The two books by Kincaid and Sontag respectively share a similar theme that by recalling the old and dark history, we should contemplate how our pleasure is connected to the suffering of others.
In the book A Small Place, Kincaid mentions the ugliness of those tourists that exploits the poorer people for their own pleasure. According to Kincaid, this is more like a spiritual form of utilization rather than direct exploitation that the beauty of tourist destinations can be a cause of suffering for locals (“A Small Place: Themes”). For instance, Antigua’s sunny and blue sky indicates that their fresh water is fairly valuable and rare because of the lack of rain. On the other hand, tourists just do not care about it at all since the beauty of the scenery is the most important for them.
In the book Regarding the pain of others, Sontag mainly addresses the matters of obligation and domination. She claims that even though shocking war photographs have ethical value and contribute to significant representations of a country’s collective memory, our culture driven by media is overloaded with the images of brutality (“Regarding the Pain of Others, by Susan Sontag”). As the violence and suffering being the prevailing news, photographers and ideologues who are morally aware have become progressively anxious with problems of emotion exploitation.
Personally, I believe that the exploitation of others mentioned in both of two books is still remaining and happening in contemporary society. One obvious example would be the sweatshops that are infamous for the exploitation of the labor force. A sweatshop usually occurred in the clothing industry where a super crowded place with poor and socially unacceptable working conditions. Workers in the sweatshops are suffering under low wages for long working hours and even health problems. I would say this phenomenon is morally ugliness just like tourism in A Small Place according to what Kincaid infers.
“Regarding the Pain of Others, by Susan Sontag.” Garage, 2013, garagemca.org/en/publishing/susan-sontag-regarding-the-pain-of-others.
“A Small Place: Themes.” SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/smallplace/themes. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.
Black Panther is more then just a movie to many people. Black Panther is a Marvel Film directed by Ryan Coogler, a black director, that is about a country in Africa that has advanced technology though a special metal that is hidden from the rest of society. There is trouble because an outsider wants to overthrow the controllers of the metal to use it for their own use. The cast of Black Panther is majority black, including the super hero. This is a major deal for American culture because there are not many movies with a majority black cast that are seen as positive. A lot of movies only show a certain part of American life, and don’t represent many other minority groups. Black Panther not only represented the black community on screen, but it brought African culture to be able to relate back to its black community watching at home. The actors and actresses in the movie also were able to show their culture to the world too. To the movie premier, the guests were asked to wear royal attire. In an article from Time magazine, it stated that people including the main character Chadwick Boseman and director Coogler wore a kanzu, which is a formal attire from Uganda. There were also a wide display of crowns and head scarfs from a wide variety of African Decedents. Being able to show off African culture and represent it was ground breaking for the large black community in America. The sense of pride was shown throughout the country, and some black people went to see the movie in their native dress attire. Watching a movie where African tribes have the power and technology to control the world is significant, yet just a small step to fixing systematic racism and the injustices faced in America. There needs to be a continuation of more minority casts seen in positive lights to help inspire the next generation and to properly represent all the different culture and ethnicities of America.
The Black Panther film made a powerful entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2018. It was a long awaited film for fans of the Marvel comics and films, but it had an even larger impact on the Black community. Black Panther focused on the rise to power of King T’Challa as the ruler of Wakanda. Wakanda is an African country that was created in the Marvel Universe and has a thriving hidden city with greater technology and resources than any other country in the world. T’Challa is not only the king of this amazing African country, but he is also the superhero Black Panther. The movie has almost an entirely Black cast full of extremely strong and inspirational characters.
This talented cast and amazing story shed a different light on Black culture that is typical in the entertainment industry. In an article on Vox, Tre Johnson explains “This makes Black Panther a palate cleanser of sorts, a healthy injection of powerful, beautiful images of the black body” (“Black Panther Is a Gorgeous, Groundbreaking Celebration of Black Culture”). The film was able to focus on the power of the Black community and give them hope for a better future where they are not oppressed by systemic injustices. It did not create a story in which a white narrative was intertwined into a black story, as often happens in films. Instead it created a black narrative that remained a black narrative, which is a huge move for the film industry towards representing the Black community clearly and more often (Johnson, “Black Panther Is a Gorgeous, Groundbreaking Celebration of Black Culture”). Without films like this, the Black community will continue to feel underrepresented in media. As a white male, I have had a plethora of major figures in the media world to look up to. I can not begin to imagine how it feels to be limited to only a select few figures that have made it into the mass media. Jamil Smith explained in a Time article how important it is to be represented in the mass media in order to feel seen and understood, but also for others to see and understand you (“The Revolutionary Power Of Black Panther”). By limiting the amount and characteristics of major Black characters in mass media it creates a single story of Black culture that often can come off as negative. The Black Panther film was so revolutionary because it represented many Black characters in an extremely powerful way. It has had an extraordinarily positive impact on Black communities, and hopefully it continues to inspire them to feel confident and strong with their culture.
Citations:
Johnson, Tre. “Black Panther Is a Gorgeous, Groundbreaking Celebration of Black Culture.” Vox, Vox, 23 Feb. 2018, www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/23/17028826/black-panther-wakanda-culture-marvel.
Smith, Jamil. “The Revolutionary Power Of Black Panther.” Time, Time, time.com/black-panther/.
Marvel’s Cinematic Universe had made a movie Black Panther, one of the most powerful and revolutionary movies in the Universe, and one of the most influential movies of the 21st century to African American people. We see King T’Challa played by the late great Chadwick Boseman, undergo his rightful passage as the new black panther after his father, King T’Chaka dies, he becomes the new ruler of Wakanda. He is at odds when he meets with Killmonger, a former black ops soldiers who comes in Wakanda after he helps Klaue steal artifacts that are from Wakanda, from a London museum, and enters the hidden country to fight T’Challa and take over the throne. Killmonger’s father taught him about Wakanda and all the vibranium they use to provide for themselves. He sees the idea of black liberation, but the real goal of Killmonger is world domination over his oppressors. T’Challa, at first follows the ancestors by hiding in plain sight and worries the outside world using vibranium, Wakanda will be lost. However he sees Killmongers views as valid and he should help people who look like him, who do not have similar resources, and share it the right way. The movie not only shows a visual representation of a black excellence, but it portrays the message of black people who have lost their identity, the bruises of slavery and how African Americans deal with consequences on a daily basis, as director Ryan Coogler uses personal and historical facts making Black Panther and two main characters showing two different points.
Coogler has been open about how his personal life and black history has helped him during the process of making Black Panther. He was raised in Oakland, California and we see this as an opening shot where Killmonger lives. This is the same city that the Black Panther Party was founded as well.Black Power phrase was a declaration that was said by Stokley Carmichael aka Kwame Ture. During the civil right era Black Panther was made in the Marvel comics, at the time he was made, 41% of African Americans were below the poverty line, and Black Panther was a symbol of “afrofuturism- an ethos that fuses African mythologies, technology and science fiction and serves to rebuke conventional depictions of (or, worse, efforts to bring about) a future bereft of black people(Smith, TIME).” Even though it’s fantasy, Chadwick Boseman says it himself that “to have the opportunity to pull from real ideas, real places and real African concepts, and put it inside of this idea of Wakanda—that’s a great opportunity to develop a sense of what that identity is, especially when you’re disconnected from it.” This is mostly what African Americans have a feeling towards, especially since they have a hard time tracking back their roots to Africa.
The messages that are portrayed have two sides as we look at T’Challa and Killmonger. If we take a look at Killmonger, he had little to nothing growing up, he asked himself how there were “two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all…where was Wakanda?(Serwer, Atlantic).” Wakanda failed to be apart to help black people around the world. What he says is true and hits home to T’Challa. His methods get ahold of him, even with T’Challa pointing out that he has become like his oppressors something Killmonger never wanted to be and leading to his fatal end. As we look at T’Challa he is the opposite of Killmonger, he has everything and only knows Wakanda outside of him being Black Panther and saving others. He listens to ancestors, even his friend Nakia played by Lupita Nyongo, wants him to help the outside because she believes Wakanda has resources to help the outside and stabilize the country, but T’Challa is blinded by tradition and keep Wakanda separated. T’Challa sees Killmonger’s views but wants to do it right as he demolishes isolation and sets up buildings in Oakland. California “to deploy Wakandan capital toward an international social-service project focused on impoverished black neighborhoods—again echoing the legacy of the Black Panther Party(Serwer, Atlantic).”
Finally, this is not just a movie with just messages and historical references, but Black Panther is a movie of inspiration to African American people. There aren’t a lot of black heroes in movies or television. So with a big company like Marvel who portray an African American man as a hero and not being type casted as a junkie or absent father is wonderful. Not only is it a black movie but it is a good movie with black people in it. It celebrates black women as well, the power and the poise that black women have fought side by side with black men too. T’Challa surrounded by his mother Ramonda, sister Shuri, leader of the Dora Milaje, Okoye, and his dear friend Nakia, fighting for the throne, prior they were the ones trying to help save their country for themselves and not letting Killmonger take the seat. This movie made black representation in a lighter note, where people sold out movie theatres to schools for little girls and boys who see an African American onscreen a be the good guy. Black Panther was not a just a movie, but a whole movement for people who are black, portrayed by black excellence.From acting, writing, costume and set design, directing, the comics that made the character, was made and portrayed in this movie by a black King in real life.
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 recent social and political climate in America has placed racism at the forefront of everyday dialogue in such places as social media platforms. The Donald Trump presidency of the past four years was associated with increased racial violence and the empowerment of white supremacy. Instances such as the killing of Black man George Floyd by the police have been pivotal in bringing more awareness and protest of systemic racism. The Covid pandemic has heighted the focus on racism as well, as people, including many of White-privilege, had the more opportunity to reflect on racial injustice. The pandemic brought much more exposure to systemic racism and inequities of poor people in the last year. The Covid pandemic has demonstrated harmful injustices in the dualities created in conceiving ourselves as one and the other. Dualities of white vs. non-whites, and those with means vs. the poor result in inequalities in health care, and a number of other institutions in our society.
The Eurocentric worldview that creates social and biological others, continues to have a large role in the fabric of everyday life in America. This worldview constructed the idea of race, and has placed humanity on a scale of evolution with Whites on the top and Black people at the bottom, with everyone else in between. This scale has dehumanized non-white groups of people and given false justification for inequity and injustice in our competitive capitalistic society of people that have vs. people who have not. As Simone de Beauvoir wrote “Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without setting up the Other…against itself. If three travelers chance to occupy the same compartment, that is enough to make vaguely hostile ‘others’ out of the rest of the passengers of the train. In small-town eyes all persons not belonging to the village are ‘strangers’ and suspect; to the native of a country all who inhabit other countries are ‘foreigners’; Jews are ‘different’ for the anti-Semite, Negroes are ‘inferior’ for American racists, aborigines are ‘natives’ for colonists, proletarians are the ‘lower class’ for the privileged.” (Introduction. de Beauvoir)
“Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly”From Letter to Birmingham Jail. Martin Luther King Jr.
Systemic racial injustice often goes hand in hand with systemic inequality. Not only has the Covid pandemic shown disproportionate death rates on Americas non-white populations but disparities in income as well. Steve Greenhouse states in his July 30, 2020 article in the New Yorker “The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted America’s enduring racial disparities, which are fueled by decades of unequal treatment, unequal opportunity, and structural barriers like job discrimination and poor schools. Blacks have been infected with covid-19 at three times the rate of whites. (The same is true for Hispanics) The coronavirus is also having a hugely disparate impact on Black people’s finances and prospects” (Greenhouse p.1). According to this article America has a political economy that makes Blacks vulnerable to preexisting conditions, and Blacks are more likely to be essential workers (Greenhouse p.1)
The February 5th, 2021 episode of the Rachel Maddow show included a segment on what Maddow referred to as vaccine inequity. The Covid pandemic has demonstrated the systemic inequities in America and throughout the world in the way poor people, poor countries, non-white, and specifically Black people have gotten sick and died disproportionately compared to their white counterparts (msnbc.com). Racial Disparities Already Taking Shape In Covid Vaccination Rates | Rachel Maddow | The recent development and roll out of the distribution of the vaccines in America once again points to the same inequities. Black people in America are receiving disproportionately less vaccinations than the rest of the population. According to a February 1st, 2021 article on Politico Magazines website, only five percent of the vaccines administered since the beginning of the rollout in December 2020 have went to Black Americans (Politico 1).
Maddow points out that racial and economic disparities have been the root causes that Blacks have less access to vaccines and are sick and dying more in this country. I agree with Maddow on the fact that because we are familiar with these disparities, we should be able to have a vaccine roll out that avoids such pitfalls. This is one of the most current examples of the fact that as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” that if we fall back on the status quo systems and leadership, we will continue to see the same injustices.
Before the pandemic, our health care system (just one component of this network of systemic injustice) was underserving Black Americans. Reducing the component of poverty in this country would help because Blacks are disproportionally poor. Lessoning the digital divide in America would help the situation access to technology needed to register for the vaccine. Improved access to transportation would help as people without cars are not able to take advantage of such programs as drive-through vaccinations. Maddow interviews Dr. Jerry Abraham of Los Angeles Kedren Community Health Center, who has demonstrated success in using community programs to network and provide resources to underserved populations in vaccination access.
The hesitancy of many people to receive the covid vaccine has been another issue in fighting the pandemic. Some have pointed to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where Black men were denied treatment, as a reason many Black people do not trust vaccines and the healthcare system. However, according to a recent article in the L.A. Times, when Karen Lincoln of Advocates for African American Elders talks to Black seniors “Tuskegee rarely comes up. People in the community talk about contemporary racism and barriers to healthcare…while it seems to be mainly academics and officials who are preoccupied with the history of Tuskegee” (p.1 Dembosky.latimes.com)’
Another part of the issue is the implicit bias of many individuals throughout healthcare systems. “Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes held toward other people. In a healthcare setting, when ideas about a patient are made because of unconscious associations rather than that person’s individuality, it can lead to poor care” (p.1 www.usnews.com). There has been a history of implicit bias in America in the medical management of non-white people. Because of this there have been multiple articles and accounts of Black people who died of Covid because medical facilities deemed symptoms were not enough to receive testing and sent them home (p.1 www.usnews.com).
The CDC website highlights social determinates and inequities that increase the risks of death and sickness due to COVID-19. According to the CDC, discrimination “can lead to chronic and toxic stress and shapes social and economic factors that put some people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of Covid-19 (p.1 cdc.gov).
An additional factor of injustice that has been magnified by the Covid pandemic is homelessness.According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty discriminatory economic and housing policies, among other variables, have historically led to disproportionate numbers of homeless in people of color. They also point out homelessness puts people at greater risk for covid due to increased difficulty accessing resources. They go on to say that “Homeless individuals infected with Covid 19 will be twice as likely to be hospitalized, two to four times as likely to require critical care, and two to three times more likely to die than the general population” (nlchp.org p.1).
As we slowly pull ourselves out of the pandemic, recovery is inequitable as well. The February 12 2021 PBS News article Amid systemic inequality, U.S. salaries recover even as jobs haven’ttalks about how people in low-income occupations have been disproportionately affected during the pandemic compared to higher-paying industries. Low-income workers from restaurant, hotel, entertainment, low paying health care, and retail industries. Recent indications have shown that overall, Americans are earning similar wages that they were before the pandemic (Rugaber p.1). The Washington Post reported in September 30th 2020 that groups slowest to recover economically from the pandemic recession are “mothers of school age children, Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, Asian Americans, younger Americans (ages 25 to 34) and people without college degrees “(Long, Van Dam, Fowers, Shapiro p.1). We can see here that a proper recovery from the pandemic will involve dealing with systemic injustice as well as inequality.
We must and rebuild all of America’s racist intuitions, in government, health care, education, economy, to name a few. In our information and technological age, everyone needs the same access to information and technology. We must work to end poverty. These are just a few things we can do to lessen the social inequity that make events like pandemics especially horrible and tragic.As Martin Luther King believed, “Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly” (King p.1) We are all one human race, interdependent on each other. Injustices arise in the creation and maintaining of inequalities rooted in conceiving human groups as one and the other. Once again, we must remember as Simon de Beauvoir said;
“Thus it is no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other…against itself” (Beauvoir p.1)
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/01/covid-vaccine-racial-disparities-464387 (Links to an external site.) Beuvior, Simone de. The Second Sex Introduction. Bantum Books. 1961 King Jr. Martin Luther. Letter to Birmingham Jail. Harper San Francisco. 1994
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 18th, 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 Houseof 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.
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.
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.
Where you live has much larger implications in the United States than most realize. Your home, where you grow up, has influences on your opportunities, education, and one that most people forget, your physical health and wellbeing. The environment you live in can have major influence over your health and lifespan. This is why I think it is very important to discuss and educate others on the subject of environmental racism and climate justice. Some communities in the United States are living in inhumane environments due to the failings of our government and long ingrained systemic injustice that is still harming communities across the country today.
Environmental racism is the policies and practices that disproportionately harm the environments of minority communities or communities of color. The principle of environmental justice stems from the concept that all communities are entitled to equal protection, which includes living in communities free of pollution and health hazards. This means that these minority populations have the ability to be in the room or have a seat at the table when decisions that impact the environment of their communities, for example, and all white city board cannot singlehandedly decide to put a new landfill in a predominantly black city. People in these minority communities should be able to make decisions that protect themselves. In the United States, pollution is segregated. There are many examples of this, from toxic water to environmental disasters that are more harmful to communities of color. When considering environmental racism, we must consider who is the most vulnerable and who are the people living in communities that climate change and pollution are most going to impact.
Unfortunately, zip code is a significant determining factor as to whether a population will endure environmental racism. One prominent example of this is Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is 83% black, and is the most polluted zip code in Michigan. Michigan, as a whole, is only made up of 25% people of color, demonstrating that the pollution is disproportionately impacting communities of color. The pollution in Detroit has become a major civil rights issue, with the mostly black residents experiencing health problems such as asthma as a result of irresponsible industrial plants polluting their communities. Of the eight facilities in Michigan that accept hazardous waste, seven of them are located in predominantly black lower income communities in Detroit. As a result, these black communities are suffering due to decisions that they have not made, and frequently are unable to escape due to financial factors. Michigan imports the most amount of hazardous waste of any state, and of the imported waste, 94% of it went to Wayne County, which has the largest population of people of color than any county in the state. It is clear that although the United States claims that there is laws and regulations under the EPA to prevent environmental racism and protect communities of color, Detroit and its predominantly black residents are suffering as a result of environmental racism and lack of justice provided by the supposed safeguards in place.
Another publicized case of environmental racism in Michigan is the Flint water crisis. Flint is composed of majority black residents, and the water supply was poisoned with lead for months while ignored by the city, and years without proper treatment. The water supply was changed to save the city money, however improper treatment caused poisonous and toxic lead to seep into the community’s water supply which, in turn, poisoned the residents of Flint. To make matters worse, when the issue was brought up to the city about residents getting sick from the discolored water, the response was underwhelming and pathetic considering what was warranted as thousands of residents were endangered by the city’s recklessness. There was an entire city becoming ill because the city had made a mistake. The water contamination and resulting health ailments that ensued were minimized by the government when residents were bringing their concerns about the water to them, and it took the government much longer than it ever should have to respond appropriately to a hazard of this magnitude. As a result, residents in their children were left with life-long implications on their health, including organ damage, hair loss, impaired brain function. This is a very well-known instance of environmental injustice, as thousands of minority residents in Flint were denied access to clean and safe water in their community.
An 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, which contains 150 chemical plants and oil refineries, has been named “Cancer Alley” because of the extremely high incidence of cancer cases near the industrial plants. Louisiana is known to be the most polluted, toxic air in the United States, and this particular stretch is the worst in the state and country. On top of the very prevalent incidence of cancer, toxic pollution in the air also causes lung issues and heart problems. This stretch, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, is known to have the highest cancer risk in the United States. A community in Cancer Alley called Reserve is known to have a risk of cancer that is fifty times that of the national average. Chemical plants that have been built on old plantations are plaguing the predominantly black, working class communities of Cancer Alley, and setting them up for lifetimes of health conditions and potentially fatal cancer. In addition, this area is predominantly black and low income. There have been entire families that have been killed by cancer and other ailments which the industrial plants’ pollution has caused. These industrial pollutants have been allowed to be released by the government into these communities and within miles of elementary and high schools, exposing children to the known toxins. Even though there are already 150 plants along this stretch, they are not done being built. There has been more land sold to the massive corporations that have plans to open more plastic factories or oil refineries. Some of these families do not have the financial means to leave, and others stay because their family history goes back many generations in the communities in Cancer Alley. The families here consider Cancer Alley home, and are advocating and fighting for change in legislation to protect their communities and demand equal protection for climate justice.
A very relevant concern falling under environmental racism and justice is climate change, because environmental disasters are more harmful to communities of color. We have discussed and outlined some instances of American cities where pollution is harming people of color in particular, but what about impacts of climate change on communities of color? For example, flooding and hurricanes that result from climate change have long-term impacts on communities of color and low-income communities. One of the most shocking examples of this occurring was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly in Louisiana. Over one million Louisiana residents were displaced after the devastating hurricane, 75% of which were black, and one third of which were poor. The recovery of the communities impacted by Hurricane Katrina were even more shocking— after ten years, in the predominantly black neighborhood of New Orleans, only 37% of the population had returned. There is a clear split between the rich, often white, residents that are able to escape natural disasters, and rebuild quickly afterward; and the poor, mostly black and communities of color, that do not have the option to leave when a disaster strikes nor the financial means to rebuild following disasters. Another example of an environmental disaster that disproportionately impacted communities of color and lower-income communities was Hurricane Harvey in 2017 in Texas. On the Texas coast, there are many communities of color and low-income communities that have long faced environmental racism through excessive pollution. During the time following the hurricane, the factories released even more toxic pollutants into the already vulnerable areas that were trying to recover from the disaster. Similarly to Hurricane Katrina, these communities were given less federal money to rebuild and took much longer to recover than the white and affluent parts of Texas impacted.
It would be remiss not to address the intersectionality of environmental racism and climate justice. Not only are cities like Detroit, Flint and the region in Cancer Alley predominantly minority communities, but they are also mostly low-income communities. There is segregation both by race and class in the United States when it comes to environmental justice or the lack thereof. Communities of color are more likely to face environmental injustices than white communities, just as lower class or lower income communities are more likely than high income communities to face environmental injustices. There is an intersectional aspect here, where low income communities of color are at an extreme disadvantage when it comes to receiving environmental justice. However, according to Robert Bullard, a sociologist who has been dubbed the “father of environmental justice”, racism trumps classism when it comes to environmental injustices, as middle class black communities are more likely to face environmental injustices than poor white communities. The issue of environmental racism needs to be confronted by our government and put an end to in order to protect communities of color.
