Group A: Alexis Moreo, Jed Zoghaib, Anthony Fauver
Transcription:
*Welcome to the “Yo is this Injustice” podcast, where we will talk about current systemic injustices that are going on throughout the nation.
*We’ve all made submissions of systemic injustices throughout the semester, and we are going to share the submissions that we each found interesting.
*Before we do that, we are all going to introduce ourselves.
*Starting with me, my name is Jed Zoghaib and I’m a 2nd year student at the Ohio State University majoring in Psychology.
*My name is Alexis Moreo, and I am also a 2nd year student at the Ohio State University, and I’m majoring in Communications.
My name is Anthony Fauver and I am also a 2nd year student at the Ohio State University and I’m majoring in Astrophysics.
*Now that we have introduced ourselves, let’s discuss our systemic injustice submissions that we found the most interesting.
Electoral College (Anthony Fauver)
*Yo is this Injustice?
*The electoral college allows each state population to elect electors that will vote for the president.
*However, one of the biggest flaws of this system is that it’s not equally representative of the US, as it doesn’t award a proportional amount of electors to each state by its population.
*For example, one electoral vote in Wyoming is worth 192,989 votes while one electoral vote in California is worth 718,383 votes.
*This means that every vote from Wyoming for the president is equivalent to three votes from California.
*This is the largest disparity in the electoral college, but the number of votes necessary to receive an electoral vote varies wildly throughout the United States, with more populous states requiring more voters to receive an electoral vote than less populous states.
*Not only is there a huge disparity in the proportion used to distribute electors, but in 33 states and the District of Columbia, these electors are allowed to vote for whoever they want, regardless of who the people they represent voted for.
*This has resulted in millions of people losing their electoral representation because their representatives disagreed with them.
*How is this system viewed as sufficient in a democracy?
*The electoral college awards electors using a winner-take-all system.
*This means that a candidate can win by 1% of the vote and receive the same amount of electors they would have if they received 100% of the vote.
*This means that people who support a minority party in a state considered safe for another party are discouraged from voting because their vote doesn’t mean very much in a presidential election.
*This also stifles the growth of third parties in the US, as people who vote for a third party are considered to be throwing their vote away.
*This prevents people who don’t agree with either of our two main parties from easily receiving representation in the federal government.
*There are two things we need to do to allow each person to have an equivalent vote to another.
*One is to adopt a system of voting called ranked-choice-voting.
*This system allows each voter to rank each candidate in order from most favorite to least favorite.
*After counting everyone’s favorite candidate for a position, if any candidate has over 50% of the vote, that candidate wins the election.
*However, if no candidate has over 50%, then the candidate with the lowest amount of votes is eliminated and any votes for them go to those voters’ 2nd favorite. This continues until a candidate receives 50% or more of the vote.
*This system would allow voters to prefer a third-party candidate if they wished to while also being able to vote for a more mainstream candidate as a backup.
*If we want to ensure equal representation throughout the country, we would need to switch to a popular vote system.
*This would mean that each state would simply report their vote totals and the winner would be the person with the most votes.
*This would make it so that each person’s vote has equal weight with everyone else’s vote.
*For example, this would allow Republican voters in safe-Democratic states like California, Hawaii, and Oregon, as well as Democratic voters in safe-Republican states like Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana to have representation in elections instead of their votes being near-worthless.
(Jed)-
*Wow, I can definitely see how the electoral college system is unfair in today’s day of age.
*I agree that we should allow all citizens of the United States to have an equal say in something that could dramatically change the future of our nation.
*I wonder if our nation will drop the electoral college system in the near future.
(Alexis) I definitely agree with your take. I recently just did an assignment over how to make America full democracy again where I stated we should remove the electoral college. It does make a disproportion of representation within the states, but I do like your thought with the 50% of votes, because it’s allowing the American people to choose.
Alexis
Yo is this… Injustice?
*There were two big protests that happened within a year of each other that will go down in history, the Black Lives Matter movement protests, and the Capitol riots. To start, I’m going to compare and contrast the events that occurred.
*The BLM protests were fighting for justice and on the unjust police brutality that had occurred, and for a change with the police system. The Capitol rioters gathered because President Trump told them to protest at the Capitol and to “be wild” and “to fight like hell” because they weren’t going to have a country anymore if Joe Biden was to get inaugurated. They believed the election results were fake.
*While both were huge instances, The BLM took place all over the country. It started in Minneapolis and continued throughout many other cities. The Capitol riot only happened at the Capitol.
*Over 4,000 national guard members were deployed all over the country to help with the BLM protests along with other law enforcement and military personnel. Only 1100, D.C. national guard members were sent to help Capitol security and D.C. police. It took the guard hours to arrive at the scene.
*On the 4th day of the BLM protests, Trump said the protesters need to be in jail. This was a huge contrast in comparison to the Capitol rioters, where he told his supporters “go home with love and peace. remember this day forever”
*Trump called the BLM protesters “thugs”, and he expressed love for the Capitol rioters because they were his supporters.
*There were many citywide curfews for the blm protests, and only a citywide curfew in D.C. for the Capitol.
*The BLM protesters were mainly peaceful, although there was some looting of businesses. Most businesses they looted helped fund police departments. The Capitol rioters had an online forum in which they recommended coming armed. Many lawmakers barricaded themselves in, but eventually fled the scene for safety concerns. Rioters looted the Capitol building by breaking windows, then breaking in and looting the inside. They stole many things and messed with lawmakers’ desks.
*Officers at the BLM used force and teargas on peaceful protesters. While at the Capitol, 58 officers were injured and at least one died. Some officers helped rioters get onto capitol grounds, some helped them on the stairs, and some helped them pose for pictures.
*The BLM protests had 289 arrests made on June 1st– the night. The Capitol had 14 arrests made the 1st day, and 69 from Wednesday – Thursday. There were only 170 suspects identified.
*Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton wants a study on whether capitol rioters were treated differently because they were mostly white. “Black Lives Matter never made the kinds of attacks we saw by Trump’s proponents,” Norton said in an interview. “And yet they were never treated with respect.”
*So, was there an injustice in the two groups? Should the Capitol rioters receive more punishment than they received, if not equal punishment that the BLM protesters received? Do you think the Capitol rioters didn’t receive as much punishment because of their skin color?
(Anthony) – I believe the Capital rioters received much less punishment than the BLM protestors received. They were not peaceful compared to the overwhelmingly peaceful BLM protests. Very little force was used in dispelling the riots compared to the BLM protests as well, despite the riots taking place at the Capitol building. I hope more action is taken against the rioters after those involved testify before Congress.
(Jed) –
*I remember seeing all these events unravel in our nation throughout the past year, and I definitely agree that the BLM protesters had to face harsher punishments than the Capitol rioters did.
*The clear difference between the actions of the officers at the BLM protests and the officers at the Capitol riot show that the officers had some sort of bias, which could be racially-motivated bias
*It’s sad to see that the officers of our nation are still holding prejudice against citizens of underrepresented backgrounds even after all that has happened in our nation
*I do wonder if this kind of injustice will be repeated in the future, as there hasn’t been really any solution to this injustice even though the Capitol riot happened ten months ago
*Alright, now to share my submission.
(Jed) –
*Yo, is this injustice?
*The American College of Cardiology’s released a Professional Life Survey in 2015 confirming the existence of discrimination and lack of representation of underrepresented racial and ethnic cardiologists
*There were 2,245 respondents to this survey, which included underrepresented cardiologists and white cardiologists
*Ninety percent of the underrepresented respondents were satisfied with their work-life, but over fifty percent of them faced discrimination in their work-life. *Compared to the underrepresented cardiologists, only thirty six percent of the white respondents faced discrimination, which is less than cardiologists of underrepresented backgrounds.
*The results of the survey also stated that underrepresented cardiologists were less likely to negotiate work benefits such as salary and work hours compared to white cardiologists.
*Not only that, but they also placed more emphasis on these work benefits as their careers advanced compared to white cardiologists.
*Researchers concluded those two points placed the underrepresented cardiologists at a clear disadvantage at the start of their careers.
*In 2021, Dr. Kevin Thomas of Duke University Research Institute analyzed this 2015 survey and concluded that the survey still applies to today’s Cardiology workplaces.
*He also stated that there were calls of diversification and antiracism training thanks to the survey, but Thomas stated that there has been little change since 2015.
*I believe that this is a clear injustice because there are still reports of discrimination in the office still after the survey released six years ago.
(Anthony) – I had no idea about the level of discrimination people face in the field of cardiology. The idea that anyone has been discriminated against, especially a doctor, is appalling.
(Alexis) *The fact that there was antiracism training for the field does not sit right with me to begin with. These individuals who are literally helping citizens should not be receiving any type of discrimination, let alone having it affect their salary and benefits. I’m glad the situation was brought to light through a survey just to at least get some sort of change started, but more definitely needs to be done.
(Jed)
*Alright, thank you everyone for tuning in, we will see you all next time.
(Alexis) *Thank you!