Curved Opinion of the Week

This is the second installment of my weekly "Curved Opinion of the Week" feature.

There have been two issues on my mind this week, the first is the case of Sandra Bland which I have written about here and the second is the hunter Walter Palmer who has been in the news after killing, actually lets not say killing, lets say murdering because that is what he did, a lion named Cecil.

What I was thinking about today are the people who tell you:

"You shouldn't be moaning about "x", when "y" is happening in the world".  

This happened to me when I was commenting on an article about Walter Palmer by someone telling me that the Sandra Bland case was more important.  The two are in no way, shape or form connected and therefore cannot be compared.

Are we not allowed to care about different subjects?  Do we have to pick just one?  If that is the case, then I am thoroughly screwed.

It seems that in the comments section these days, (I know, I know, don't read the comments sections, evil resides there) whatever the subject the article is written on, I see people try to change the subject to something entirely different, but they believe is what should be talked about.  Sometimes their subject is more important, but why can we not speak about both?

Why can I not comment on an article about (for example) how to create the perfect pin curl without being told by some guy that I should be thinking about more important issues, like ISIS.  For all they know, I could have spent the rest of the day reading about ISIS and wanted some light relief!

Can I not comment on an article about FGM without somebody saying "What about male circumcision?  What are women doing about that?"

Do we have to write a warning on all of our comments stating "I know that the issues of x, y and z are all important, I talk about them all regularly but I want to talk about something else for a second?"

Enquiring mind want to know.

Sandra Bland

I have talked about many different subjects on this blog over the years.  I have never been afraid to write about any subject, but one subject that I have not covered so far are issues of race.  As Leah has written on her blog, the truth is that I was scared.

I did not know enough, I was frightened of getting things wrong; saying the wrong thing.  I did not want to stay silent and many times my fingers would be hovering over the keyboard as time after time I read about another black life needlessly lost.  I was so concerned about saying the right thing that I said nothing at all.

But this lady has made me face my fears and speak to you today.  Sandra Bland.

Source

Sandra was pulled over for not indicating a lane change.  In Waller County where Sandra was pulled over, 29.1% of the drivers who were pulled for a traffic stop were black, despite black people only making up 26% of the county's population - source  Texas has a long, long history with racism,

Sandra was ordered out of her vehicle, threatened with a taser, had her head slammed to the ground; was arrested and three days later she was dead.  They claim that Sandra hung herself, but there are many questions surrounding this, one of the harrowing being that she may have already been dead when her mugshot was taken.

Why was the video footage edited?  Why was her mugshot not taken with the same background as every single other mugshot (the background being the same colour as the cell floor).  Why does it look like she is lying on the floor?  Why did the version of how she supposedly hung herself change?

There are so many questions and not many answers.

Check out the below links:

What Happened to Sandra Bland

Sandra Bland: 5 Fast Facts

I have read story after story of unarmed black people being physically assaulted and killed by officers in the US.  Yet at the same time we see people like Dylann Roof who was arrested, given a bullet proof vest for his protection and given a Burger King.

Sandra Bland's name needs to be remembered.  She is not a statistic.