After watching the film, “Free CeCe!”, I saw how gender, race, and sexuality of a person affects how they are treated in the criminal justice system. McDonald was arrested and then charged with second-degree intentional murder. She argued it was self defense which I agree with. In this case, CeCe McDonalds was harassed and physically harmed by Schmitz. Although there was clear evidence that McDonald had been acting in self defense the court decides otherwise. Imagine having to live in a world where you constantly have to feel like your life is at risk, not only the risk of being African American but also being a transgender African American woman can you really put all the responsibility of this incident on CeCe McDonald? On the night of June 5, 2011 CeCe McDonald was walking with four friends while a group of about four white people began harassing her and her friends. While making several degrading remarks to CeCe they began to take it a step further by approaching her and hitting her in the face with a glass of alcohol. After being called racial slurs like “nigger” and other disrespectful remarks being made like “faggot” and a physical assault CeCe McDonald, she still tried to retrieve from the situation as she was in fear for her life but yet McDonald ends up being the only one who had to serve time for second degree murder as a result of the incidents that took place this night. Any reasonable person can see the unfair treatment of CeCe McDonald based on her gender race . Although McDonald was the only person who was responsible for the harm that caused a persons death she was also the person who was verbally and physically assaulted before the death took place. CeCe McDonald was obviously targeted and the criminal justice system didn’t do anything to address that which is the original problem here.
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Hey Kianna,
I love your input. This woman was demonized and subjected to inhumane treatment. I teared up when I seen how unhappy she was and knowing she was mistreated and had virtually no voice. Being someone who is of color it resonated with me as well. The racism, sexism, and transphobia really did it for me. How can another human instill fear in someone else and sleep at night. Overall I agree with your sentiments.
Hello Kianna Holm, CeCe was mentally and physically harmed by Schmitz like you said and she defended herself like any human being will act. But Wonder if CeCe was the abuser or the role was reversed she will be in death row right now. The criminal Justice system failed CeCe so bad, she wasn’t supposed to be in prison at all.
Hi Kianna , I totally agree with all that you said, the criminal justice system needs to start taking full responsibility for the actions they don’t take .Its a shame that all the evidence and facts that were presented still somehow went against CeCe McDonald. Self defense unfortunately in many situations are looked at as an invalid excuse rather than a real thing that actually happened. What makes this situation harder is that CeCe Mcdonald is black and trans , discrimination took a even heavier toll on McDonald due to his identity.
Hello Kianna,
It has become a long history, where one is treated based on their gender, race, or color. Unfortunately, Cece became one of the victims and there are hundreds of thousands of CeCe in the world who have become victims just because of their race and color or their gender. And like you have mentioned have justice system being a failure I guess that the biggest reason why even in today’s date we can see the protest just for Justice.
Hey Kianna, I 100% agree with you about how the criminal justice system, the ones involved in it do not take responsibility for their actions in the slightest. It’s upsetting that with all the evidence provided and presented somehow still went against CeCe. This long history of racial injustice needs to stop because the list keeps going on and names keep getting added and it’s tragic to hear, see and watch.
Hello Kianna,
It is sad what this world has come to. People should not be afraid to go out in fear of being someone’s target because of their color or gender. I agree with everything you mentioned especially with the way the criminal system responded to this event, Cece was the victim if they wouldn’t have broken a bottle in her face, call out names to her all of this would’ve been avoided. It makes me sad to know that if Cece would’ve bee the one that was killed during the altercation the criminal justice wouldn’t have done anything. We have a lot of changes to make. We must respect each other no matter what our race or color is.
Hey, Kianna Thank you for sharing! I agree and I felt the same way, I became so irritated when I found out her side of the story. Like, how unfair is it that no one ever looked into Schmitz’s criminal background, yet they held the fact she had a bounced check against her. I’m so happy that she was able to share her truth and I definitely believe it was an act of self-defense
Hi Kianna,
I agree and relate to your point of view. I got so angry and felt so powerless once I found out her story as I have said before, it is disappointing how a person can be more judge by their color, sexual orientation and not take more seriously the situation she was in that took her to do what she did. Thankfully the story has a better ending something great came out of it.
Hi Kianna, unfortunately I agree with you on the criminal justice system. CeCe was completely railroaded despite clearly being a victim the night she was arrested and subsequently questioned for hours. And behavior like this needs to end.