I cannot even imagine what McDonald CeCe went through. Watching her interview and movie “Free CeCe” made me angry, towards the “Justice Systems”. For myself, I would not be as brave as CeCe if I had gone through what she had.
In the movie “Free CeCe”, when actress Laverne Cox states that” CeCe was attacked because of her race and gender. Gift for her survival was a prison sentence when she was defending herself” and she has also stated, “Anyone could be CeCe McDonald”. How strongly and clearly, she has stated how brutal was the justice system and what CeCe has to pay to defend herself. And this is true there are other hundreds and thousands of CeCe walking all over the world and anyone could be the victim for not being the gender or color or race of what actually our society has approved for.
Another thing that touched me was, being a transgender of black color was a very strong reason to make them criminals. How is that fair? And even when CeCe was being interrogated, the officer was not trying to focus on the fact that CeCe was just defending herself. And the best reason for that was it was a fight that between whites and black(transgender), the reason for fight began as white groups began with assault and whites were a privileged group so of course it gave the solid reason to anyone to make a CeCe(black transgender group) to be the criminal.
In the movie, how CeCe has explained coming from the privileged group, enjoying the places where people were murdered, or raped or punished (Especially people of black or underprivileged community) but it’s not okay for the one who has become the real victim of discrimination, being judged just because of their color or race and it’s not okay without knowing the history or what was the reality, (privileged) people enjoying those places.
In my point of view, discrimination was there in the past and it’s in the present, but this must be eradicated from our society from its root. No colored or transgender should go through what CeCe went through. No color or transgender should be given the title of a criminal. Underprivileged should not be treated with inequality. They deserve every right as a human. They deserve to live a free life. They deserve to live a respectful life. And lastly, they deserve to have their real identity.
Hello Srijana,
I also watched the documentary Free Cece and what was said about a person of color automatically being portrayed as a criminal is very upsetting. It is sad to see how over the years discrimination has been something we have been fighting to get rid of and yet its still something we continue to struggle with because of white privilege. We are all equal no matter our color or race. Like you mentioned no one should ever have to go through what Cece went through, Cece shouldn’t have experienced this either but I am glad she is using this life situation to tell her story and to encourage other transgender people.
This film brought out an array of emotions for me. The criminal justice system seems to already have a narrative painted when it comes to the underrepresented groups. Cece mentioned that they painted a beautiful image of her attacker and unfortunately this been a common theme in the favor of white majority.
Hi Srijana, you point out a critical aspect that was not only present in CeCe’s story, but that it is still happening now. Many injustices are only known about because civilians take it upon themselves to record.