United States

Short North Food Hall Dress Code

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By Jordyn Zody

This past January, the Short North Food Hall posted a dress code list that discriminated against African Americans. The dress code restricted items such as sagging pants and flat billed hats. It also did not allow for athletic clothes, sandals, and a long list of other items to be worn into the bar. Food Hall did come out and apologize for the dress code and have taken the majority of it back, but it exploded onto social media sites and had many people upset about it. While having a dress code for health or safety reasons is understandable (for example, not allowing backpacks to be brought into the bar) their entire dress code is unreasonable. However, Food Hall specifically not allowing flat billed hats while allowing regular baseball caps is unnecessary. Also, baggy clothing would be a subjective call for the bouncer and there is no clear definition on what would be acceptable and would likely lead to discrimination. Even though the dress code listed specific items, it was not clear on what would be allowed and where the line would be drawn for items such as baggy clothes.

 

This relates to the Civil Rights Movement and demonstrates that while we may all appear to have equal rights there are still numerous cases of injustice. We are still dealing with racial discrimination in America today. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and fought discrimination with nonviolent and economic methods. They did things such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956.

 

America has come a long way, but racial discrimination is still present today. Food Hall’s dress code is not acceptable, and we should not tolerate or support actions like this.

 

The following is a link to a news story regarding Food Hall’s dress code sign: https://www.10tv.com/article/organization-says-dress-code-sign-outside-short-north-bar-was-discriminatory-2020-feb

 

Cash Bail Bond and Mass Incarceration

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By Shaye Murray

In my first Diary of Systematic Injustice I discussed an issue of cash bail (anyone who has been arrested and wants to stay out of jail while awaiting trial) and mass incarceration. A community group by the name of Dream Defenders, a Florida based community organization fighting racial injustices in the state began their kickoff event “FREE THE BLOCK” regarding the elimination of cash bail and “nationwide grassroots efforts of inventive, people-powered campaigns that have the direct goal of reducing jail populations, ending the profiteering of caging people, and divesting from a carceral system while investing in systems that fulfill the basic needs of people.” says Maya Ragsdale. Some many spend time in jail for lack of as little as $500 or even $250 (Wykstra 2018). Many low-income individuals specifically Black men are forced to pretrial detention before criminal trial because of the inability to afford cash bond. Black and brown people as well as other low-income families are vulnerable to this policy and often suffer more because of it. The inequality is critical to many homes of African American communities that are torn apart by a system that does not see this community as whole. The criminalization of Black men for minor charges, that are executed differently from their counterparts is a pandemic. Historically, the criminal justice system has always had a track record of often harsh, inhumane, and unacceptable conditions of mass incarceration. African American men are being sentenced and given extreme punishment for minor situations while others are performing greater acts of crime and receiving minimum consequence. Pretrial detention has dramatically negative effects on the outcome of a defendant’s case: those who are held pretrial are four times more likely to be sentenced to prison than defendants released prior to trial. Pretrial detainees are also likely to make hurried decisions to plead guilty to a lower charge to spend less time behind bars rather than chancing a higher charge and longer sentence at trial (Onyekwere 2019).

In class we read Story of my Body by Ortiz, and it reminds me of the prejudice and discrimination not only did Ortiz have to endure every day, but the same acts of unlawfulness and unjust that African American men face daily as well. The color of your skin has a major effect on how individuals will perceive you and act upon who you are. In her story, she was told by Ted that they would not be attending the dance together due to her name being of Spanish descent and his father not approving. He continued to express how he had known Puerto Ricans in the army. He had lived in New York City while studying architecture and had seen how the spies lived. Like rats (Ortiz 441). The excerpt shows the negative thoughts and perspectives regarding low-income and people of color that scour society. When it comes to criminal justice men who are Black, or brown are given more barriers in the system than others. With all the concerns there has been elimination of cash bail in some states in efforts of criminal justice reform. Of course, there is controversy about whether the cash bail should be eliminated or not; however, achievements are being made to reduce the sentencing that Black and brown people have encounters for years.

Resources

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-cash-bail-works

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/dream-defenders-start-free-the-block-campaign-to-end-cash-bail-in-miami-florida-11456181

vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/17/17955306/bail-reform-criminal-justice-inequality

Derogatory Remarks in the Army (Sexist)

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Females in the Army

By Jake Fortney

Original Post

 

The topic I want to discuss this week is something I heard during my Army Physical Training test this week. I am in Army ROTC and this week we took our PT test on Thursday. Our PT test includes 2 minutes of push-ups, 2 minutes of sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. That day one of our cadets responded to a female cadet commenting on how well she did on the push-ups portion of the PT test. For reference, the female max score is 42 and it is 71 for males. She apparently did 41 push-ups which is one away from maxing and a male cadet said “that isn’t even enough to pass for us. I can’t wait until the new PT test comes out so all of these girls can get kicked out.” He was referring to the new “ACFT.” This test will have no “handicaps” for the females (males and females minimums and maximums will be equal). I think this perpetuates the idea that women are inferior to men in terms of physical fitness. I think this is a big problem in the Army. Treating women as physically inferior can lead to getting a general sense of women as being inferior. I’ve seen this lead to a situation of the One and the Other for the Army. Women are already outnumbered significantly by the men. I think allowing this sort of discourse only furthers the wedge between males and females in the Army.

 

Afterthoughts

 

I think I explained the situation pretty well the first time around so I left it in as well. To better understand what I meant by ACFT I have attached this article: https://www.army.mil/acft/. You can click on different things to view different parts of the test. Long story short: the current test allows different standards for gender and age. With the new test, there are no “handicaps” for gender or age. I think overall this is an attempt to equalize the PT test across the entire Army. I do think it is fair for everyone however, I don’t think the organization should be allowing this sort of discourse, as I mentioned above, to be happening. Since my last post the person in question was actually punished for what he said. I think the Army does a good job creating a good atmosphere for everyone these days, and I hope it continues!

 

 

 

New ACFT Events

 

 

 

tOSU Male Discrimination Complaint

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My Diary of Systemic Injustices entry that I would like to showcase is about the recent changes to gender specific programs benefiting women at The Ohio State University. The University recently made eight of the nine gender exclusive programs open to all students. This came after a complaint filed by Mark Perry of the University of Michigan with the Cleveland Office of Civil Rights. Perry claimed that these programs were in violation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination by educational institutions based on sex.

In my original entry, I focused on that fact that these programs denied males impactful educational opportunities strictly due to their sex. Some examples of these programs are the Summer Engineering Camp for Middle School Girls, and the Critical Difference Development Grants. Not only are males excluded from these opportunities, but the existence of these programs imply that women need extra help to succeed in that same areas where males are expected to succeed without the additional assistance.

For this showcase, I would like to elaborate on the language of Title IX, specifically regarding the exceptions made in the law. Title IX does not apply to gender discriminatory programs that offer “remedial or affirmative action,” or whose purpose is “to overcome the effects of conditions which resulted in limited participation therein by persons of a particular sex.” Critics of OSU’s decision to change these programs in response to Perry’s complaint argue that this language makes these programs legal. I believe this to be the case and find this a fascinating example of how sometimes providing programs exclusively to one gender can be a solution to systemic injustice, not the cause. Many of my other entries were about systemic injustices against women, and these programs were possibly the most direct effort to end these systemic injustices of all the examples I used.

I think this draws a strong parallel with our reading of MLK Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. MLK Jr. argues that slow change and progress is not adequate, and that oppressed people must fight and make their voices heard in order to effect real change. I think that these programs do exactly this, recognizing that women have repeatedly undervalued and underrepresented within our institutions, and take action to make sure that is not the case in the future. Below I have linked two articles regarding the complaint, the complaint itself, and Title IX.

 

The Lantern Article

https://www.thelantern.com/2020/02/ohio-state-responds-to-complaint-of-male-discrimination/

College Fix Article

https://www.thecollegefix.com/ohio-state-opens-several-women-only-programs-to-men-after-title-ix-complaint/

Complaint

https://www.scribd.com/document/448047603/OSUTitleIX#from_embed

Title IX

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/reg/ocr/edlite-34cfr106.html

The Big Problem with the Money Bail System — Aaron Kienzle

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Image retrieved From -https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html

I was watching a T.V. that followed around people in jail. From participating in this course, I got to thinking about the systemic injustices that lie in our criminal justice system. I believe there are a lot. One of these would be the money bail system that we currently have in play. The money bail system is where someone gets arrested and they are given the option to either stay in jail or pay a payment so they can be released until their court date. Once they show up to the court date they get their money refunded. However, there are a lot of problems and injustices in this. First of all the presumption of innocence (where people are considered innocent until proven guilty) is completely thrown out. If you are falsely accused and could not afford bail, you would be stuck in jail until your court date. Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopf in their article named Detailing the Poor stated that “34% of defendants were detained pretrial for the inability to post money bail.” This means out of 100 people charged and booked for a crime, 34 of them were offered bail and could not afford it. Innocent people sitting in jail because they cannot afford bail is definitely a problem. This is highly impactful to the lower class people who do not have a lot of money. Why is it right that a person with more money can get out of jail and a poorer person can’t? It simply is not. Upper class people are given a major advantage just for having money in their pocket. This system can be related to the theoretical work of othering we have learned in class. The system sets upper class people up as the one and lower class people as the other. All based on how much money the person has. Justice should not have a monetary value. In order for this wrong to be righted a new system must be put into play, a system that does not focus on social classes to decide if you can or cannot stay in jail. This reformed system must focus on equality among all people and fairness in the trial process. There are two articles linked below that help understand the injustices that lie in the money bail system. If you have the time, check them out!

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html

https://talkpoverty.org/2016/04/27/the-many-injustices-of-the-money-bail-system/

 

Coaching Discrimination in the NFL

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By Nate Hiles

Throughout the semester there was one systemic injustice that stood out to me and it was one that I thought was pretty fascinating. This injustice came in the world of sports and particularity in the NFL. The NFL has had issues throughout the years of providing minorities opportunities in which they will hold a position of power, this could be ownership opportunities, GM jobs but mostly this comes in the form of Head Coaching opportunities in the NFL. The NFL has 32 franchises, and only 5 of those franchises have a minority head coach leading their franchise, that’s just 15% of NFL teams. The NFL has attempted to implement rules over the years that would put a band-aid on this issue and possibly lead to more minorities in leadership roles but it has for the most part turned into a disgrace of the rule. The Rooney Rule is a rule where an NFL team with an open coaching position must first interview a minority individual before they can officially name a new coach, which is a great rule/idea on paper, but it has been handled poorly. The current state of the rule is that NFL teams will bring in a minority individual at the start of their coaching search so they can hire their candidate whenever they choose to do so, but they almost never truly consider the minority interviewee for the position. Eric Bieniemy is the last minority in the NFL to unfortunately have to face this reality. Eric Bieniemy is the Offensive Coordinator for the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, and has been the leader of the best offense in the NFL for the last two seasons. But, for SOME reason he has been unable to land a head coaching position and has had to watch less qualified individuals land the positions in which he is coveting. I think this is a clear example of an systemic injustice because it is a situation where the NFL and their leaders are not allowing minorities the same opportunities of advancement that they’re providing to non-minorities. In the NFL minorities basically have no voice and no face when it comes to positions of power. Yes, the NFL is flooded with minorities who actually participate on the field, but when it comes to positions of power within the NFL minorities have virtually no voice, and no options.

If I had to compare Eric Bieniemy’s situation to content from our class I’d probably have to compare it Hegel and the Master-Slave dialectic. Eric Bieniemy’s is one of the leaders of the Kansas City Chiefs and for the Chiefs he does hold a position of power, to a certain extent. But, while he does have this position of power, and the end of the day he still is at the will of individuals who are far more powerful than he is, and he must do what they say. He is holding a position of power, while still being a minority and having to be somewhat of an inferior at the same time.

http://https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/article239811393.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:

https://www.csvanw.org/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

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