I'm Annoyed.

First thing's first, I'm moving to Milwaukee, which is why when I saw that on the side of CNN's website an article about the Milwaukee Public Schools laying off more than 300 teachers, my interest was piqued.

That quickly turned into annoyance. I frequently see some politician lamenting on television or on Twitter or in some article about how upset they are about our public schools, how the United States are low on worldwide educational performance lists, how our kids aren't doing well and aren't learning. But how can you be upset when you take money away from the education budget to give to the prison industrial complex, refuse to make our kids whole and well-rounded beings by cutting arts education, by laying off and firing teachers because you can't afford to keep them, by thinking the best way for kids to learn is by shading in a goddamn circle on a standardized test?

As much talking as all these politicians are doing and have done for years, there has been no real progress Hardly anyone in office is fighting for education, for teachers, for districts, and--most importantly--for students. And when this fighting isn't happening, when education isn't high on politicians' priority list our schools are going to continue to fail. Our students are going to continue to fail. Our country is going to continue to fail. And we'll continue to get ridiculous fools in office who don't understand how education works and continue to think that performance on standardized tests indicates intelligence.

It's ridiculous. I want more. I want reform. We need reform. And it needs to happen now.

"Man Down"

So apparently, conservatives are in a tizzy about Rihanna’s video “Man Down” where she’s shown murdering a man. I’d like to call horseshit.

Please know that I am not a Rihanna fan. Nor do I advocate violence, blah blah blah.

What bothers me, however, is that while all these people are upset that she murdered someone, none of them are talking about the fact that her character murdered someone because he sexually assaulted/raped her. The focus is on the fact that she murdered her assailant rather than that she did it because she was violated in one of the worst ways you can violate a woman.

This right here, this uproar with ignoring the incident that informed Rihanna’s character’s actions? RAPE CULTURE.

Murder is wrong; I get it; I know it; I believe it. But to say it’s irresponsible for Rihanna to show this kind of “violence” on television diminishes the role we play from keeping the story in “Man Down” from becoming reality.

Why don’t we talk about why Rihanna’s character killed the man who assaulted/raped her? Maybe it’s because 60% of sexual assaults don’t get reported, partly because women (and men) don’t feel safe enough and supported enough to report them. Some of them, too, don’t feel like justice would be done; I mean, look at the woman from NYC raped by the police officer! Even when women do report their rapes and it’s prosecuted, acquittals happen more often than convictions. And because of this the victim is degraded and considered a liar, whore, etc. And who wants to deal with that? Kobe anyone?

RAPE CULTURE.

Why don’t we talk about the fact that rape kits sit untouched for years, hindering prosecution? Why don’t we talk about the fact that there are statutes of limitations on rape? Why don’t we talk about the seeming lack of care we have for victims and for women so they feel safe enough to walk out their houses (or in their houses) and say with certitude “I doubt I’ll get raped today”? Why don’t we talk about the fact that clearly we continue to ignore the roles men play in rapes and sexual assaults but continue to victim-blame and discuss how appropriately a woman should react? Or the fact that we play the “hush hush, sweep the dirty secrets under the rug” with rape victims in our families or even in our churches? Catholics/Eddie Long anyone?

RAPE CULTURE.

It’s all bullshit to me, complete bullshit. Instead of being angry at Rihanna for depicting a violence that exists for so many women, why don’t these conservatives, parents, what-have-you work on actual legislation and culture-changing that brings these men (and women) to justice? Why don’t they stop focusing on the abstract and focus on the reality?

Women are raped; they are sexually assaulted; and when they aren’t helped, tragedies occur from depression to other mental illnesses to murder to suicide.

That’s a reality that Rihanna can’t change, at least not by herself. But it’s something we all can work on.

But that won’t happen because people are too busy worrying about what Rihanna put in her music video to focus on the realities. |files nails|