Trick or Treat? Laughing in the face of poverty

This weekend, people took to the streets to take advantage of the one day they can dress up as somebody else.  During this Friday's Halloween there were the usual sexy cops, wannabe super heroes, and an overwhelmingly number of groups of friends dressed up as robbers or the war veterans who rob a bank in the film "Dead Presidents" (more on this later).  But the most creative and most controversial award in my book goes to Ms. Benefit Card herself.

The photo which appeared on my Facebook feed as a shared post is of a young black woman with the New York State Benefit card on her face, literally.  The benefit card usually grants people of low income or those at risk of poverty healthcare or financial assistance in the form of food vouchers.  The young woman, who through my research remains nameless, walks happily down the street calling attention to what might simply be a joke or the need to look at the stereotypical "face" of poverty.

With something as "innocent" as this supposed costume, poverty becomes racial, a black issue, and through her smile, perceived as an every day luxury for people who are freeloaders (as is heard from some critics of welfare programs).  With this costume, I read a social taboo that isn't talked about because aspects as such are accepted as every day life.  A social norm.  Much of the comments under the photo called the girl with the benefit card  "creative"and "funny",  while others said she was "killing it".  Some people though weren't laughing.  Opposing comments read, "How sad", "what's scary is her family getting a job" and "if social services didn't just give the money away, they wouldn't have a job."  The issue with the costume and the distribution of it on popular social media sites is that it causes people to become uninformed.  One comment from a white guy read, "I'm from Ohio.  I don't know what this is but it's hilarious" and went on to tag one of his friends on the post. Across the nation, this photo is allowing the stereotype that black is associated with being poor and that for some reason they are okay with it.

On that note let me return to the Dead Presidents costume.  On more than one occasion, both men and women were seen donning the famous face paint of the movie.  This photo was found on Pinterest on a the website of a makeup artist.  Although you can't clearly tell what ethnicity or race this man is (you can only assume he's either white or Latino), it calls my attention because it was a popular costume and has been for a while now.  In the millennial generation where the Twin Towers turned into a graveyard of thousands, the financial crisis has left many unemployed, and the youth marched into wars under false pretenses, the popularity of such costumes states society is waking up.  They are jaded and realistic to the circumstances at hand and they are going against the grain to survive.  Even if it is robbing a bank.  Or, at least pretend to.  Innocence has been stolen and they are going to take it back.    

The mentioned costumes are presented together because they fall along the same lines of poverty.  When face with it, people will choose to do two things.  They will wear it on their face and smile back at any shame associated with it or they will hide behind a mask to get away from it all.  Either way the system that keeps them in poverty will be threatened and although blame will be put on the people with the masks, the bigger issue is facing the reality of why they put it on in the first place. 

Who are we all really? The use of social media in the #todossomosjoseenrique murder and #LaComay scandal

After the popular Puerto Rican TV personality and gossip queen #LaComay said on her show #Superexclusivo that two of the four suspects in the murder of publicist #JoseEnrique were allegedly prostitute women he picked up and that he was partially to blame for walking into an area of #PuertoRico known to be dangerous territory, a #transnational #calltoarms #socialmediacampaign was born.  The movement called to not only take La Comay off the air but to raise awareness and reduce the skyrocketing violent crimes on the island.  The use of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram were most helpful in providing a space for Puerto Ricans both on and off the island to unite, give face to the reality of murder crimes on the island, and moved people to take physical action offline.

Hashtags such as #todossomosjoseenrique on Facebook and mostly Twitter brought together a community of Puerto Ricans to fight an issue that wasn’t made big just because of the one guy that was murdered but because as the hashtag suggest, every Puerto Rican was affected by the record breaking murder crimes.  What made the hashtag even more powerful was that the Puerto Ricans using it were not just from the island.  Puerto Ricans from both the island and the United States took part in the campaign to bring justice.  As suggested by Harlow’s research “Social Media and Social Movement: Facebook and an online Guatemalan justice movement that moved offline”, social media in this case allowed for the social movement to gain momentum and support without the interference of time and space.  Puerto Ricans from all over posted pictures and commented their opinions on the issue. Also protests and vigils were held in both Puerto Rico and New York connecting with the theory that online activism enhances offline participation (Ramos, Zuania. "Puerto Rico Crime: Protests On And Off The Island As 'Todos Somos Jose Enrique' Movement Continues." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 9 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2014).  For an otherwise divided community because of believed “differences” in culture, the use of social media allowed them all to see that they were more the same than different in wanting to diminish the violent crimes on the island as seen with yet another hashtag #bastaya (#enoughalready).

For decades, the TV personality La Comay was the go to news outlet for Puerto Ricans.  Whether it was real news or just gossip, Puerto Ricans could be heard saying, “Well the Comay said this” and “The Comay said that.”  In the wake of the #todossomosjoseenrique campaign, there also grew #todossomoslacomay.  The users and followers of the hashtag voiced their disapproval with how the Puerto Rican community and the news engines were placing blame on a show that was made popular by a puppet.  One twitter post read, “Enough already with these small groups that want to control what is seen, said, and thought starting with @PedroJulio #todossomoslacomay and #noalacensura” which translates to #notocensorship.  As mentioned with the Harlow and Harp article, “Collective Action on the Web” social media allowed an alternative voice to be heard.  Simply, this case could be the murder of a Puerto Rican man but two other ideas emerged, the first being the high murder rate on the island and the second being addressing media gatekeepers.  On one hand, Puerto Ricans united to bring awareness to the violence on the island.  They didn’t allow for the death of Enrique to be misconstrued with allegations as they saw La Comay was doing but on the other hand it allowed Puerto Ricans to dig deeper to question who was really to blame.  Was it La Comay?  Was it the newspaper La Comay was said to had been quoting?  Or was it the Puerto Rican community in general for not having done anything before and just gossiping about it?  One facebook post ranted about how the government does whatever it wants and on a past murder that had still been unsolved.  The facebook post read, “Where is the justice for #Lorenzito?  In these cases we need the voice of #lacomay.” Lorenzito was  an eight year old boy whose murder suspects included his mother and her boyfriend.  Alternative voices in this situation allowed for there to be an intersectionality of issues all raised by the use of social media.

May I have a Wifi Latte?

I never really understood why my Wi-Fi never worked.  I got it at school on the Midtown East, in my brother's apartment in Glendale, Queens, and even on various subway train stops.  As a writer, I found it very important to have a desk where I could get into my zone and focus on putting all my ideas, opinions, and emotions into words but I could never ever get the Wi-Fi to work.  It was there sometimes but most of the time it disappeared and wouldn’t come back as if it never existed.  When I bought my IPhone 5, the sales representative assured me that although Sprint didn't have 4G coverage at the time they were working on getting Wi-Fi to all it’s customers.  Sprint occasionally sent me text messages about the company working on the Wi-Fi in my area.  Almost two years later and the only way I could get any work done in my Bushwick neighborhood was to grab a coffee at the new shop a few blocks away. Without realizing it, I was in the digital divide.

According to Jen Shradie's article "The Trend of Class, Race, and Ethnicity in Social Media Inequality: Who still cannot afford to blog?”, the digital divide is caused not by race or ethnicity but by class. Within the digital divide, we find spaces and groups of people left out the advances in technology, the resources to use it, and the funding for it.  My Bushwick home and its local residents was one of those spaces.  Sprint was reported to be one of the leading carriers of affordable plans for mobile services.  Perfect for the residents of Bushwick whose median household income of $37,648 was below New York State’s average of $55, 246 in 2011 (11237 Zip Code Detailed Profile." 11237 Zip Code (New York, New York) Profile. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.)  Sprint offers unlimited like services they say customers demand such as their new prepaid plan that was unveiled a few months ago.  The updated prepaid plans offer unlimited talk and text even internationally but little or no data.  Some of the plans do offer access to 3G or LTE but they can only be used wherever Sprint is available. (Cheng, Roger. "Sprint Revamps Prepaid with Cheaper Plans, New Phones - CNET." CNET. Unleash, 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.) So how do customers get access to WIFI?  Well they must go look for it at a coffee shop.

Within the last 15 years, Bushwick neighborhoods have seen an influx of the “hipster” community that include the residents of the once sought out Williamsburg and even lower Manhattan.  Rents have not only increased for residents but also commercial spaces (Barroso, Donzelina Augusta. "The Brooklyn Ink." The Brooklyn Ink. 24 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014). The corner bodegas have been replaced with niche bars and you can’t get an empanada at the local cuchifritos spot anymore but a caramel latte, with Almond milk.  Wi-Fi is easily accessible at these businesses that usually are neighbors to the residents that can’t connect with a purchase of a vegan tomato sandwich or a round or two of PBR.  Why is that?  Companies like Sprint provide their services mainly to corporate customers and businesses (Sprint Communications, Inc. Company Information." Sprint Communications, Inc. Web. 16 Sept. 2014).

As Shradie mentioned, I do believe that the digital divide resides mostly on class.  Access to technological advances is not for the people who need it but who can afford it.  Bushwick is still predominately Latino but Whites take second place in the area (11237 Zip Code Detailed Profile." 11237 Zip Code (New York, New York) Profile. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.).  What happens is that unless you have the means to pay for the services at the businesses that offer Wi-Fi or have the funds to pay for the more expensive phone plans like Verizon or AT&T then connecting to the Internet is not going to happen.  Let’s just hope my Grandma in Puerto Rico has unlimited talk service.

Who am I...right now

I am a Nuyorican poet born and raised in Brooklyn.  I say it proud because just like NYC it's beginning to be hard to find actual Brooklynites.  I have instilled in me the idea that you can actually make a living out of what you truly love doing.  Sometimes I'm the leader of the movement and other times when I have to look at the price of things, consider what I would save or what I would lose, I feel like a poser.  I recently left my good paying job to finish and finally graduate.  Also I felt like it was taking over my life.  I didn't love it and I wanted to devote myself to my writing.  The time is now.

The reason I am participating is because I have a love hate relationship with social media and technology.  I've always been the last in let's say my group of friends to get a computer, iPod, laptop you name it.  And not because I didn't have the money (only partially true) but because I never wanted to jump on the bandwagon that was well all the trends there ever were. It's where I can share my stories but it's where I stay in the know of people's lives and honestly sometimes I really don't care.  I find it so interesting how social has taken everyone's lives.  My old job required me to post on my Facebook all the time and I mean aaaallllllll the time and we would get in trouble if we didn't.  Since I have left I have been given the opportunity to see just how strong of a hold social media has on people.  People post everything! What they're doing now tomorrow next week, where they're eating who they're with what they thought about a movie what they're feel etc.  Some people can't go a day without checking social media.  People have posted about going on social media breaks because it's too much for them. Geez it's that serious? (I wonder if anyone has tested how many times on average checks their social media.  If not can I do it?)  I've always thought social media to be a generation NOW thing but like everything else, it's never that simple.

I have Facebook Instagram and Twitter but don't really use my twitter.  Instagram is whatever but I always wish I could delete my Facebook.  Look at that, I wish. Sad.  I say I wish because without it I feel like I'm missing something.  Or is that how we've been made to feel?