say guys, because I didn't see any pictures of lesbian harassers on the HollaBack sites) faces to the net, they're being seen as 'guilty' merely on the say-so of the poster. What happens now if someone's boss' wife goes on the site... or if their boss happens to be a woman and goes on the site herself and sees him and the description of whatever it is he's supposed to have done? You might be saying "So what? If extra stuff happens to them, that's what they get for harassing!"... Well... "So what?" is Problem #2.
Problem #2 is for the woman taking the picture. What if the guy you take a picture of is on parole and wasn't supposed to leave VA, but you take a picture of him in NYC? What if the guy doesn't want his wife to see him on the net... or his boss to see him on the net? What if the guy just plain doesn't like the fact that you took a picture of him and decides to do something about it?
Problem #3 is what Tricia states towards the end. The cat caller isn't confronted at all. From the women's own reports, most of the time there's some yelling, or maybe someone gives someone the finger. Other than that, nothing happens. The sites are more for venting than anything else, and that's very useful for women who don't want to feel like they're the only ones stuff like this happens to. The reason this is a problem is that the end may not justify the means if the taking of the picture makes a bad situation much worse than it originally was for the picture-taker. It certainly doesn't justify the means if the camera's confiscated by the harasser.
Anyway... Everybody knows women are going to be shouted at as they're passing construction sites. It's a pastime as much as having a beer or watching sports. That doesn't mean Ryanne has to accept that for herself. The guys in the video, black, white, whatever, are not hanging out on crates in front of a closed storefront. They are working. This means they have a supervisor, and that supervisor has a supervisor and that supervisor has a supervisor. Somewhere along the line, there's someone with the ability to impose sanctions on those guys for "misrepresenting" the construction company... even if the owner is the most sexist guy out of all of them. :) I think the workers have more of a responsibility to know that they could get in trouble for yelling either compliments or insults at a woman walking by the site more than Ryanne has a responsibility to understand minorities' different style of being friendly or socializing.
Interesting points, Tricia.
First of all, I think the "fact" that Ryanne is white (she looks white, so I'll assume she's white) is less important here than you make it out to be. "Jim Crow" is about "you are black, so don't interact with white chicks". IMO, this situation would have gone the exact same way if the construction workers had all been white. I have no reason to assume that Ryanne would have let white guys slide, so there's the immediate difference between "Jim Crow" and this situation.
I also have no reason to believe that she KNOWS anything about "black culture" in order to "ignore" it, as you called it. Ignoring it implies an understanding of the differences and then not applying that understanding to your judgement. Having said that, you're absolutely right that there's a different dynamic in minority neighborhoods where chicks are "holla'ed at" all day, every day, going to and from work, the store, the gym, wherever. I'm not saying this is a good thing.
As far as web 2.0 vigilantes, you bring up some good points. I hadn't heard of gaettongnyeo before today. I think that's a fine example of retribution getting out of hand. Did the girl deserve to be shamed? Of course. However... There are at least two problems with the HollaBack technique... well... three, if you count the one you bring up at the end of your post.
Problem #1 is for the harasser, or in this case, the harassers. By posting these guys' (I can say guys, because I didn't see any pictures of lesbian harassers on the HollaBack sites) faces to the net, they're being seen as 'guilty' merely on the say-so of the poster. What happens now if someone's boss' wife goes on the site... or if their boss happens to be a woman and goes on the site herself and sees him and the description of whatever it is he's supposed to have done? You might be saying "So what? If extra stuff happens to them, that's what they get for harassing!"... Well... "So what?" is Problem #2.
Problem #2 is for the woman taking the picture. What if the guy you take a picture of is on parole and wasn't supposed to leave VA, but you take a picture of him in NYC? What if the guy doesn't want his wife to see him on the net... or his boss to see him on the net? What if the guy just plain doesn't like the fact that you took a picture of him and decides to do something about it?
Problem #3 is what Tricia states towards the end. The cat caller isn't confronted at all. From the women's own reports, most of the time there's some yelling, or maybe someone gives someone the finger. Other than that, nothing happens. The sites are more for venting than anything else, and that's very useful for women who don't want to feel like they're the only ones stuff like this happens to. The reason this is a problem is that the end may not justify the means if the taking of the picture makes a bad situation much worse than it originally was for the picture-taker. It certainly doesn't justify the means if the camera's confiscated by the harasser.
Anyway... Everybody knows women are going to be shouted at as they're passing construction sites. It's a pastime as much as having a beer or watching sports. That doesn't mean Ryanne has to accept that for herself. The guys in the video, black, white, whatever, are not hanging out on crates in front of a closed storefront. They are working. This means they have a supervisor, and that supervisor has a supervisor and that supervisor has a supervisor. Somewhere along the line, there's someone with the ability to impose sanctions on those guys for "misrepresenting" the construction company... even if the owner is the most sexist guy out of all of them. :) I think the workers have more of a responsibility to know that they could get in trouble for yelling either compliments or insults at a woman walking by the site more than Ryanne has a responsibility to understand minorities' different style of being friendly or socializing.
Great comments on the Ryann Hodson video confrontation. Well thought out and expressed my sentiments exactly.
I too was troubled by the anger punishment aspect of the video post.
Anyway, I may post a comment on her site, but I don't know if she'll be able to hear the criticism.
I think what Ryann may not realize is that her power doesn't stem from the fact that she has a video camera in her pouch and can post those "motherf*ckers"
on the web, that they'll think twice about cat calling again.
Anything, anything born out of such anger, and used in anger as her post was, can do no good. I her Ryann's voice saying, " I'm so right, they're so wrong...look see how right I am. " Fact is that without seeing the original incident, we're all at the mercy of Ryann's account of what happened, all of which is filtered through Ryann's life experience.
I'm not saying that what they did was right, but the tone of the response, and frankly the not so subtle racism that was apparent to me in the terminology she used, I was troubled by. Would she have done this with a group of white guys?
" Remember....I've got you on tape..." Jesus, Ryann..who the hell are you to be saying that?
The chance for some real dialog, sans video, would have furthered the cause much more than Ryann's self-righteous post. ".
It would have put the situation to bed immediately, given the sh*t right back to the guys right away, and humanized everyone in the situation. These guys will more likely than not never see this post, and in putting it up achieved what Ryann apparently wanted:
"You Rock!...You go Girl!...you're awesome!"
Not in my book. You used you're camera to intimidate...the way some people use pitbulls or lawyers. Keep that thing on a leash ( or at least turned off )
and use the gifts you were given: intelligence, opportunity, eloquence.
These are tools much more suited to advancing the cause than a Sony Camera
And I don't think you can have it the two ways you seem to be trying to have it here. i.e.: learn from Ryanne and her brave confrontation, but by the way she's akin to a lyncher and a vigilante. If you want a productive dialog such extreme comparisons kind of shut that right down, don't they? To your point about anger after all.
Ryanne basically did exactly what you describe in your comments on her blog. She went up and told them she didn't appreciate their comments and that it was disrespectful. She didn't curse them out. She didn't deride their work. She told them how she felt. So all of a sudden she's a vigilante and you're not because she had her camera? And you don't like what some of her commenters said...which mostly seem to be giving her support more than anything...so again, this gets her compared to a lyncher?
But mostly, I'm offended by the sweeping and gross generalizations you make about men of color. My nephews are being raised to behave ethically and respectfully, whether they always achieve that or not. To say there is some cultural norm that gives them some pass, or at least some lowered expectation of how much anger or protest someone should levy against them for disrespectful behavior that can easily be seen as threatening too, well that's ridiculous.
I never comment on these things...but it just rubbed me the wrong way and felt compelled.
Making parallels with souther hate crimes is insulting, limited, and misguided.
This is cultural relativism at its worst. Chalking up guys yelling 'woof woof' at a woman in the street to cultural differences is just crap. Its rude, its invasive, its intimidating, and it makes some people feel uncomfortable and threatened. You shouldn't make people feel that way.
I dont care if it is 'part of black culture' - which in many ways i dont think it is - it you just shouldn't say it...
But lets assume you could chalk it up to cultural differences...even then it means that those guys were being 'culturally insensitive'. They should know that in 'white peoples culture' its really intimidating and uncomfortable to be yelled at that way.
Muddying the waters with 'cultural differences' is short sited and counter productive to dealing with this issue. I actually think this sort of relativist nonsense encouraged further racial tension, and division. Are all black people into cat calling women...is that how it works Tricia? Well that sounds like racist bullshit to me...
I think what she did was great. And actually, i think those guys learned something. They acted civil for the most part, and apologized for any perceived disrespect. If the camera makes people act like human decent respectful people...its a great non-violent tool in my opinion.
I want to be respectful Tricia...but frankly...i think you need to get your head out of your backside.
-a