Author: fauver.18

Text Review – The Trial of the Chicago 7

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The Trial of the Chicago 7 tells the story of eight people who were unfairly prosecuted by the US government for starting a riot in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1968. All eight were tried as a single group, “the radical left”, that planned the riot despite these eight people representing four different groups with very different goals and methods. During the course of the film, we see the trial’s judge, Julius Hoffman, severely discriminate against the defense. He repeatedly refuses to allow Bobby Seale, the Chairman of the Black Panthers, to have a lawyer represent him in trial and even orders Seale to be bound and gagged in a chair midway through the trial after he asks to have legal representation. He also refuses to allow an ex-Attorney General to testify that the Chicago Police Department started the riots and that the Nixon Administration is discriminating against anti-war protestors despite the Attorney General’s willingness to testify and evidence proving both points.  

Throughout the film, we see clear examples of Othering based on political identity and race. During the trial, we see the Nixon-appointed prosecution try to baselessly establish that all eight defendants worked together as “the radical left” to start a riot in Chicago despite the eight defendants representing four very different groups and despite many of the defendants not knowing each other before they came to Chicago. Much of the testimony presented in this trial establishes that these were distinct groups, such as a secretary testifying that they denied permits to protest in Chicago to each of the defendants on separate occasions and for distinct reasons. The prosecution attempts to make the defendants an other to make the jury discriminate against them for their political leanings. Another example of Othering found in the film is the treatment of Bobby Seale in court. Before the trial, Bobby Seale requested that the trial be delayed as his lawyer, Charles Garry, was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery. This request was denied and Bobby Seale was forced to go through the trial without a lawyer to represent him. As he doesn’t have a lawyer, Bobby Seale repeatedly attempts to represent himself by questioning witnesses and making objections to the judge. Unfortunately, Judge Hoffman refuses to allow Seale to represent himself, despite legal precedent indicating that he is able to, and charges him with contempt of court whenever he does. At one point in the trial, after Bobby Seale attempts to object to a witness’ testimony, Judge Hoffman asks that the police “take that defendant into a room and deal with him as he should be dealt with”. Bobby Seale is then forced into a nearby room and is beaten, gagged, and bound to a chair. Judge Hoffman’s discrimination against Bobby Seale and the defense team as a whole was designed to make them an other. Throughout the trial, he is antagonistic to the defense, even asking them to make fewer objections so they can get the trial over with and repeatedly pointing out that Bobby Seale is a member of the Black Panthers. His treatment of Bobby Seale is a reflection of that, as the jury may believe that the judge is protecting them from someone who they think is violent.  

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase: Income inequality

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Income inequality in the US has existed for centuries. It is a source of numerous problems in the US, such as poverty, homelessness, and crime rates (Keeley, 2021). Despite being a source of these problems, wealth inequality has gotten much worse in the US since the 1970s. One major source of this change in inequality is the massive change in how much the average CEO is paid compared to the average full-time employee. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the ratio of the average CEO income to the average employee income in 1965 was about 21 to 1. In 2020, the ratio of average CEO pay to average employee pay was 351 to 1, with the average CEO making $24,200,000 annually (Mishel & Kandra, 2021). Meanwhile, according to the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), the minimum wage, if adjusted for inflation, has actually declined since 1968, when the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour or $12 an hour after factoring in inflation (Baker, 2021). This massive disparity in wages, along with the increasing costs of goods due to inflation, has resulted in many workers, especially in the service and hospitality industry, to at best, be able to survive at a subsistence level and at worst, not be able to afford the cost of living in their state without assistance or without sharing the cost of living with others. In fact, as of 2020, in every state other than Arizona, the minimum wage in each state is not enough to pay for the average cost of living by yourself in that state without having a second source of income. (Divvy, 2020)

Table showing states by the ability of its minimum wage to pay for the cost of living

This prevents anyone without post-secondary education or skills in a trade from surviving off of a single job and significantly contributes to homelessness and poverty in the United States. Not only that, but people who want to survive off of their own income could very easily rationalize committing crimes to increase their income, especially after seeing statistics like the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio. This inability to survive off of a single job is unacceptable and could be considered theft from workers, as their pay hasn’t risen at anywhere near the level their employer’s income has. In fact, according to the CEPR, if the minimum wage had risen with productivity since 1948, it would be $24 an hour or $49,920 a year today.

Graph showing minimum wage in 2020 dollars and what the minimum wage would be if it rose with productivity

For some people, such as myself, this is more money than their parents made combined. Unfortunately, there is a lot of opposition to raising the minimum wage to even a subsistence level, let alone raising it to account for productivity. In my own experiences with discussing an increase in the minimum wage, I often hear the arguments that small businesses couldn’t survive paying that wage or that these minimum wage jobs are designed as starter jobs for high school students. These arguments establish employees at these jobs as an other who don’t deserve to be able to live off of their own income and often ignore the harsh reality that many people, such as students and the recently unemployed, may have to work at a minimum wage job.

Keeley, Brian (2015), “How does income inequality affect our lives?”, in Income Inequality: The Gap between Rich and Poor, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Mishel, Lawrence, and Jori Kandra. “CEO Pay Has Skyrocketed 1,322% since 1978: CEOS Were Paid 351 Times as Much as a Typical Worker in 2020.” Economic Policy Institute, Economic Policy Institute, 10 Aug. 2021, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2020/.

Baker, Dean. “This Is What Minimum Wage Would Be If It Kept Pace with Productivity.” CEPR, Center for Economic and Policy Research, 4 Feb. 2020, https://cepr.net/this-is-what-minimum-wage-would-be-if-it-kept-pace-with-productivity/.

“Minimum Wage vs. Cost of Living by State.” Divvy, Divvy, 4 Mar. 2020, https://getdivvy.com/blog/minimum-wage-vs-living-wage/.

Context Presentation – John Lewis – March

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When John Lewis first used sit-ins as a way of protest in late 1959, the fight between injustice and justice was fairly simple. Civil rights protestors would perform sit-ins, marches, boycotts, and other forms of protest to gain their rights and to change their public image, while segregationalists and racists would injure and kill those protestors, use legal action to stifle their movement, and silence their supporters with fear. The success of these protests in shifting public opinion against segregation led to President John F. Kennedy supporting the passage of a civil rights bill. After Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged senators to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to honor his legacy.  

While this bill’s passage was a major success for African-Americans, their fight for true equality has continued to the present day. As many of us know, numerous protests were held in 2020 due to racially-driven violence against African-Americans by police officers. These protests were held somewhat similarly to the civil rights protests, but the response to these protests was somewhat different. Instead of simply charging and violently dispersing the protests, police officers or counter-protesters would instigate violence to obtain justification to violently disperse the protests (Chenowith, Erica). In fact, many people believe that these protests were largely violent due to this shift of blame. This led to a reduced shift in public opinion and to actual changes brought on by the protests (Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta).  

By shifting public opinion against the protestors by labeling them rioters after instigating violence against them, real change at the federal level, such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, was prevented. Instead of federal changes to policy, the Black Lives Matter protests were only able to achieve localized changes, such as outlawing chokeholds or banning the use of tear gas for demonstrations, in some communities.  

Chenoweth, Erica, and Jeremy Pressman. “Black Lives Matter Protesters Were Overwhelmingly Peaceful, Our Research Finds.” Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 20 Oct. 2020, www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news-and-ideas/black-lives-matter-protesters-were-overwhelmingly-peaceful-our-research-finds.

Lewis, John, et al. March. Vol. 1, Top Shelf Productions, 2016.

Rauh, Joseph, et al. “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Library of Congress, 10 Oct. 2014, www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-act-of-1964.html.

Thought, Second, director. America’s Police Problem. YouTube, YouTube, 5 June 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEVoX-RwMJw&ab_channel=SecondThought.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. “Did Last SUMMER’S Black Lives Matter Protests Change Anything?” The New Yorker, 6 Aug. 2021, www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-last-summers-protests-change-anything.