Yo Is This Racist

Hey, what is up this is another special edition of the “Yo, Is This Racist” column. Guest writing for us today is me, a third-year nursing student from Cincinnati, Nick Longbottom. Now I know what you are thinking, “what is some middle-class white guy from suburban Cincinnati going to teach me about racism?” And you would be correct in assuming that my upbringing and background did not lead me to many problems with racism firsthand. However, I am not blind, and I am not going to sit back and ignore something when I know it to be inherently bad and evil.

Now through my studies, I took a course on the issues the plague the healthcare system across the world. This course looked at everything from the big cities of wealthy countries to the food deserts of developing nations. In the process of doing some background research for this course, I came across an interesting statistic that ranked the state of Ohio as the third-worst state in the country in the category of health disparity based on a patient’s skin color and wealth. Now, this was a tough pill to swallow. First of all, it was hard enough for me to wrap my head around the fact that we are in the twenty-first century and we still have issues with inequality in healthcare just based on race alone. Like is there not some type of standard that medical professionals should have to hold themselves to? Was this really a field that I wanted to go into? And second of all, how could this have happened here in Ohio? I had grown up here, known so many different people both medical professionals and not. None of them were racist. At the very least not outwardly.

Therein lies the problem. Despite the Civil Rights movement being mainstream almost 60 years ago, we as a country have not eradicated racism. The racism that exists today in our society is so dangerous and deadly because of how it shows itself. It is ingrained in our society and does not often appear in the traditional ways that we tend to think about. It is ingrained in the very bones of our society and snakes through the foundations of our country like roots. So as I dove deeper into the topic I realized just how big of an issue this was.

A large reason that the inequality in health care and patient outcomes stems from an individual’s environment and socioeconomic status. For example, a wealthier person is much more likely to have access to clean water, healthy food, and a safe shelter. They do not have to worry about having enough healthy food or affording a healthy and nutritious meal for their children. Poor people on the other hand do not get to enjoy this perk. Many people also live in what is known as a food desert. This is any area where the residents do not have access to affordable, healthy food options, specifically fruits and vegetables. One statistic that blew my mind was how over 2 million people in the US live over a mile from a grocery store and do not own a car. How are they supposed to have access to food? Food is such an important denominator in overall health and patient outcomes.

Now, this bleeds over to racism as Black Ohioans are more than two and a half times more likely than white Ohioans to live below the poverty line. So, we have just learned how detrimental that poverty can be for health, and Black Ohioans are poor at more than double the rate of white Ohioans. That is a recipe for disaster. It is massive gaps such as this that lead to African Americans also being thirty times more likely to die of heart disease. And the facts do not stop there. In America as a whole, black children have a 500% higher death rate from asthma-related issues than white children. It is heartbreaking to know that even children are unable to escape from these disparities. They are caused by a multitude of issues that are completely out of their control, and yet they are the ones that suffer the consequences.

To get to the root of these issues, we must look at why there are massive gaps in class and socioeconomic status in the country.  These all stem back to systemic issues that plague our society. The simple fact that not all people today are given the same opportunities for success is hard to understand for some. Many people that benefit from this racism tend to not even know it. The healthcare disparities could also be helped by expanding more opportunities to both women and minorities to have positions in healthcare. For example, a white, male doctor does not have any idea about the daily struggles and responsibilities that a young black mother could have. Because of this, he may not be the best person equipped to be making the healthcare decisions for that particular young woman. By bringing in people from all different backgrounds and walks of life, we would also open up a more diverse discussion for a good exchange of ideas. This would undoubtedly push us in the right direction as a society and help to minimize many of the health disparities that we have discussed here today.

There is a clear issue that needs to be addressed. The only question is how. I believe that we need to make healthy food more affordable and accessible to everyone. Doing this would make it so that struggling families do not feel the need to get cheap and unhealthy food just to survive. Also, by providing more social programs to allow access to healthcare, we could ensure that more people are able to see a doctor regularly to decrease their chances of severe diseases developing. In relation to the class content, I keep thinking back to the short story “Recitatif” and how it tackles the idea of speaking and being heard. There is clearly a large issue with healthcare disparities in America, and yet I had no idea until I took a class on the subject. This is an issue with being heard and speaking out about social injustices that need massive change to undo centuries of unfair and unequal treatment that is systemic in our society.

You Is This. . . Krystal Webb

17:10:07 Hello everyone, my name is Krystal Webb, and today on my podcast, I will be talking about racism against Asian and Asian Americans.

17:10:17 Firstly I would like to say that everything that has been happening with people being openly racist and violence towards Asian and Asian Americans is such a disgusting thing and I do not agree with it at all.

17:10:32 There has been a lot of racism towards Asian and Asian American people, for so many years.

17:10:39 When Asians first started coming to America to start a new life for themselves and their families.

17:10:46 It was not always easy for them when they got jobs, they were constantly being underpaid for their hard work, or even passed up jobs because of their race.

17:10:58 People took advantage of them often for their desperation to make it in a new country.

17:11:04 We talked about loan sharks in the weeks for reading the leavers by Lisa Ko, and several Asian people fell victim of a loan shark.

17:11:18 The racism towards Asians and Asian Americans have been deeply rooted in American history for so long, but over the last maybe year and a half or so. It has been more public and more common to hear about almost no one is unfamiliar with the topic of

17:11:38 the corona virus at this point. This virus has taken the lives of millions. It has changed how everyone around the world lives their lives now.

17:11:47 It has also put a lot of hate and anger and so many people’s hearts.

17:11:52 And so many people take it out on Asian and Asian American people.

17:11:58 The former president of the United States, Donald Trump played a huge role and the blame game, and using Asian and Asian American people as escape goat, in my opinion.

17:12:10 If you are unfamiliar with a term of scape goat. Google dictionaries describe it as a person who is blamed for the wrong doings mistakes or faults of others, especially with up for reasons of expediency.

17:12:27 Donald Trump on so many occasions, refer to a virus as quote Kung Fu.

17:12:38 And, quote unquote, China virus.

17:12:40 He also bragged about how many other names he could come up with it, while his maskless fans and supporters cheered him on behind him at rallies.

17:12:51 Firstly Donald Trump saying something like this is not surprising at all. He is, constantly saying things that are races xenophobic homophobic, and also sexist. by Donald Trump saying things like kung fu and China virus.

17:13:08 He has put a huge target on all Asian and Asian Americans backs.

17:13:16 With him having so much power and being a political figure.

17:13:22 He has by the things he has done and said he has made America, a safe place for so many people to be openly racist and violence towards others.

17:13:51 He is 100% wrong for saying that and using them as scapegoats since last year in 2020 hate crimes against Asian  and Asian American people and America has risen 150%, according to article written by Kimmy Yang, which can be found on the NBC news website.

17:13:58 This number is so high, but it hurts my heart thinking about how so many people being attacked.

17:14:04 And it makes me wonder how many attacks are not going public or being

17:14:13 being heard of, How many people are being quiet about their attacks.

17:14:19 The attack that I will be discussing in my podcast today is the attack on the 65 year old Asian woman who was racially and violently attacked on Monday March 29 2021 at about 11:40 a m.

17:14:36 While this woman was walking in Manhattan, she was on her way to church. When 38 year old Brandon Elliot, who is out on parole on life parole violently attacked her.

17:14:49 He kicked her to the ground said that she did not belong here called her Asian and use profound language after while she was on the ground, he continued to stop on her head, several times before walking away, leaving her helpless on the ground.

17:15:08 While watching this video I did not think I could get any more upset.

17:15:13 There was a couple people inside the hotel that where the attack happened in front of near ended, while watching the entire video.

17:15:25 The people did absolutely nothing. Near the end of the video.

17:15:31 There was a man who walked to the front of the door and close the doors to the hotel, his action said that he was not going to help this defensless woman, and that he was not going to get involved.

17:15:45 Brandon Ellie is now in police custody, but this is not the first time he had trouble with the police. He has been in jail for the murder of his own mother for the past two decades.

17:15:59 This video is very hard for me to watch for several different reasons.

17:16:04 from people watching an elderly woman being beat and not helping to watching Brandon  stomp on her head constantly.

17:16:17 Brandon was Brandon Elliott was a black man and I believe that is a very important thing to notice in this video.

17:16:23 I believe that is important because I say this as.

17:16:28 So, I believe, almost every black person in this world has faced some sort of racial harassment or being treated wrong because of their race, including myself, at some point of their life.

17:16:43 I don”t believe that Brandon Elliot was an exception. And I”m sure that he has faced some toward some type of racism and the part of his life as a minority who has been as he being a minority who has been discriminated against.

17:17:01 I do not understand and cannot comprehend why he will go over and turn around and treat a minority, just as bad when he understands the pain and the part racism plays on a person”s life.

17:17:20 No human should have to fear for their lives, or, or, or experiences type of racism or violence. It is so bad that so many Asian and Asian American people in this world.

17:17:35 In America, do not feel safe leaving their homes to go grocery shopping just to walk around the neighborhood, or do their simple errands.

17:17:47 racism cannot be ignored any longer.

17:17:49 It needs to be talked about between everyone. I even believe that children need to be talked to about racism, so that they can understand and learn that it is not okay to treat people differently based on their skin.

17:18:05 They need to understand quality and to love one another.

17:18:10 If racism is continued to be ignored.

17:18:13 Then the next generations are going to continue be racist and things are not going to get better.

17:18:22 It should not be one race against the world, or one race against another.

17:18:29 We are all humans at the end of the day, who determine who determines which race is better than the other.

17:18:38 And who determined who is allowed in this country, and who does not no race is better than the other and we need to do better protecting the ones who are being discriminated against and racially harassed.

17:18:54 We need to educate people more. This virus is absolutely not one person”s fault or group of peoples fall.

17:19:17 And this world needs to understand that more.

17:19:06 Yes, we are all upset that our lives have changed and that so many people died from the  virus, and it”s okay to be upset.

17:19:15 What is not okay, is to blame innocent people and take matters into our own hands.

17:19:25 I, as a part time teacher am constantly praying that the students I have grow up to love each other, and that they can make a difference in the world for the better, and that they can see people for who they are and not what they look like.

17:19:43 We need the people in political power to do better and holding people accountable, and not having any tolerance between any type of racism

17:19:58 is hard for me to understand why so many people have this route at hate towards people because they are different. And as a minority, I am constantly wondering how things can change.

17:20:14 Being Asian is not a Virus but being Racist is a virus. Thank You.

Sources

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-nearly-150-2020-mostly-n-n1260264

 

“Yo, Is This…” advice column by Harrison Rubin and Jessica Fischer

Good morning everyone and welcome back to your favorite hot topic column, “This is Wild!” It’s me, Johnny Wild, your beloved interview host here with another great group of guests and a lot of the latest hot topics to talk about. As you know, here on this column and in these interviews, everyone’s opinion and input on these topics, no matter how controversial the subject, are well respected and we love to hear them all. Here to give us these inputs for today’s column, we had brought in two incredibly talented Ohio State University students, both studying similar fields, from their comparative studies class. Now keep in mind, they have been studying multiple controversial topics over the past twelve weeks in this class and have become pretty well versed in applying different concepts to the injustices around the world. Without further ado, enjoy as these conversations unfold with Harrison Rubin and Jessica Fischer!

The hot topic we had discussed for this week’s column is all about racism as this has been a hot topic for the past year. Harrison had given the lovely remark of “Well Johnny, racism hasn’t been a hot and important topic for only a year now.” Although there was a shared chuckle, we also shared the harsh reality that Harrison is sadly right. The recent events that seemed to resonate throughout our conversation were the Black Lives Matter protests and the storming of the capitol in the early days of this year. For those of you who are unaware of the importance of these recent events, the three of us agreed it is one of the most prominent examples in recent events of the systemic racism plaguing this country.

Harrison was able to give us some great insight and history on the Black Lives Matter movement and protests. The Black Lives Matter movement is a political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against African Americans. Although it was very prominent towards the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, this movement has been around for years already. The movement was actually born way back in 2013, after the man who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, was cleared of his murder. A social activist from California named Alicia Garza responded to the jury’s decision with a post on Facebook that inspired many. The post ended with, “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.” Henceforth the hashtag was born, and continued to grow in prominence with each new incident and protest. The incident that skyrocketed people’s knowledge of the movement around the world was the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The officer knelt on the neck of the unarmed George Floyd as he gasped for breath, giving out the phrase, “I can’t breathe.” Those three simple words echoed around the world and sparked the mass surge of this movement. During the time of this COVID-19 pandemic, the phrase resonated with all who can’t get a breath of fresh air along with the more important matter of the African American community being deprived of their freedom, humanity, and respect by those in positions of power.

We then turned to Jessica for a brief synopsis on the storming of the capitol. On January 6th, 2021 many republicans took to the capitol in an attempt to protest against President Joe Biden’s confirmation of victory over Donald J. Trump. However, this showing quickly turned chaotic. These protesters began to overtake police barriers to storm the Capitol Building where Congress was assembled in session to formally count the votes of the election. The police presence during this riot lacked as thousands were able to physically break into the building, destroying a focal point for our government and gracious country. Videos and pictures immediately surfaced of the disrespect displayed from these rioters. “It was a tough thing to look at and believe that was really happening.” Jessica said with a somber tone.

Now that we have some background on both accounts let us get to the meat of this whole conversation. We all three sat down to discuss the differences in the BLM movement and the rushing of the Capitol building. Harrison first started by sharing a personal experience. 

“I was talking to an African American friend of mine last week while we were both scrolling through the popular app ‘TikTok’. He came across a video where a white man was walking around a couple of police officers and teasing them. He turned around to me and said, ‘Wow, that dude is lucky he is white, I doubt they would let that action slide if he was a black dude.’ Little did he know I had also seen the video on my feed a couple hours earlier. I told him to check the comments because I knew what he would find, and he was greeted with many other people commenting almost the identical sentence he had just said. This was one of those moments where it was absolutely prevalent, and sad, how many African American men and women go every day fearing their own police force.”

Jessica also shared a similar story with us about a friend she was visiting and their time in your everyday restaurant. 

“I was visiting a friend a couple hours away spending time with her and another friend who was African-American. Towards the end of their fun day of shopping they decided to go to a local family owned, town favorite restaurant for some dinner. Upon arriving back to my friends house we all started discussing things surrounding the BLM movement. I was quite surprised to hear Emily, our African American friend speak up to say, “I did feel a little uncomfortable when that table of all white guys sat down next to us.” I guess for me I have never looked at people in the sense of white, black, indian, asain, etc. so I tend not to think twice about potential problems like Emily did. It did make me feel as though I have been naive at points in my life and was glad to educate myself better in order to recognize these feelings.”

Both of their stories, eye-opening and heart-breaking were a great way to kick off our discussion about the systemic injustice that is the treatment of white people versus black people in modern day America. As many of us watched, participated, and supported the protests over the summer last year, we saw a very different scene on January 6th of this year. The way the police reacted to the storming of the capitol building compared to the presence that was made known in every city where thousands gathered in support of the BLM movement was astounding. “While there were some unfortunate instances of businesses being destroyed, I saw plenty of peaceful protests where police were using unnecessary force against these people. If the presence of law enforcement was even close to what they showed around the country was the same on January 6th, there would have been NO WAY that those people would have ever been able to forcibly break into the capitol building.” stated Jessica. Harrison then added “To me, the existence of this systemic injustice against the Afrcan-American community was never as clear as when you compare the Black Lives Matter protests to the storming of the capitol building. There was barely any force to try and stop those who made it into the capitol even though this was not even a form of peaceful protest, and more closely resembled an act of terrorism. Those who were protesting for the BLM movement were treated brutally with rubber bullets and tear gas while they were simply following the laws and supporting their cause. Just witnessing how different these two events were handled, seemingly just because of the color of the people’s skin, is truly horrifying to see, and instills even more fear into those African Americans who are already fearful to even be near a police officer.”

This picture captured from a livestream brought to our attention by Harrison, depicts the police officer posing for a selfie with a rioter. We can even see there is a live chat posted on the picture with people commenting things such as, “Hey police do something we are all watching.”

These two pictures, captured by bystanders and supporters for the BLM movement, depict the police force they were met with while they were peacefully protesting in the streets.

 

This is clearly a form of systemic injustice because of the alarming number of times acts like this have been witnessed. This is such a difficult injustice to be righted since racism is so deep rooted, but a good start would be for police to have more consequence if it is found that they have unjustly treated an African American citizen worse than the situation required. The usage of body cameras on officers is also a good step in the right direction. Our two students here talked about the best way to relate this topic to class and decided upon Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the “One” vs the “Other”. In this case, the group of people clearly being treated as the “other” in our society, according to the situations being discussed, are people of African American descent. Although sad, like Harrison had said in the beginning, it is not a new concept in the United States. It is unfair and cruel to single out a group of people like this and no one, especially an entire group of people, should have to deal with such a fear and issue in their society. Overall, this is just one of the many examples of deep-rooted systemic injustices in our country.

 

References: 

In pictures: Police brutality against protesters at protests against police brutality. (2020, June 02). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-protests-pictures-george-floyd-blm-police-brutality-photography-breonna-taylor-a9545586.html 

Officer appears to pose for selfie with rioter – cnn video. (2021, January 07). Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/01/07/capitol-police-response-pro-trump-riots-lead-vpx.cnn 

Rachel Chason, S. (2021, January 14). The freedom to ASSEMBLE, in two acts. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2021/blm-protest-capitol-riot-police-comparison/

Resnick, B. (2020, June 01). Police brutality is a public health crisis. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter 

Yo is this Podcast

 

 

Podcast episode on Racism, Discrimination, and Implicit Bias in the workplace.

C: Caelan Warnecke

P: Patrick Gurd

Caelan: Hello welcome to this week’s episode on “Yo is this racist/bias” in the workplace podcast. I am Caelan Warnecke and I will be one of the two hosts this week. A little bit about me is that I am a third year Information Systems Major at The Ohio State University.

Patrick: Hey everyone, my name is Patrick Gurd and it is great to have you listening to this episode this week. I am a first year student that is following the Pre-Med track. However, as of now I have not declared a major. But I am thinking about maybe doing biology. 

Caelan: This week’s episode will focus on discrimination in the work place. And how interview bias is becoming a large issue throughout many companies regardless of the size. And with that, it is limiting the expansion of culture within a company.

Patrick: So in the past few weeks an event took place with Amazon. A black female employee filed a lawsuit against her company alleging discrimination and sexism. 

Caelan: You know I think I saw something about that the other day. What information do you have on this situation Patrick? 

Patrick: I have a lot, Charlotte Newman, who worked for Amazon’s Web Services in Washington D.C. filed a lawsuit against her company for many different reasons. These reasons include black employees being passed over for promotions even though they had the qualifications. Not being paid the same as her white counterparts. She was also faced with signs of bias towards her race and gender. The list goes on. Newman stated how she worked for two years above her pay grade until she got promoted. Her four years at Amazon does not seem like it was the best time. 

Caelan: Wow that’s just crazy to hear because I feel many people pride Amazon on their diversity efforts throughout the company. 

Patrick: That’s what I thought too. However, I found out that Amazon tries to be as diverse as possible but when it comes to executive positions, most of the people who have the positions are white. I know that in Amazon’s warehouses they have a diverse community, but when it comes to corporate positions it is much different. This is all very interesting to me, Amazon should not be doing this.

Caelan: I completely agree! Even though Amazon is a large corporation, these actions can not happen. Is there any steps Amazon is doing to rectify this situation?

Patrick: Amazon has started to make some progress. After some complaints and workers talking, Amazon added a black female to their top leadership team. They are -Amazon is a role model for almost every other business and they need to do better I think. Newman had a lot of courage to stand up to Amazon. As they are one of the largest companies in the world. And most respected as well, I feel. However, I hope Amazon makes the right decisions in the end.  

Caelan: I agree, I look forward to seeing what steps Amazon makes as this story continues. We are also recognizing that this is a common issue that many companies are facing. Personally, as I begin to approach the corporate world in a field that I will be considered a minority, this is frustrating beyond belief. I feel as though being a woman should not determine the ability to grow and climb the ladder within a company. However, Ms.Newman’s experience is more discriminatory than just her gender, she was also discriminated against based on the color of her skin. This racial discrimination is not just not okay and its not only occurring in leadership/managerial levels in companies, it is happening throughout some companies. One of the recurring themes is that we noticed these individuals are being categorized as a minority within a company – rather than seeing them as who they are. Whether it is based on the color of an employee’s skin, gender, culture, or any mixture of these and others, that are include in this discrimination needs to be stopped. 

Patrick: Caelan, I totally agree with you. No one should be held from a position because of one of their demographics. 

Caelan: And we’re finding that some of these issues are because of the hiring process is. Companies tending to hire someone who has similar interests and looks similar to them, and this is known as affinity bias. So these are some subconscious biases that are hindering the growth of a company for diversity. When you are not having a diverse person interview or having a diverse mindset, these employees that come in aren’t going to be able to come in and feel as though they are welcome. So companies can connect more with individuals and be more supportive of their employees when having a diverse background of employees in their company. And that creates a welcoming feeling to a new hire and helps that culture continuously grow throughout the organization. So getting a diverse group of employees throughout all departments and levels of the company will then reduce implicit bias and hopefully help on that discrimination. The hiring process though is that initial display of implicit bias that many people see, and however though, it’s not always shown there. So these biases can be more apparent as time goes on which is where racism, discrimination needs to be addressed and stopped within companies right away.  

Patrick: Caelan just unpacked a lot right there. I agree that having more diverse groups of employees allows companies to connect with a wider group of people. Diversity brings people from different backgrounds that allows different perspectives. We should be focusing on diversity but also look out for interview bias.

Caelan: Moving forward then, How can we combat these issues? How can we make amends to everything that has been going on Patrick?

Patrick: That is a great question. If only it could be fixed right away. 

Caelan: That would be something! But I feel like this like others might take time and can not be done overnight.

Patrick: I agree with that. Great things take time. However, this is something that will probably take lots of time. It is interesting, I found an article about 4-H in Illinois. 

Caelan: What exactly is 4-H? 

Patrick: 4-H is a program for the youth and it stands for Head, Heart, Hands and Health. Across the country over 100 public universities help teach our youth different life skills. These life skills include teaching them about different career paths so the kids may know what they want to learn later down the road. 4-H is all about positive youth development. They welcome children from all backgrounds and beliefs. What is also great about 4-H is, they focus on equality and how to make our communities a better place. Caelan, what do you find interesting about 4-H in Illinois? 

Caelan: This is a great program. And I find this program is going to be so impactful for all these kids that participate in it. And not just now, future as well. Once they start to grow within a company they are going to see how this implicit bias has happened. But with the steps that 4-H is implementing and teaching early on, it’s going to help to educate them – these young individuals especially on culture and diversity that may be in the workplace that they might come across. So bringing awareness to these topics to them at a young age, allows them to look out for these issues within a potential company. In 10-20 years, these kids are going to be out in the workplace looking for a job, starting their career. And have this information on implicat bias and discrimination will help them stand out among their peers. Many companies know that there are issues within their organization, but don’t know where to start. And that these issues will be more apparent to the individual as they have been with the company as time goes on. However though with 4-H, it is going to stay with them forever and they will be able to reflect upon what they learned throughout their life and apply it to the company that they join. I would also believe that by shining a light on these issues will help diversify future organizations as these individuals will begin the workplace. 

Patrick: I think the new program Illinois 4-H added in will really help change our communities. Hopefully other 4-H’s in different states will follow what Illinois decided to do. I think it will really help the youth and help change the future. That’s all we had time for today. I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you all for listening! I hope you all have a great day and week. 

Caelan: We hope you learned something new today or were enlightened by our episode today. Thank you for joining us!

Yo Is This Racist…

“Do no harm” is the oath all medical practitioners swear when becoming a doctor, why is it that for women of color that oath may not always apply? 

 

Having the right to medical treatment, and the best possible medical treatment should not be a privilege, especially if it is only for people who are white. In this country women of color are oftentimes not taken as seriously in hospitals or places of care. This is not only instilled racism, but it is extreme negligence. Not only is this known by listening to experiences of women of color who have been treated awfully by doctors and hospitals, there is statistics to prove it. According to the CDC women of color are two times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women are. It also states that pregnancy related deaths per 100,000 live births for women of color are also 5x as high as it was for white women. This is because of these doctors and care-takers instilled racism and microaggressions. A very noteable and public example of this is Serena Williams. She opened up about her birth and shared her experiences whilst in the hospital. She had to undergo an emergency c-section with her daughter, the next day she didn’t feel that well and noticed she had shortness of breath, and also made the doctors aware about her history of pulmonary embolisms. Even though she detailed this all to the doctors, instead of them running tests, they told her she was confused from the pain medicine. She then asked them to just run a CT scan, and instead they ran different meaningless tests. Sure enough when they finally ran the original test she asked for, they found small blood clots in her lungs. Thankfully in this instance she ended up being okay, but a lot of times these women do not end up okay. Serena Williams is a world class athlete that knows how her body works inside and out, and doctors didn’t even listen to her or take her seriously. Why is this happening, and why are we giving doctors leeway to act in this manner. 

 

Not only are there severe cases of mistreatment of women of color, there are also many microaggressions displayed as well that usually end up leading to severe damage. A lot of times while giving birth women of color are shouted at or may be forced into a treatment plan they don’t agree with. A lot of women of color said they have just been ignored or shouted at for no reason at all. A woman named Paress Salinas who gave birth in 2007 experienced microaggressions during her birthing experience that leaves her with scars to this day. Her doctors tried to give her a c-section although she did not want one, and it was not obligatory for her situation. She was then ready to deliver within 45 minutes, and since the doctors nor nurses listened to any of her wishes, and neglected her, they also neglected her preparations to give birth which resulted in a physical scar due to damage along with a lot of mental scarring. This left her feeling very scared and nervous of hospitals, and it took a toll on her mental health. Going into something with expectations on how it should go, and then having to endure all of this maltreatment during one of the most painful experiences in your life, really can have a negative impact on someone’s mental state. 

 

This is an issue that is not a quick fix and ties into reform of systemic injustices overall. With that being said there are ways to start at a lower level in order to start bringing this reform to the healthcare field. I believe that in order to help to put an end to this, and to help combat this issue this needs to be a nationwide approach. Many hospitals and healthcare institutions will have bias training programs, but there are not usually anything of significance and are obviously not actually educating these professionals. Instead of just giving a software program to complete that people can just skip through, there should be interactive events and seminars that these healthcare professionals should have to attend. I also think that diversifying the healthcare force would also be beneficial. I think it is important for women to feel completely comfortable when needing healthcare and giving birth, and I think that women of color may feel more comfortable if they have someone treating them that better understands their experiences and emotions than someone who is white could. There also needs to be more accessible healthcare to help combat this issue of systemic injustice in the healthcare field. This can range from insurance so women of color have the resources they need when they do need to seek treatment, from making midwives and things like that more available. Although there are also many mistreatment cases seen with midwives, sometimes it is easier to personalize your experience. There are also some midwives or midwife groups that specifically practice with women of color. This is beneficial because if they specialize in this, they are highly educated on the topic. 

 

This is also something that I think needs to be looked at from a legislative level as well. If there is more funding that can come from the government in order to help establish more inclusive programs in healthcare it can also help with better educating people, and reducing the injustices that I have written about. If there were to be more funding there could also be so many more resources for women of color before,during, and after birth. This means that items like prenatal vitamins can be universally given. There is also not enough talk about postpartum depression, which is very real. It is very common to be depressed after giving birth and it can sometimes lead to a mother feeling incompetent, which isn’t the case at all. These women just spent nine months with their hormones fluctuating, their body going through major changes, and producing a life, it is normal to experience some highs and lows and to feel depression afterwards. Not only is it not really de-stigmatized, but for women of color who already may have had a very traumatic birthing experience, now may be sent home with not a single asset on how to help their mental health post giving birth. What is extremely unfair a lot of times for women of color is they may have postpartum depression because of an incident that may have happened while giving birth, so why is it okay to just send them home with no help for the after part? 

 

There are a lot of ways that help to determine what the causes were when there is a pregnancy related death. They look at the mother’s age at death, timing of the death in relation to the pregnancy, race and ethnicity, and they will compare this data with previous data. There are an extensive number of ways to determine a cause of death, but there are not extensive amounts of ways to prevent these deaths in the first place. If they are able to gather all this research to study this problem, and to determine causes, there should be more done for a fix. What also frustrates me is that there is a starting place, and there are a million articles with ways to reform these systemic injustices, but for the most part none of these procedures have been put into place.

 

No one should have fear when they are in need of medical attention. The point of healthcare is to save your life, not to put it in danger. After nine months of growing another life inside of you, you should not have to face negligence because of the color of your skin. There are many ways and ideas people have researched to help to combat this problem, it is time to really start educating people, and actually putting these new procedures in place. Women of color should not be experiencing life long negative influences from a moment that is supposed to be one of the best in life. Anyone who gives birth should have the access to proper care, and deserves to be treated with the absolute best care possible.

 

Yo, is this Racist- Paula Luis, Connor Wolford, Cong Wei

Yo is this Racist podcast 

Paula Luis: Okay, welcome to the “Yo, is this Racist” podcast. My name is Paula Luis and I’m going to be one of your hosts for this podcast.

Connor Wolford: My name is Connor Wolford. I’ll be another one of your hosts for this podcast.

Cong Wei: My name is Cong Wei and yeah i’m one of the group in the podcast.

Paula: Yeah and our goal for today’s podcast is to just kind of talk about racial discrimination and the law enforcement process and then just kind of talk about the systemic injustices we see in the United States of America, specifically against African Americans so Cong, if you want to take it away with that that’d be great.

Cong: Okay starting with the broad topic, I will talk about racial discrimination in the law enforcement process, which is what I wrote about in the diary entries. Okay, the injustice in the United States is concentrated in the foreign aspect. First, there are many unjust and wrong cases in the US judicial system and many innocent people have been serving sentences or even executed. One of the examples is the Ferguson case. So the US judicial system has unjustly protected criminals who should have been severely punished. In particular, many African Americans believe that the US judicial system showed that dirty police abused force in recent years, in many cases of shooting and killing African Americans. Most of the police officers involved were actually involved in protests and even riots. The Ferguson case had a great impact in August 2014. Brown, an 18 year old young man in Ferguson, was intercepted and searched by a workplace officer without a weapon. But the police involved in the case were exempt from persecution. Many people believe that white police officers do not need to be punished after shooting an African-American teenager. This is absolutely racial discrimination and this result triggered the large scale protests and demonstrations across the United States.

Paula: just going off of that and I think a really relevant case in today’s time is obviously you know the death of George Floyd 

Cong: Yeah the other case was Floyd at the end of 2020. Its about the murder of George Floyd, a black male who was shot in the United States by a white police officer just for one day shoplifting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Then, riots of varying degrees broke out in major cities across the United States. Although most of the demonstrations and protests were nonviolent, discussion after the incident quickly shifted from police violence to violent disturbance. American right wing media Fox News characterized protesters as anarchists who want to overthrow the US Government after the riots broke out. Former President Trump also denounced the protesters as radical leftists. This revived the Black Lives Matter movement that had faded out of public view in the past two years. Black people’s fate was considered a civil rights movement, since its inception. Because its radical protests strategy was not widely accepted by mainstream society at the beginning, Black people faced another major social movement about Black civil rights after the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The black civil rights movement in the 1960s is generally regarded as a milestone in the use of non violent means of social movements. The movement ended the segregated system and the series of discriminatory Jim Crow Laws and it promoted the monitoring of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, thereby officially, making racial discrimination illegal from the legal level and Martin Luther King is another leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, who also became a world known leader of the civil rights.

Paula: yeah obviously like this past year, I think we can all agree that has been a critical moment in terms of, you know, racial issues being brought to light and now talking about you know the George Floyd death that occurred last summer. One thing that came to mind when I was reflecting on that was that you know, obviously, George Floyd was discriminated against for being a black man because black men in our society are deemed as intimidating for no apparent reason and then, as I thought about that I thought about something that Matt James, who was the first Black bachelor, said a few weeks ago, in an interview. He said that he feels an immense pressure every day in his life because he feels the need to constantly make sure that his personality and the way he talks has to make up for his intimidating appearance and stature which I thought was really interesting because I, as a white woman, don’t really have to worry about how I present myself to the world, but then we have cases where black men are just deemed always as intimidating and threatening. It’s leading to a lot of wrongful deaths, which is what we are seeing in these recent years.

Connor: yeah definitely we have seen more of an uprising in the Black Lives matter Movement that happened after the George Floyd incident. I think it really showcased more of what a lot of people weren’t seeing or realizing what was happening in our country, especially towards black men being discriminated against, especially in police brutality.

Paula: yeah it’s definitely something that’s always been happening, but in recent years, it has come to light and it’s just it’s very crazy to think about some of these things that specifically African American men have to endure just because of their appearance like murders are happening because of this. That interview that Matt James had really made me reflect on that.

Connor: yeah and going off of the Black Lives Matter movement that everybody heard about, and everything, I kind of wanted to just start off saying something about how something that people don’t necessarily hear about or think about when it comes to racism kind of an entry that I did myself. I don’t know if you guys heard on the news, but there was a Coca Cola company that was sharing a specific slideshow that I found very racist, but a lot of people wouldn’t recognize it as racism at the beginning, because it wasn’t against black people. The incident in question was they had training for certain employees. In the slideshow it informed them on “how to be less white” and they were specifically telling them to be “less arrogant” and to be “more humble”and  “to break with white solidarity” in the world today, especially after the Black Lives Matter movement. And I just kind of wanted to say, because a lot of people wouldn’t realize that as racism or think about it, because most of the time when you think of racism you wouldn’t necessarily think of whites being oppressed or anything in that sort, so I just kind of wanted to know what you guys thought about that.

Paula: yeah I mean it’s definitely something to think about because I would say, at least for myself, I won’t speak for anyone else, but for myself when I think about racism, especially in the US, I instantly think about racism against Black people, against African Americans but we keep forgetting there are so many other types of racism. Especially, even now in these recent weeks, with the increase in all these Asian hate crimes that are happening, those are like other types of racism, so we definitely have to keep an open mind towards any type of racial discrimination, so that’s that’s kind of my take on it.

 

Cong: So, I want to say the recent, you know, anti Asian racism has appeared and is increasingly happening. So I think racial discrimination is very bad and the best thing that we should do is to avoid it

Paula: Yeah and just going off of that, now that we’re talking about different types of racism. Another one of my diary entries was regarding the Meghan Markle interview with Oprah and how she really talked about all of the racial discrimination she faced in the Royal Family. Tthen there was one instance where she talked about how the Royal Family was concerned with the baby’s skin color, how dark it would be specifically, and then it made me think. I’m from Puerto Rico so i’m Latin American and I mean you think about how even us as minorities, you know Latin Americans, there’s still a lot of racism and colorism in all Latin American countries so it’s something you don’t really think about because usually you think that minorities have our eyes open to all that sort stuff and we’re against that, but at the same time, even in minorities there is racism and there is colorism and a lot of it comes from just our society, which is what we’re talking about when we’re talking about systemic injustices. Our society right now is just built in a way that is rooted in racism. Our legal structure, the way we run, so I think that’s just something to think about. Very interesting that just because you are a minority it doesn’t really exempt you from anything like I think we still all have the responsibility to be anti racist and educate ourselves and try to have solidarity with everyone and try to free ourselves from these biases that are rooted in our society. This is what we talk about when we talk about systemic injustices. It’s not just one instance, it’s everything that is rooted with these racist ideals.So that’s kind of my takeaway from all of these diary and entries, and all the topics we’ve been discussing over the past few weeks, and this class.

Connor: yeah I feel like I learned a lot more and it taught me to open my eyes to more different kinds of racism that I might not have been more aware of. Especially seeing everything in the news and not focusing more on like what’s happening close to home and kind of helping out with that kind of stuff, but it has opened my eyes and I saw some different things that I was kind of unaware of.

Paula: Definitely, and I think like going back to the our topic for this podcast which is racial discrimination in the law enforcement process it definitely has opened my eyes because, you would think that the law enforcement process is fair and it brings justice but over these past few years I’ve been realizing that that’s not always the case. So it’s just important to be aware of these types of things because that’s the first step is just being aware of it, so that we can actually act on it and just try to inspire change in our society. That’s kind of my takeaway from this assignment. So anyone else, do you have any concluding thoughts to say before we wrap up today’s podcast?

Connor: No, I think we covered a lot today and i’m actually really happy with what we’ve learned and talked about.

Paula: me too, definitely. Cong do you have anything else to say or do we do wrap up today’s podcast?

Cong:I want to say that just to link to today’s topic with the class. This case may be, just like the civil rights movement in history, like John Lewis graphic novel The March and something like Dr Martin Luther King’s The Letter from Birmingham jaw and these activities may improve civil rights for minorities. I think it’s also something like the One and the Other theory. 

Paula: yeah. Well Thank you everyone for tuning in to this podcast we hope you enjoyed it and we hope you learn something from it.

 

“Yo is this Classism?”: Op-Ed

It is clear that the United States is no longer a country in which the lower class had the same opportunities as the upper class. Over the past half decade, the wealth gap in the U.S has been on a consistent rise with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This dynamic has created a very toxic divide in the country and has further split the country politically. According to the Pew Research center, over the last 50 years, the highest earning 20% of households have steadily brought in a larger share of the country’s total income, meaning that the majority wealth generated through income belongs to only 20% of the country’s population. But not only that, the wealth gap between the wealthiest households and poorest households has more than doubled in the last 30 years. Further on to display the unfairness in the capitalistic system that is the United States, the U.S has the highest income inequality of all the G7 nations which includes the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Canada, Germany and France. Although incomes throughout all classes have been growing the disparity shows in the rate at which the individual classes’ incomes grow. Pew Research goes on to state that from the year of 1970 to 2018, the median middle class income had risen 49 percent from 58,100$ to 86,600$, while the median income for upper class households had risen 64 percent from 126,000$ to 207,400$. These numbers are hard facts that oppose the idea that the United States is the land of equality and opportunity, it shows that that in the U.S, the only way to succeed if one has the money to generate more wealth by taking advantage of the less fortunate and exploiting their labor. Now is this not this classism?

 

The topic being discussed is whether or not the U.S financial and economic system perpetuates the injustice of class discrimination which I believe it definitely does. The Google definition of class discrimination includes individual attitudes, behaviors, and systems of practices or principles that benefit the upper class at the expense of the lower class. By the looks of the wealth trend among classes, it is obvious seeing one class benefiting, while another is suffering, so by the definition of classism it can definitely be argued that the financial policies in the U.S are based around a classist structure. These policies stem from the root of the United States economy, which is the idea of capitalism. The goal of this Op-Ed is not to argue whether or not capitalism is good or bad, rather take a look at certain events that have occurred within the capitalistic structure and show the classism embedded in those events. 

 

The first of which was a recent scandal involving the stock trading app Robinhood, which is ironic with the tale of Robinhood being a man of the people. Robinhood was a trading app founded recently in 2013 and unlike most trading platforms, it was targeted towards everyday people with its simple to use interface. Robinhood soared in popularity with the app being most new traders go to options of stocks. However in January, it turned out that Robinhood was not so much for the people after all. What happened was that certain companies such as Gamestop, AMC, Blackberry, and Nokia weren’t doing so well at the time. In stock trading when a company is believed to be under performing or headed towards bankruptcy, the big financial institutions will often bet against these companies which is known as shorting a stock. They basically borrow a stock from a lender which they then sell, and when the stock price drops they buy it back to return to the lender, pocketing the difference. The important point to remember is the key to making money by shorting is that the price of the stock in the future needs to go down. Since these certain stocks were deemed underperforming by the hedge funds and banks, they attempted to go on a short position. This is where the internet came in. A large group of everyday investors that had a forum on the website reddit, known as wallstreetbets, found out about the intentions of these large financial institutions for those underperforming stocks and banded together to start buying shares of the stocks and in doing so the stock prices rose at the expense of the banks and hedge funds. This soon gained a lot of publicity and media attention and even people that were not a part of the forum began buying shares of these stocks. As the prices of these stocks began to soar, these everyday people that bought the stocks began to make money like they never had before. There were stories of people that were able to pay off their college debt, credit card debt, and even the mortgage on their homes but all of this came to a sudden stop. Since the big financial institutions like the banks and hedge funds were losing a ridiculous amount of money, they began coordinating with trading platforms such as Robinhood to halt all trading on certain stocks, only allowing holders to sell what they owned which would inevitably drive the price down so they could make the money they had intended on making. This caused major uproar and backlash in the financial community because it was seen as market manipulation. No one seems to care if the regular person loses money in the stock market, but as soon as the investment banks and hedge funds begin to lose money it’s a big issue? The unfairness of the whole situation was pretty clear and Robinhood attempted to give reasons for them halting trading, but it was clear that the app that was supposed to be “for the people” was just for the hedge funds after all. What was even more frustrating was that there were seemingly no consequences for this market manipulation, they had every legal right to do what they did, so it seems to me that the financial markets are not a fair place where people can go to make money, rather it is always in favor or the upper class with the wealth. This incident showed that the policies in the financial markets are favored towards the upper class at the expense of the lower class and it without a doubt fits the definition of classism. 

 

Another instance of class discrimination in the financial market was the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis occurred when the banks working with mortgage lenders, began to give out widespread subprime mortgages. Basically taking advantage of people and giving them mortgages on homes they couldn’t afford in the first place. They did so in order to sell off these subprime mortgages to other investors knowing that what they were selling were empty investments. Since these mortgages were not going to be paid off, it eventually all came crashing down in 2008. The values of homes dropped, people lost their jobs and it became the worst financial crisis in history since the great depression. But no one was held responsible, and once again the banks were let off from government funding and not one person went to jail even though what had happened was corrupt. The wealthy got to consequences from their greedy attempt to take advantage of the working class Americans. 

 

The government had always been at the side of the upper class and the big financial institutions when they make mistakes while letting everyday people fend for themselves. From these two instances we can see that policies and principles set by the government along with the securities and exchange commission (which monitors the markets and trading) clearly favor the upper class. It’s as if their mindset is who cares if regular people lose money, as long as the rich are making more. 

 

This is clear class discrimination within our financial system and economy where the regular person has no voice. When Gayatri Spivak wrote “Can the Subaltern Speak” we see how those who are marginalized or do not have power have no voice and cannot get their opinions heard. In the U.S, where money is power, those without the money are the subaltern. Their voice goes unheard and the government who is supposed to protect its citizens, sides with the wealthy. In order to combat this, major reform needs to occur within financial institutions and new policies need to be enacted that prevent large financial institutions from getting away with taking advantage of everyday people. Presidential candidates such Bernie Sanders had the right idea in mind by running his campaign on the premise that the big banks were evil and needed to be abolished. So to answer the question Yo, is the financial system of the United States Classist? Yes, and these incidents should be a remembrance that this will continue to happen unless we have reform with the aid of new leadership that is really for the people. 

 

References: Pew Research Center

“Yo, is this racist?” Podcast

Transcript

Hello everybody thank you for tuning into the Yo is this racist podcast.  I, Jonas Woelk, will be your host today, and we will be delving into a series of topics to determine, yo are they racist.

The subject matter for today’s podcast will include discussion of unequal protestor treatment, Asian American hate crimes, and immigration policies. Alright so starting off with the wrongful treatment of protestors by the police. We will be comparing two different scenarios and determining if the magnitude of police force was justified based on the scope of the violence occurring. And once again we will be determining yo is it racist by seeing if race played a part in the brutality by police force. The first event goes as follows Donald Trump losing the election stirred up supporters and fueled a capitol riot where predominately white supporters went to storm the US capitol causing lots of havoc and damages up to $30 million dollars worth. Clearly, this matter had violence and destruction and yet the police used little to no intervention to diminish the situation. On the other hand another protest last year around the White House consisted of a very peaceful protest where mainly African American demonstrators were chanting and holding up signs of those who have fallen victim to police brutality. This protest however ended with police officers in riot gear clearing out the crowd with stun grenades while the storming of the capitol consisted of little to no brute force from the police to decrease the scope of the situation although the level of destruction and danger was much greater. So the question stands Yo is this racist? And my answer to that is yes, because the government and police force have plans and policies set in place for situations such as these and they handled both incidents very differently based on the identity of the majority of the protestors. The storming of the capitol with white trump supporters was much more severe and had limited injuries to protestors compared to the peaceful African American protestors speaking out against police brutality. This was clearly racist and can be seen with numerous other examples during the Black Lives Matter movement. In order to improve on the situation those involved in the situation, specifically the police force, should determine treatment of the scenario at hand based on the severity rather than the race of the protestors. 

 

On the second installment of yo is this racist we will be discussing Asian American hate crimes. Specifically, attacks such as a New York neighborhood stabbing and a shooting of a primarily Asian staffed spa in Georgia are events as of recent where it was said claimed that the perpetrator was targeting Asian Americans but this was not confirmed. However, proving a racist motive can be particularly difficult with attacks against Asians because there is no widely recognized symbol of anti-Asian intentions such as the Swastika for Anti-Semitism against the Jewish population.  This demonstrates how the crimes against Asians are usually dismissed as crimes unrelated to race and are not given as much attention and importance as they should due to there not being a specified hate symbol associated with them. Another point that needs to be brought up is how some people claim that due to Asian Americans being more socially privileged with good steady income jobs with financially stable families means that they can not have a hate crime associated with them. I believe this is completely false because although a group of people may not be struggling in the fiscal department, they can still be attacked or targeted. This perception of Asian Americans having power and privilege comes along with mistreatment in the form of hate crimes and microaggressions. This is of great importance because it demonstrates that although having social status and being privileged there are still racist actions that can be committed against you. So the question stands, Yo is this racist? Here this is a very tough call because as mentioned previously we do not know for certain the intention of the attacks due to the Asian American population not having any specific symbol that is associated with their mistreatment. However, using proper assumptions I would deem these crimes as hate crimes and therefore determine this issue as racist because Asians can be seen being targeted in these crimes and if most governments such as New York do not consider them hate crimes they do not prioritize their resolution enough and this is quite an issue. A solution to this systemic injustice would be to educate more people of the issue as well as encouraging governments to use probable reason in considering these crimes as hate crimes. Conclusively, using my probable reason, I believe these are hate crimes and yes this is racist.

 

For our final topic of the day on the Yo is this racist podcast, includes a discussion about immigration. We will be talking about two varieties that immigration policies come in. One being refugees fleeing their countries in Europe for a specific reason to escape the hardships faced there and the other is the immigration policies of the US created by the Trump Administration. Taking a look at the refugee crisis in Europe a specific event I would like to feature on Yo is this racist occurred around a month ago where Rohingya refugees were found by Indian coast guards in the Andaman Sea attempting to flee to India. There were eighty-one survivors on the ship and eight pronounced dead and of the survivors there were many in dire condition being severely dehydrated and sick. The people were taken to the closest safe location and denied entry to India. I believe India’s denial of entry was not racist but if we delve in deeper to determine the root of why the Rohingyan people fled their country we have another decision to make whether racism is occurring. Through further investigation and research it was determined that that over 740,000 Rohingya people fled Myanmar since 2017 due to institutionalized discrimination, such as exclusionary citizenship laws. Clearly, this can be seen as a systemic injustice because the government has specifically placed laws on a group of people to revoke their citizenship and limit their rights, therefore, forcing them out of the country. This act has impacted over hundred of thousands of peoples lives specifically those of the ethnic Muslim minority group going by the name of the Rohingyas. They have been forced to leave their homes and move to another place in the world involuntarily due to the Myanmar government. Therefore through greater analysis of the situation I can determine this exclusion of the Rohingyas and their motive for fleeing was most definitely due to racism. So transitioning to the immigration policies within the US, specifically during the Trump administration when President Trump decided to strengthen immigration laws and put a ban on immigration from many Middle Eastern countries. This act seems to be targeted towards the false generalization that many Muslims are linked to terrorism. Trump was clearly targeting the Muslim population with this ban, which is not fair or justified to the majority of immigrants from these regions that have no ties to terrorism and just want to escape from their possibly war-ridden areas to the United States for a better life. These racist policies also extend to other groups such as Mexicans who are stereotyped by some illegally entering the country. Clearly, these racist immigration policies have quite an impact on people’s lives. Now for the final Yo is this racist? I would deem it racist due to immigration policies being specific laws and rules that were set with the intent to disable people from entering the country. Therefore, to rectify these actions the immigration policies should be removed and border security and background checks should be improved therefore to acquire a nice, perfect middle ground between desirable policies of each party. 

 

Alright, that will be concluding this week’s segment on Yo is this racist? where we discussed three various situations plaguing society currently and determined, Yo is this racist? Thank you again for tuning in and we will see you next week for another edition of Yo is this racist where we will be discussing more issues around the world. Thank you again, signing off.

Yo Is This Racist

Yo Is This Racist

Madalyn Morman

 

As terrible as it is, racism still exists in all sorts of places around the world and even close to home here in The United States of America. It is so horrible that such cruel events happen to those who are from a different race than another person. Racism occurs when people think that a certain race or color of the skin is superior to another, and based on that they do not treat those people fairly. In this article, I will be discussing two events that demonstrate an example of systemic injustice along with analyzing the situations and how they need to be corrected. 

We are all well aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and how hard it has been on everyone, especially those in the healthcare field, but what about how hard it has been for many African Americans. There was an article that talked about how African-American doctors have to carry double the load as they have to fight a virus that has unreasonably harmed their communities more than others while dealing with discrimination at the workplace (Williams). On top of the stressful job, the doctors have to deal with constant discrimination they get because of the color of their skin. 

“Being a black man in a white coat has never been easy”

-Dr. Steven McDonald

Many patients would ask for another doctor when an African-American doctor would walk into the room or they would rate them lower for patient care and cleanliness. Dr. Steven McDonald says that “being a black man in a white coat has never been easy” (Williams). These physicians are also more likely to practice medicine in underserved communities with fewer resources and testing, making them more vulnerable to contracting the COVID-19 virus compared to white colleagues (Williams). African American doctors have faced many more hardships in the healthcare field compared to white doctors. 

The pandemic may even take away all of the progress that has been made in increasing the number of African American physicians. This is due to all the stress, depression, and survivor guilt that they face every day (Williams). All of this is evidence of the “minority tax”. This is the invisible cost that people in minority groups face while working in a mainly white environment. 

So the question asked, “Is this racist?” and the answer would be yes. We see in this example that African American doctors are not being treated with respect by their white patients or their white colleagues. We also see how much harder it has been for African American doctors during this pandemic. I would label this as an example of systemic injustice because the system of power uses its authority to promote unjust behavior and prejudice against a social group. Here the system in power is the predominantly white workplace and profession and it is putting down against the African American physicians working there. The category of identity involved in this situation was race, and that should not be a factor in a workplace environment.

I think we can relate this problem to the concept of the One and the Other. The One claims superiority over the Other and the Other is defined through the dominant One. In this example, the One would be the white individuals either the patients or the fellow doctors who mistreated the African American doctors. That makes the African American doctors part of the Other and classified as inferior compared to the Ones. 

It is awful to hear about this current example of systemic injustice especially in this difficult time for healthcare workers. Not only do they have to worry about saving lives and preventing the spread of COVID-19, but some individuals have to carry the weight of having colored skin in a world where racism still exists. I believe that for this wrongdoing to be changed, essentially the profession has to recognize that racism in the workplace is inadequate for not only the patients’ health but also the physicians’. But also, the citizens and patients need to realize that they are only being part of the problem by acting racist or biased towards the African American individuals not only in the healthcare field but in general. 

 

We also hear another yet similar example of systemic injustice that has occurred recently and it happened to be in our own beloved country… again. The United States is well known for the racial segregation era of the 1900s. This was a time where many schools, restaurants, restrooms, and many other things were labeled as “white’s only”. Many people discriminated against African American citizens because they had a different color of skin. That historic and horrendous part of history eventually led to the Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination of individuals based on race, color, sex, etc. Still to this day, racism and discrimination exist in some sort of way in various places around the United States of America. 

In this current example, we see the school boards of many American school districts stepping up and deciding they are going to create an “equal” dress code policy. In reality, the enforced policy was racist and discriminatory. Several individuals even labeled this new enforcement of bigoted dress code policies to be the new “White Only” signs. This example appeared in a newspaper headline that stated that many school districts across the United States started to enforce dress code policies that restricted associations with the African American style. Male students are not allowed to have their hair extend below the eyebrows or the top of a t-shirt collar (Perry). Students were disturbed by this sudden dress code policy that was put in place. 

One high school student, DeAndre Arnold, has always worn his hair in dreadlocks. DeAndre had an in-school suspension and was told he could not attend class, prom, or graduation until he followed the dress code policy (Perry). Another student was pulled out of class in California because he had shaved-in designs in his hair which would be too “distracting” to his classmates. 7-year-old, Tiana Parker, was sent home from school one day because the school did not think her locs looked “presentable” (Perry). Several students have been told that their hairstyles represent “gang culture” and that they need to “fix” their hair to return to class. 

 


 

 

So again the question asked was, “Is this racist?” and the answer would be yes. The way that this sounds like is that the school boards are asserting authority over African-American students based on their hairstyles, but hair has nothing to do with academic success. We just heard that the school board gave a high school student an in-school suspension because his hair was in dreadlocks. Not only did another school district send a student home because of their hair, but the fact that it was a little 7-year-old girl makes it even more heartbreaking. These are primitive years for children and what they will remember from their childhood school would be the time that they were sent home or threatened to be suspended. What makes it, even more, worse would be the fact that it was not because of their behavior or grades, but because of their hair. 

I believe this is an example of systemic injustice because the system of power uses its authority to suppress African-American students the right to wear their hair in a way that connects them to their ancestors, family, and traditions. Here the system in power is the school boards enforcing bigoted dress code policies.

I think we can make a connection between the African-American students and the concept of  Spivak’s subalterns. The school boards have silenced these students and ingrained this as a “normal practice” within the school system. The students are being denied their right to express themselves and have no say in the rules being installed. Just like Spivak’s subalterns, the students must accommodate themselves to the new change to continue getting their education. 

The category of identity involved in this situation was race and ethnicity, and that should not be a factor in school districts. Having a racially diverse school board would protect against dress code policies from being prejudiced against individuals and be more understanding of the children’s traditions and lifestyle. It would allow for more of a broad understanding and allow more viewpoints to be expressed before making an irrational executive decision. 

 

 

After discussing these incidents, it is clear that racism is still present in today’s world, and it is occurring right under our noses. It is dreadful to hear about the African American doctors dealing with the current hardships from the pandemic and on top of that experiencing racism at the workplace. It is also heartbreaking to learn about the young students being forced to follow the new racist dress codes so that they can attend school. These were just two examples that were pointed out to be discussed, there are so many other unmentioned examples of systemic injustice going on in the world still that we need to be aware of and help shut them down.

Now the question is, what can you do to help. One of the best ways to help stop discrimination or racism is to bring about awareness. Make people acknowledge racism in the situation and try to bring about equality. 

 

 

Perry, Andre. “Racist Dress Codes in Schools Are the New ‘Whites Only’ Signs.” The Hechinger Report, 30 Mar. 2020, https://hechingerreport.org/dress-codes-are-the-new-whites-only-signs/  

Williams, Joseph P. “With Black Patients and White Colleagues, Black Doctors Carry a Double Load.” U.S. News & World Report, 1 Feb. 2021, www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-02-01/black-doctors-covid-burden-patients-social-ills-and-workplace-bigotry

 

Websites for Pictures

https://malden.wickedlocal.com/news/20170522/cook-family-retains-legal-defense-fund-aclu-to-explore-legal-action-against-mystic-valley 

https://tulsaworld.com/archive/schools-criticized-for-bans-on-dreadlocks-afros/article_1336da02-f6a3-5a42-9fcd-08659d0755a7.html 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/us/barbers-hill-isd-dreadlocks-deandre-arnold-trnd/index.html 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/philadelphia-doctor-takes-streets-black-communities-tested-covid/story?id=70405257