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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Excuse me, there-

That’s just how some people view other races.

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

Sort of influence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah.

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

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

Yeah.

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

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

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

Bye guys. Thanks for listening.

Bye.

“What do you think about Chinese Communist Party?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reference:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Molly: Now, a word from our sponsor!

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

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

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

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

Michaela: Bye guys thanks for listening!

Claire: Thank you and goodbye!

Works Cited:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yo, is this Racist

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

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

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

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

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

GRAPHIC WARNING

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

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

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

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

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

Transcript:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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 

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!