Author: colyer.16

Text Review: Criminal Minds

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Text Review Assignment

I chose to review the TV series Criminal Minds for this text review assignment. Criminal Minds is a large series about a group of people from the FBI, specifically in the behavioral analysis unit, who find serial killers based on their behaviors. I chose this series because the team from the BAU is always working with serial killers from all walks of life from many different states/countries. Although there are many episodes in this series, they almost always include some sort of injustice or power distance in every episode.

The first example I would like to touch on is an episode where a member of the BAU, special agent Derek Morgan, was convited of murder because of his racial background. Derek went back to his home city, Chicago, to visit his mother and sisters. A couple days into his visit, he got a knock on the front door from a white police officer who had a warrant to arrest Derek for the murder of young boys in his neighborhood. The police officer arrested Derek mainly because he “profiled” it was a black male. Derek claimed the only reason why he was arrested is because the police officer had always been racist towards people in his community and didn’t like how Derek was doing well with his life. This shows a toxic power dynamic that could be related back to the “one” and the “other.” In this case, Derek Morgan would be considered the “other” because although he was given opportunities to make his career out of his life, he had to overcome obstacles that others did not. He is the “other” because the white police chief looked down on him even though he didn’t commit the crime and was fully capable of being in the FBI. The police chief would be considered the “one” because he likes to have people under him and have the control. He thought he was superior to the people he was patrolling in the city of Chicago. Overall, these types of characters show an unfair power dynamic that could be related back to the “one” and the “other.”

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

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For this weeks systemic injustice assignment, I do not have an article because it is something I heard about from word of mouth.

Rumpke, the garbage dump, has a headquarter location very close to my house in Cincinnati. Rumpke is a very well known name in my town and actually very respected. It is known that the garbage truck drivers work pretty early hours, but get paid very well. The people in corporate also get paid very well. From an outsider looking in, it seems like a good business to work for if I was wanting to stay close to home. Recently, I learned from a couple of friends who work in Rumpke corporate offices, woman do not get any amount of maternity leave. If they were to have a baby, they have to use vacation time and sick days then have to return to work. When I heard of this, I was absolutely shocked.

I believe this is a way to make the job unappealing to woman so they don’t work there. I find this to be systemic injustice because America as a whole does not require corporations to give any sort of maternity or paternity leave. This forces woman to find other jobs. As for the woman who do work there already, they face a form of inequality since they are not able to have a child with rest time. I find this particularly interesting because if you visit their benefits page on their website, it says, “We treat everyone like family.” I find this to be a false statement since they do not let their employees prioritize their own families. They also said “As a family owned company, Rumpke treats each employee like family. We take interest in your welfare and well-being.” You would think they would want to give women a break after giving birth because they care able their welfare and well-being.

Looking into the company, Rumpke is ran mostly by men. Companies who rate other corporations based on diversity and inclusion have given Rumpke a very low score, but they don’t seem to care and don’t plan on changing anytime soon.

 

https://www.rumpke.com/careers/benefits

Week 5 Context Presentation: Can the Subaltern Speak?

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What is a Subaltern? A sublatern could also be considered a subordinate or someone  in lower rank (Dictionary.com). When Gayatri Charkravorty Spivak was writing Can the Subaltern Speak,  she was referring a subaltern to a woman who is not white. Many may think that referring woman, especially those who are not white, are less than white men could be considered an old fashion way of thinking. But you have to rememeber Spivak in 78 year old Indian women where this is part of their culture. Of course now in western culture, we believe that everyone is  to remain equal, regardless of their ethnicity, race or gender.

I think this would bring up a great point about the ethical issues we are facing today when fighting for equal right between everyone, but specifically gender. Just this year, we have reached a record of 130 women holding positions in Congress. This includes 105 in the House of Representatives and 25 in the Senate with a 32% and 68% split republican and democratic (Congressional Research Service). Although India is working on gender equality, they are still facing the issue.

Women have faced difficulties reaching equality in India for a long time. As of 2016, there was a 27% income gap, 34% to a 27% women in the workforce and many crimes against women. Crimes include rapes, dowry deaths, and honor killings (Sharma). The numbers are so much higher in India because it is almost built into their culture.

Spivak was making a point in her story this started from the beginning of colonialism and it is time to make a change. Gender equality has started to make some progress in the western culture, but we are still facing difficulties with it every day.  Like mentioned before, we are just now reaching record highs in American and it is 2021. India, along with other countries are no where near our number and that is what needs to be fixed.

Subaltern. (n.d.). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/subaltern

Ununiversity, S. S. (2016, December 1). Achieving gender equality in India: What works, and what doesn’t. Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://unu.edu/publications/articles/achieving-gender-equality-in-india-what-works-and-what-doesnt.html

Women in Congress: Statistics and Brief Overview. (2020, December 4). Retrieved February 06, 2021, from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43244.pdf