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Hi, my name is Mitchell Bachman I ‘m a second-year health science major. On this segment of Yo, is this injustice, I will be addressing several diary of systemic injustice posts that I have made, I will compare these to each other and how they relate back to this class.
The first injustice that I’d like to talk about is the unemployment rates between African Americans and white Americans. Over the last 15 years African Americans have had a higher unemployment rate than white Americans. From 2011 2019 and there’s a noticeable trend downward meaning that more people have jobs. However, there’s a large spike for both groups once the pandemic and hit. This is an example of a systemic injustice because it shows that African Americans are more likely to be unemployed which can lead to a number of things. Meaning that they’re unlikely able to purchase a house or the wants that they’d like to have in life. They’d only be able to purchase the necessities to survive. Unemployment rates are an example of the one-to-one concept, where white Americans are considered the one with a lower unemployment rate. Where African Americans are seen as the other because they have a high unemployment rate.
Alright, and then another injustice that I’d like to talk about would be income rates for African Americans and white Americans. From the shirt, we can see that white Americans make $18,000 more than African Americans in 2018. Since 2002 to 2018 on average white Americans have made at least $15,000 more than African Americans. It comes no surprise that African Americans are living in poverty because they cannot afford the housing that white Americans can afford. This is another picture that I want to talk about. It talks about the poverty rates. On this chart, we can see that the median household income in 2018 was $28,900 difference between the white Americans and African Americans and the poverty rate was 12.6% difference between the two. This has been a popular topic of discussion for quite some time, white and African Americans can have similar jobs, but they are not paid the same based on the color of your skin. There’s been a lot of social change over the years, however, African Americans have never received equal pay for the job that they have. This chart shows the trend of the constant difference in pay. I believe that this relates back to the master slave dialect topic that we talked about earlier in the semester. White Americans are the master and African Americans would be the slaves in this relationship. Meaning that white employees make more money, because they are valued more by companies that African Americans. One book that could relate to this type of interests, this would be Persepolis. In Persepolis, we were introduced to Mehri who was Marji’s family’s maid. In the story, we see that Mehri becomes infatuated with the neighbor boy. Marji then tells her family and when her father found out he went and talked to the neighbor boy. Marji ‘s Father tells him that Mary pretends she is my daughter, but in reality, she is my maid. Marji father tells Marji, that in their country, you must stay within your own social class. I believe that this relates to the income and poverty differences in America. Because the social class that you were born in is likely, the social class that you will stay in because of the unfair difference between white and African American income and poverty rates.
The next and justice that I’d like to talk about is healthcare. I found that African Americans do not receive the same health care that white Americans receive. African Americans experience illness at extremely high rates and have a lower life expectancy compared to other racial and ethnic groups. African Americans are also the most economically disadvantaged demographics in this country. I believe the African American have the lowest life expectancy because they are unable to pay for the proper care that they need. Which relates to African Americans not receiving equal pay as white Americans. Although most people have health insurance, 20% of African Americans have Medicaid which is for lower income, and the elderly, and disabled. Medicaid is a decent insurance for people who cannot afford private personal medical insurance, but they do not cover all medical expenses. It is extremely unjust to offer a necessary lifesaving service to someone only to have them declining it because of their insurance does not cover it and it would cost them too much to pay for it. I believe this is the example for one to the other topic that we talked about in class, ahh meaning that the whites are the one and they receive the best health care because they have a higher income rate. And African Americans are the other, because they do not receive equal care and do not receive that equal pay to pay for the proper medical care that they need.
The next topic for injustice that would like to mention is racial profiling. Over just over a year ago we experienced the black lives matter movement, which was protesting racial profiling among law enforcement. I’ve learned that 38% of all state prisoners are African American. African Americans are incarcerated at a rate that is 5.1 times greater than white Americans for someone to be arrested, they must have done something illegal, but there are instances were, this is not the case. African Americans face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police. There are still racist police in the world and profile all African Americans to be criminals. Although police brutality and arrest of African American has decrease over time there’s still exist an injustice in America to African Americans by law enforcement and I believe that this is another example of the one to the other because the white law enforcement is not fearful of white citizens and racist police officers are fearful of African Americans who are viewed as the other. And even viewed as criminals and thugs, which is the reason why they have been racially profiled by law enforcement.
The last injustice that I’d like to talk about is education, this is an injustice that is new to me, I have not personal experienced this, because I come from a small town and went to a small school. And I have found this fact on Ben and Jerry’s website, which is funny because they make ice cream, but it was on a page for systemic racism. And Ben and Jerry’s points out that 95% black children to constitute 18% of preschoolers nationwide and they make up for nearly 50% of suspensions. Now that fact is just for preschoolers saying that half of all preschoolers that are suspended are African Americans. Another interesting fact on Ben and Jerry’s was that among all age groups in school black students are three times more likely to be suspended then white students even when their infractions are similar. This is what I find the most surprising African American students are getting suspended three times the amount as white American students for similar infractions. That is not right! Children go to school to learn to get an education, but African American students get suspended for similar actions as white students. I believe that this shows the school system as prejudice and racist. And that there should be more action against this injustice. This has clearly been going on for a long time and it’s time to put an end to it. Again, I believe that this is an example of the one to other topic. White children or the one and African American children are the other. African American students are mistreated and suspended at a higher rate than the white children because they’re viewed as the other. As this continues on through school. It can lead to other problems for African American children. In reality, this could lead to problems.
That is all that I have on this segment of yo, is this injustice, I hope that you enjoyed it remember to like and subscribe for more content.