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Context Presentation – Religion in India and Pakistan – Week 12

This week we will be taking a look at Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri which covers stories about Indians in America and India. In order to better understand their stories, perhaps it would be helpful to talk about some of the belief systems to gain a perspective of Indian culture.

 

India is home to many religions; its current makeup includes a majority of Hindu’s with a much smaller number of Muslims. Beyond that India is also home to an even smaller number of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains (Kramer). Therefore, India is a very diverse nation of different beliefs.

 

Not too long ago the geographic area in and around current India was partitioned into different nations in 1947. Originally it was partitioned into India and Pakistan, but Pakistan has since been divided into two separate nations: Pakistan and Bangladesh (“The Partition”). These divisions of nations did not happen easily or peacefully. The initial partition of India and Pakistan was not done by the people who lived in those respective regions but rather by the previously ruling British. Therefore, the partitions caused serious problems in the area. Many of these problems related to the religious and cultural differences between people. As a result relations between India and Pakistan are still very tense. India is mostly Hindu while Pakistan is mostly Muslim (“The Partition”). This has caused problems due to members of both religions living in both nations. Although, it is incredibly important to understand that these tensions are not because people of different religions cannot get along, it is that the partitioning of India and Pakistan was not carried out by natural citizens. Perhaps if the partitioning was done more considerably to the cultures of the people of the region, then these problems would not be problems today. Or at the very least, much less severe.

 

 

References

Kramer, Stephanie. “Key findings about the religious composition of India.” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/21/key-findings-about-the-religious-composition-of-india/Accessed 4 November 2021.

 

“The Partition of India: What Happened?” British Broadcasting Corporation, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46428985. Accessed 4 November 2021.

Contextual Presentation – Matej Vocel – Week 12

The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the crusaders, among others. Colonialism in the modern sense began with the “Age of Discovery”, led by Portuguese, and then by the Spanish exploration of the Americas, the coasts of Africa, Southwest Asia which is also known as the Middle East, India, and East Asia. The Portuguese and Spanish empires were the first global empires because they were the first to stretch across different continents, covering vast territories around the globe. Between 1580 and 1640, the two empires were both ruled by the Spanish monarchs in personal union. During the late 16th and 17th centuries, England, France and the Dutch Republic also established their own overseas empires, in direct competition with one another” (Ross, 1). From the beginnings of humanity the powerful and more advanced civilization will be expanding to adjacent territories and beyond.

With the ”Age of Discovery” the Spanish conquered South America and the native Indians ( bear in mind that this term was given on the mistaken identity of the people of ”India”) were disseminated and forced work in agriculture and mining. When they were proved to not be fit for such strenuous labor they introduced slaves from Africa. ” Slavery operated in the first civilizations (such as Sumer in Mesopotamia, which dates back as far as 3500 BC). Slavery features in the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1860 BCE), which refers to it as an established institution.  Slavery was widespread in the ancient world” (Encyclopedia, 1). This duality of colonization and the motherland, resonates with the concept of Hegel of Master-Slave. In South America and the new territories, such as The Viceroyalty of New Granada also called Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada or Viceroyalty of Santa Fe : the jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.

All of these territories became independent and autonomous. The same fate happened in 1776 in the United States. When the 13 Colonies became independent from the ”motherland”. In thinking about immigration one has to bring the issue of legal immigration and illegal immigration. This is subject to a wide range of moral and ethical dilemmas  that would be out of my scope to consider. Finalizing my essay on a bright note: people flee to find better opportunities for their families as the case of the Syrian refugees flooding the European estates as Germany and Finland or the Southern border of America, and even Venezuelan people leaving their country to Colombia away from communism.The premise is improving and struggling to have a better life. To this day , I have not seen people trying to go to Cuba, Venezuela or North Korea.

 

References:

Ross, Elliot. “The Past Is Still Present: Why Colonialism Deserves Better Coverage.” The Correspondent, 9 Oct. 2019, https://thecorrespondent.com/32/the-past-is-still-present-why-colonialism-deserves-better-coverage/34856800000-34372b68.

New Granada, Viceroyalty. Edited by Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture, Encyclopedia.com, 26 Oct. 2021, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/new-granada-viceroyalty.

 

Regional discrimination in China-(Diary of Systemic Injustices)

There is a very common phenomenon in China that is regional discrimination. In China, coastal areas are generally more developed than inland cities, both economically and in terms of education per capita, so many people from inland cities will come to coastal cities to pursue a better life. This is a very prospect and diverse phenomenon since different regions in China have very different food habits, cultures, etc., and the foreign population is actually very helpful to the development of local cities. However, there are some locals who will reject foreigners or treat them unfairly. In terms of the universality of the world, human beings, by nature, tend to get along with people of similar characteristics, and face. There is a lot of uncertainty if they get along with people of different identities, colors, or races. This is a universal problem that is better explained in psychological studies. Also in China or other regions, housing prices in developed cities tend to be higher than in other regions. The price of housing will of course become more expensive as the population increases. The housing pressure on the locals will increase synchronously. In addition to the price of housing, there will be more competition for education resources, urban welfare, and public services at different levels. The two types of discrimination mentioned earlier are general discrimination at the individual level and public policy discrimination at the institutional level. If we want to overcome discrimination at the individual level, it actually involves a change in perceptions and even values. It is difficult to say that we can make everyone free of discrimination, but we are still advocating for improved public policies to move towards justice and equality. At the level of individual values, diversity itself is an objective existence, but in public policies and social value formation, justice and equality are to be emphasized. Cities have a large number of immigrants, which is precisely the source of having dynamism, providing urban innovation and entrepreneurship. In a modern civilized society, justice, and equality are achieved even through reverse discrimination. Many resources are allocated on the basis of income, so it is important to systematically allocate resources in favor of disadvantaged groups in the income, racial or physical dimensions. In terms of personal values, there may be some “some people just look down on low-income people”, but in the construction of social values, the opposite should be true.
In general, this is very similar to what we discussed in week 11, the issue of immigrants in the United States. Many immigrants have suffered from discrimination and unfair treatment. From a psychological perspective, people prefer to live with people who have similar characteristics to themselves. From a public policy and resource perspective, people are concerned that their interests are being compromised. In fact, these are unconscious protections that people have for themselves. But on a larger level, people need these immigrants to enhance diversity and provide innovation and entrepreneurship to the city.

 

 

The local police hurled insults at outsiders and said outsiders are inferior to natives.

 

News about opposing the unfair college entrance examination system for non-local people.

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-10-19/141025394785.shtml

 

 

Resource from: The local police hurled insults at outsiders and said outsiders are inferior to natives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7mMdBF_LRE

Oppose the unfair college entrance examination system for non-local people. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-10-19/141025394785.shtml

Mental health in minority groups systematic injustice showcase

Mental health became an important topic during the past year especially the quarantine time when people were isolated from each other and had more time to reflect on themselves and their being in daily life. In one of my systematic injustice diaries, I point out the reason why minorities got into therapies is a less seeing situation in our country. In this post, I am going to emphasize the reason by analyzing its context and the background.

In one newspaper article, one of the most popular systematic injustices topics is pointed to the mental health barriers in the Black community. Moreover, from the website, National Mental Health Alliance, negative attitudes and beliefs towards people who live with mental health conditions are pervasive within the U.S. and can be particularly strong within the Black community. One study showed that 63% of Black people believe that mental health disabilities tights with personal weakness. There are mainly two reasons that cause these effects: the difference in culture and how these cultures influence their socioeconomic status, and the effect of the discrimination that still happening in nowadays society. Due to the fact slavery existed in African American history, the misconception is that African Americans are not sophisticated enough to develop depression, anxiety, or other mental health disorders, and this led to a misconception of mental health issues and learning to ignore mental illness or call it other terms, like ‘stress’ and ‘being tired. Thus, according to the website, they often refer to their mental illness like physical illness. For instance, describing bodily aches and pains when talking about depression. Additional to African American communities, Asian Americans were also suffering from misconceptions of mental disabilities. Many Asian Americans also have strong family obligations that center around traditional and cultural values. Asian philosophical traditions strongly identify someone’s self-value with their ability to care for their family and community. These cultural thoughts encourage the idea that people with mental illness, who may not live up to these stereotypes, obligations, and values, are failures, valueless, or have no identity or purpose.

The second reason was mostly that many discriminations that minorities still encounter in their daily as living in this systematical injustice society. For example, due to this phenomenon, African Americans would not turn to therapists for help with a fear of being judged. The National Mental Health Alliance also indicated this situation can be stressed by provider bias and inequality in healthcare. In nowadays, we can still examine that health providers, both conscious and unconscious, and a lack of cultural competency can result in misdiagnosis. This ultimately can lead to mistrust of mental health professionals and create a barrier for many to engage in treatment.

Linking back to our course example, the topic of mental health issues in minorities can mostly relate to Deming’s Example in the book The Leavers. Due to his new environment in his adopted family, he struggled to identify and recognized his personal value and true identities. Another issue that is stressed in minorities’ mental health is that they often felt that could not relate to others in their environment. Deming’s experience is relatively unique due to his experience of shifting communities and his memories with his mother, we can understand how personal experience can influence their emotions and every person is a case by case but not represented as a single story, which is an important concept in psychological studies today.

Reference:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/asian-american-mental-health#why-is-there-a-stigma
https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/how-can-we-break-mental-health-barriers-communities-color
https://www.nami.org/Your-Journey/Identity-and-Cultural-Dimensions/Black-African-American

Diary Of Systemic Injustice: Showcase

This week I was scrolling through twitter when I saw disturbing pictures of what seemed to be a  border control police officers on horses using a wipe to hit Haitian immigrants. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing because I was confused as to why a group of defenseless black immigrants were being targeted with wipes. According to CNN, a mass number of Haitians were trying to find a way to seek asylum into the U.S coming from Mexico. The pictures that were going around were from members of the U.S border control trying to prevent Haitian immigrants from entering the U.S borders. I think people have other thoughts after seeing those pictures all over social media because it looks like they’re using wipes in a brutal way. It’s very sad to see people being treated like this because they’re immigrants trying to seek a better life in another country but they’re being treated in a cruel way. I think as someone whose family has also come to America after fleeing a war torn country, refugees should be treated more kindly because they probably have gone through so much. It was a journey of itself to see how long this group of people have probably traveled while leaving everything behind to seek asylum just to be told in a harsh way to go back to your country is such sad news. The way America sees immigrants is in fact prejudice driven and they are also seen in a very bad light. In reference to The Leavers by Lisa Ko, Polly spoke about her experience in getting separated from her family by immigration because she wasn’t an American citizen. Polly also mentioned how she and others who in this case didn’t have documentation were also being held while being treated inhuman. This experience presented to us by Ko can be similar to issues such as how Haitian immigrants are treated by border control in today’s society. By including Polly’s experience in the book, Ko has only brought further awareness to the idea of how  immigrants in America for those who don’t have proper documentation are treated differently. Therefore, I think that the system has set these individuals up for failure by making the process to get proper documentation extremely hard. 

 

Citation:Wolf ZB. Why many thousands of Haitians converged on the US-Mexico border. 2021 Sep 23. https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/politics/haitian-immigrants-us-border-explained/index.html

 

 

 

Tax on Pads- Singhal Systematic Injustice

Women have always been looked down and considered inferior. Woman from the start of humanity have been considered the “other” and men were considered the “one.” This thinking started way back when women stayed home and cooked meals and took care of the house, while men were out working in fighting wars. However, now women are equal to men. They can do everything and anything a man can do. Even though, they can do anything and everything men can do, they are still not considered equal in society today.

This can be seen in day-to-day basis. Woman on average make less than men, women are still expected to take care of the house and the people living in it, women are less likely to get hired just because they are a woman, and examples like these can go on forever. However, one systematic injustice I noticed with woman, in general was when I was out with my sister, and she was buying tampons. She told me and I noticed there is a luxury tax on them. Luxury tax is a type of tax that is applied on luxury items. Hearing that I was shook. Menstrual cycle is something that every woman goes through in her life. Therefore, it’s a necessity, the government cannot tax a tampon as a luxury item as it is an item that every woman requires. Luxury tax should only be applied on expensive cars, private jets, yachts, etc. This is clearly systematic injustice towards women. This also goes along with de Beauvoir’s theory of one and the other. In this scenario, Men are the one and Women are the other.

The solution for this is that the law should be repealed. Tampons should not be taxed as luxury item as it is a thing that women require and need. Fortunately, Ohio has repealed the law and now tampons are no longer taxed as a luxury item. However, there are many other states in the United States that are still taxing tampons as luxury. So, I think the laws should be repealed and tampons should not be taxed as luxury.

Petition · Make Pads + Tampons EXEMPT from NY State Sales Tax · Change.org

“Sign the Petition.” Change.org, https://www.change.org/p/ny-state-legislature-make-pads-tampons-exempt-from-ny-state-sales-tax?redirect=false.

Bias In The Development of AI (Diary of Systemic Injustice)

Britannica defines AI as “artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.” AI is being implemented into countless technology platforms currently, making functions easier and faster. AI systems are designed to use data to perform tasks and make decisions. But some of the uses of AI, like face recognition, is very susceptible to discrimination.

Joy Buolamwini, a computer scientist of Ghanaian descent, founded the Algorithmic Justice League to combat discriminatory outcomes of AI systems used today. In her TIME article ‘Artificial Intelligence Has a Problem With Gender and Racial Bias. Here’s How to Solve It’, she states that face recognition AI systems are not tested enough on people that are not men or light skinned. Three photos below demonstrate the kinds of misinterpretation AI systems make when attempting to recognize Black women, and the company that developed that system is shown beneath the photos. It falsely identifies them as male, and recognizes an afro as a wig. However, those systems performed terrifically for light skinned men with an error rate of only 1%. On the contrary, for dark skinned women, the error rate skyrocketed to 35%.
 

 

What makes this problematic is that these AI systems are used for a wide range of functions like face recognition for surveillance, forensics, algorithms for advertisements, medical data, etc. If a system cannot differentiate accurately between dark skinned persons, or misidentify them individually, dark skinned people are at risk of being targeted. A surveillance system may recognize a dark skinned person as a threat. Forensic science methods with AI may not be able to distinguish minorities precisely, targeting the wrong people. There have even been recent complaints about social media algorithms, favoring influencers that are not dark skinned. These issues are due to the fact that most people in the tech industry are White males, and are not taking into account that these systems will impact people differently.

Joy Buolamwini founded the Algorithmic Justice League to dig deeper into these issues and prevent gender and racial bias in AI systems. This surely can be solved by improving those systems to be inclusive and not biased. Buolamwini believes that facial recognition systems used by law enforcement, should be temporarily suspended, until these systems have been completely improved. Another way this can be solved is by encouraging women and minorities to join the STEM field and be a part of the development of these new technologies.

britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence

time.com/5520558/artificial-intelligence-racial-gender-bias/

youtube.com/watch?v=UG_X_7g63rY

Diary of Systemic Injustices: Lookism

It may seem an ugly truth to some that beautiful people are often more successful than plain ones. But now appearance has emerged as a new form of discrimination in legal disputes. Some claim that lookism is a new form of racism that should be banished from civilized society. Discrimination based on ugliness is no different from discrimination based on race or disability. But it is hard for lookism to rise to political theory because it shields itself from fatal unreasonableness, but most of the public follow blindly, and the so-called lie told a thousand times becomes the preconceived correct truth. In South Korea, looks not only affect employment and promotion, but also a person’s social status and interpersonal relationships, far more than society can tolerate. The first and most obvious way in society to dominate the self-esteem of others is through the expectation of appearance, which may vary from culture to culture. Ortiz-Cofer strongly proved this at the beginning of her story, explaining that she “was a white girl born in Puerto Rico, but became a brown girl when she came to the United States to live.” How her relative perceptions vary from location to location affects the way she labels herself. On the one hand, “lookism” discriminates against those with less than perfect appearance, which has a great impact on their study, life and employment. On the other hand, people who can afford to reshape their appearance and eliminate feelings of inferiority tend to discriminate against those who can’t, exacerbating their feelings of inferiority and psychological stress. This kind of lookism theory inevitably involves the presence of others, and these differences often provide a pernicious basis when it comes to how others see us. For those labeled as “others,” the struggle and burden of physical and mental growth are inherently more difficult. Otis-Cofer details this phenomenon in her novel The Story of My Body, where she demonstrates that as an ‘other’ she faced countless struggles and difficulties in self-image and growing up that no one in her generation had to face. As Otis-Cofer says, the good-looking people don’t have to deal with this, and it’s unfair to the other.

Unconscious Injustice: Name Discrimination

American society has gradually improved the way that it treats minorities since the founding of this nation. The ability to attain life, liberty, and happiness has been extended to more individuals making way to create healthy and progressive environments. Despite these advancements, there are still systemic injustices that plague many academic and professional institutions. Although it may be subliminal, name discrimination is a serious problem that has stunted the educational and career growth of many people of color. This phenomenon occurs with people who possess names that are considered ethnic or “non-Western”. These people often find that they have difficulty landing jobs or gaining acceptance into prestigious programs that they would otherwise be qualified for. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that “Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback…those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback” (Francis 1). This includes only a small percentage of the people experiencing this injustice. 

Victims of this practice often take drastic measures to avoid this problem, such as changing their names to something deemed more socially acceptable. A 2002 study showed that a group of Jewish individuals “sought to erase their ethnic names and replace them with more generic “American-sounding” ones” (Daley 2). Similarly, after the September 11 New York attacks, many Arab Americans opted to “change [their] name to a less demonstratively Muslim/Arabic first name” (Daley 4). The urge to change one’s name is simply due to the negative and inaccurate connotations associated with foreign names. Furthermore, the practice of disregarding someone’s qualifications based on their names enforces harmful stereotypes. These include labeling minorities as unintelligent, an inability to speak coherently, and possessing barbaric and uncultured mannerisms. As Marji expresses in Persepolis, she experiences many injustices in Austria due to the combination of her name and heritage, such as when the nun refers to Iranians as uneducated. While she eventually grows to appreciate her background, she experiences brutal discrimation in the process. 

Like Marji and many other minorities, no one should have to change anything about their identity, including his or her name, to be seen as acceptable in society. Going forward, these biases must be addressed so that all people can truly have equal access to the same educational and professional tools which can allow genuine societal progression. 

Learn more:

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/08/18/name-discrimination-jobs

Works Cited:

“Employers’ Replies to Racial Names.” NBER, https://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/employers-replies-racial-names.

Kirsten Fermaglich Associate Professor. “Why Are Some Americans Changing Their Names?” The Conversation, 1 May 2021, https://theconversation.com/why-are-some-americans-changing-their-names-102146.

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

Environmental racism might be an unfamiliar term for many of us but with the hurricane season and global warming on the rise, environmental racism is more apparent than ever. A statement from the Environmental Protection Agency reports, “Racial minorities in the United States will bear a disproportionate burden of the negative health and environmental impacts from a warming planet.”

The horrific aftermath from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana may just look as if the hurricane was to blame for the mass destruction. However, “it was the direct result of the failure of political and corporate leaders, year after year, to build adequate infrastructure, implement equitable protections for relief and provide Black communities with the same resources and protections afforded to wealthy, white neighborhoods”, according to Rashad Robinson. Simply put, the hurricane was inevitable, but the destruction of African American communities was preventable. Governments are allocating their money and resources to organizations that are already over-funded and who are of no benefit to the African American community. It seems as if politicians and corporations are too concerned with their own agendas and speaking to the voters and stakeholders that matter to them, that they disregard the hurt that they are putting on the minority communities. We are seeing a repeat of what happened after Hurricane Katrina over ten years ago when African Americans didn’t get the help and support they needed and deserved. Here we are, a decade later, putting these communities in the exact same position.

Aside from the lack of appropriate funding and infrastructure in minority communities, the people living here are also disadvantaged in the fact that they can not just get up and flee from their homes when they get word of an approaching natural disaster. It might seem as if the aftermath of Hurricane Ida is not to the degree of Hurricane Katrina. However, Hurricane Ida impacted these already financially strained communities in the midst of the pandemic. More than ever, people are out of work, food, and even home. This whole epidemic of environmental racism and the media portraying these African American and minority communities reminds me of Aijaz Ahmad’s essay challenging the use of the word “Third World” as an Othering term.

The author of the article I read regarding this issue was written by Rashad Robinson who is the president of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. The are many resources on the site useful for advocates of racial justice and a place to donate as well. These resources can serve as a solution to reduce racial injustice in African American communities before and after natural disasters occur.

 

References

Ceant, Wen-kuni. “If You Want Proof of Environmental Racism, Look No Further Hurricane Ida.” TheGrio, 13 Sept. 2021, https://thegrio.com/2021/09/13/hurricane-ida-racial-implications/.

Robinson, Rashad. “Hurricane Ida’s Destruction Was the Result of Years of Systemic Racism.” Salon, Salon.com, 5 Oct. 2021, https://www.salon.com/2021/10/05/do-black-lives-matter-hurricane-idas-destruction-was-the-direct-result-of-systemic/.