Hi, welcome back to “Yo, is This Racist” podcast where we talk about different topics and issues that are relevant in the social climate today and it’s important to bring up these conversations and I think people need to hear about them. It is a space for discussion where I’ll be talking about my own experiences, those of other people of color, and the importance of these topics

I will be your host my name is Angela Tlahuel Flore, I am a proud Latina and I guess one of the biggest things that I will be discussing is discrimination and overall feelings that we see towards people of color from the school system in the US. I guess I will be speaking on some of my personal experiences and thoughts and the effects that this injustice causes in many minorities

It is important to recognize that there is a real issue in the school system of this country that is not really being addressed and needs to change. There is still a long way to go and not many people are not having the conversations necessary to fix the situation. Especially with the Black Lives Matter movement, we can see how there is a raised awareness of the injustice in the systems in our society and the racism embedded within them. I think that it is important to speak out on this issue and recognize that there is a real problem that needs to be solved in order for us to move forward in general but with all members of society. There is some deep-rooted racism in our system that has negative effects for our education and just the people that have to experience that. I mean education is super important and it is at the base of our development as humans in this society. We have to have the right development and an equal system where we are all able to get to these levels that are distributed so unfairly right now. I guess we have to think about what we need to advocate and truly be willing to open our eyes and see how there are issues that we don’t even recognize. I mean I can speak on myself and the experiences that I’ve had. I went to Catholic high school where it was predominantly white and I was one of just a handful of Latinos overall. But it was definitely something different and I can see, just because I also attended public school up until I hit high school so I grew up with diversity, and seeing just the differences within two schools, it really opened my eyes and made me realize that other people, other students didn’t recognize the issues, didn’t see it, not only because they didn’t grow up with it I guess but they just did not know how different people were being treated. It is interesting to talk about, you know, what we can do and I’ve definitely shocked some of my friends about just these issues that they even think about before.

I think It is important to advocate for equal funding for example. Just seeing how predominantly white school districts make $23 billion, billion, more than the predominantly non-white school districts. I mean that’s crazy just to think about how much that money can do for the school predominantly non-white students. I know that with the right funding and the right resources they would just be different, they would just be, the students would get a different experience and so many don’t get to see that. It’s discouraging, just sad, learning about some of the things and the lack of resources that many students of color experience in this country. it is discouraging to them. It is something that truly affects them. Not only could it be bad for, like, their physical well-being but also kind of like the mental well-being, just not having like a counselor, someone to go to or maybe teachers. I’ve heard about this, how some schools have teachers that, the retention rate is just so low. They, you know, don’t get to stick around with the same teacher, they don’t get to build those connections, I guess or get the right encouragement because that’s what it is, being able to, you know, get the encouragement the right, the only education but knowledge from your teachers. Knowing that someone will have your back or is pushing for something better. It could also be hazardous, I guess, in many cases, we can see just how some of the buildings could be outdated and they just don’t have the resources in order to fix it. I know that my schools definitely received A lot of funding not so much from the government just because it was private but he did receive funding where I had a different experience. I knew my counselor on a first name basis where We were comfortable with each other and I definitely received support and knowledge needed in order to pursue higher education It is something that many did not recognize or really saw just because they didn’t get to really see, I guess, the other side of, maybe like public high schools and what they faced, what that was like but it is important to talk about this it’s important to raise awareness and create a conversation about this because so many experience it. There are so many that just go through so much because of the system and it is unfair it is an injustice that we need to address. I guess another one is advocating for less policing and surveillance for students. It is just crazy thinking about how much surveillance is put in place for schools or high schools. And I understand it comes from the gun violence, the different cases where it has definitely been an issue and it has been horrible horrible but, you know, the intention may be good but it has been creating huge problems with so many students feeling unsafe and I don’t believe It’s a solution has been proven but it is definitely not the best way to treat gun violence, it’s just saddening. I hear about the students of color that have police outside their buildings or maybe the metal detectors and they don’t have enough counselors, they don’t have enough nurses so just definitely getting to hear about that is something that we all need to be aware of maybe register differently and see that there is a true issue behind us and I never had to do that in my school we never did any of that but it was always, I mean I guess the closest thing is talking about how my school, I wanna say advertised, but never actually “advertised”. They always made it clear that there was a police station, like 2 minutes away from the building and they always said it because we were in a rougher neighborhood and again down the street, they still had surveillance. It is crazy because it just seems so unfair and it is definitely something that I had not recognized before but it is something that we need to address. It is affecting so many students. I can speak on my experience and just how I felt like an outsider, I felt I did not belong, I felt like everything was against me, might be a little bit of an exaggeration but I definitely did not feel like I fit in. I did not feel like I belonged or was being accepted by my peers and it is not just the students that were not exposed to more diversity but it was also the teachers. The system itself that made it seem like my schooling from the public system, you know, was not the same as theirs or was not good enough. I was always being doubted and I was discouraged to some extent from pursuing my dreams because they seemed far-fetched to them.

I think it is important to have these conversations and really reflect on what it is that is causing them, maybe, again people don’t recognize it, don’t even think about this but it is important to just speak out on it and maybe open other people’s eyes to some of these issues that affect millions of student today and overall it is just something to think about, just throwing it out there I guess. Just check it out, think about it on your own time, maybe analyze your own high school experience or middle school or educational system and how that has affected you or how it hasn’t affected you and how that has affected people of color. Maybe get some thoughts about it, have those conversations, it may be surprising. I’ve definitely had my share of friends that were shocked not only from hearing my experience of what happened but just seeing how much injustice there is. Thank you for listening, my name is Angela Tlahuel Flores and I was having to have this conversation with you guys today. Have a nice day. 

The wage gap between men and women is a perennially debated topic in the United States.  Over the past few decades, it has become clear that a gap exists not only between men and women as a whole, but also between men and women when they hold the same position.  In the 2020 United States Census, it was reported that women earn approximately 82% of the money that men do for every dollar earned (Elsesser).  This has a huge impact on the lives that these women are able to live, forcing them to compensate for this loss of wage in comparison by either spending more time at work or by having a lower standard of living than their male counterparts.  The film industry is one of the worst offenders, and is very clear when looking at the discrimination between the pay male and female actors receive for their roles in films and shows.  In this essay, the disparity between male and female actors will be examined and decided if it’s sexist.

It is important to give background to the existence of gender wage-gap, as there has always been wage disparities between groups in the United States.  As far back as the Industrial Revolution people have received vastly different wages for their efforts.  The wages of workers in the factories were often well below the cost of living, as workers were paid around $0.10 an hour (Poddar).  As a result, most of the people who worked in these factories lived in unhealthy conditions that consisted of many people living in a single-room apartment.  Families who made this transition often could not sustain themselves on the wages of the husband alone, so the wife and even children went to work.  The women who joined got jobs at factories quickly became the subaltern, as they often received between a third and half of the wage of the average male worker, despite performing the exact same tasks (Foundations of Western Culture).  This is far from the first example of wage discrimination between men and women throughout history, but it is an important example of how women were treated as subalterns when society advanced into a more modern age.

While the rest of the country progressed both technologically and socially with the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on August 18^th, 1920.  This advancement of social justice did not immediately extend to the workforce, as women were not required to receive equal pay until the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963.  This act was a step in the right direction, requiring employers to pay women the exact same wages as men for the same job.  This act allowed for women to take legal action if it was determined they did not receive equal compensation to their male counterparts, but it has not come close to solving the issue.  As stated earlier, women still receive on average only $0.82 for every dollar earned by a white male worker with the gap widening when looking at different races.  As seen in the figure below, Asian women are the highest earning subsection of all women, making close to $0.90 per dollar a man earns.

Figure 1: The gender wage gap based on race (Bleiweis).

This is a stark difference from the $0.62 and $0.54 that Black and Hispanic/Latino women make respectively.  This shows that women in the workforce are still considered to be inferior to men at the job they perform and are compensated as such.  There still exists some debate about these numbers, however, as this analysis does not take into account the professions chosen by these populations.  This can have a major impact on figures such as the one seen above, as it lowers the average earnings of women as a whole.  This can be attributed to many women studying for careers that are producing lower yearly earnings than the careers of the typical man (Jacobs).  This does not explain, nor defend, the existing wage gap but rather provide an explanation of how far the movement for equality of wages has come.  There has been a major shift in the careers women choose from the early 1900s to today and the difference between the wages men and women receive has shrunk, but not nearly enough.  Women are still portrayed as they are of lesser value than men, which is made abundantly clear by the fact that women composed approximately 45% of the workforce but only 20% of positions on company board of directors and an even fewer 5% are hired to be CEO of their companies (Jacobs).

An important example of the disparity that still exists between men and women’s wages is the difference in earnings of male and female actors in a film or show.  Whereas many of the wage-gap arguments take place lower on the economic pyramid, both male and female actors are some of the highest-earning and are featured among the highest net worth of any industry.  Many people would hear the outrageous sums of money that some actors can make off of a movie or chain of movies and assume that their actress counterparts are earning similar amounts for their roles.  However, this is actually far from the truth, as women are often making fractions of what their male co-stars earning.  This occurs even for actresses who are playing larger roles than their male counter parts, such as Robin Wright in House of Cards who had to negotiate with the producers to be paid the same as Kevin Spacey.  There are plenty of examples of this occurring in the film industry, and even fewer examples of female stars getting paid equal or more than their male co-stars without serious negotiation.  A great example of this discrimination happening in the film and television industry is the wage gap between Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey who played Meredith Grey, the titular character, and Derek Shepherd respectively in the extremely popular medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.

The two main stars of one of the most popular dramas on television for the past 15 years, Grey’s Anatomy, were paid vastly different sums of money during the early seasons of the show.  According to Pompeo, it took years for Pompeo to negotiate a salary that was close to Dempsey’s despite her being the main, titular character of the drama.  She stated that at one point she had asked to be paid only $5,000 more than Dempsey due to the fact that she show was named after her character, only to be rejected (Martin).  The producers not only paid Dempsey more, but also used his character as a threat, saying “We don’t need [Ellen]; we have Patrick — which they did for years,” (Martin).  Only after Dempsey’s departure from the show in 2015 was Pompeo given the highest contract on the show, where she was making over $500,000 per episode along with other incentives (Martin).  She has, as some would say, secured the bag.

Figure 2: Salaries of male and female actors over the past thirty years (Pedace).

Now, Pompeo is one of the highest earning actresses in Hollywood these days, but there are still many issues concerning equal pay between male and female actors in Hollywood.  Despite growing into a major role in House of Cards, Robin Wright had to negotiate heavily with the producers to get paid similar to Kevin Spacey (Muneer).  Another example is Jessica Chastain, who co-starred with Matt Damon in the Martian, was payed significantly less for her role.  Some reports state that she earned $7 million while Damon earned approximately $25 million, while other report that Chastain earned $2 million to Damon’s $18 million (Katz) (Muneer).  The examples of women who are payed equal to the co-stars are even fewer, with one of the biggest shows ending over 15 years ago.  Friends was an extremely popular sit-com that brought fame and fortune to all its actors, but only through the decision as a cast to negotiate equal pay for all actors as early as season 3 (Hedash).  This needs to be a greater focus for producers and studios in the future.  Actors need to understand that their fellow actresses are just as valuable to the projects they are undertaking and prioritize that while deciding what projects to work on.

Figure 3: The Friends cast negotiated for equal salary for each episode in the late 90s – early 2000s  (Hedash).

This topic of unequal within the film and television industry may seem like a topic that is very different from the topics that have been discussed so far in class, but in reality it ties directly into it.  In Hollywood, actresses are treated as the subaltern despite their irreplaceable impact on the industry itself due to the fact that they are not value the same as their actor counterparts.  These women are in most cases literally given less value for performing the same role in a production.  A potential counterargument to this topic relating to the topics discussed in class would be that these actresses are still earning somewhere in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars range for their roles while the majority of women experiencing this discrimination are working jobs with more realistic earning potential.  This argument is invalid for a variety of reasons, such as many actors and actresses are not being paid millions of dollars to star in blockbuster movies, but are excited to get a minor role that has the slim chance of further success.  The examples mentioned above are important examples of the problem that exists in the film industry, only at a much larger scale with successful actors and actresses instead of those who haven’t yet achieved success.  A great example of an aspiring actress would be Penny from The Big Bang Theory, a woman who moves out to Hollywood with the dream of becoming rich and famous.  While failing to become a successful actress, Penny accepts many badly paying roles in questionable projects all while living paycheck to paycheck.  Penny is the typical aspiring actress who is treated as the subaltern by the film and television production world.

This topic is also an important discussion piece as actors and actresses are often idolized by people throughout the world.  Children grow up watching these people and idolizing their every move.  This is far from the only influence they have, as others who see actresses receiving less compensation than their actor co-stars may see this movement as further incentive to continue treating their own female employees as less important.  Film and television has a huge impact on many people’s lives as so many people spend so much time watching it.  As a result, the culture of treating women as if they are not as valuable as men in the production industry is something that needs to be changed.  Actors and actresses provide an example for the rest of the world, so if actresses are treated with the same intrinsic value as actors, they will no longer be the subaltern of the acting world and potentially help change the way the wage gap is viewed in general.

The gender wage-gap has been an issue throughout the last century of the United States history.  Women have always been discriminated against by employers and portrayed as the subaltern despite possessing the capability to perform the job to the same, if not better, standard as men.  The film and television industry has long been one of the worst offenders of this as women often portray just as important roles as men, but are not valued as highly as them.  If this important issue were discussed more it might bring a greater understanding and allow for one-more step to be taken so that the gender gap would no longer exist.

Bibliography

Bleiweis, Robin. Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap. 24 March 2020. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/. 5 April 2021.

Elsesser, Kim. On Equal Pay Day, What Is The Real Gender Pay Gap? 30 March 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/03/30/on-equal-pay-day-what-is-the-real-gender-pay-gap/?sh=7f18391228ba. 5 April 2021.

Foundations of Western Culture. Women’s Roles in the Industrial Revolution. 2016. https://foundations.uwgb.org/womensroles/#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20Industrial%20Revolution%2C%20gender,salaries%20amongst%20women%20and%20children. 5 April 2021.

Hedash, Kara. Friends: How Much The Cast STILL Gets Paid. 29 August 2020. https://screenrant.com/friends-cast-paid-how-much-2020-updates/. 5 April 2021.

Jacobs, Rose. Chicago Booth’s Marianne Bertrand examines the ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon. 17 December 2018. https://news.uchicago.edu/story/whats-holding-women-back-top-paying-jobs. 5 April 2021.

Katz, Emily Tess. Jessica Chastain: ‘I Made Less Than A Quarter’ Of What Was Reported For ‘The Martian’. 16 October 2015. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jessica-chastain-the-martian-wage-gap_n_56214dc3e4b02f6a900c44cf. 5 April 2021.

Martin, Emmie. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ star Ellen Pompeo explains why she chose to ‘make money’ instead of pursuing a more diverse career. 6 August 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/06/ellen-pompeo-stayed-on-greys-anatomy-in-order-to-make-money.html#:~:text=It%20was%20a%20groundbreaking%20moment,she%20was%20the%20titular%20character. 5 April 2021.

Muneer. 18 Alarming Examples Of The Gender Pay Gap In Hollywood. 29 March 2021. https://fandomwire.com/18-alarming-examples-of-the-gender-pay-gap-in-hollywood/. 5 April 2021.

Pedace, Roberto. Exploring the data on Hollywood’s gender pay gap. 20 December 2019. https://theconversation.com/exploring-the-data-on-hollywoods-gender-pay-gap-127414#:~:text=In%20the%20film%20industry%2C%20the,as%20the%20top%20male%20actors. 5 April 2021.

Poddar, Ankur. Working and Living Conditions of the Industrial Revolution. n.d. https://firstindustrialrevolution.weebly.com/working-and-living-conditions.html. 5 April 2021.

Addie Shaffer 

Hi my names Addie Shaffer and I am a senior 

John DeMarsh  

Hi my names John DeMarsh and I am a senior  

Gabby Hutcherson  

Hi my names Gabby Hutcherson, I’m a freshman, and we will be discussing the current rise of Asian hate crimes in the US 

Gabby Hutcherson   

Alright, so the first point that I’d like to talk about obviously, is just that. Um, in the in the article that I sent out, It talks about how there’s this professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco University. He stated that the stereotypes of Asian woman are meek and subservient, which leads them to be an even bigger target. And kinda just wanted to, like, elaborate on that, like, why do we think this is? Do we think it’s because, like the intersectionality, between like racism and sexism, that Asian Asian like American woman have? And like, what that has to do with like them being like a bigger target? 

Addie Shaffer   

Yeah, so I guess I kind of agree that it is kind of the intersectionality. I mean, gender is a big topic right now also so I think that’s kind of something that maybe has shone more light to it.  

John DeMarsh   

And then if you look at it, all these upticks in crime, they’re against the elderly women, and not so much like younger women and so it’s like, when you add that factor into it, it kind of plays on the intersectionality of racism and gender in a sense of like, that’s honestly who those people look to, when they give answers and advice. So like, that hits harder when it’s like, oh, your mom was just assaulted, or your grandma, she was assaulted. So it’s like, it really does speak to intersectionality of racism when it hits home just like that. 

Gabby Hutcherson   

 Yeah. Yeah. And a point that like Addie made is like, with, with, like, all the stuff that’s happened with the past year just about, like, equality and stuff like that, and like gender being one of it. And just like having gender equality, I feel like that’s another reason why all this is being brought to light because, like I mentioned that the end of the article that this is, this has been happening since like, forever now. And it’s just because these, they’re not being reported, like as hate crimes, so they’re not coming to light. And so like, because these things are being like put on the spotlight about like equality, and gender equality and all these things. It’s finally being like, brought to light and being reported more often. And so it’s becoming like a bigger issue that people are talking about, which that itself is an issue, that we’re not reporting these and talking about it more. But I think that it’s better that it’s, it’s coming to light and that we’re putting a stop to it. Now. 

Addie Shaffer   

I think another reason it could be that, that it is towards older women instead of younger woman is probably like sexualization. Like they’re not going to be they’re more willing to attack somebody that they’re not they don’t potentially see as attractive 

Gabby Hutcherson   

 I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That’s another that’s a good point. That’s another point where, like, intersectionality, where comes in because they are Asian, and they are woman. And so that’s why they think they’re meek and subservient. So that’s why they see him as an even bigger target. And that’s, that’s another point of like, intersectionality is between their age, their race and their gender, all coming together and making them an even bigger target. Yeah. And so another point that I wanted to make that it says, NBC states that there were roughly 503 incidents alone in 2021. Why do we think this is like, why do you think it’s, like it’s happening even more and more and more now? And 2021, maybe more than so than it was in 2020. Like when COVID first started, and COVID first hit?  

Addie Shaffer   

I think people are just really tired of dealing with COVID at this point, and they’re becoming frustrated and don’t know what else to do.  

Gabby Hutcherson   

Yeah, I think we’re people were like, hitting this wall. And it’s it’s zero excuse whatsoever. For hitting this wall. They feel like they have to, they have to take this anger out on on somebody. And and, like their first thought is, oh, it came from China. Okay, we’re going to just start to harass all Asians, which it’s disgusting. It really, 

John DeMarsh   

I think like a lot of it has to do with, like you said before, all these weren’t reported as hate crimes back then. I feel like a lot of this is a good majority, at least is redoing the reports and haven’t actually really wasn’t. I won’t say it’s hard to believe that 568 hate crimes could have happened over a year, but don’t seem like it 

Gabby Hutcherson   

I think it’s I think it’s a hate crimes exactly. I think it was an incident in 2014. So this is it said verbal harassment, and shutting were the most common types of discrimination, making up 68.1% and 20.5% of the reports, respectively. The third most common category was physical assault, which made up 11.1% of the total incidents. So not all of them were like physical assaults, or some type of discrimination or harassment in some type of way. So the ones but I think the ones that we’re mainly seeing on like mainstream media and stuff like that, are obviously going to be like the bigger stories, which I think which i think it’s it’s sad to see and I know it’s hard to see which certain people like don’t enjoy that like seeing these type of things may close it, but I feel like it’s better because we’re spreading the word like I know Addie at first you said that you hadn’t you hadn’t heard about anything that I was getting going. I think that that like this is a part of it like being like, people posting these things and putting them out there and becoming uncomfortable with the conversation of like racism and sexism and stuff like that is like putting boundaries on on the actual issue and people trying to like, advocate I feel like that’s like a big part of is people just being uncomfortable with the conversation. 

Addie Shaffer   

 I guess that question that goes with that.  So I mean, like I said, I haven’t heard much about this, but every day I do watch news and I hear stuff about the border security with Mexico and Coronavirus. So I guess like I’m wondering why we’re not hearing more about this when there’s more of an overlap between the Asians and the Coronavirus than there would be with the Mexican immigrants in the Coronavirus, 

Gabby Hutcherson   

 right. I guess it would probably probably mostly depend on like, What news networks you what you follow, and then probably also like, just the type of like, the people that you follow, and like who like what they’re posting and stuff like that. So I feel like that that also has to do with it or might have to do with I don’t know, people the same thing. People like being able to be comfortable talking about the situation. And some people aren’t. That’s just not they’re not they don’t, they’re not able they’ve never had that conversation before. So they’re not ready to post things about it, and start that conversation and like, defend themselves and stuff like that. So I feel like that’s that’s another part of it. I hadn’t I had no idea that this was going on. Like I had seen maybe things like maybe last year, like one or two. But I didn’t know that the numbers have gotten like so high.  I don’t know about like, John how have you like this past year, like have you heard anything about this until recently? 

John DeMarsh   

More so now than ever? I think it just is because news networks wanna cover the big stuff first. And then. So I feel like it’s coming up. Right now. Coronavirus stuff, although it is related to it is everyone like seeing the number or hate seeing that I’m seeing the infection. So like, when you’re a news network and you want to get as many people watching your show as possible. You throw the big papers out. There’s boarder crisis, Coronavirus stats, and then I feel like towards the middle of their cast. We’ll get to the crime, but then you’ve already lost everyone is just looking for those two big hitters.  

Gabby Hutcherson   

Exactly. Yeah, that’s a good point. That’s a good  

John DeMarsh   

and it sucks, because when you see changes in that Coronavirus number. I feel like a lot of people are still blaming it on Asians. Still blame it on this, still blame it on that. So it’s like having a negative effect on something that should be more positive.  

Gabby Hutcherson   

Exactly. It seems like it’s like never enough. Like it’s almost like, as numbers go down as we continue to like, have new discoveries and stuff like that. It’s like, Oh, well, we’re still here in this position. Because of it like which a year later and we’re still really excited. Yeah, exactly. So it’s like more of a glass, like half empty type of mindset. I feel like it’s like, project tiling all this negativity and like, this tension in America that we don’t need, like, especially right now. And then at the end of the article, it talks about how President Joe Biden has addressed the issue of anti Asian attacks. In addition to the referencing the violence in his first national primetime address Thursday night, he also signed them memo random earlier this year, that part issued guidance on how justice smart men should respond to heighten number of anti Asian bias intense.  

Addie Shaffer   

Um, I think it will help with that. But I also think there are going to be a backlash on that. With, I mean, everyone just thinking they’re innocent to begin with. So I think they can kind of it can kind of go both ways on that.  

Gabby Hutcherson   

Right. It says, This explains it to me like it allows for a more holistic approach to combating racism against anti Asians, Asian Americans in public streets, transit, private businesses, and other settings. So it allows people to be called out and all in all said, it’s more so just hold everybody accountable, and not not allow anything to slip or slip away. But I agree with what you’re saying that people are gonna think they’re innocent. But once it’s up to the law, it’s up to the law. You know, what I mean? 

John DeMarsh   

That specific with actually against a group of people actually brings along with it, more laws that people have committed and broken. And I think it honestly helps in the sense of, it kind of brings a laser focus to it. And so having a broad case of assault or a broad case of discrimination, , you’re not focusing just on that one thing, And when you focus on that one thing in court, it goes a lot faster in conclusion so much faster than just the basic discrimination case.  

Gabby Hutcherson   

Yeah. And I think another thing that that this is going to be like, having somebody in a position of power state that like, This is unacceptable. And that like, this isn’t going to be allowed anymore is also another another thing that like, contributes like helping stop this, because now we see that like, it’s okay. Like, the President of the United States is saying something about this, like, he’s, he’s putting like, he’s the one saying, alright, this is like enough is enough, people are gonna start being held accountable. It kind of like, scares some of these people who are like, doing these things and harassing these people. They’re like, okay, they’re taking this way more serious now than they were last year, every years prior to this. That’s not gonna stop everybody, not everybody, everybody gonna not believe anything that these people are saying, which is, I mean, understandable. Like,not everybody’s going to be stopped. So but I think that it is better for us to have that. Have that presence of like power being like, Alright, this is the end of it like this. It’s, it’s got to be stopped.  

Addie Shaffer   

Okay, I guess I have one more question here, Because of the increase in these hate crimes, do you think we’ll see a decrease in Asian immigrants in the next maybe, like, five years? 

Gabby Hutcherson   

 Um, I could definitely see that happening only. I think that as time goes on in like with social media, and everything just being put on like blast and everybody being more aware of what’s going on, like in America, and like our justice system, and everything like that goes on. I think that, that people are looking at America and seeing less of like the American dream. And like, because they’re seeing that people who come here to immigrate here, like aren’t being treated the same as everybody else. It’s not what we like, as Americans give off like, like the same energy. It’s not the Oh, everybody comes here to raise love, in love and accepted like, is this being accepted. Whereas like, this last year, is really going to show that like, that’s not the truth for everybody. And so I feel like that’s going to put a slowdown on people who are looking to like, leave their country and like, I don’t know, be more successful and like, try and find a safe home, they’re not going to look here, they might look somewhere else instead, before it might this might not be their first choice or  

John DeMarsh   

I think it’s going to make them think twice on exactly where they immigrate to, you can kind of tell because they’ll show a huge map of like, those three crimes and they will have hotspots. So if I’m an Asian American, and I know, hey, this might be the best place to live. I want to move away from those places and then put more time and thought into Okay, this is safe, like I’ve been around this area like this is this is where I’m gonna go instead of just getting to Ellis Island or just coming through California and then just staying, right. 

Gabby Hutcherson 

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay. 

Police brutality is one of the top issues when it comes to racial discrimination in modern day America. There are those who are frightened for their lives whenever they meet the police because they do not know what will happen to them, but one thing is for sure, they do not feel safe. Over recent years there have been instances that caused major backlash against the police for example the death of George Floyd and the accidental shooting of Breonna Taylor. Demonstrations and protests were breaking out after news came out about these incidents, some of these turning into major riots. Recently I had the unfortunate experience of seeing a video of where a white man having an interaction with the police. The video itself was fine and nothing dangerous occurred but in the comments, someone thought it would be funny to say, “It’s okay he’ll be fine, he’s white”. Even if it was meant as a joke, the fact that statement is even thought of is very disgusting and makes it apparent that there is a problem within the police force. An issue with incidents based on race is a problem that stems from a long history of discrimination towards not only the black population but even towards other races. Civil rights movements have been going on for decades now, fighting to gain equal rights and opportunities as everyone else in this society.

To explain what happened to both George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, in March 2020, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed during a police raid on her apartment. According to the police, Breonna’s ex at the time was involved with the drug trade and Breonna’s apartment was believed to be a place where drugs could have been being delivered to and stored. During the raid, Breonna’s current boyfriend who was living with her at the time, fired shots at the police due to a misunderstanding in him believing that they were being broken into by her ex-boyfriend. The police fired back hitting her boyfriend and killing Breonna. This was scene as police brutality as Breonna claimed that the police had not announced their presence before breaking into the apartment which led them to engage in the scuffle in the first place. After the scuffle, Breonna received no medical attention from responding officers because one of the officers was hit by her boyfriend’s shots which many interpreted to meaning that her life was not as valuable as the officer present. The media picked up this case in May of 2020 after the George Floyd incident and during the police brutality movements to support the case the family had pending against the officers and to fight for justice for the death of Breonna.

In May 2020, a video caught media attention that contained a graphic scene. George Floyd was being arrested for allegedly using counterfeit currency to pay for his groceries. In the video it is seen that a police officer is restraining him against the ground by holding down on his neck with his knee. In the video George Floyd is heard repeatedly saying that he cannot breathe but the police officers showed no interest in what he had to say and continued to hold him down. George Floyd passed away. When this event was shown in the media, instantaneous backlash and public outrage occurred causing riots to take place demanding justice for George Floyd against the police officers. Many civil rights groups began to grow tremendously and were some of the lead voices of the movement. The riots that followed this event were unfortunate and violence is never the answer whenever you are fighting for change. However, I believe these riots were the result of a buildup of public anxiety and tension from years of unheard systematic treatment of discrimination by the police against people of color. The public can only take so much of being treated unfairly before it leads to a proportionate reaction against it.

The examples I provided were only a few of many that were being represented in the fight against police brutality as there were many more examples that had occurred and were continuing to occur out of public eye. However, because of these events, widescale awareness began for the police brutality movement involving thousands, probably millions of people that were fighting for justice against the police officers who have committed wrong. They were also striving for reform among the police force to create a safer police force that the people can believe and place their trust in. I have always heard about various sources and statistics that would talk about the numbers of incarcerated people of color compared to the number of incarcerated white population and how the numbers were statistically significant. I believe this kind of blatant discrimination stems from a long history of unfair policies and unequal treatment towards the colored population leading to problems we see in modern day America that occur far too often for it to be considered an accident.

The black population has had an unfortunate history in America with a long and hard battle for civil rights after starting out in slavery. Even after slavery was abolished it was still difficult with segregation and unequal rights given to them. Reading John Lewis’ March and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter we were able to see what these men were thinking during their time of struggle against unequal rights and the harassment they endured for it. Unfortunately, while these men were attempting to make great strides for their future there were those who opposed their advancements and that lingering opposition in our country is what causes issues to occur. Sadly, racism is still very much a thing today and because of this many people of color are frightened for their safety when they hear about this kind of behavior in the police force or wherever it occurs around them. I believe that the minority population in America can be viewed as the subaltern and I believe that they have had their voice muffled for most of America’s history and are now starting to be heard through mediums like news outlets and the media.

I believe the scariest parts about these incidents that occur is not exactly what happened (not to say what occurred is not deplorable) but what would have happened if people did not hear about it. What if what happened to George Floyd was not recorded and caught media attention, would we even know about it? Would it have just been put out of sight and those involved would just receive a slap on the wrist? How many other cases like this have occurred that we do not know about? Many believe that without public backlash and interference with George Floyd’s case, the men responsible for his death probably would not have even lost their jobs. When questions like these starts to circulate in the public from a lack of trust in the police force and even in the government, it leads to a public that have no faith in their government causing a dangerous relationship between the two. I believe the media is a great tool for encouraging change in whatever is wrong and now it is our job to act and fix the issues in our system so something like that never happens again and to change and reinstate policies. At the same time however, I believe the media should not have to be used as a method to keep the authorities in check. The authorities should consist of a group of people that care about public safety and will not act out of the ordinary based on their own negative ambitions.

The image of the police force is at a very scary and dangerous depiction in the past couple of years. People should not have to say things like “Just listen to everything they say, and everything will be fine”. The police should be viewed as a pillar of safety and justice in our nation. People should be looking to go to the police whenever something has occurred, not being frightened of them. Of course, this is not entirely the police’s fault. The media has the tendency to exaggerate situations and cause a sort of fear mongering in the public whenever a news story breaks out. For example, with the COVID breakout many news stations were filling the public’s heads with all sorts of crazy ideas about the disease and how it may be the cause of the apocalypse and what not. At the same time situations where innocent people are killed by police officers should never occur, especially due to discrimination towards the person they are interacting with. The unfortunate deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are examples of such and with the media coverage they received, hopefully action can be done to produce a reformed police force that treats every case with true equality and into one that is more careful in the future and does not interact with hostility towards anyone.

YouTube Link https://youtu.be/Afqbw9x_R-E

Captions:

Hi everyone, I’m Rachel Kirby, and I’m Victoria Wittig. Welcome to this week’s edition of yo is this racist. We got a comment from a high school student in Nebraska, asking about what systemic racism actually is.

And kind of dive in a little deeper and hat and address its prominence in today’s society.

So just to start off, make sure we’re all on the same page. We’re going to jump right in and define some words for you, some terms ,so we’re first going to define racism, what is it? This definition is pulled from Oxford languages, and it is “prejudice discrimination or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority, or marginalized.

The next time we’re going to describe define is systemic racism and this definition is pulled from the New York Times, and systemic racism is a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within a society or organization. It can lead to such as issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, healthcare political power and education among many, many other issues. So, that is what we’re going to touch on today.

Dive a little deeper into it systemic racism can occur through many different ways and kind of

Um come in many different forms. It could be something you see through text, an advertisement, a commercial, your actions, something like a situation you’re observing which is what makes it so so versatile, which I think makes it a lot harder to kind of pinpoint like oh this type of thing is systemic racism.

Anyway, a lot of these instances seem to occur subconsciously and therefore more of like a habit, and you don’t, you’re not called out on it you don’t maybe immediately realize it’s wrong what you said or what you did or how you acted so it’s important.

Yeah, Rachel I completely agree. I think it comes in so many versatile ways. And I think like what you said like sometimes like people like don’t, they don’t realize what systemic racism is, and they might like completely miss it, or, you know, sometimes it could be intentional like with different laws and the federal government and different regulations that they, you know, impose on minorities or people of color. Um I think sometimes it could be intentional, but I think everyone has like has a different point of view on that. And an example that you guys might not be as familiar with is systemic racism, systemic racism in real estate.

This documentary was called a matter of place, and it gave an inside look on this issue of systemic racism in real estate. Connected past struggles for fair housing to contemporary incidents of housing bias, based on race, sexual orientation disability a source of income, and it presented three stories of people who faced housing discrimination in present day in New York City.

And

That kind of reminds me of an article that I read about real estate and it was actually from February of this year, which is very shocking.

Um so this story was about a young black couple that lived in the Bay Area of San Francisco and if you’re not familiar with that it’s a really nice area to live, bigger houses, it’s just a really nice area.

So yeah, this couple added and an addition to their house in addition was 1000, square feet. So a big addition. And they also made like other really expensive renovations and they just updated their home.

So, a older white woman came to appraise their home value and when she did, she said that they that their home’s value only increased by $100,000. But this family had spent more than $400,000 in renovations. So clearly something’s not adding up there.

So, after hearing this like super disappointing number, they decided to get like a little creative with this, and they asked their white friends to pretend to be them, and placed all their family photos on their walls with photos of white families, and they had another like person come in and appraise their house, and it was appraised for $500,000 more than just a few weeks prior.

So, it just shows how, like you were saying how systemic racism is in real estate and like agencies and stuff like that, like, clearly that woman that was appraising this family had some sort of biases towards like black families, and I I don’t know the reasoning why she would phrase it like that but it’s really unfortunate to hear.

Yeah, and it’s it’s honestly really sad to the family knew like, I mean it’s good that they knew this wasn’t fair like at least they didn’t you know doubt themselves but it’s sad that they said, Okay, I know we’re probably being discriminated against because of our color, let’s bring in reinforcements and went to the extremes of not just having like a white family pretend to be them but taking down their pictures and replacing them. That just seems like so like dehumanizing like it just, it’s really sad to hear and I feel like for them to know like okay this is what we can do and then for it to be reinforced with it, working and getting what they actually deserved is a really upsetting thing and you know they’re definitely not the only family and it’s even crazier that this is occurring in a very like affluent area and neighborhood.

Well, like in that same article, I had like actually read and this is like a direct quote from it that “Black applicants are rejected from mortgage loans at rates, three times higher than white applicants.” So, it is just, I mean there’s so many examples of systemic racism in real estate, and I think you were telling me about an Act earlier, do you want to loop back and tell us about that.

Yeah. So, I mean, and that fact you gave about how mortgages are treated differently based off of the color of your skin like brings me to talk about the Fair Housing Act which was passed in 1968. It protects people from discrimination when they’re renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing related activities.

And it prohibits the discrimination in housing because of your race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, disability. It’s covering like a whole realm of things pretty much like if you could be discriminated based off of this, we’re going to put that in that legislation so you can’t be, which is great, awesome that this has all been passed, but realtors are still continuing to discriminate. And it’s difficult to handle because they are obeying the laws for from like a legal standpoint. I’m just because-

We just talked about, like how this stuff is happening but like how are real estate agents and agencies still going about this? Like they’re obviously being discreet. So, what, how are they doing it?

So, with the documentary that I’ve previously watched it seems that there’s kind of an unspoken agreement between realtors and, this isn’t all of them I don’t want to generalize, but at least with the documentary that I watched that what realtors tend to do is if they have a white family that they’re showing properties to, they will show them properties in a predominantly white neighborhood. And the people living in that neighborhood, the other whites are okay with that. They want that. But if these realtors, have a black family or a couple or just single person single parent whatever and they’re showing them neighbor, they’re going to show them neighborhoods that are predominantly black, and it’s not necessarily to make them feel more comfortable, because it’s not like these families requested I want to be showing houses where my neighbors are going to be African Americans. They’re showing them other black neighborhoods to like in efforts to keep them out of the white neighborhoods. And the reason they do that is because when.

This isn’t always, but if this my family were to move into a predominantly white neighborhood, they probably will face some acts of racism, Just be disrespected like, probably, they’re not going to enjoy living there most likely their neighbors are not going to enjoy them living there, but then sometimes that drives out the white, the white families that are already living there. And that’s no fault of the new family but that’s just-

Excuse me, there-

That’s just how some people view other races.

Yeah. They are just like I don’t want to live with these people. And because the realtors are aware of that they tried to abide by these people and a lot of these people have a lot of money and are very wealthy, so they have the ability to-

Sort of influence.

Yeah, influence. And it’s like money is powerful, and I feel like it’s probably not hard for these families to just say like, I don’t want this type of person living in my neighborhood and with the power and money and influence they have they can kind of make that happen.

So do you think that real estate agents think that they are doing the family a favor, like, if a real estate agent was showing a black family only houses in black communities, predominately black communities, do you think that real estate agents think that they’re doing them like a favor doing that or do you think that they are working in a white community’s interest to keep black families or individuals out of that community?

Yeah. I think it depends. Because normally when I feel like when you take on a client. You say, Well, “what are you looking for?” Do you want to be in the city? Do you want to be in the suburbs? Do you want a big house? Do you want a lot of land? Whatever, yes and all that stuff and I don’t think you explicitly asked them, do you want to have white neighbors or black neighbors? Like that that’s just not something that happens. And so, you know, there may be some realtors who just, they’re not going to ask that question because I feel like it can come off harsh and unnecessary and just like a little rude.

Um and so maybe you would show them houses, you know with black families as white families and kind of see where they lie like how they respond to him and kind of go from there. However, that kind of assumes that most neighborhoods are leaning on one way or leaning on another way like nothing’s integrated. And so I think that forms like a bigger issue of. If these practices keep happening. We’re not really going to be able to break them with how like strong they have become, you know what I mean? Like feel like you’re not going to want to have.

I don’t know I feel like I don’t want to make assumptions, but I feel like no one likes to be the first have something in an uncomfortable situation. So like I feel like there may not want to be a black family like okay we’re going to be the first ones to enter a white neighborhood. And we’re going to define stereotypes like we’re gonna make it more integrated you know like it’s complicated, I think, not every realtor is out and trying to.

I don’t think every realtor is out there trying to, you know, be racist in this sense.

Yeah.

But just to sort of wrap it up where, where do we go from here, what are your thoughts, I am interested about that.

Yeah, I think it’s hard because you know it seems like at least with this, this is like only one instance of systemic racism, that we decided to focus on. And if you as a listener wanted to conquer that you know you could become a relative, like I’m going to do it my own way the right way, whatever. That’s great, but you know not everyone’s going to become a realtor. So I think it’s really just being aware and trying to open up, excuse me, your view of things.

Yeah.

Being aware of yourself, like how you act how other people act, and you like, like is this polite? Is it respectful? You know, some people are like, oh, was that like racist I not have said that or like there are a lot of things that are politically incorrect like if you just people set you learned like elementary school think before you speak I think a lot of people a lot of adults forget that. Yeah, and like something simple as that would, you know benefit, to get people to like think a little bit before they do something they might regret, you know?

Yeah I completely agree. And I think that we cover systemic racism in a great way. So I just want to thank all our listeners for tuning in today. Um if you have any questions or if there is another topic you want to talk about, feel free to drop it below and we can try to touch on it next week.

And we have the documentary and the article that were referenced below if you guys want to check it out and our comments are open.

Bye guys. Thanks for listening.

Bye.

“What do you think about Chinese Communist Party?”

This question has been proposed for several times when I start to study abroad in the United States. The question is seemingly innocent question,  but it highlights the distance between other students and I, because the question assume that we are living in different political system. I always answered that my life is no different from the United States and China. However, they don’t believe my answer, because my answer is different to media or news about Chinese life they have seen.

Why someone could assume another person’s life in its mother country based on their country’s news or media information rather than others personal experience?  The main reason for this is that they imply that people living in the United States have the best life in the world, and you must live in worse condition in your home country. Thus, American government has capability to guide other country’s governments to achieve better economy or advance technology based on their minds. In addition, they think Democracy is superior that communism, because Democracy respect the rights of people but communism is not.

Is this only a political problem? Absolutely not! We, as a world, should respect other country’s choice and believe there are various way of achieving better life for human. People should not treat people as “Other” based on their race, religious, home country’s political system, because people have their own choice, and It is the real right of freedom. As Donald Trump won the election of 2016, the American diplomatic system total changed. The United States started to impose huge tax on imported goods from over 50 countries, including China, Korean, France, Germany and others. The act negatively impact international trade system, which decrease total welfare of human. In addition, , president trump tweeted that “Chinese people has stolen American Jobs, and we should move industries back to the United States,” which negatively affect relationship between Chinese and American, and it also provoked hate emotion to Asian people, which is definitely racism behaviors.

Is this the truth? I consider it is not! The American economic inequality has dramatically increased from 1970s to now as development of China. But it is not the main reason! After 1970s, American government started to develop service sectors instead of manufacturing sectors, and American became the financial center in the world. American working in financial market earned thousand billions of dollars from the world, but manufacturing workers lost millions of jobs. Therefore, it is not Chinese problem, and it is the problem of American system. The president Trump transfer hatred from upper class American people to Chinese people, which is systemic injustice.

What about the people’s life in African and Asia? Paris Agreement restricted country’s greenhouse gas emissions in the following 100 years to prevent global warming. In contrast, the agreement allows developed countries to have much high carbon emissions per capita compared to development countries, which is unfair to developing countries. Also, most developing countries are in Africa and Asia. As we know, developing countries need much higher carbon emissions to building countries. In addition, developing countries can’t afford transformation from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions. In fact, the president Trump announced to quit Paris Agreement, which is an international organization that restrict country’s emission of greenhouse gas,which is relate to all human’s life. In contrast, Chinese government is actively to participate Paris Agreement, and claims the Carbon emission peak in 2035. The Chinese government closed many steel industries, which caused millions of Chinese people lose jobs, and spend billions of dollars to develop renewable energy to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Right now, China has the most renewable energy generators in the world. On the contrary, many media and newspaper still insist on striking China based on its high total carbon emissions, which is systemic injustice for this country and people. They only focus on what did Africans and Asian damage their benefits, but they didn’t see what did Africans and Asian do for the world.

“Is Covid-19 a Chinese disease?” The president Trump tweeted “Covid-19 is a Chinese disease,” which increase violence toward Asian people. As the spread of tumor, more and more people start to attack Asians, and consider Asian people deliberately spread Covid-19 to the world. Especially, the violence reflects growing tension between Asian and other races, which upgrade to global racial issue. At the beginning, scientists assume that the origin of Covid-19 is from Wuhan wild animals market, because some Chinese people indeed eat wild animals, the virus infected people who had been the market. I see there are many news that published that “most Chinese people eat wild animals” after outbreak of coronavirus, which refers Chinese people as savages. These media and news enlarged gap between Asian and other races and escalated the whole event to racial problem. I saw many comments under news condemned Chinese people. The event recalls my memory when I was in high school. One of my classmate asked me “Do all Chinese people eat dogs?” I consider it is a racism behavior, because only small percent of Chinese eat wild animals, and eating wild animals is illegal in China!

In addition, I consider Hongkong issue also increases anti-Asian emotion in the United States. Hongkong people took violent protests in 2019 for asking democracy, and considered Chinese mainland government strongly intervened Hongkong’s democratic government. American and European governments strongly condemned Chinese government and supported this violent protest. In contrast, the protest strongly impact Hongkong economy and people’s life. Many weastern medias and news illustrate Chinese government as dictatorship. It is systematic injustice for Asian people. In contrast, when Catalan won the votes to declare independence, there was no media refers Spanish government as dictatorship,  even though Spanish parliament didn’t approve it. The double standards for China and Spain are definitely discrimination. Furthermore, the Hongkong protest indeed harmed fame of Asian and provoke anti-Asian emotion, because people were living under different political system. What is really freedom? Each race should have rights to choose their political systems that gives them life they want.

Based on my proposed question at the beginning “What do you think about Chinese communism party?” When I introduce I am from China mainland, people have already defined my identities. People always listen what they want to, and segregate or treat people with different identities as “Other.” People always see what they want to. Even though you explained the truth to them, they probably don’t accept and believe the truth, because you are “Other.”

Why people do in this way? The reason for this is that most people have limited access to information and they treat people as “other” based on their race, ethnicity, religion and stereotypes to evaluate people. Therefore, based on demonstrated information, there are many Asian, who get racial discrimination and unfair treatments in the United States, because people think your origins represent most of you. Furthermore, Asian only represent small percent of minorities in the United States, many other races also encounter similar situations.

As far as I concern, there is some irony in the statement. About 3000 years ago, each race established their unique culture, religion and language, which strongly proved there was no difference between races. Furthermore, I believe every race have their own intelligence and capable of establishing their own country. There is no political system superior than another one, and race should find their own suitable development method depending on their location, culture and population. These ancient civilization confirmed that race were equal, and there was no racial discrimination in human’s origin. According to World War 2, Hitler considered Germanic nation was the smartest race in the world. He lead Germany to take war with other countries, but Germany finally was defeated by other countries, including Britain, Russia, the United States and France. Extreme racism only brought bloody war, and people should stop racial discrimination.

Furthermore, providing equal opportunities to all races plays a pivotal role in building the community of human destiny. Therefore, people should respect others cultures, religion, country’s political system, and race. The developed countries should not intervene developing countries, because the race living in developing countries have rights to choose their own developing way, like our ancestors. We are living on Earth, our home planet, and we get all we need from it. Thus, none of race is special and different races can establish diverse civilizations.

I have once heard the world is a melting pot, which metaphor for different society becoming more similar. Development of transportation and the emergence of internet dramatically increased communications among people around world. Media and newspaper should take their responsibility to publish true reports, which could strongly decrease racial bias. I believe that each race is a shiny star. Some stars are shiner nowadays, but I believe every stars will find their developing ways to be as shiny as sun. People should discard racist ideas and should not evaluate people just based on their racial and religious identities. I hope the world without racial discrimination will come shortly!

Reference:

Studio Incendo. (2019). Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protest. Retrieved April 6, 2021, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiokanu/48108527758/

Michaela: What’s up everybody, welcome back to this week’s podcast of “Yo is this Classism?” This is one of your hosts, Michaela Ambos a first year exercise science major from Anna, Ohio. 

Molly: Another day, another podcast episode! My name is Molly Barr I’m majoring in marketing and am from the suburbs of Cleveland.

Claire: Hi guys my name is Claire D’Elia! My major is biological engineering and I am from Ramsey, New Jersey. 

Claire: Today we are going to discuss the documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal and ponder over the question “Yo is this classism?” We will dive into the different situations in which classism is present throughout the documentary. In order to thoroughly analyze each example, we will compare them to trends in the real world and ask if class plays a role in things like access to college preparation, the prestige of colleges, graduation rates, and court sentencing.

Molly: The documentary explains the most extreme college admissions scandal that was released publicly when investigations started in March of 2019. The scandal occurred because over 50 wealthy Americans, including celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, paid a man named Rick Singer in order to take the “side door” for their children to get into prestigious universities. While each accused person’s story varies based on differing universities, sports, and the amounts of money paid they were all publicly exposed after the FBI received a tip about a large amount of money paid to the head coach of Yale’s women’s soccer team, Rudy Meredith. After being questioned by the FBI, Meredith ended up exposing Singer’s name which ultimately led to Singer working with the FBI to expose everyone else involved. All of these events occurred because of extreme cheating on the college admissions system. These families were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their children into colleges like University of Southern California, Georgetown, Yale, Stanford and other so called “prestigious” universities. By posing the students as athletes or having someone else take their standardized tests, Singer was able to make connections and create what he called a “side door” of getting into college. 

Michaela: The term “side door” was Singer’s method, in which parents paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to create fake athletic scholarships for possible students through his connections with university coaches and staff. The “side door” was a way to “guarantee” admission for possible students rather than the “back door”, which would cost parents millions of dollars in donations to universities without the guarantee of their children getting  in. The possible students would be listed as walk ons for teams like rowing, water polo, soccer, and many others. They would receive a scholarship for their alleged athletic talents guaranteeing admission to their college. As a walk on to a team, the student would never have to show up to a practice or game meaning they received a scholarship and admission to any college the parent or student wanted to attend. Now that we have given some background information about the Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, what are your guys thoughts and opinions on how classism is prevalent throughout the documentary?

Claire: First of all, after watching this documentary my heart goes out to the hardworking kids who were denied a spot at their dream university. Privileged children of wealthy Americans were undeservingly given the spot over them. These kids played by all the rules and were refused an opportunity only because of their financial situation, which is wrong. 

Molly: I completely agree. I think that this is where class comes into it. It is obvious that every single person involved in this scandal was wealthy. They could easily pay for SAT or ACT prep, private high school education, and even donate to the universities they wanted their children to attend. However, not everyone can do that. People who live and go to school in impoverished areas have a significant disadvantage when it comes to taking the standardized tests, applying to colleges and the =n getting into these colleges as well. This is because they don’t have access to what more affluent families do. This also is in direct correlation with graduation rates. In an analysis conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics College Navigator, a very strong correlation between graduation rates and SAT scores for the state flagship universities was found. It was clear that those who possess lower test scores, have a lower graduation rate and vice versa. This connects to class through the differing graduation rates between affluent and impoverished children. Do you have any more information on this, Michaela? 

Michaela: In addition to what Molly was saying, within the United States Sarah Butrymowicz, a data analyst, found that graduation rates are “ 60.9 percent of high schoolers in cities graduated, compared to 75.3 percent of suburbs. In towns and rural districts in the middle, graduating 71.7 percent and 75 percent of students.”  By having lower graduation rates in cities, this creates inequality and classism for those students. 

Claire: I can relate this topic to my personal experience. I grew up in a middle class, suburban area in Northern New Jersey where all the graduation rates at each high school are above 90% and usually close to 100%. If you drive 30 minutes south, you will reach a less affluent area of New Jersey where the graduation rates are much lower. The government favors the higher class by providing better schooling districts with better teachers and more resources to allow their students to succeed. This has devastating effects as the children in the lower class areas have a smaller chance of graduating and moving on to a higher education like college. As a result, they cannot move up and stay in their lower class neighborhood where their future children will have the same fate. It is an endless cycle thus resources and different education styles provided to students attending inner-city school must decrease or eliminate the education classism throughout the country. 

Molly: Another prominent pattern in the documentary is the idea of prestige in colleges. The documentary indicates that prestige in a college is an allusion. Colleges make people believe in it, and it gets ranked as one of the best colleges in the nation. How they get people to believe in it, that their college is prestigious is to bring in people of high class who will bring in donations and wealth. Daniel Golden, who is the author of The Price of Admission which is about how high class families navigate the college process to get their students in to higher education, states “My view on the admissions process is all sorts of different preferences with some students getting in on pure merit but many other getting in through the preferences that skew rich and white” (14 min 25 seconds).

Michaela: As just stated, part of the admissions process has to do with being wealthy and of higher class, but this idea was mainly created by colleges and universities. More people think that a college or university is prestigious, the more likely that students are going to want to apply there. The higher number of applications sent to a university means that more students will be declined, lowering the acceptance rate making them more prestigious. The allusion of prestige targets the higher class making the general population believe that to get into a prestigious college you will need to have access to wealth. This contributes to the “othering” currently affecting those students in lower social classes. It is implying that an individual could not possibly get into a prestigious college without identifying that social class differentiates them from the higher class. My intention of the previous sentence is to not take away from the intelligence of those in the lower class or say that social class is the only way a student is able to attend a prestigious college, but bring light to the fact that social class plays a big role is college admissions. The admission of a student should only depend on them, which could be their academics, extracurriculars, passion, or personal statement. The student must be able to identify themselves based on their identity rather than a social class.

Molly: Now, a word from our sponsor!

Michaela: This podcast episode is sponsored by EdTrust. EdTrust is a nonprofit organization that works to close opportunity gaps that affect students of color and students from low-income families. Edtrust works with students, educators, and policymakers to change and better the education system. They analyze data from the local level to the national level to evaluate opportunity gaps and the actions that need to be taken to close them. EdTrust supports efforts to expand excellence and equality in education from preschool through high school and college, increasing the college access and completion for historically underserved students in the lower class. If you would like to learn more about EdTrust, donate to their cause, or receive help from them go to edtrust.org. Thank you Edtrust for sponsoring this episode of “Yo is this classism” and your continuous efforts to close the opportunity gaps created by social class. 

Molly: The final portion of the documentary focuses on the sentences that those who were accused received. It is a given that everyone involved could afford high, well-respected lawyers and therefore already had a head start when going into court. The most time in prison that one of them received was 7 months, the rest receiving just 3 weeks, 2 months or anything in between. Some even pleaded not guilty and received no time. Clearly, wealth was a huge factor in this case and continues to be a factor in many other cases. For example, the OJ Simpson case in which OJ, a wealthy celebrity and retired football player, was found not guilty of killing his wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, after a long and highly publicized case. People speculated the impact of his fame on the case and how it benefited OJ and the end result. Many believed, had it been someone not in the spotlight, the ultimate verdict would have varied.

Claire: This is a great point Molly. It does seem plausible that OJ’s fame had a hand in the final verdict of his case. This leads to the question, is the criminal justice system within the United States treating everyone equally, regardless of his or her race or class? The United States government preaches that no one is above the law, but is this true for people of higher social class? Clearly classism is present in the criminal justice system as those with wealth are more likely to be ruled innocent or receive lesser sentences than less affluent people who have committed the same felonies. This idea relates to a concept we learned this semester, the Master Slave Dialect. The Master has a power over the slaves that they cannot escape. In this specific situation, the slaves are the lower class and the Master is the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system uses its power to give more lenient punishments to the wealthy when breaking the law than others, such as in the OJ Simpson case. 

Molly: Thank you Claire! Well, that is it for today guys. Thank you so much for joining us on “Yo is this classism?” Please rate our podcast below and share it with all your friends! See you next week.

Michaela: Bye guys thanks for listening!

Claire: Thank you and goodbye!

Works Cited:

Butrymowicz, Sarah. Struggling Cities and Excelling Suburbs: A Repeated Pattern around the Country. 

30 Mar. 2020, https://hechingerreport.org/struggling-cities-and-excelling-suburbs-a-repeated-pattern-around-the-country/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2021.

Operation Varsity Blues. Directed by Chris Smith, Netflix, 2021, Netflix. 

https://www.netflix.com/title/81130691.

Pinizzotto, Russell F. “SAT/ACT Scores: Predictors of Higher Education Outcomes.” HigherEdJobs, 13 

Apr. 2020, www.higheredjobs.com/Articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=2203. 

Trust, Ed. The Education Trust, 28 Jan. 2019, edtrust.org/. 

Yo, is this Racist

Something I enjoy doing in my free time is watching YouTube videos and a series I have recently started watching is a spinoff of cops/Live PD. However, this show is local to Columbus and shows a police officers bodycam and his normal interactions day-to-day. Typically, it is a simple traffic stop however there is one video that appears to be a normal traffic stop but if you pay attention to it, you can notice something different. I would recommend starting at 1:25 to skip the introduction and pay attention to how the officer reacts to this woman he pulls over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBPlyjBzL88

To quickly summarize the video, an officer notices a woman texting while driving so he proceeds to walk up to her car and ask her to pull over. She is reluctant at first but eventually pulls into a gas station. The officer proceeds to make a routine traffic stop with this woman however she has a very snarky attitude with the officer. Throughout the entire video, the woman is arguing with the officer and trying to resist receiving a ticket. As the officer walks up to the vehicle, pay attention to what the woman is doing and how she is reaching all around her car for her license and registration. At 2:29 she goes digging through her glove box while the officer is standing there. After the officer writes her ticket up, she continues to argue and tries to use legal reasoning to get out of the ticket. The woman continues to be very rude and “heats” up the conversation by telling the officer she pays his salary and all around be disrespectful.

My first reaction to this is the high level of emotional intelligence the officer shows in this video. He did not get upset or abuse his force even when the woman was being very disrespectful. This video shows how all traffic stops should be and how officers should treat everyone with respect.

However, this is simply not the case. With the trials of Derek Chauvin still looming around, it is unfortunate at how traffic stops can go very differently. I want to compare two different traffic stops and discuss how any why each one ended the way they did. Philando Castile was a 32-year-old African American man who had his life taken by the hands of a police brutality murder. Philando was driving in his car with his girlfriend when he was pulled over. He hands over his registration and license as well as notifying the officer that he had a firearm on him. The officer proceeds to tell him to not reach for it and Philando complies. However, the officer thinks he is reaching for his firearm and shoots Philando numerous times in the body. Philando passes away later in the hospital and the officer is eventually charged with second-degree manslaughter. Dash cam video that was aired on CNN shows the entire outcome and I would recommend watching it. The video is incredibly disturbing and sickening but I think it is important to watch incidents like this to fuel the drive for police training reform as well as to learn and try to improve the current system.

GRAPHIC WARNING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85Y_yOm9IhA

Two traffic stops, two very different outcomes. One video portrays a white woman who had the freedom to disrespect the officer and even threaten him with pepper spray and go searching in her glove box while a black man with a legal firearm who complies with orders is brutally murdered in front of his girlfriend and kid. A young child had to watch a person get murdered right in front of them and that will leave emotional damage beyond repair for the rest of their life. One traffic stop shows the innate privilege of having a certain skin color when it comes to dealing with police officers. It amazes and disgusts me how the officer who murdered Mr. Castile could justify shooting him because he was “scared” he had his hand on his gun. During the stop there were officers on both sides of the car and Philando likely knew of this so it would have been stupid to try and reach for his gun or make any wrong moves. Especially since Philando likely had to grow up with parents telling him to be extra careful around police officers since police brutality has been a problem for generations. My question for the police officer involved as well at police officers as whole is “what else could Philando do”. He listened to the officer’s orders and was murdered because of a bias in too many police officers’ heads against black men.

This bias of African American people has been around for hundreds of years and especially in the Americas. Even since slavery was abolished in the United States, a sense of “othering” can still be felt. Slavery was abolished in 1865 and segregation occurred legally until the 60s and still occurs throughout the dynamic of modern institutions. Redlining has occurred which has created a generational segregation and that has made it much more difficult for African American populations in the U.S. to create generational wealth. Redlining as a single policy has been destructive enough to cripple future generations of humans simply because of racist individuals making racist decisions. The major issues with redlining are that not as much financial investment was made in these “red” communities which meant lower paying jobs, less access to good education, less access to grocery stores, and numerous other fundamental issues. All of these outcomes combined would cripple any population and the product of redlining and other racist policies have hurt the African American population immensely.

The perception of African Americans has also been dictated through numerous racist policies as well as media outlets. This populations name has been “drug through the dirt” and the bad cases of individuals making wrong decisions have been highlighted much more than the good ones. For example, when you look at whatever news source, typically a crime is much more likely to be discussed than a positive topic. Typically, this is done for viewership and bad issues such as crime leave a viewer much more likely to tune in as well as form unjustified opinions on a population. Personally, I grew up in a town of about 4,500 people. The amount of African American families living in the town can be counted on one hand. Time and time again throughout my life a narrative of “black people are bad” or crime is caused because of “black people” has been heard. Obviously, anyone in that situation might have a bias against a population. However, since I was able to move away and meet more people, I have been able to understand how toxic growing up in a “one race town”. The point of me bringing this up is to emphasize how easy it is for bias to be engrained in us, especially when every system and the people you grow up with share the same narrative on a population. Clearly, this does not justify racism but allows us to better understand it. In the second video where Mr. Castille was brutally murdered, it is evident that the officer who opened fire did not have much exposure to the black population and had a strong bias against them. Someone like that is not fit to serve people in a public safety role. Whether his ignorance was due to his upbringing or other reasons, nothing can justify shooting a man who is complying with your orders and not posing a threat.

In conclusion, othering and bias have been major issues in the past and continue to be issues because of the long-lasting effects of policies, media outlets, and the environment that people grow up in. At the individual level, I would suggest actively combating bias by meeting people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and beliefs. To be a more informed individual you must be able to hear all sides of a story, regardless of if it matches with your beliefs. At a macro level, legislation and police reform must occur at some level. Clearly, police officers are not trained enough in emotional intelligence to be able to understand situations and act accordingly. The first video shows an officer who does a good job at handling a difficult individual but how would the officer have handled the situation if the person were a black male? What will it take for society to learn from the tragedies that occur far too often? Racism still exists today but what can we do as an individual to combat and alter the course of history?

Transcript:

Hope Liptak:
Welcome back to yo is this intersectional I’m your host Hope Liptak and today we’ll be talking about the most recent massage parlor shootings in Atlanta, Georgia.

Joe Biden Audio:
I’m gonna make a brief opening statement about a current thing going on in the United States here. And that is the shooting down in Atlanta. Right people were killed seven women, six of Asian American background. And I was just on the telephone briefed by the Attorney General of the United States and Director of the FBI. And the investigation is ongoing. And the question of motivation is still to be determined. But whatever the motivation here, I know that Asian Americans are in very, very concerned because as you know, I’ve been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans for the last couple months, and I think it is very, very troublesome. And, but I’d make the no connection at this moment for the motivation of what the of the killer, I’m waiting for an answer from, as the investigation proceeds from the FBI, and from the Justice Department. So and that’s, so I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.

Hope Liptak:
The injustice in this story is evident, a white man targeting an Asian woman as a result of his own addiction, racism and misogyny. However, there are multiple layers of injustice in this story, which clearly defines this instance as an issue of intersectionality. The media can easily be defined as a catalyst in the discrimination against Asian people in America. The conversation of whether or not these women were sex workers has played the overall conversation of this tragedy since the beginning. And guess what, it doesn’t matter. The over sexualization of these women by Robert long, who’s what led to violence, not a single thing any woman has or has not done to support herself can be justified as reason for injury and certainly not depth. The narrative developed by the media in the wake of this tragedy is laced with overt sexual innuendos and microaggressions towards the Asian community on a broader scale. We have to do better by these women, and we have to do better by all Asians American by all Asian Americans.

Local Atlanta News:
11 alive is where Atlanta speaks, and many of you have expressed outrage over remarks a gunman allegedly made that he was lashing out because of the sex addiction. Six of the victims are Asian women and members of the AAPI community have been adamant that you cannot separate race from what happened and the issues of hyper sexualization of Asian women, loving the lives of Tosh and given shares three women’s perspectives. I’ve definitely experienced the marginalization and sexualization of Asian women in America. Linden works as a diversity Equity and Inclusion manager. So it’s the idea that an Asian woman is a possession to be handed. Mary Morrison is the editor for the journal for gender and social policy and the law at American University. Both say they are heartbroken by the shootings at three metro Atlanta spas and outraged by what the suspect Robert Aaron long allegedly told police but he does claim that it was not racially motivated. He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction. It can be both an issue of race and sexism and misogyny at the same time.

Hope Liptak:
So how is this specific instance defined as an issue of intersectionality? Well, I’ll tell you, Robert long targeted the specific victims in this hate crime as a result of gender and race, which are two issues that commonly connect in American social structure and social injustices in general. But specifically, here we’re talking about Asian women, which have a history of over sexualization and fetishization in the American media and by the American public in general. These two issues meet in in the middle in regards to his motive.

Atlanta Local News:
Black straight hair, white pale skin, and you know, the slanted eyes that people are sexualizing because essentially, you look like a doll. They say some of it comes from colonialism and wartime prostitution. When I was 13 years old, a self proclaimed a Vietnam veteran, attempted to grope me at a beach club, because he said he had won just like me in Vietnam and as a child, seeing my mother be objectified by men and how she felt the need to laugh at all. Out of fear of physical retribution. Alexandria Pham says this is such an issue. She says parameters even before going on dates. One of the questions that that asked we do ask when I’m meeting someone new, it’s like, we don’t have an agent status to you because nine times out of 10 Unfortunately, they are intrigued because of that. While spas are a big part of Asian culture, the woman talked about the stereotypes associated with the spots in the US, I believe that came about because a lot of sex workers do happen to work in massage parlors. And there is there isn’t Ben direct there is an overlap between the two and it is a legitimate business is just devaluing the hard work that Asian American women have to go through to just be able to survive.

Hope Liptak
Robert long is accused of a mass shooting in Georgia’s capital. The violence was specifically directed at the Asian community occurring across multiple massage parlors in the area, allegedly long killed eight people, six of which being women of Asian descent. Robert long has a history of addiction issues with sex and pornography targeting targeting the massage parlors because of their assumed sexual nature, as well as his overt over sexualization and fetish fetishization of Asian women.

Sandra Oh
Here with all the organizers, for organizing this, just to give us an opportunity to be together and to stand together and to feel each other. For many of us in our community. This is the first time we are even able to voice our fear and our anger. And I really am so grateful for everyone willing to willing to listen, I’m going to be very, very brief for one minute. I know many of us in our community are very scared. And I understand that. And one way to kind of go through and get through our fear is to reach out to our communities. Reach out everyone here, I will offer I will challenge everyone here. If you see something Will you help me. Understand as Asian Americans, we need to reach out to our sisters and brothers and say, help me and I’m here just for one thing. I have to be Asian. Just wanted to give up an opportunity to be able to shout out