race

Social Media and Cultural Appropriation

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By Kimberly Johnson

Over the past few months a dance called the Renegade has been all over social media, particularly TikTok. When the dance made the switch over to TikTok from Dubsmash, credit to the creator did not come along with it. However, over the course of the past several days the creator of the dance has gotten her due credit. Her name is Jalaiah Harmon, a Black 14-year-old girl from Atlanta, Georgia. In an interview for The New York Times she shared how frustrating it was that her dance was being shared so widely and posted largely by white TikTok users without any credit given to her.

Jalaiah Harmon’s experience fall in line with hundreds of years of Black culture being appropriated with little to no credit in the U.S. For a little girl who loves dance and attends numerous dance classes, a viral dance video could mean access to opportunities that would help her dance dreams come true. Though she is getting the credit she deserves now, many Black creators do not ever get credit for their content. Even further, their content is frequently stolen by white creators who then use it to go viral, a phenomenon that can be extremely advantageous in an increasingly social-media oriented society.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/the-original-renegade.html

#MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

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By Nicole Leo

Since Christopher Columbus landed and “discovered” America, its native people have been treated as the Other.  Without diving into the many past and current injustices that have been and are imposed on Native Americans, there is one specific systemic injustice that can be again linked to a lack of importance and urgency within the judicial system.  Faith Hedgepeth was a co-worker, fellow student at the University of North Carolina, and a friend of mine.   She was raped and murdered in 2012, a huge devastation to our small college town.  Although the police have appeared to work diligently and still reassure us the case is still being worked on, the killer is still at large.  Her death led me to learn about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement.  There are alarming statistics that highlight the epidemic of MMIW.  Indigenous women are ten times more likely to be murdered than any other demographic; Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to be the victim of a violent crime than any other demographic.  What is most alarming about these statistics, is that they only report a small percentage of crimes against indigenous women.  The Urban Indian Health Institute conducted various studies to gather information to compare numbers to those (like the ones above) given by our government and found that the rate of violence experienced by these women were much higher than reported.  For example, the institute found there to be over 5,700 cases of MMIW but only 116 of these women were placed on the United States’ Department of Justice missing persons list.   There are specific shortcomings that try to give reasons why the government failed to protect our these women including jurisdiction issues between government and Native lands, lack of services including emergency care and amber alerts, lack of community awareness, and lack of communication between government officials and native people.  A call for action is needed for our judicial system to protect and uphold the law of justice and fairness for all and to stop the othering of indigenous women.  Below is a video for reference of the suffering and injustice these families are facing.  To learn more and raise awareness, you can visit mmiwusa.org.

 

Resources:

MMIW

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_and_murdered_Indigenous_women

https://www.powwows.com/the-tradgedy-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Hedgepeth_homicide

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase

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By Xuxin He

The biggest form of systemic injustice in modern day America is ranges from Police brutality in the streets to the sentencing in the criminal Justice System particularly against minorities especially those off African American decent. There are countless witnessing of unjust and egregious acts of both police brutality across multiple states in America. Apart from these situations, there are countless other cases where courts give higher sentences or bail to minorities and African American offenders. Fueling this are the attitudes associated with racial profiling. In most cases minorities are considered social ills, they are seen as predominantly disadvantaged in the school or moral system and are thereby categorized as prone to crime or illegal activities that would otherwise predispose them to experiencing such injustices.

The sad reality behind these injustices is that as much as some offenders duly deserve the punishments they receive, a majority including the poor are incarcerated for no viable crime, receiving punishments much higher than is justly deserved. Examples of such incidents are seen all over the media and on countless reports put out. On the rise especially are countless shootings of unarmed African American individuals ranging from children to adult. With the likes of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri to the choking of Eric Garner in New York City (Sekhon, 2017). According to a police violence report (2017), there were 1,147 killings in 2017 with 92% of them the result of police shootings, Tasers, physical force and police vehicles. Those charged for these cases were only 13, a whopping 1% of all killings.

The irony behind it is that witnesses were able to identify 569 of these officers, with at least 48 having shot or killed someone and 12 with multiple prior shootings. In these cases, the police had responded to suspected non-violent offenses (Violence, 2017). The evident air of such incidents as well as advocacy by activists has led to little to no change in many police departments across the country. Pictures such as the one displayed at the bottom are the result of countless activists, ordinary citizens and community leaders protesting the indiscriminate rise of police brutality across various states in America

Figure 1: protests after fatal shooting by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Protesters march after a fatal shooting by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2016. Credit: William Widmer/New York Times/eyevine (Peeples, 2019, September 4).

Figure 2: Protestors march & demonstrate against the shooting of Michael Brown

Protestors march and hold their fists aloft as they march during ongoing demonstrations in reaction to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri August 16, 2014 (Reuters, 2016, February 26).

 

 

References

Peeples, L. (2019, September 4). What the data say about police shootings. Retrieved March 6, 2020, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02601-9

Reuters. (2016, February 26). Justice Department to Conduct Independent Autopsy of Michael Brown. Retrieved March 6, 2020, from https://www.newsweek.com/justice-department-conduct-independent-autopsy-michael-brown-265118

Sekhon, N. (2017). Blue on Black: An empirical assessment of police shootings. Am. Crim. L. Rev., 54, 189.

Violence, M. P. (2017). Police violence report.

 

 

Environmental injustices in Southeastern North Carolina

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By Kristin Power

Far too long have non-white communities in North Carolina had to suffer from injustices. More recently, these communities in the eastern part of the state have been enduring environmental inequities due to the large concentration of hog and poultry farms. The problem is commercial hog farms are permitted to be placed (by the state of North Carolina) within proximity to already existing residencies. The counties in which they are established are predominantly black counties. These farms utilize open-air waste lagoons and spray fields. The residents of these counties “had higher mortality due to infections, anemia, kidney disease, and perinatal conditions, and higher rates of hospital admissions and ED visits for LBW infants. The observed higher rate of all-cause mortality is consistent with the lower life expectancy in this area” (Kravchenko, Rhew, Akushevich, Agarwal, & Lyerly, 2018).

I believe this to be systemic injustice because the state of North Carolina is permitting these farms to be within proximity to preexisting homes. Furthermore, North Carolina is not addressing the environmental inequities faced by these residents. In the latest public hearing, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality stated, “cumulative health impacts are not currently in the Department’s purview” (Poupart, 2019).

In my opinion, a simple change in how hog waste is handled would be a solution. Also, future hog and poultry farms should not be permitted to be established unless a specified distance from residential areas is met. NCDEQ should also be reviewed based on the blatant disregard of the communities’ health disparities as a result of hog and poultry farms.

This problem is relatable to the hardships, injustices, and inequities faced by Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis. These people are trying to fight for equality. However, these people are fighting for equality long after the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Here are two links describing the situation:

https://www.facingsouth.org/2019/04/permitting-racial-injustice-north-carolina-hog-country

https://psmag.com/social-justice/environmental-racism-in-north-carolina

 

 

Kravchenko, J., Rhew, S. H., Akushevich, I., Agarwal, P., & Lyerly, H. K. (2018). Mortality and Health Outcomes in North Carolina Communities Located in Close Proximity to Hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. North Carolina Medical Journal, 79(5), 278–288. doi: 10.18043/ncm.79.5.278

Poupart, J. (2019). Environmental Justice. In Hearing Officer’s Report and Response to Public Comments for the Renewal of the State General Permits for Animal Feeding Operations (pp. 24–24). NCDEQ. Retrieved from https://files.nc.gov/ncdeq/Water Resources/Report-of-Proceedings-FInal-04.11.2019.pdf

Systemic Injustice in A Disney Movie? You’re Joking Right?

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By Alyssa Suarez

No, I’m not joking!

I was watching “The Princess and The Frog” the other day on Netflix when I notices that there was some systemic injustice in the movie. In one scene, Tiana just got done raising enough money to buy a place that was going to be her father’s restaurant. At her best friends party, she ran into Mr. Finner, which is who she bought her place that was going to be her restaurant from. She then found out that someone offered more money then her for the place. After the Mr. Finner told her this, he then said something to her that was an example of systemic injustice. After Tiana told them how long it took her to save that money up, they said “Exactly! Which is why a little woman of your background would have had her hands full trying to run a big business like that. Your better off where your at.” This is an example of systemic injustice because they are assuming because she is African American that she can’t or would struggle running a big business even though they didn’t exactly come out and say that. They just sugar coated it all though I also think they did that due to this movie being meant for children. I never really realized this until I began to watch this movie again.

When looking at New Orleans’s background, the African American population began to grow. Some slaves were able to earn their freedom there, and others came to New Orleans from present-day Haiti, fleeing a slave revolt there and bringing along Voodoo and other traditions. (New Orleans) If you click on the link, you can learn more about New Orleans’s history. New Orleans’s history is important when understanding Tiana’s background, as Shannon explains her background in the video below. If you fast forward to 7 minutes she begins to talk about Tiana’s background.

 

Tiana deals with hardships as an African American woman who is taught that working hard is the only way she will pursue her dreams. When Mr. Finner made that comment about her, that was systemic injustices. That caused Tiana to fall into the category of Otherness. As Simone de Beauvoir explains in her article, Tiana falls into the category not only due to being a woman but also as an African American. Which is an example of intersectional identity, as we talked about in week six.

When watching The Princess and the Frog not many notice that their is racial discrimination because it is systemic injustice. By making this comment, this demonstrates an example of Otherness, which Simone de Beauvoir talks about in The Second Sex “Introduction”.

I think it is important to understand what systemic injustice is because if you pay attention, you will see that it is everywhere just like I notices in my favorite movie “The Princess and the Frog”.

The Coronavirus and its Impact on Injustices (Morgan Marquez)

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Link: 

Within the past few months, the outbreak of the coronavirus has been a health concern especially in China where the majority or root of the outbreak has occurred. Ever since this spread of the virus, individuals have been taking precautions to ensure that the virus is contained, and that other people do not become infected. At Ohio State, there is a large population of students from China and other countries who have been wearing masks. This precaution is a part of the culture that is commonly used in order to prevent the spread of disease. However, there have been many instances of racial injustice toward these students. For example, it seems to be that the coronavirus is directly correlated to those from this culture and many individuals have avoided contact with these students if they are coughing, wearing a mask, or even just based on their ethnicity. This is an example of systemic injustice because it is a prejudiced belief that these students are more likely to be infected because they are from China or apart of the mask-wearing culture. On twitter, a student tweeted about a Chinese girl who was wearing a mask at the library. She wiped down her table and told this student that she did not have the disease and that it was safe for him to sit next to her and did so because she believed that the student was afraid of even just sitting next to her.

As of March 3, 2020, the Arnold Sports Festival has been cancelled for all spectators due to a fear of the threat of the coronavirus. As spectators are no longer allowed to attend the event, there are also less than 20 participants from other countries that will also not be allowed to compete. Competitors from China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and Japan will not be allowed to compete because the coronavirus has had a serious impact in these countries. I believe that large cancellations like this play a role in contributing to the mass hysteria that has grown with the coronavirus and I think that it is going to continue to grow. The fear about this virus is causing people to take extreme precautionary measures and I think these actions will continue to contribute toward the systemic injustices toward individuals from these countries or those who ethnically represent the countries that have been hit the hardest with the coronavirus. Link: 

The outbreak of the coronavirus has caused people to “other” individuals who are wearing a mask or represent an ethnicity whose country has been hit the hardest with the virus. deBeauvoir states, “Thus it is that no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other…against itself. If three travelers chance to occupy the same compartment, that is enough to make vaguely hostile ‘others’ out of all the rest of the passengers on the train” (1). Americans and others have been cancelling trips, flights, and other travel plans and taking precautions. However, these precautions have tended to lead to injustices and othering against individuals due to a newly developed mass hysteria and fear.

Link: 

 

Police Corruption

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By Evan Matthews

So this weekend I was in New York City for a track meet held in uptown (Harlem) and happened to be taken advantage of by the NYPD, or at least they tried. What had happened was while we were on our way to the track meet we got stopped by the NYPD while going through the subway ticket area getting our subway cards. As we started to enter through three NYPD officers stopped us and informed us that there was an additional fee for large out of state groups traveling through New York’s subway system (Which is completely false) and my coaches requested their names and badge numbers to report them. This wasn’t my first encounter with with corrupt police officers sadly but it impacted my teammates and myself cause it made me think do people really think were that gullible? I distinguished this as systematic injustice because the police tried using their authority and our lack of subway knowledge and the fact that we were from out of town for their personal gain. For this wrong to be righted honestly those officers need to lose their jobs and find another profession. They’re supposed to protect and serve not steal, there was some light that came from this situation though and that was I learned even though people have gained positions of power and authority does not mean they will carry out their duties in a righteous manner. My case of systematic injustice is not as extreme as MLK’s by any means but I think the two relate as people in positions of power were using those positions to exploit people and in my case for personal gain, in Dr. Kings case in was not for personal gain it was for the sheer fact that that’s how society was and many white people wanted to degrade and stop black folks from being equal to them in socioeconomic class.

https://images.app.goo.gl/7gXz151WDNSebKCs8

https://nypost.com/tag/nypd-corruption-scandal/