Systemic Injustice

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase: BLM and Capitol Protests

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An example of systemic injustices that I have witnessed was the treatment of citizens during two different kinds of protests. The first group of protests are those who were fighting justice of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other Black American citizens who had lost their lives due to police brutality.

Many citizens had gone out to protest peacefully in the streets, the protesters were of all color. They wanted a change in the system and wanted justice for these Black Americans and their families. Most of the cases just got ignored and no justice was received. There was many cases of looting throughout the country, many were people playing the part of a peaceful protester, but were just there to cause trouble. My cousin had gone out to the protests in Columbus with her black American husband, wanting to fight for his rights and justice for other black Americans.

They were standing on the sidewalk peacefully protesting  when the police used tear gas on them. The police had also used force on them. President Trump had called this group thugs. There were even city wide curfews.

The second group would be the Capitol rioters. This group was protesting against President Joe Biden coming into office a few weeks later. They wanted to make a statement that they were not happy. They were allowed to roam the Capitol halls freely, and were very forcefully. President Trump had encouraged these protestors to rally outside of capitol, and told them to be “wild” and “to fight like hell” because they weren’t going to have a country anymore. Many officers were brutally beaten and were forced to let these rioters in. Many of the rioters looted the capitol. They were trying to go after Pence because they saw him as a “traitor”. Many lawmakers had left the premises due to their own safety concerns. Towards the end of riot, Trump expressed his love for his supporters and finally urged them to go home.

This is a systemic injustice because many of the BLM protestors were left injured when they were fighting for rights that were taken away. They were fighting for equality. The Capitol protesters were left with a slap on the wrist. Many had nothing happen to them. They were protesting a new President coming into power. The four pictures show how a difference in events played out. You can clearly see how much force was used by the police considering how the protesters continued in the BLM protesters versus the Capitol rioters. Most BLM protesters were very peaceful, but the police still decided to use force and teargas on them. The Capitol rioters used a lot of force with the police, pushing through barricades and breaking into to the Capitol.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2021/blm-protest-capitol-riot-police-comparison/

 

 

Systemic Injustice on LA’s “Skid Row” – Systemic Injustice Showcase

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Tens are placed along Skid Row is seen in Los Angles on September 23, 2015.  ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

District Court Judge David O. Carter had toured Skid Row a couple of times, and that was enough for him to order LA county to house all the Skid Row homeless people in 6 months. However, on September 23rd, the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals overturned his order. The court states that Carter’s order wasn’t supported by the evidence he submitted. However, the court never denied that evidence to be true and they are not disputing his findings. 

The premise of Carter’s order was that structural racism has resulted in homelessness that disproportionately affects black communities, and he’s right. According to a report done in June of 2020, 34% of Los Angeles’ homeless are black, despite making up around 8% of the American population. The report also found that black people are four times more likely to be homeless than white people. These numbers align with the racial disparities in healthcare during the pandemic. 

The main problem with disproportionate homelessness is that it perpetuates the cycle of poverty within the black community. Black communities have been disproportionately less wealthy than white communities stemming back to the emancipation proclamation, and that has to do with opportunity afforded to them. Because open systemic racism was so prevalent not even 60 years ago in this country, the black community has had very little time to catch up economically to the rest of the country. To this day, that opportunity is still less than what is afforded to the average American. The Skid Row humanitarian crisis and the lack of legal support its occupants are receiving is an example of systemic racism because the system that put them there in the first place not only still exists but is choosing to not do anything about it. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence to support that black people are disproportionately more homeless than other races, but the U.S. court system has chosen to ignore it. The same system that supported slavery, Jim Crow and segregation is choosing to, once again, abandon a whole race of Americans they are supposed to protect.

The topic at hand connects very well to de Beauvior’s concept of the other. The other stands as an opposing group to the self but is often a marginalized group with limited power and resources to change the narrative about them. The homeless population at Skid Row can be grouped into two types of others: poor and black. The poor are seen as the other to the rich, and often black Americas are the other to white Americans. Both are no fault of their own, but the fault of the system that defines them as the other. Because both groups are marginalized, they often lack the resources to change the dynamic. This problem will continue unless the system that keeps black people disproportionately homeless is changed and the matter is addressed from the top. 

Article on the Overturned court order: https://apnews.com/article/courts-lawsuits-los-angeles-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-adebc55e26ab811c6e1b363b789f540c