“I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group”
Peggy McIntosh
Through work to bring materials from women’s studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. They may say they will work to women’s statues, in the society, the university, or the curriculum, but they can’t or won’t support the idea of lessening men’s. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.
Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of while privilege that was similarly denied and protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.
I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks.
Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in women’s studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, “having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?”
After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious. Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are just seen as oppressive, even when we don’t see ourselves that way. I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence.
My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”
I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.
3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
7. When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.
9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.
10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.
11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person’s voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.
12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.
13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.
15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.
16. I can be pretty sure that my children’s teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others’ attitudes toward their race.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.
18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.
19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world’s majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.
23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the “person in charge”, I will be facing a person of my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.
26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.
27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.
28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.
29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.
30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn’t a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.
31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.
32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.
33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.
36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.
37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.
38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.
39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.
42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.
43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.
44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.
45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.
46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.
47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.
48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.
49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.
50. I will feel welcomed and “normal” in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.
I repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.
In unpacking this invisible knapsack of white privilege, I have listed conditions of daily experience that I once took for granted. Nor did I think of any of these perquisites as bad for the holder. I now think that we need a more finely differentiated taxonomy of privilege, for some of these varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and others give license to be ignorant, oblivious, arrogant, and destructive.
I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a patter of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.
In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit, in turn, upon people of color.
For this reason, the word “privilege” now seems to me misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to over empower certain groups. Such privilege simply confers dominance because of one’s race or sex.
I want, then, to distinguish between earned strength and unearned power conferred privilege can look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate. But not all of the privileges on my list are inevitably damaging. Some, like the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race will not count against you in court, should be the norm in a just society. Others, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, distort the humanity of the holders as well as the ignored groups.
We might at least start by distinguishing between positive advantages, which we can work to spread, and negative types of advantage, which unless rejected will always reinforce our present hierarchies. For example, the feeling that one belongs within the human circle, as Native Americans say, should not be seen as privilege for a few. Ideally it is an unearned entitlement. At present, since only a few have it, it is an unearned advantage for them. This paper results from a process of coming to see that some of the power that I originally say as attendant on being a human being in the United States consisted in unearned advantage and conferred dominance.
I have met very few men who truly distressed about systemic, unearned male advantage and conferred dominance. And so one question for me and others like me is whether we will be like them, or whether we will get truly distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred dominance, and, if so, what we will do to lessen them. In any case, we need to do more work in identifying how they actually affect our daily lives. Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see “whiteness” as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual orientation.
Difficulties and angers surrounding the task of finding parallels are many. Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantages associated with them should not be seen as the same. In addition, it is hard to disentangle aspects of unearned advantage that rest more on social class, economic class, race, religion, sex, and ethnic identity that on other factors. Still, all of the oppressions are interlocking, as the members of the Combahee River Collective pointed out in their “Black Feminist Statement” of 1977.
One factor seems clear about all of the interlocking oppressions. They take both active forms, which we can see, and embedded forms, which as a member of the dominant groups one is taught not to see. In my class and place, I did not see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.
Disapproving of the system won’t be enough to change them. I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitude. But a “white” skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual acts can palliate but cannot end, these problems.
To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the key political surrounding privilege are the key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making these subject taboo. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.
It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those in power and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have most of it already.
Although systemic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for me and, I imagine, for some others like me if we raise our daily consciousness on the perquisites of being light-skinned. What will we do with such knowledge? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we will choose to use unearned advantage, and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.
Chavis Carter’s mother Teresa at a candlelight vigil for her son. Carter’s family has accused the police of a cover up in the case. Photograph: Krystin Mcclellan/AP
Police footage taken from the night officers say a suspect in Arkansasmanaged to fatally shoot himself in the head – despite having his hands cuffed behind his back – has failed to remove questions over the incident.
Chavis Carter died in the back of a patrol car on 28 July after being picked up in a traffic stop in Jonesboro during which drugs were discovered in the vehicle.
The 21-year-old black man had been searched twice by officers, but a handgun that officers say the suspect later used to shoot himself was not found. Questions have also been raised as to how the left-handed Carter was able to deliver a fatal shot to his right temple while in restraints.
On Friday, following a Freedom of Information Act request by multiple news organizations, police released footage of the immediate aftermath of Carter’s death.
They had earlier handed over a video taken before the suspect’s body was discovered. But that first video failed to provide any answers to the dead man’s family, who claim that he was killed by police.
Chavis died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
He had earlier been detained – alongside two other suspects – by officers searching for drugs in the back of a truck they had noticed parked on the street with its lights on.
Having found a set of scales giving off a strong smell of marijuana, and a bag containing a white substance, a check was run on Carter revealing an outstanding warrant for the Mississippi resident, according to copy of the police report posted online.
The suspect was then handcuffed with his hands behind his back and led to the back seat of a patrol car.
It was while in restraints and in the rear of the police car that Carter is alleged to have shot himself.
In an apparent copy of the official incident report posted online by TheGrio.com, an officer states that he heard a “loud thump and a metallic sound” while speaking to the two other suspects.
But he said he dismissed it as the sound of a car driving over a piece of metal on the roadway.
It was only after the two other suspects were sent away that Carter’s body was discovered, one officer recorded.
“We went to the rear passenger side door, opened it and I observed Carter in a sitting position slumped forward with his head in his lap.
“There was a large amount of blood on the front oh his shirt, pants, seats and floor. His hands were cuffed behind his back.”
The incident has raised questions, not least over how officers apparently failed to find the gun on Carter during an initial search.
It has also been considered suspicious that the suspect died as a result of a gunshot wound to the right temple, as Carter was left handed and handcuffed at the time.
The dead man’s mother, Teresa Carter, has accused police of a cover up.
Amid growing media interest in the case, police agreed to release footage from a dashboard camera that captured events leading up to Carter’s death. It shows the suspect being led to a patrol car.
But it failed to provide any clues as to what happened after he was put in the vehicle.
“There’s still nothing in there about what actually happened with Chavis,” Benjamin Irwin, a lawyer for the Carter family, said.
A second batch of video clips was released Friday. It contains an audio exchange between two unseen men – thought to be officers – shortly after the suspect’s body is discovered.
“He was breathing a second ago,” says one, while another is heard stating: “I patted him down. I don’t know where he had it hidden.”
The Jonesboro police department has asked the FBI to assist in its investigation into the incident
Special agent Kimberly Brunell told the Guardian earlier this month: “We are monitoring the situation and we have received certain information, investigative information has been shared with us.”
Frank Ocean live at the Bowery Ballroom, New York in November 2011. Photograph: Chad Batka/Chad Batka/Corbis
Frank Ocean has had quite the week. “Yes,” he says, smiling, with a barely perceptible shake of the head, as if in mild disbelief. Then he nods: “Yes. But also awesome.” Two things have contributed to making his week awesome. There’s the surprise release of his second albumChannel Orange, a week before it was officially planned, which met with rabidly enthusiastic reviews comparing his idiosyncratic, narrative-heavy reimagining of soul and R&B to Prince and Stevie Wonder. Then there was the post on Tumblr in which he told, beautifully, the story of falling in love for the first time, with a man. “I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alrite,” he wrote.
You can understand why Ocean might be feeling a little stunned. He’s suddenly the most talked-about man in music, though he hasn’t yet done much of the talking himself. He shuffles into a dressing room behind Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom nursing a herbal tea, and plays with it nervously, a hoodie wrapped around his neck like a scarf, before politely shaking my hand, all the time avoiding eye contact. He’s 24, relatively new to all of this, and suddenly the world wants to know his business.
Right now the old formula holds true: the less you know about him, the more you want to know. He’s managed to maintain a rare air of pop star mystery. “It’s not formulaic,” he says. “It’s not me necessarily trying to preserve mystique. It’s who I am. It’s how I prefer to move. I really don’t think that deeply about it at all, I swear I don’t. I’m just existing.”
‘Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me … but they could do the same just because I’m black. Do you just not go outside your house?’
There’s a sense that impulse has driven Frank Ocean’s career so far. He emerged from two worlds: he was a successful songwriter for the likes of Brandy, Justin Bieber and Beyoncé; and he ran with Odd Future, though always seemed more mature than their mouthier shock tactics. It could be argued with conviction that he’s already eclipsed them. Packing up, broke, and driving away from his hometown of New Orleans, post-Katrina, to give it a shot as a songwriter in LA was a risk. Giving away his first album Nostalgia, Ultra for free was a risk (he put it online in 2011 without the knowledge of his label, Def Jam). Coming out was a risk.
“I won’t touch on risky, because that’s subjective,” he says. “People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear. Me putting Nostalgia out … what’s physically going to happen? Me saying what I said on my Tumblr last week? Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they could do the same just because I’m black. They could do the same just because I’m American. Do you just not go outside your house? Do you not drive your car because of the statistics? How else are you limiting your life for fear?”
Though he thinks of himself as existing outside of conventional music genres – and the broad ambition of new album Channel Orange touches on everything from Marvin Gaye to Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix – Ocean’s roots are in R&B and hip-hop, neither of which are known for their nurturing attitude towards the rainbow flag. Which makes what he just did seem remarkably courageous. “I don’t know,” he demurs, looking down. “A lot of people have said that since that news came out. I suppose a percentage of that act was because of altruism; because I was thinking of how I wished at 13 or 14 there was somebody I looked up to who would have said something like that, who would have been transparent in that way. But there’s another side of it that’s just about my own sanity and my ability to feel like I’m living a life where I’m not just successful on paper, but sure that I’m happy when I wake up in the morning, and not with this freakin’ boulder on my chest.”
‘I could have changed the words. But why? I feel it’s another time now. I have no interest in contributing to that, especially with my art – the one thing that I know will outlive me’
Frank at Coachella, 2012. Photograph: Paul R. Giunta/Paul R. Giunta/CorbisOcean didn’t come out spontaneously, though. He wrote his letter in December 2011, to include in the sleevenotes for Channel Orange, pre-empting any potential speculation that might arise from some of its songs obviously addressing men. “I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions,” he explains. “I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when.” He’s not one for playing the game, clearly. “It was important for me to know that when I go out on the road and I do these things, that I’m looking at people who are applauding because of an appreciation for me,” he says. “I don’t have many secrets, so if you know that, and you’re still applauding … it may be some sort of sick validation but it was important to me. When I heard people talking about certain, you know, ‘pronouns’ in the writing of the record, I just wanted to – like I said on the post – offer some clarity; clarify, before the fire got too wild and the conversation became too unfocused and murky.”
Later that evening, when he performs to a near-hysterical crowd, a line like “You’re so buff and so strong, I’m nervous … You run my mind, boy” sounds astonishingly subversive, hammering home how rarely we hear overtly same-sex songs, no matter what the genre. Asked why he didn’t fall back on the generic “you”, he shrugs: “When you write a song likeForrest Gump, the subject can’t be androgynous. It requires an unnecessary amount of effort. I don’t fear anybody … ” He laughs, making eye contact at last, his face lighting up, ” … at all. So, to answer your question, yes, I could have easily changed the words. But for what? I just feel like it’s just another time now. I have no interest in contributing to that, especially with my art. It’s the one thing that I know will outlive me and outlive my feelings. It will outlive my depressive seasons.”
These “depressive seasons”, he says, have been erased suddenly by his recent catharsis, but the bleakness of his music has been one of its most notable qualities. Drake and the Weeknd have peddled urban navel-gazing for a year or two, but Frank is on another level, telling dark cinematic stories with a screenwriter’s eye for character. Nostalgia, Ultra was full of unhappy souls: songs which initially appear to be sexy slow jams crumble under the weight of despair; take the refrain of Novocaine, “fuck me good, fuck me long, fuck me numb”, that final adverb joining grief to lust. Channel Orange has a fascination with decadence in the midst of decline, but its protagonists are equally sad and lost. The album’s narratives take in drug addicts, strippers, but also rich kids ruined by consumerism who end up dead or, at the least, on the receiving end of some vicious sarcasm: “Why see the world when you got the beach?” he sings on Sweet Life.
‘My grandfather was a mentor for NA and AA groups. I used to go to the meetings and hear the addicts: heroin and crack and alcohol. Stories like that influence a song like Crack Rock’
Ocean is unsure about what draws him to the darker side. “I honestly couldn’t tell you,” he finally says, after a long silence. “I would say, those were the colours I had to work with on those days.” Is it drawn from experience? “Absolutely. I mean, ‘experience’ is an interesting word. I just bear witness. For a song like Crack Rock, my grandfather, who had struggled to be a father for my mum and my uncle … his second chance at fatherhood was me. In his early-20s, he had a host of problems with addiction and substance abuse. When I knew him, he was a mentor for the NA and the AA groups. I used to go to the meetings and hear these stories from the addicts – heroin and crack and alcohol. So stories like that influence a song like that.” Some of his narratives are pure fantasy, he says. In the case of Pyramids’ epic first half this isn’t too surprising – it takes place in ancient Egypt – but that, too, twists itself into the story of a stripper providing for a pimp, and turns out to be rooted in real life. “I have actual pimps in my family in LA,” he chuckles. “It was fantasy built off that dynamic … but you can only write what you know to a point.”
The attention to detail that goes into his songs is astonishing. He sings Crack Rock with a hint of fractured breathiness that his sound engineer tried to iron out. “He said, ‘Are we really going to let this slide?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, because that’s how a smoker would sing.'” Music, more than any other art form, demands autobiography: we want our singers to be giving us authentic love or pain; we want to believe it’s first-hand. Fortunately, Frank Ocean is a natural-born storyteller.
When he talks about his music – how this bit here was influenced by Sly And The Family Stone, why that vocal retake happened, even the dying business model the industry is built on – he looks up, becoming animated, lively, and less shy. It would be easy to think that he’s reluctant to be famous – Vancouver tonight marks only his 10th solo gig – but when he left New Orleans in 2005, he changed his name from Lonny Breaux to Frank Ocean because he decided it would look better on magazine covers. (He also cares enough to have personally authorised the cover image for this week’s Guardian Guide.)
“I’ve always wanted to make a career in the arts, and I think that my only hope at doing that is to make it more about the work,” he says. But he could have been a successful songwriter anonymously – if it’s all about the music, why step out from behind the pen? “I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that. I wouldn’t be a part of [it] if I was just writing songs for others. And I said more about the music,” he grins, lest there be any doubt that he intends to be a star.
The journalist’s flight to Vancouver was paid for by Universal Records
Frank Ocean’s Def Jam debut, “Channel Orange,” isn’t due for two weeks, but the album has had Twitter abuzz for days.
As the Odd Future crooner previewed the highly anticipated disc for press, attention shifted to his sexuality after one blogger’s brief mention that when he sings about love on a number of tracks he uses “him” as opposed to “her.”
It was that quick line that has dominated the blogosphere.
What was fascinating about the rampant speculation about Ocean isn’t that it spread so quickly (much of this week’s headlines have centered on Anderson Cooper confirming his sexual orientation), but rather how many blogs haphazardly drafted their own analysis, most of them without having heard the album.
Now we know for sure: Tuesday evening Ocean took to his Tumblr to address the spreading headlines. In a preface post, he wrote that he would be posting what was originally meant to appear in the liner notes for “Channel Orange.” He made clear that he lived the lyrics in his songs, which he sings with such an intense passion, urgency and plainness. This was his story.
“With all the rumors going round.. i figured it’d be good to clarify..,” he wrote.
In the letter – actually a screenshot of a note document – he describes the first time he fell in love with a man and how the relationship progressed. He bluntly stated, “I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alrite. I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore.”
“4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide,” Ocean wrote in part of the letter. “Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile. I’d hear his conversation and his silence … until it was time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless…”
The straightforward letter – which can be read in its entirety here – is undoubtedly the glass ceiling moment for music. Especially black music, which has long been in desperate need of a voice like Ocean’s to break the layers of homophobia. There are plenty of reasons this moment has so much weight. Too many for any single article to explore.
Ocean has never talked at length about his personal life, leaving his music and its often-complex narratives to drive the conversation. But in a culture where the gossip increasingly and frustratingly outweighs the music, Ocean’s casual and candid approach to addressing his personal life, and revealing his personal truth of having loved a man, will be seen as groundbreaking.
There was no cover story, no anonymous sources or PR-orchestrated announcement (though this is not to demean those celebrities who have taken those approaches to this issue). Sure this will be seen as his “coming out” but it should be noted he doesn’t use the word “gay” or “bisexual,” and his letter isn’t about caving to the pressures of the labels we are so quick to pass out.
Ocean told his story on his terms and in his own words, something virtually unheard of in hip-hop and R&B — genres he has already pushed forward artistically with his work, and could push further.
Thursday, Ocean played the disc for a small group of music reporters at Los Angeles’ Capitol Records.
“This will take about an hour of your life,” he said before focusing on the control board and bobbing his head to the album, a stellar kaleidoscope of atmospheric beats, lush harmonies and those complex narratives he’s known for.
“It’s a bad religion, to be in love with someone who can never love you,” he muses over an organ on “Bad Religion,” one of the track’s catching attention along with the Andre 3000-assisted “Pink Matter” and the album’s wrenching closer “Forrest Gump,” where he sings of a boy he once knew.
“You’re running on my mind, boy,” he offers on the track.
The reaction to Ocean’s revelation is still uncertain –- although any negativity can be drowned out by the album’s raw beauty and masterful craftsmanship. The outpouring of tweets supporting Ocean has made it clear that he’s going to get a fair amount of love from fans and the industry, with some already touting him as a hero and a trailblazer. Being someone of his stature will place a heavy burden on his shoulders as being the “first,” but this moment was so very necessary.
Hopefully, in the wake of his letter, the urban community will fully embrace Ocean for his honesty and bravery. It’s impossible he’s alone.
Entertainment Weekly’s new issue this week is about celebrities coming out of the closet. The pop culture magazine examines the changing attitudes society has about gay and lesbian stars coming out of the closet. Is this really progress? A quick glance at the cover of Entertainment Weekly and the majority of gay stars on the cover are white gay males. Only two lesbians are on the cover Wanda Sykes and Jane Lynch. The only non white person on the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly is comedian Wanda Sykes.
Fifteen years ago, when Ellen Degeneres came out she was on the cover of Time Magazine. It is true that North American culture is more accepting of celebrities coming out but only if they are white.Now Ellen Degeneres has a hit talk show and has made millions of dollars after coming out. Can anyone imagine an A list black gay or lesbian celebrity come out of the closet and actually acquire more fame just like Degeneres after coming out?
Degeneres received support from the mainstream white heterosexual and gay media after she decided to come out in 1997. Degeneres white skin privilege allowed her to navigate the terrain of coming out as a lesbian. Degeneres whiteness was her bargining chip to minimize the collateral damage of coming out.
Since the white image is still viewed as natural in society, Degeneres whiteness made it easier for her to declare she is a lesbian. Degeneres didn’t have to deal with any racial issues when she came out of the closet. Since whiteness is still constructed out of dominance in North America, Degeneres being gay wasn’t seen as a threat to mainstream white American society.
The paucity of black gay and lesbian stars coming out is because being gay in North American generally means being white not black.
The television shows such as Modern Family, Will & Grace, movies such as Brokeback Mountain and The Kids Are All Right all have the same white image about homosexuality. Entertainment Weekly’s cover about coming out reinforces the white gay image.
Hollywood just like mainstream society is still racially stratified. Heterosexual black actors complain about not obtaining decent film roles like their white counterparts. The entertainment industry does not have a level playing field for people of colour. Black gay actors probably fear coming out will destroy their careers.
It is easier for a white gay celebrity to come out than a black gay and lesbian star. There is a paucity of African American stars coming out of the closet.
Although the mainstream media promotes coming out as a magical, wonderful, moment in a gay person’s life this is not always the case.
In the black community, black gay stars fear criticism by the black media and their fans if they come out.
The black media also has a propensity to ignore queer black stars for a number of reasons. There is an attitude in the black community that homosexuality is a white issue and not a concern to blacks. There is also a don’t ask don’t tell attitude in the black community about homosexuality. Of course, black people already are cognizant Wanda Sykes is a lesbian but homosexuality is considered a private matter. Homosexuality is still a taboo topic to discuss in the African Diaspora.
Sykes was courageous in coming out because she is one of the few black celebrities to declare she is a lesbian. However, the mainstream white culture reinforces the subliminal message is gay people are generally white not black, Asian, Native American, or Hispanic. Of course, there are people of colour who are gay the question is why are most lesbian and gay stars of colour still in the closet?
Gay people of colour are marginalized not just because they are gay but also due to race and identity politics. Last year, the only high profile black celebrity to come out of the closet was CNN journalist Don Lemon. However, most black people yawned and didn’t care that Lemon came out because he’s not a real star he’s a journalist.
The black media only briefly mentioned Don Lemon’s decision to come out but he was generally ignored. The real big black gay and lesbian celebrities are unwilling to come out because they have already built their brand and audiences. If or when a higher profile black queer star comes out of the closet then the black press will pay attention.
There is a reason Queen Latifah, Tyler Perry, Tracy Chapman, Missy Elliott and the rest of the high profile black gay and lesbian stars are not out. Tracy Chapman is a multi platinum and Grammy award winning artist she chooses to not announce she is a lesbian because she believes it is a private matter. Chapman probably wants the general public to focus on her music and not on her sexual orientation.
Queen Latifah has high profile endorsements with Cover Girl cosmetics, Tyler Perry has a huge following in the African American Christian community, and Missy Elliott is a well respected rapper. Tyler Perry’s new movie Madea Witness Protection comes out this week Friday. Perry’s core audience are black Christians he can’t just come out of the closet and declare he is a gay black man. Perry is fearful if he does come out he will lose the audience he has worked so hard to reach.
For an A list black star to come out as gay and lesbian is still considered a form of career suicide. After coming out of the closet who will support the openly gay or lesbian black star?
One of the dilemmas some queers of colour experience is the struggle between coming out of the closet and losing respect from their race and cultural community. It might be difficult for a person that is not of colour to truly understand this point. We live in a white centered world despite the progress of the civil rights, feminist, and gay movements. The mainstream white culture is the dominant culture, but for people of colour there is a private sphere beyond the public realm.
Another issue that tends to be ignored is the fact that the gay media in North America is controlled by white people. Remember four years ago the controversy over proposition 8 in the state of California? Dan Savage the white gay activist blamed the black community for voting in favour of banning gay marriage. Even though, blacks account for about 4% of California’s total population.
Dan Savage’s racism and anger towards blacks underscored the racial tension and friction between white gays and blacks. Savage was condemned by black gay activists for his anti black racism.
On this blog, I have discussed numerous times the issue of racism within the gay and lesbian community. In North America there are even separate gay pride events for blacks and whites. In major American cities such as Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York City, black gay pride is popular among black gays and lesbians. The reason African Americans decided to create black gay pride is due to the fact blacks wanted to claim their own space. Black gays and lesbians were aware that the mainstream gay community did not provide a safe space for them.
Across North American the lesbian communities have created their own Dyke March because they are cognizant of the sexism of gay men. Lesbians realized they needed their own space separate from male homosexuals to celebrate being lesbian.
Some black gay stars are reticent to come out to the gay media because they don’t trust the mainstream white gay media.
Some black gay stars don’t see any benefit in coming out. The mainstream white gay publications Out Magazine, Instinct, and Advocate, are geared towards a white queer audience. The white gay media’s attention is focused on white queer culture not black queer culture.
More must be done in the mainstream society and queer communities so that real progress can take place and that black gay stars can come out and be successful.
Ten years ago, Halle Berry was on the top of the world she made history by becoming the first black woman to win the Oscar for best actress for Monster’s Ball. A decade later Halle Berry’s career is currently in the toilet she is struggling just to get work. Berry’s victory in 2002 was supposed to open the door for women of colour in Hollywood. High profile black actresses Vanessa Williams, Queen Latifah, and Angela Bassett all turned down the female lead in Monster’s Ball. In fact, in 2002, Angela Bassett told Newsweek Magazine that Berry’s character Leticia Musgrove was a “prostitute”.
It might be difficult for people who are not black to understand the anger and disappointment blacks had with Halle Berry. There was a huge uproar and backlash against Berry for appearing in Monster’s Ball. Berry was criticized by many blacks and her popularity with black audiences declined dramatically. A common complaint among blacks is blunt, why did the first black woman to win best actress have to screw a white man in order to win? Would Hollywood allow Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, or Jennifer Aniston to have an explicit sex scene with a black man and win an Academy Award?
Many black people objected to the explicit sex scene Berry had with white actor Billy Bob Thorton because they felt the film promoted the licentious black whore stereotype. When Berry’s character Leticia Musgrove screamed the line “make me feel good” baring her breasts and nude body this upset many African-Americans.
The Monster’s Ball sex scene also alludes to white male dominance over black women and to the horrors of slavery where black females were raped by white men.
The pornographic scene in Monster’s Ball was similar to a rape scene and not a loving or romantic film scene.
Black women are consistently stereotyped as being lascivious, and sexually available for the disposal of men. Young black female pop stars such as Rihanna and Beyonce promote the black jezebel image with their sexually explicit music videos! Turn on MTV, BET, or Much Music, and the viewer will see young black women dancing seductively in tight clothing this promotes a disturbing negative image of black females.
Why didn’t Angela Bassett win the Oscar for her incredible performance in the 1993 Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It? Why did a black woman have to take her clothes off in order to win the best actress Oscar? Was Berry character Leticia Musgrove the jezebel?
In the 1982, the groundbreaking black feminist classic book All The Women Are White, All The Blacks Are Men, But Some Of Us Are Brave, black feministsargues black women are still placed into sexist categories. A black actress is either the maid, or the whore, but she is never depicted on the silver screen as a three dimensional human being. Where are the movies with black women in leading roles as doctors, teachers, police women, firefighters, writers, lawyers, politicians, bankers, or dentists?
Last year, the success of summer hit The Help received some negative press in the black community because of the black mammy stereotype. Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help is considered a feminist classic by mainstream white feminists. However, in the novel and the film the central theme of the novel is about Skeeter a young white woman’s evolution and change. The black female characters Minny, and Aibileen are just shadows to Skeeter.
Octavia Spencer won the best supporting actress Oscar for The Help but there was apathetic support in the black community. The reason is, despite Spencer’s strong performance in The Help she won an Oscar for being a white woman’s maid! Spencer’s best supporting actress win is not progress because it proves Hollywood is still incredibly racist against black actors.
Over seventy years ago, another black actress Hattie McDaniel also won an Oscar for being a maid in the racist film Gone With The Wind. Octavia Spencer’s victory cemented that fact Hollywood still places black women into restrictive racist and sexist binaries.
Meanwhile, ten years after Halle Berry’s victory she was unable to capitalize off her success. Time will tell if Octavia Spencer can maintain her success after winning the Oscar. For a short period of time Berry’s career was successful.
In December 2002, Halle starred with British actor Pierce Bronson and the film grossed $431 million dollars worldwide. In 2003, Halle was the star of the horror flick Gothika and the movie was a huge hit earning $141 million worldwide. Halle cemented her A list status by proving she can headline a movie by herself. However, in 2004 Berry’s career hit rock bottom with the disappointing performance in the film Catwoman. Despite winning an Academy Award she wasn’t the first choice which was Ashley Judd. Judd turned down the role for Catwoman and Halle won the part.
On various internet websites such as IMDB.COM, some fans were disappointed that a black actress obtained the lead role. The budget for Catwoman was $100 million dollars but the worldwide box office was only $82 million. The mainstream media attacked Halle for taking on the role. Although Catwoman was a disappointment, white actresses such as Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Angelina Jolie also have numerous bombs in their careers.
The dilemma for Halle Berry was, since she was the only A list black actress any failure was used to justify the myopic belief black actresses are not profitable. However, the truth is Hollywood doesn’t know what do with a beautiful, talented, black actress.
White actresses also have white skin privilege therefore they are allowed more opportunities to obtain leading lady film roles. An A list white actress such as Nicole Kidman can have a series of bombs yet she still have the offers for leading lady roles!
Halle Berry’s career as an A list actress was over after Catwoman she never was offered the same kind of roles her white female contemporaries get.
The Hollywood system still favours white women over women of colour and this is a fact. Mainstream magazines such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, New York Times, LA Times, promotes young white actresses over women of colour. Television shows such as E Talk, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, also have a prominent role of being a representation for white beauty.
Since Hollywood is a racist dream factory, the white woman is still placed on the pedestal as the ultimate beautiful woman. The image of a woman in the pop culture that is successful, talented, and attractive is still the white female. Women of colour rarely ever obtain the high-profile film roles despite being as talented, hardworking or beautiful. Halle Berry has complained in numerous media interviews that she receives the scraps the crappy film roles that an A list white actress doesn’t want.
Although Berry has a legitimate complaint that she is treated unfairly compared to the A list white actresses, she still had better opportunities than any black woman in Hollywood history. Berry was paid $14 million dollars for Catwoman, she also has endorsements with Revlon cosmetics, and she has her own perfume line.
Berry has also made some poor choices she honestly believed after she won the best actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball that she could cross over to white America.
The dilemma for Halle Berry is, although she is half white she still did not connect with a mainstream audience. Berry attempted to reach the mainstream with her roles in films such as Things We Lost In A Fire, Perfect Stranger, Frankie & Alice. Berry’s recent film the pathetic and dismal shark movie Dark Tide failed to reach an audience.
The quandary for Berry is, she is an aging sex symbol although she looks great and is physically fit she is also forty-five years old. Hollywood is a sexist business and judged by their age and not their talent. Men are allowed to age in Hollywood gracefully. For instance, Denzel Washington is fifty-seven years old yet since he is a male he still has the opportunities to obtain the high-profile film roles. Will Smith is forty-three years old and Jamie Foxx is forty-four yet their careers are more successful than Halle Berry’s career. Although black men encounter racism in Hollywood they still benefit from male privilege because they are men.
All women in Hollywood are treated to the unfair misogynist double standard that they can only be successful for an ephemeral period of time. Once an actress regardless of her race reaches the magical age of forty the roles start to dry up. Meryl Streep is the exception to the rule but for most actresses regardless of their talent they are replaced by younger actresses.
Since black women encounter discrimination in relation to their race and gender Halle Berry’s decline is incredibly sad. Unfortunately for Berry, Hollywood replaced her with younger black actresses such as Zoe Saldana, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Hudson, and Meagan Good.
Halle Berry’s contemporaries such as Queen Latifah, Vivica A Fox, Taraji P Henson, Sanaa Lathan, and Gabrielle Union are still working. One problem which Halle Berry needs to address if she wants to make a comeback is to make movies which appeal to the black female audience. Tyler Perry is successful because his movies have reached black women which is a lucrative market which mainstream Hollywood tends to ignore. Black women want to see other black women fall in love, have romantic relationships, and appear in exciting and interesting movies. Queen Latifah has not forgotten the black female audience and this is the reason why her career is currently more successful than Halle Berry’s career.
If Halle Berry wants to make a successful comeback she needs to make films which will win back the black female audience. Berry needs to consider making a romantic comedy or a dramatic film which involves romance.
I am not sure if people outside of the United Kingdom have heard about the Stephen Lawrence murder case? In the year 1993, an unarmed seventeen year old black British teenager Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered by white male youths.
Stephen was waiting at a bus stop with a friend when he was stabbed to death. The Stephen Lawrence murder case shocked England and forced the British people to examine racism in British society. The Stephen Lawrence case forced the British police force to admit to racism within their ranks.
Finally in January 2012, due to the persistence of Stephen’s parents after eighteen long years they obtained justice. Two white men Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of murdering Stephen. When I think of Stephen Lawrence if he were alive today he would still be a young man only in his thirties. Maybe Stephen would be married, have a wife and kids. A young life was extinguished due to bigotry and prejudice.
However, even though two white men were convicted of Stephen’s murder the other murderers are still at large. The British newspaper the Daily Mail published the photographs of all the white male suspects. The British public knows the identities of the other killers. Sadly, Stephen Lawrence parents divorced due to the grief and strain of the murder case. I commend Stephen’s parents for fighting so hard and courageously and challenging the racist British police force and justice system. Even though, Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted Stephen is still dead he’s never going to come back.
The Stephen Lawrence case is very similar to the Trayvon Martin tragedy taking place right now in America. Both Stephen and Travyon were unarmed black male teenagers, both were only seventeen when they were killed. I am disgusted by Fox News and numerous media outlets attempting to paint Travyon as a bad kid. Trayvon made mistakes in his young life but he did not deserve to die in cold blood. It is not surprising but still depressing how truly racist this world still is despite the progress of the civil rights movement.
George Zimmerman and his wife both lied to the judge about their finances which certainly hurts their credibility. I sincerely hope and pray it doesn’t take eighteen years for Trayvon Martin’s family to get justice for the murder of their son. I can’t imagine the grief, the pain, and feelings of despair that Travyon Martin’s parents are going through right now.
PUBLISHED: 20:40 GMT, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:22 GMT, 12 June 2012
The wife of George Zimmerman, who is currently imprisoned for murder charges relating to the death of Trayvon Martin in February, is now on the wrong side of the law herself.
Shellie Zimmerman was arrested today in Seminole County, Florida, on charges that she committed perjury during her husband’s bond hearing.
An order issued Tuesday by assistant state attorney John Guy charged her with knowingly making false statements during the April hearing.
Husband and wife: Shellie Zimmerman, left, was charged with lying during the bond hearing of her husband George, right
George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting. He was granted $150,000 bond at that hearing and released.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that prosecutors alerted Judge Kenneth Lester that Mrs Zimmerman had lied about contributions to her husband’s legal defence to hide about $135,000.
Lester, in a strongly worded ruling, said the Zimmermans lied about how much money they had.
An arrest affidavit for Shellie Zimmerman obtained by the Associated Press said that records show in April she transferred more than $85,500 from her bank account into her husband’s account.
Revoked: George Zimmerman testifies from the stand during a bond hearing on second degree murder charges at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Florida in this file photo taken April 20, 2012
The affidavit also indicated that records of Zimmerman’s calls from jail showed that George Zimmerman instructed his wife to ‘pay off all the bills,’ including a Sam’s Club card and American Express.
A state attorney investigator met with credit union officials and learned that she had transfer control of his account.
Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara has said the Zimmermans were confused and fearful when they misled court officials about how much money they had.
Shellie Zimmerman, a nursing student, was ordered held on $1,000 bond. Sources told the Sentinel that she was working to post her bond.
In Florida, perjury is punishable by up to five years in jail.
Victim: Trayvon Martin, 17, was unarmed when he was shot by Zimmerman, who claims he acted in self-defence
George Zimmerman, of Sanford, has been behind bars since Judge Lester revoked his bond earlier this month.
He came out of hiding when he returned to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on June 3.
To pass the time, it appears he’s also writing postcards to loved ones, having requested several different varieties.
He also requested a writing pad, pens, pencils and four erasers.
He purchased two ‘Missing You,’ two ‘Thinking of You,’ and two ‘With Love,’ cards from the jail.
Surrender: George Zimmerman was ordered back to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility after his bond was revoked by a Florida judge in Sanford, Florida, on June 3
Political statement: Hoodies have become symbols of racial profiling and discrimination, protestors say, after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while wearing one
The former neighbourhood watch captain claims he was acting in self-defence when he shot Trayvon Martin on February 26.
On that night, Zimmerman spotted Martin, and called 911 to report that the hoodie-clad teen ‘looked suspicious.’
The 911 operator urged Zimmerman not to follow Martin and to stay in his truck, but Zimmerman, for unknown reasons, got out.
He claimed that he lost track of Martin and was returning to his car when he was ‘sucker-punched’ by the teen.
Zimmerman said he shot him, fearing that he was armed.
But Martin, 17, was not armed. He was returning to his father’s girlfriend’s house with an iced tea for himself and Skittles for his little brother.
Activism: Lawyer Benjamin Crump, centre, addresses the media with Tracy Martin, right, and Sabrina Fulton, left, the parents of Trayvon Martin, after they addressed lawmakers at a meeting on the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law in Longwood, Florida
Police contended that Zimmerman was protected under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, which gives wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat in a fight if people believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously injured.
The questioning of Zimmerman’s truthfulness by the judge last Friday could undermine the defendant’s credibility if it is brought up at trial.
As the case stands now, his credibility is absolutely critical to the case.
The initial lack of an arrest in the case sparked massive protests nationwide and debates about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman’s actions and in the initial police handling of the case.
Martin was black; Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is from Peru.
Protests: The initial lack of an arrest in the case sparked demonstrations nationwide and debates about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman’s actions and in the initial police handling of the case
I am disgusted and angered by the racism that minority sport fans and professional athletes are being subjected to in Poland and Ukraine.
Are Poland and Ukraine too poor, racist, and uncivilized to host an international sports event?
It is a fair question because the level of white supremacy taking place at Euro 2012 is shocking.
What if the violence becomes fatal and a minority sports fan or a black soccer player is murdered?
Would the world still ignore the pathetic hooligans?
I am serious the level of violence and racism at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine is escalating and something needs to be done about it.
Poland and Ukraine’s international reputation is going down the toilet. It is so offensive to see innocent people being attacked by racists chanting Nazi salutes.
It is also surprising to be honest that this blatant bigotry is taking place in the poorer region of Europe.
Poland and Ukraine are not a part of Western Europe the and perhaps due to social problems within these countries people need a scapegoat?
Racism is a global problem but it is shocking to see this uncivilized behaviour taking place at an international sports event. Whomever decided to have Poland and Ukraine host Euro 2012 should be ashamed of themselves!
I commend the media for not ignoring this abhorrent racism because it should not be tolerated. It isn’t enough for people to say racism is wrong there needs to be swift action to deal with this. I am concerned about the black football athletes that just want to perform yet are subjected to bigotry and white supremacy.
There’s a sense that impulse has driven Frank Ocean’s career so far. He emerged from two worlds: he was a successful songwriter for the likes of Brandy, Justin Bieber and 
Frank at Coachella, 2012. Photograph: Paul R. Giunta/Paul R. Giunta/CorbisOcean didn’t come out spontaneously, though. He wrote his letter in December 2011, to include in the sleevenotes for Channel Orange, pre-empting any potential speculation that might arise from some of its songs obviously addressing men. “I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions,” he explains. “I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when.” He’s not one for playing the game, clearly. “It was important for me to know that when I go out on the road and I do these things, that I’m looking at people who are applauding because of an appreciation for me,” he says. “I don’t have many secrets, so if you know that, and you’re still applauding … it may be some sort of sick validation but it was important to me. When I heard people talking about certain, you know, ‘pronouns’ in the writing of the record, I just wanted to – like I said on the post – offer some clarity; clarify, before the fire got too wild and the conversation became too unfocused and murky.”
Ocean is unsure about what draws him to the darker side. “I honestly couldn’t tell you,” he finally says, after a long silence. “I would say, those were the colours I had to work with on those days.” Is it drawn from experience? “Absolutely. I mean, ‘experience’ is an interesting word. I just bear witness. For a song like 
Revoked: George Zimmerman testifies from the stand during a bond hearing on second degree murder charges at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Florida in this file photo taken April 20, 2012
Surrender: George Zimmerman was ordered back to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility after his bond was revoked by a Florida judge in Sanford, Florida, on June 3
Political statement: Hoodies have become symbols of racial profiling and discrimination, protestors say, after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while wearing one
Activism: Lawyer Benjamin Crump, centre, addresses the media with Tracy Martin, right, and Sabrina Fulton, left, the parents of Trayvon Martin, after they addressed lawmakers at a meeting on the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law in Longwood, Florida
Protests: The initial lack of an arrest in the case sparked demonstrations nationwide and debates about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman’s actions and in the initial police handling of the case
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