According to The Guardian, the Iranian women’s Alpine skiing team was scheduled to go to Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2021 to compete for a championship. The coach of the skiing team, Samira Zargari, was unable to attend due to her husband’s refusal. According to the current regulations, “..under Iranian law, a married woman cannot obtain a passport or travel outside of the country without her husband’s permission” (The Guardian). This Iranian law places an incredible limitation on married women’s rights. Regardless, the Iranian government is similarly structured to the government of the United States. The following link lays out the foundation of the Iranian government:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/inside/govt.html

Among this traveling limitation placed on women, there are many other regulations Iranian women face such as strict dress code and the inability to watch men’s sporting events (The Guardian). The laws placed by Iran’s government have an immense impact on women’s lives, such as not having the freedom to dress how they want and not being able to live the way they desire. I believe such regulations clearly identify the population of women as the ‘Other’ in Iran’s society in comparison to men. Furthermore, the Iranian government has composed heavily restricting laws on women only which is a form of Othering. Therefore, systemic injustice is clearly at play because the implementation of these limitations is done so through the Iranian government where civilians have little power over controlling such regulations.

The emotions of women in Iran can be explained through the several years of protesting by women and men about civil rights and socioeconomic instability. Most protests have been carried out peacefully and yet, there have been many instances of the government detaining protesters. The following link displays a video of protesters in Iran being ambushed by Iranian enforcement along with the text explaining the situation in further detail:

https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2020/dec/14/iran-human-rights-2020

There has been a long-standing conflict in Iran centered around these issues for many years now, so I feel the only way for things to start turning around for the better would have to include new laws and regulations set by the Iranian government. However, with religion having such a critical role in Iranian society, I believe this adds an increasingly large obstacle for women to achieve basic civil rights in Iran. For instance, religion could be used as an argument to limit the rights of women which has been done in the past.

Work Cited

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/iranian-womens-ski-coach-barred-from-going-to-world-championships-by-husband

A specific area in the United States that needs immediate reform is the prison system. Injustice runs through the justice system systemically and continues through the jails and prisons. Shortly after Biden took over as President, on January 26th, he signed an executive order that ordered the Department of Justice to nullify any future contracts with private prisons. The order will end all agreements with the 12 prisons that are contracted by the Department of Justice. Since 1971, the War on Drugs, the presence of federal drug control agencies in Black and Latino neighborhoods increased dramatically. This is one factor that goes into the overwhelming population of minorities in our prisons. In 1970, the population of our prison system was holding around 350,000 inmates. Today, over 2.3 million Americans are incarcerated. Based on a 2018 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Black and Hispanic Americans accounted for 56% of the prison population even though they only represent 32% of the entire United States population. “This means that African Americans and Latinx are five times more likely than white individuals to spend time behind bars” (Castleton Spartan). This issue is largely systemic due to the connections in the justice system from the police, courts and prisons. A product of predictive policing, a policing model that many departments have been using, is this dramatic influx in the minority population in prisons. Predictive policing gives departments information about what crimes are taking place in specific areas of their city. They are able to find patterns, then dispatch officers into that area to patrol in hopes they will prevent crime. Instead, they end up making arrests. The majority of the time, these areas have a majority Black or Latinx population, which increased the number of minority arrests and incarcerations.

This systemic issue comes from the increased amount of police presence in areas of high crime that tend to have high minority populations. As time goes on, police focus their attention on these areas of high crime in hopes of lowering the crime rate. However, this creates the high number of minorities in the American prisons.

http://www.castletonspartan.com/2021/02/17/prison-reform-curbs-systematic-injustice/https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp

As I have previously discussed in my third journal entry, the National Football League has a long history of under-representing the 70% of African American men that play in the league. Out of the 32 teams in the NFL, there are only two black head coaches and two black general managers, and there is not a single black owner of a team. I went in depth about the history of black people either being under-represented or treated as lesser than by coaches and leaders of the organization, I want to focus on problems the league faces today. There is a very clear lack of black head coaches around the league, and more than enough qualified candidates that would be able to fill those roles but still can’t find the job. Currently, one of the clearest examples of this is Eric Bieniemy, the Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Coordinator. He has helped lead one of the best offenses in football of all time over the past 3 years, and has been great since 2013 when he joined the organization. He has led the Chiefs offense to 3 AFC championship games in the past three seasons, and a Super Bowl win in 2019. Bieniemy has arguably been the top candidate for a head coaching job over the past three season because he has been so good, yet he has held the same title of Offensive Coordinator. Another example is the Super Bowl winning Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich, who also did not manage to get a head coaching job despite his extremely impressive resume. This picture below shows the lack of black head coaches over time, with it getting worse recently.

However, this problem can only be solved through change at the owner level. As of today, there is not a single African American that owns an NFL franchise. Actually, there is only one owner across the NFL, NBA, and MLB that is, and that is Michael Jordan who owns the Charlotte Hornets. People are more inclined to hire those with similar experiences as them, so unless something changes at the executive level for the National Football League, there most likely won’t be substantial change. The league has recently been more public about supporting groups such as Black Lives Matter and standing up for change, but seem to not be doing anything about the problems in their own organization.

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexreimer/2021/01/22/nfl-teams-egregiously-passing-on-black-head-coaches-shows-rooney-rule-cant-change-biases/?sh=161a21f11802

https://www.nfl.com/news/eric-bieniemy-byron-leftwich-left-waiting-as-number-of-black-nfl-head-coaches-st

One of my previous entries in my diary of systemic injustices was about the Rohingya population in Myanmar. Below is a summary of some current events that have been going on there, as well as a very brief history of the Rohingya people being persecuted.

In Myanmar, an ethnic group known as the Rohingya have been systemically discriminate against for decades. The Rohingya are a group of Muslims, living in a mainly Buddhist country, with their own language and culture. Recently many Rohingya have been fleeing the country as a result of being attacked by the military and other mobs (BBC). There is a history of the Rohingya being persecuted. Dating back to when Myanmar was known as the country Burma, the Rohingya have been seen as the go-to target for persecution. During the 1960’s, the Rohingya were used as a common target to unite people under a strong nationalist government. The then Burmese government even implemented Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation, which essentially just denounced the Rohingya as recognized citizens, and caused over 200,000 Rohingya to be displaced. For more info on the timeline of these events, you can click this link here  or down below the text. Since Myanmar just saw a coup take place by the military, it is likely that the Rohingya will face even more trouble. Just this week, a refugee camp for lots of Rohingya burned down (NPR). This only worsens the current situation for these people. Apparently new barbed wire caused many of the refugees to become trapped when trying to evacuate. Even though the camp is supposed to be a safer place for the Rohingya, they still cannot find a place to live peacefully without having to worry about persecution or unstable living conditions. The image below shows many children rummaging through debris from the fire. I think it does well to show the catastrophe these people have lived through, and how they are all sticking together through it. Currently, Myanmar does not even count the Rohingya as people in their census. This lack of acknowledgment brings to mind the concept of the “Other” in that Myanmar views the Rohingya as the “Other”, a group which is far inferior in their mind and is of no importance. Myanmar has committed genocide before, yet it has received little attention. With the military now in power, the Rohingya have little time before they are met with violence again. Myanmar is set up for there to be no place for the Rohingya. They cannot vote for change as they are not citizens. When they protest for change, they are met with violence, rape and death. Time has shown how the system favors the Buddhists, and I do not see any way for the Rohingya to survive unless they flee to Bangladesh, or outside forces step in. Having said that, it should be pretty clear that there is systemic injustice present when the only way to avoid persecution is to flee the country. 

UKHIA, COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH –  (Photo by Yousuf Tushar/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Video link: https://youtu.be/04axDDRVy_o

References:

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/23/980393127/hundreds-missing-in-aftermath-of-fire-at-rohingya-refugee-camp 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41566561

My fourth journal entry addressed blatant racial profiling.  On February 16, 2021 Texas native, 18-year-old Rodney Reese was heading home from his job at Walmart when he was stopped by officers from the Plano Police Department who were responding to a welfare check about reports of “a man in a short sleeve shirt stumbling in the snow.” Rodney is a high school senior, lives with his mother only a few blocks away and repeatedly told the officers he was fine.

Rodney was caught on body camera footage that he was “straight” and didn’t need their assistance.  The police were caught saying,  “Alright, but you’re walking in the middle of the road.”  Texas was in the midst of a crazy winter storm, so his decision to walk in the road ultimately was due to the conditions of the sidewalks. Rodney apologized and continued walking home, but for some reason the officers continued to follow him. After two minutes, they put him in handcuffs and arrested him, with the official charge being pedestrian in the roadway.  He spent the night in jail.

The Plano Police chief Ed Drain DEFENDED the actions of his officers and was quoted as saying,  “There’s a lot of information that we know about this case that we didn’t know at the time. Those officers didn’t know his age. They didn’t know he was 18. They didn’t know he worked at Walmart. They didn’t know where he lived.”  Isn’t their job as officers of the law to investigate? Shouldn’t they just have asked him? A few simple questions and skills of deduction would have revealed all was well. Instead they targeted and profiled this man and assumed he was doing wrong because he was a black male.

Rodney’s heartbreaking reaction?

“It’s ‘cause I’m Black, I fit a description. It hurts, man. I don’t even think the call would’ve happened if I wasn’t Black. Honestly, I really don’t.”

According to the NAACP, 84% of Black adults say white people are treated better than black people by police and 63% of white adults agree based on 2019 research on police relations. 87% of Black adults say the U.S. criminal justice system is more unjust towards Black people and 61% of white adults agree. Despite the fact that more white people have been killed by police, Black and Hispanic people are disproportionately impacted.  While white people make up a little over 60% of the population, they only make up about 41% of fatal police shootings.  Black people make up 13.4% of the population, but make up 22% of fatal police shootings.  This does not take into consideration other forms of police brutality, including non-lethal shootings (NAACP.org, 2021) The inherent bias is alive and well in this country.

References

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2021/02/22/texas-black-teen-jailed-walking-during-snowstorm-charges-dropped/

https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/

In my diary of Systemic Injustices #5, I spoke about how these assignments have forced me to open my eyes to the numerous injustices that we as American look past on a daily basis. In the short time I have worked as a real estate agent in Dayton, Ohio, I have seen how hard it can be for people to take the step of home ownership. Owning a home is no easy task. However, buying your first home in combination with being a minority can make that process even harder. Housing has always been an area where racism is unfortunately extremely common. Years of mistreatment of minorities resulted in them being confined to smaller, less desirable neighborhoods. In response, the U.S. government passed the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The Fair housing act was designed to address segregation in neighborhoods and to ensure that no one race was steered towards a certain area or away from another. Today, most of these issues have been solved. Blacks, whites, latinos, and others are free to live amongst one another. However the new issue in homeownership is financing. Getting approval for a mortgage is the most difficult part of buying a home. There is a combination of reports, credit scores, and examples of credit that go into a mortgage lender’s approval. One of the major components for getting a loan is how much money the soon to be homeowner makes. On average, White and Asian people make more money than blacks and hispanics. In addition to this, most people don’t learn about a credit score or how to obtain one in school. So if their parents had no credit and never learned how to establish it, chances are they won’t either. This among other things is something that all Americans should be educated on. 

As things stand right now, every person is held to the same standard in the eyes of the bank. This means that everyone must disclose what they make as well as obtain their credit scores. As is the case for many minorities, they either don’t have a credit score or were not aware that it plays such an integral part of the home ownership process. In addition, minorities are often so overwhelmed when lenders require them to find so many things that they give up on the idea of homeownership. When this happens, they resort to paying rent for the entirety of their lives. Though this does give you a roof over your head, it does not help you set up yourself or your family for the future. Meanwhile, white homeowners build equity and wealth while the minorities are left renting and eventually will have nothing to show for it. I believe the biggest way to combat this issue is to help all people get access to what they need to start building their credit and saving money so that one day they may be fortunate enough to own their own home. I also believe that there need to be charitable mortgage lenders who make it a mission to educate minorities on homeownership and how they can be prepared. 

References

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2019/10/income-and-wealth-in-the-united-states-an-overview-of-data

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf

https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2020/07/inequality-in-us-homeownership-rates-by-race-and-ethnicity.html