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Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase

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Umi Sushi located in Atlanta, Georgia, had sparked controversy in November of 2020. A black couple had decided to go out and get sushi together only to have been kicked out of the restaurant for wearing sneakers in the fine dining establishment. The restaurant has a dress code; no sneakers, no ball caps, no athletic wear, no sports jersey, no shorts, no flip-flops, no tank tops. Although the couple was aware of the dress code rules, they noticed that another (white) couple a few tables down had sneakers on. The black couple only assumed that because the other couple wore sneakers, so could them. 

But, once sitting down, Johnson (the black male wearing the sneaker) was turned down service and was asked to leave by the staff members. Johnson and his wife were upset. The lady a few tables down from them wore white sneakers, yet they were still given service. The staff members completely ignored the statement and persisted in making the black couple leave the restaurant. Johnson and his wife claimed that this was an issue of racism. Because they had purposely ignored the white couple, allowing them to eat, they had been kicked out only 10 minutes after entering the facility for wearing tennis shoes, just like the white women. 

The impact that this situation has is that dress codes for restaurants have been looked at more intently. There are many things that dress codes do not allow that may be discriminating against another race or culture. Also, because the dress code was mandated “whenever the staff members deem it necessary”, this shows that they are choosing who they want to mandate which can possibly be racially motivated. This can be an example of Master-Slave dialect. This is because the “master”, service, had complete control over the “slave”, customer, in this situation. The dress code at this “fine dining” facility lacks cultural diversity. Wearing things like sneakers, hats, and etc. are generally things that most people of color would wear. What had caused this to be systemic racism is the fact that the staff members had only mandated this dress code with the black couple and ignored that the white couple had worn sneakers as well. In order for this wrong to be corrected, I believe that there are two things that can be done in this situation. They can be less strict on the clothing mandate with all guest as they were with the white couple, or they can be strict with each customer that walks in as they were with the black couple. There is not in between when making rules. If a rule is made, all people should have to follow the rule or the rule should be erased entirely. 

 

Context Presentation (week 13)

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In this week’s reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist written by Mohsin Hamid, follows the life of a young man named Changez who initially moved from Pakistan to America to follow the American dream. The story continues to unfold showing the experiences Changez had before the attack on 9/11. Living in New York at the time, the results of the tragic event caused a shift in the way individuals viewed and treated Changez. Not only has this caused a shift in societal perspective of muslims but it has also brought more political tension between America and South Asian Countries. 

 

After the event of 9/11 the incidents in hate crimes specifically targeting muslims increased drastically. Statistics show that year alone had the highest rate of hate crimes towards muslims. People started to target Muslims in America, by attacking, mistreating and destroying their place of worship. This was partly due to the association of fear that muslims were connected to acts of terrorism which after all led to rise in islamophobia. The idea of portraying muslims as terrorists has only caused a further division because muslims felt as though they weren’t openly being welcomed in America anymore. This can be seen in a more recent politics where former President Donald Trump passed a law by banning travel for only muslim countries. This situation and Trump’s attempt to push for islamophobia narratives has only caused a way higher incidents rate in attacks towards muslim when compared to the year 2001. Such incidents has only caused the muslim community to not feel safe and live in fear of being attacked. In order to move away from this notion of fearing muslims in our society, individuals would need to educate themselves about the religion and its followers first hand.  

References:

Alfonseca K. 2021 Sep 11 [accessed 2021 Nov 14]. https://abcnews.go.com/US/20-years-911-islamophobia-continues-haunt-muslims/story?id=79732049

Abdalla J. ‘Under the prism’: Muslim Americans reflect on life post-9/11. 2021 Sep 10 [accessed 2021 Nov 14]. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/9/under-the-prism-muslim-americans-reflect-on-life-post-9

Hamid, Mohsin. 2007. The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Reluctant Fundamentalist- America’s view of Islamic world post 9/11 (week 13)

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The reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is a novel that explores several issues related to the relationship between America and the Islamic world in the context of post 9/11. The climate and attitude between these countries have intensified since after the attack of Twin tower and Hamid characterized this relationship in a sense of danger to each other. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the protagonist Changez is a Pakistani who has lived and studied in America, looking forward to a successful career in the corporate world. His notion of identity takes a turn after 9/11 when he starts to feel misjudged, misunderstood, and alienated in his adopted country.

As we have known from Persepolis, pre 9/11 the idea of Islam as a hostile, inferior, and strange culture was already deeply entrenched in the minds of westerners, post 9/11 world, there has been a stark change in the attitude and approach towards the Muslim community. It has led to a stereotyping of the Islamic community as terrorists and antithetical to the American way of life in a profound way. The Muslim culture has been sought to be projected as fundamentalist and uncivilized, fostering extreme reactions like terrorism as a counter-response to western attitudes. This stereotyping has also led to a sense of insecurity among Muslims especially amongst those living in the United States of America since there has been a dramatic change in the world’s focus on them and every Muslim is viewed as a potential terrorist, fanatical and violent, giving rise to what is known today as Islamophobia.

When America was proved that it was not immune to national threats after 9/11, there has been a drastic change in the entire security system in the US, and the airport is one of the major areas. Before the attack on twin tower, passengers used to be able to arrive at the airport just minutes before a flight, keeping their shoes and coats on as they went through a simple metal detector, and virtually anyone could go right to the gate without a boarding pass or even showing an ID. After the horrific event, airport security has changed forever, making it strict and harder to pass without proper documentation, standing in line for hours for security checks making it mandatory for passengers and luggage to go through high-resolution screening. In addition, people who looked like Islamic are being othered and bitter reality, they are facing judgement and lengthy security checks in airport.

After reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the context presentation, what are your thought on how America’s view has changed on the Islamic world and how they are being othered in the US?

 

Sources

Grafton, D. D. (2009). Reading Their Book of Faith: North American Muslims and Their Interpretations of the Qur’an in the Post 9/11 Era. Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 48(3), 257–266. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00469.

https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/how-the-u-s-general-public-views-muslims-and-islam/

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase

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This week a friend of mine had an experience that opened my eyes to a huge injustice in the United States that we hardly pay attention to! My friend is in a sorority, and last year when all the Black Lives Matter protests were at their peak, her sorority added a diversity and inclusion chair, which she was selected for in its first year. As a Puerto Rican latina who has the physical features of a Puerto Rican (black hair, brown skin), she has experienced injustice first hand and knows what she as a person of color can do to help fellow people of color.  Greek life is predominately white, and when this year’s elections came around, her white peers elected a white counterpart to take over the position this year. 

I looked into national statistics to see if this unacceptable injustice is happening on a larger scale. I found out that while many companies have made a public effort to increase their diversity efforts, the corporate workforce is still headed by nearly all white people. 85% of executive positions were held by whtie people at the company Mercer in 2020. (Stevens, CNBC). These statistics are representative of a general promotion gap that exists in the corporate workforce. A promotion gap can be historically explained, as when slevery was still legal white people literally were the executives and black people were their workers. It took us centuries to even recognize that forcing people into slavery positions based on their skin color is incredibly cruel, unethiucal, and inappropriate. However, when slavery was abolished, people of color still had to fight for their rights. While we have made a lot of progress, there is clearly still a large gap based on skin color that’s represented in systemic issues like a promotion gap. 

 

Click this link to learn more about the history of slavery:

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery

 

In class, we have discussed the master-slave dialect that can be seen between different identities and groups. In the United States, I think we naturally have a master-slave view between white and black people because of slavery, which was present in Great Britain and the thirteen colonies, and not abolished until the nineteenth century. Slavery has been legal in the United States longer than it has not been, so we really have not had as much time as we think the break this master-slave view. This may be why white people are often seen in executive positions more commonly than people of color in general, and especially black people. The image below provides statistics that highlight discrimination people of color in the workplace, which can be accredited to the master-slave dialect and its associations with a white master and black slave.

The issue of discrimination and its impacts on people of color is large. People of color are statistically lacking in executive positions where they can have true influence on diversity and inclusion efforts. As a caucasian person, I know that I am naive to what the best way to handle these kinds of issues are, simply because I have not experienced the injustice that people of color have. Regardless, white people are still making decisions for their companies/organizations people of color. Specifically, white people are in power positions related to diversity and inclusion, when they should not be making those decisions for people of color.

 

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase- Jon Gruden, Las Vegas Football Head Coach- Matej Vocel

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For this Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase, I chose to talk about the Jon Gruden case, the former Las Vegas Raiders head coach. In this New York Times article “Raiders Coach Resigns After Homophobic and Misogynistic Emails,” authors of an article explain how his actions and speech had a huge impact on people, fans and the community in America and especially on Raiders fans. People find out that in his email he was being racist and homophobic to players with different sexuality and towards referees of the opposite sex.

 

In the blog post from week 2 “Gender Roles in the 1930s and 40s” written by G. Jang, we can see a contrast of Jon Gruden and blog week 2 article. In the article the main topic is World War II is giving women a chance for first time to have a job in “non pink collar” jobs. The examples of “pink collar” job are nurses, typists and secretaries. Women wanted to be more invested in heavy industry and physical power jobs that only men were able to work 1940s. Jon Gruden was staying with this old-fashioned mindset about women in this society difference in his email, commenting that female referee should not be in football and female referee is not good enough. These comments are great example of injustice of participation female gender in male sport and business.

 

Diversity of gender roles, racism and sexism is main case of this story about Jon Gruden. Coaches should be an example and represent their team and NFL company in the best way, and racism and comments about women that should not be part of football. Women should be more involved in positions like referee or team management. The main issues are that I believe that unfortunately in NFL there will be more powerful people (like owners of teams, donors, and NFL executives) who are against hiring women in football than Jon Gruden. People who miss step like Jon Gruden should be fined and fired from football, like what happened to him, that’s a great example.

 

By sharing this case, I am trying to point at gender injustice and racism in sport. NFL is very popular in United States, and we can see an injustice of hiring women in football. It is a sport that men play, but no one saying that women are not allowed to work for teams. I believe that sport industry and specifically football industry should give women a chance to prove people wrong.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/sports/football/what-did-jon-gruden-say.html?searchResultPosition=1

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/nation-world/jon-gruden-emails/507-cf4b204c-0730-49e8-95e6-067dbc67603b

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase: Name Discrimination

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This past weekend, I competed in a speech and debate tournament where the names of the highest placing competitors are announced. I knew my name was next when I heard the announcer take a long pause. And as she continued, I heard her brutally butcher my name. Even afterward when people corrected her, the announcer didn’t even attempt to correct herself. When ethnic or non-traditional names are mispronounced, the correct pronunciation of the name is cast-off as unimportant, when in reality, denying someone the basic courtesy of respecting their name, and consequently, their heritage and identity, is an injustice. I had explained in my previous entry that implicit bias played a huge role in linking certain black-sounding names to violence in comparison to white-sounding names. The discrimination and implicit bias does not end there though. It permeates into the workforce as well. To fix this, I mentioned prior that, name-blind job applications would be a great solution. Hiding someone’s name can bring greater attention to their merit. White sounding names are more likely to get a call back than ethnic-sounding names Relating to Simone de Beavouies concept of “ the Self and the Other” that we’ve learned about in class, name discrimination pronounces people with traditional or western names the majority, making people with non-traditional or ethnic names the minority, or “other”. Intersecting with categories like race, literacy, and socioeconomic status, it perpetuates everyday stereotypes. Individuals with “Asian-sounding” names are labeled as smart or thick-accented non-English speakers before people even meet them, reinforcing the model minority myth and xenophobic ideals. Moreover, a form of name discrimination can be seen in the novel we currently finished reading called The Leavers. When Deming was adopted, his name was changed to Daniel to fit more into western society. There was no reason to erasure Demings culture by changing his name and the cultural identity crisis Deming underwent as a result was not worth it. Name discrimination is present even without ill-intent and this was the case with Deming’s adoptive parents. In many cases, people shorten their Ethnic names to fit into society and make it easier on their non-ethnic peers. In order to avoid such erasure, the first step we need to take is to learn to embrace our ethnic names. Ethnic names contain someone’s identity, culture, and history, so ignoring them, discriminating against them, and erasing them is still nothing short of an injustice.

sources:

Texas Lawmaker Says Asians Should All Have Names Like Betty

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: The Linnentown Project

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A Linnentown house, with one of the University of Georgia's high-rise dorm buildings behind it.

Queen , H. (2020). A Linnentown house, with one of the University of Georgia’s high-rise dorm buildings behind it. The story behind Linnentown: Why Athens residents are speaking out decades after their community’s removal. Special Collections Libraries. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.redandblack.com/athensnews/the-story-behind-linnentown-why-athens-residents-are-speaking-out-decades-after-their-community-s/article_a899c21c-3aa3-11eb-9b2f-13b4471b0a88.html.

 

In 1962, a neighborhood next to the University of Georgia (UGA), Linnentown, was seized by UGA and the city of Athens which displaced approximately 50 Black families from their homes (Queen, 2021). They then used that neighborhood as dormitories for the school, while several families were forced out of their homes. The University was able to do this through the Federal Urban Renewal Program, a program that was used to ‘clear out slums’ (Whitehead, 2021). The program used eminent domain laws to legally get away with seizing the area. “Eminent domain laws allow a government to seize private property as long as it provides monetary compensation to the owner (Queen, 2021).” There are some direct parallels to colonialism in this situation. The same people that benefit from the removal of Linnentown are the same type of people that wrote the eminent domain laws. They seized the properties for as low of a price as $2,000 (Whitehead, 2021).

This story is being brought to light now due to Joseph Carter, an UGA library employee that found data on Linnentown (Queen, 2021). Previous residents are fighting for compensation and for the UGA to acknowledge what they did. These people have been unheard for decades after they were removed from their homes. In a way, their situation has made them subalterns, or othered others This is not an isolated incident. For an example, around the same time as Linnentown happened, the University of Chicago did something similar and displaced over 4,000 families (Queen, 2021). This all goes back to the Housing Act of 1949, a law that allowed local governments to take out federal loans to get rid of ‘slum areas’ (Queen, 2021).

Hattie Thomas Whitehead, a member of one of the families that was displaced by what happened in Linnentown, is taking action. This year, she has been trying to get the mayor of Athens to pass the Linnentown Resolution, that will help the previous residents of Linnentown get the compensation that they deserved, since UGA paid Black homeowners less than the white homeowners (Queen, 2021).

This is a systemic injustice, because the government legalized the displacement of families and the seizure of homes, and the compensation received for this is less for Black homeowners. This injustice can be remedied by sharing this information and fighting for the reparations that these people deserve. Backing organizations like the Linnentown Resolution can help give a voice to those that were unheard for so long and helps prevent this from happening again.

 

Hulsey, D. (2015). Linnentown Neighborhood. Community Mapping Lab. Retrieved 2021, from http://www.communitymappinglab.org/linnentown-project.html.

 

Works Cited:

Shannon, J. (2015, March). Linnentown Project. Community Mapping Lab. Retrieved November 6, 2021, from http://www.communitymappinglab.org/linnentown-project.html.

Queen, H. (2021, September 13). The story behind linnentown: Why athens residents are speaking out decades after their community’s removal. The Red and Black. Retrieved November 6, 2021, from https://www.redandblack.com/athensnews/the-story-behind-linnentown-why-athens-residents-are-speaking-out-decades-after-their-community-

Whitehead, H. T. (2021). Response. Redressforlinnentown. Retrieved November 6, 2021, from https://www.redressforlinnentown.com/action.