The town I grew up in was 90% Jewish at the time of the last census. Myself, being one of the very few Christians in the town, but it really did not affect me. Instead, this just gave me a very unique perspective. Every weekend, mostly on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, you would see many Orthodox Jews crowding the streets and sidewalks, walking to temple. I always admired the Orthodox Jews, they were so strong on traditions, were extremely kind to everyone, and wanted to live simply. Recently though, the town and their world were rocked. Prior to five years ago, I can’t recall a single anti-Semitic attack on my town. Sure, I’ve heard the common phrases and slurs during sporting event, but they were always brushed off. But then things starting changing, a swastika was spray painted on local Jewish businesses in my town. The community was strong, tons of families had connections to the Holocaust. They knew what discrimination was, but they have done a great job preventing it in past generations. It was not the swastika itself that hurt everyone, it was the idea that anti-Semitism was in the air. It put a huge cloud of nervousness over the city. This one incident affected the entire community. There was someone who wanted to attack them. The system allowed this to become regular. Anti-Semitism is seen differently than other types of discrimination. I have no idea why this is, but its commonly over looked. As of recently, anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise. This needs to stop, people are becoming way to comfortable with their anti-Semitic remarks. This comfortability allows these actions to happen, and unless something is done at a top level they will continue. In Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail, Dr. King says Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” We can not ignore something like this. A marginalized group being targeted affects everyone in the community. The people that are committing these anti-Semitic attacks are committing other hate crimes as well. We need to do what we can to end this. Anti-Semitic attacks are often overlooked, for whatever reason. Since it’s overlooked, it continues to happen. Justice was found, as the person who committed the hate crimes was arrested. This is a small win in a huge battle in the fight against anti-Semitism. If an attack like that can affect the whole community negatively, then a small win for justice can affect the community positively.

https://www.cleveland.com/crime/2020/08/beachwood-man-charged-in-painting-swastikas-anti-semitic-images-on-university-heights-businesses.html

Voter suppression is term we have heard often over the past few years. Today I would like to discuss the disenfranchisement, or deprived voting rights, against criminals and felons who have served their sentence. I learned about this issue when reading a news article on the American Civil Liberty Union’s (ACLU) website on the disenfranchisement of felons. When a person receives a felony conviction as a result of a crime, it comes with multiple consequences that ultimately follow a person for years, even after they have served their time in prison. One of these long-term consequences includes losing their right to vote in elections. Depending on the state a person lives in; they can be banned from voting while incarcerated as well. This article insightfully mentions how the criminal justice system disproportionately affects Black and Brown people, meaning that these laws are disproportionately suppressing Black and Brown votes. There is a correlation here that these laws blocking felons from voting while incarcerated, and after the sentence is served, is rooted in the Jim Crow era, when Black Americans votes were suppressed through poll taxes and literacy tests. After learning this information, voter suppression sounds like a clear violation of a persons rights, and an example of systemic injustice. This article made me think about the class reading of “Can The Subaltern Speak?”. It made me wonder if felons, who are human that deserve to be heard, will ever have a voice that people with higher power socially and politically will ever be willing to listen to. Felons are a population that have historically been labeled as “less than” other groups because of their past actions, which could make them a subaltern. In the discussion of voter suppression, this is power dynamic that gives one population a voice to control over another population who have no say, Because felons cannot vote in most states, they cannot use their voice or be heard because the power dynamic deems them unworthy of voting. Using Spivak’s idea, those who fall on the oppressed side of examples cannot speak because these are groups that are socially and/or politically excluded from the hierarchy of power. But who is to say that felons don’t deserve the right to vote during/after their sentence? If local and national laws and policies are still affecting felons, then shouldn’t they have a say in their State and Country issues/representatives in elections? Below is a video of personal testimonies from individuals who have been incarcerated and have lost their rights to vote.

References

American Civil Liberties Union (2021, August 18). Block the Vote: How Politicians are Trying to Block Voters from the Ballot Box. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020/

The Sentencing Project (2020, October 14). Free The Vote. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCeNFeMuoAM&t=254s