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Those who experience the effects of racism were easily able to see the situation and what caused it. White people in Buffalo do not personally experience racism everyday so they were quick to deny that racism was the cause of the accident because they were not seeing the build up of consequences that racism in the city was causing. However, Black folks face racism everyday and were therefore able to see why the incident was not "just an accident." - Jordan C

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In order to understand, you have to look at the situation as a whole. In this case, black people could personally relate and therefore could see the whole birdcage vs. white people who haven’t had these experiences of oppression and because of that they only focused on part of this birdcage.
-Sadie

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First, I would never use colored eyes to look those accident. We could not always use racism to be an excuse to explain everything. However, we could never ignore how harmful racism is.
- Wansu Ding

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Some students would definitely see it as an accident and nothing more, but I believe that some would come together and realize that this is an accident due to racism.
-Elena P

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The Black community is clearly very tired of seeing tragic stories of people from their town. They want justice for Cynthia and want people to become aware of the problem. Meanwhile, White people see it as a tragic accident and nothing more. They also see it as people pulling the race card too much and seem annoyed.
-Elena P

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I know this incident happened years ago. Today, we have a more diverse and inclusive society, especially in SU. I encourage everyone in the SU should corporate with different color skin friend. We should not judge anyone based on their racial appearance.
Jingzhe Q

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Whites people could not understand why blacks people think this "accident" as racism. They could not understand why blacks use racism to explain all those things.
- Wansu Ding

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Only the people who experience the racism can have the feeling and understand it. Whites and blacks are have the almost totally different life style in Buffalo, so white could not understand why all blacks consider this accident as racism.
- Wansu Ding

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Black community wants to ask justice for the black lady. However, white officers do not want to give a fair result for this accident.
Jingzhe Q

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seeing the birdcage influences the way people understand racism by helping those who are unaffected realize that there are many ways racism affects certain groups of people
-elena P

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The people in the video viewed the accident from different perspectives in relation to the bird cage. White people saw it as an individual wire of the cage and argued it was unrelated to any bigger issues. However, the black people saw this situation in relation to the bird cage as a whole. What happened to Cynthia is an example of the consequences of the bigger problem of systemic racism.
-Lauren A.

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While people judging others by their skin color, this is racism. Also, it is hard to find the truth when the accident evolved to a racial problem.
Jingzhe Q

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Many white people were confused as to why Black people were arguing that Cynthia's death was a result of racism because they were only looking at the individual incident, like looking at one individual wire on a birdcage. However, when you take a step back, you are able to see the larger picture and all the ways that race did contribute to her death. Taking a step back allows you to look macroscopically at the situation, similar to seeing the entire birdcage, not just one wire.
- Jordan C.

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If a similar incident happened here at SU, a majority of people would react similarly to the white people in the video, given that this is a predominantly white institution. Many people would say that a Black woman, a Black girl, is not something rooted in racism. They would possibly think that the bus driver did not have any motive or purposely kill a Black person, thus it wouldn't be racist. However, a group of other people would say that it is racism because of the many factors that went into the events that led up to Cynthia's death. Factors like not having a reliable form of transportation, was poor, was Black, was a woman, etc.

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White people talked about it like they don’t care and trying to narrow it down the the fact that it is racism. Black people take it as a serious issue that reflect many other problems. It reminds me the concept of color blind and white obliviousness, “It is easy to say when you are not feeling it”.
Simeng z

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there are many underlying factors that contributed to Cynthia's death, which all come from racism. this relates to the bird cage because it is only when you look at the whole picture that you realize her death had to do with oppression and racism.
-Elena P

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black people understood the history of the incident while white people just saw a minute of the news and only saw a hit and run. This was the perspective of each race creating a viewpoint. -KB

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black people understood the history of the incident while white people just saw a minute of the news and only saw a hit and run. This was the perspective of each race creating a viewpoint. -KB

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As we can see in the video that the majority of white people deny Cynthia's death is because of race. However, black people all think this accident is because of racism.
-Wansu Ding

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It is hard to understand the metaphor of the birdcage for those who do not experience what it is like to be oppressed and feel trapped within society. When you can acknowledge the birdcage you can begin to understand the effects of racism on certain groups of people -sierra mancuso

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The people that do not have a vehicle are limited by the public transportation. 

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The people that do not have a vehicle are limited by the public transportation. 

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Everyone has more going on than you can just see from one's external appearance. There a lot of factors within Cynthias life that were an outcome of oppression that lead to her death. White people will refuse to believe it has to do with racism since they do not look at the bigger picture and only focus on specific wires of the bird cage. - Makayla W

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Because I am a member of the dominant racial group, it is likely that I would think that it was a horrific, tragic accident, but think no more of it. I do not think that I would have the knowledge of all of the racial compounding factors that led to this crash.
-jess s.

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The birdcage is relevant here because when you're just looking at it as "oh this girl got hit by a car how awful", you're not seeing the whole picture and the racist policies, sentiments and issues that come into play all at once to make this horrible event happen

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When closely, examined this story clearly explains the bird cage metaphor because white people only saw this accident as an accident completely unrelated to racism. However, looking into the situation and conditions of Cynthia's life and travels shows that this tragic accident was the product of racism.
-Lauren A.

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I am confident that we would come together and protest, as we are in the midst of that right now for other reasons. However, I think we always let problems die down after a while

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when people finally got the big picture, they were more sympathetic. by seeing the birdcage, you understand that the wires are part of a bigger system. When the reporter researched the bus system, he went down a rabbit hole and had his perspective changed - Kenneth b

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when people finally got the big picture, they were more sympathetic. by seeing the birdcage, you understand that the wires are part of a bigger system. When the reporter researched the bus system, he went down a rabbit hole and had his perspective changed - Kenneth b

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The black girl was hit by a bus. While the police officers investigating this incident, black community stand out and speak for her that she was involved into this accident because she is black. However, the white polices do not agree with this clue and say that this is all about racism.
Jingzhe Q

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People tried to deny that Cynthia's death had anything to do with racism, but the birdcage analogy allows us to see that the wires of her birdcage, which were race, ultimately led to her being killed
-EF

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White individuals believed people of color were "crying wolf" when stating this was caused by underlying racism. The people of color were instistent on this not just being an innocent accident. The outside factors that were perpetuated by racism is what caused Cynthia to be in this position in the first place.
BT.

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It is sad to say but I believe that there would be protests and advocates but after a while, the situation would die down and no one would continue to press the issues that occur on campus or in our communities. -sierra m

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Hopefully people would not dismiss it as quickly as the white people in that video. However, I think there would still be mixed opinions, and there would have to be protests in order to create change - Amelia r

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I think that white people tended to think that it was sad, but not an injustice, and Black people tended to think that it was absolutely a death caused by racist policy by the company. However, there was some overlap, such as the white former bus administrator, who agreed that the buses would not change their routes to accomodate those from East Buffalo.

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White people saw it as an excuse and didn't try to understand, while black people who lived through the segregation everyday immediately recognized racial undertones

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White people view the incident as a horrible, accidental tragedy, while Black people view the incident as something that was bound to happen. Black people view this not as an accident but a tragic crash caused by a society rife with systemic racism.
-jess s.

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The differences that exist in the way White people and Black people discussed the incident is that White people think that people are just bringing race into everything and that it wasn't targeted while Black people think that the incident was targeted because of her skin color.- Kaitlyn K

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People of color see the incident as racist because most things that occur in their everyday lives revolve around the color of their skin. The white people say that "racism is an excuse for everything these days" because they do not have to experience injustice ever. Because they are white they do not relate to the experiences people of color experience. This is due to white privilege. -sierra mancuso

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People were unable to connect the accident to policy and segregation, but when you see the whole birdcage you become sensitized to the racial issue of systematic issues leading to Cynthia to have a different lived experience than white citizens
- Amelia r

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the white people only saw it as an accident because they couldn't see the racial implications as to why Cynthia had to cross 7 lanes of traffic - Kenneth b

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the white people only saw it as an accident because they couldn't see the racial implications as to why Cynthia had to cross 7 lanes of traffic - Kenneth b

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Many of the white folks were quick to deny that Cynthias accident had anything to do with race or racism, but it is when you look at the entirety of the "bird cage" you can see how the underlying idea of racism untimately led Cynthia into this situation that got her killed

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I think it would be very similar to when we faced the NotAgainSU protests and injustices. Personally, I think some people would find it to be racist and fight for the justice that they feel is deserved. Others would support those fighting, but not fight themselves, while others had no opinion at all. There would be some, also, who feel that there was no injustice or racism, and that her death was simply an accident.

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There were many factors due to segregation and oppression that lead to Cynthia's death, forming her birdcage. White people fail to see the whole picture, and can't see the racial undertones - Amelia r

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Seeing the birdcage can prove that racism is no longer as explicit as segregation and the idea of separate but equal, but can be more under the radar, such as the residency requirement for the police department application, or the lack of jobs in Buffalo.
-jess s.

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I think there would be a mixed response. A lot of people would believe it was racism, and others would think it was an accident, or blame the person on their actions near the bus. Those especially in this class would try to look deeper into why the person was hit, and if it truly was an accident or not, but others would just write it off and move on with their lives. -Sophia H

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In the beginning, black people shown believed it was racism, and she was targeted because she was black, where whites responded that “racism is an excuse for everything these days,” and invalidating others feelings. They don’t understand the situation and the systemic racism many black people face in America because they haven’t faced it themselves. -Sophia H

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Seeing the different factors, like teen pregnancy, living in a poor neighborhood, being unable to get a job, being black, etc, and understanding how they all affect Cynthias place in society, change how we view her death. Where others see “racism” as only an excuse for her death, if we understand each aspect that affected her life, it makes us consider its validity, and what could’ve really caused the accident.
-Sophia H

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Maybe black people in the video believe Cynthia was hit by the bus because of her race, where white people in the video believe racist accusations are “used for everything,” and is just an excuse. Her race outlines one of the “wires” in her birdcage, along with her teen pregnancy. The white people only see the one issue, or “wire,” of being hit by the bus, but neglect to see the entire issue surrounding her death.
-Sophia H

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This story has many examples of implicit biases, which lead to discrimination and microaggressions, which viewed through a narrow lens can lead to the idea of just getting over it, but when we zoom out and see the whole situation, the wires of the birdcage can now be seen. These microagressions occur frequently, weaving themselves together to create the wires of the cage that trap and oppress people. The white people who were questioned did not believe that Cynthia was not hit because of her race, but the birdcage concept allows us to see the potential of the involvement of race in the accident.
-jess s.