Little Fires Everywhere is originally a novel written by Celeste Ng, and it was adapted to a single season show by Hulu in 2020. This work very clearly displays the concept of self vs other through race and privilege. In the story, there are two prominent white families, one black family and one immigrant Asian family. Continually through the story the white families are chosen by society and their privilege is made abundantly clear. The most startling and blatant example of this is a situation in which an Chinese immigrant woman gives birth to a daughter. Unfortunately, as a result of systemic injustice towards immigrants in America: she lives in poverty and is unable to take care of her baby. After months of trying her best she gives in and leaves the baby with the local fire department. One of the white families adopts the child and raises her as their own. A year later the mother finds the baby in the care of the white family and the two end up in court fighting for custody. After an emotionally grueling trial, the white family is granted full custody of the baby and the biological mother is only allowed limited visitation. This is a difficult situation to navigate, but a clear example of othering and systemic injustice nonetheless. Had this country been more accepting of immigrants in the first place, the mother would likely have been able to keep her baby healthy and safe from the beginning. However, after a case being decided by a white judge, this was not taken into account and no forgiveness was granted to the biological mother. Throughout the whole situation the other white family and people in the community viewed her as the other. She found only one ally in the mother of the aforementioned black family. The reason she found an alliance was because in this overwhelmingly white wealthy community, they experienced a shared otherness. No one treated them as equals and even generosity was more so viewed as thinly veiled racist handouts. In the end they both end up leaving the community in search of a better life and a place where they would better be accepted. However, their struggles within this small ethnocentric town are all the unfortunate result of race and class based othering.
Hey everyone. Welcome to my podcast. My name is Lauren Willson, and I’ll be your host for today. I just want to thank you for taking the time to listen. I really appreciate it. So today I’m going to be talking about police reform a little bit. And we’re going to be asking a few questions more than just is this racist. We’re also going to be asking, is this appropriate? Is this right? Should this have happened? Among a few of the many, many questions that could be brought up in relation to this topic and in relation to this story that I’m going to share, but before I share this story, I think it’s important to get some background information on policing on 2020 and on the environment in which the story takes place. But we’re going to start at the beginning. We’re going to start with some background on policing.
Now, something that I actually just learned this past semester is that policing in America started as a form of suppression. After emancipation the first form of policing was actually called (informally) slave catchers. And it was essentially organized groups of white landowners, wealthy white men in the South who were searching for black men and women in the United States who had been recently emancipated and were you know, not causing any real issues. They’re not doing anything wrong, but they were just looking for excuses for reasons to essentially re enslave them. As many of us know, I’m sure the 13th amendment, although it does call for the end of slavery, that it’s unconstitutional, whatever it does allow slavery as a form of punishment. So essentially these slave catchers would be looking for recently freed, black men and women and re enslaving them in the eyes of the law.
Now this is not just, this is not justice. We know this- we know that this is a terrible, terrible stain on our history. It’s a horrible thing. There’s no, there’s no denying that, but this is how policing started in America. You know, it has very, very racist roots. There’s no denying that. And so it’s no surprise that today there are still issues with racism within this system. Although a lot has changed obviously over the centuries that we have been provided, not enough has changed and there’s still great, great issues within the system in regards to racism and bias that we deal with very prominently in 2020. So that brings us to 2020. That brings us to today.
What’s going on right now? Well, we all know, I’m sure we all know that we’re all decently informed this past year has been a really big year for the black lives matter movement. It’s been a very upsetting year obviously in regards to the murder of George Floyd Breonna Taylor among the many, many other innocent lives that have been lost to the hands of police brutality and racism within the system. So this is an ongoing thing. You know, this isn’t something that we’ve been dealing with since the inception of this country. And there’s no way around that. We all understand that. Now this is relevant to my story because police reform has been an ongoing topic in a class of mine here at Ohio state all semester. It is a running theme because of 2020. And because of the events that have happened this year and how the public has reacted, how we all have reacted.
And just because it’s important, you know, so we’ve watched a lot of videos, read a lot of articles. We’ve all been very informed on the topic of police reform and what needs to be done. What has been done, what has not been done. We’ve looked at it from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, all the way to now. And we thought to see how far or how not far we have come in relation to these different events and this topic. So a lot of work that needs to be done, and we have a long ways to go before we’re at a place that’s actually equal for all in this country. So we have that background. If you get into the real story of what’s happening here. So in this class, we had a guest speaker to talk on the topic of police reform. Now this speaker was a police officer himself.
He was a white male police officer. He works in Lima County and he talked to us about what he felt needed to be done in his County for police reform and the appropriate measures that had to be taken. Something that he touched on heavily was the lack of diversity in his unit. He said to us that I think around 9% of his were people of color and that the remaining 90% around 90% were all white people. Now, this is an issue, especially in Miami County, because this is a wild misrepresentation of the public in order to properly serve the public, you have to be a proper representation of them. In my opinion, that is possible for a group of people to be able to serve another group of people. If they do not properly understand what is going on in their lives and how their service impacts the lives of these people.
I don’t think that an all white precinct of police officers properly understands how their presence and their history impacts people of color and specifically black Americans in this country. This was something that he also recognized during the presentation. The class was allowed to ask questions of this officer and someone brought up the idea of social workers. Now, this is something that has been talked about heavily this year in relation to the protests that have occurred over the summer. And people’s, you know, input this year on policing and how it should be fixed. A lot of people have suggested that we allocate some money towards people who are better trained in mitigating and navigating these high intensity situations that you see normal police officers who aren’t properly trained in that field panicking and pulling the trigger and abusing people on the streets, normal citizens who haven’t done much wrong, like George Floyd are being abused murdered, really, you know. He didn’t like this idea. This was something that he more or less rejected. He felt that we would not benefit by taking any more uniform officers trained as they are off of the streets. And that we didn’t have the funds necessarily to provide this other service. Additionally, on top of that another comment he made that sat not well with myself and some of my classmates was, he did say that he has not seen in his entire career, which has been decently long, any of his coworkers, any officer he has ever known make any decisions based off of race. Now, this is the point in the podcast where I would like to start asking questions, right? Is this right? Is it right for a white male police officer to come to us and talk to us about police reform?
I don’t think so. I think that he’s incredibly biased. You know, I don’t think there’s any way that you could possibly deny that this man is biased in this situation. He is on what you could say is the public’s opposition right now. A lot of people view him and his coworkers and his career as the bad guys. There’s a certain level of self-defense that comes into play when you’re having this sort of a conversation and that’s human. That’s understandable, but I just don’t think that it’s fair for him to be the ultimate authority in this situation. Obviously we’re all old enough. We’re all college students. We can have our own opinions, regardless of what’s said in class, but to present this information and to present it as an absolute truth. And the way that he did, I think is not right, especially in this setting in 2020, where people are incredibly passionate and personally affected by this topic.
Another question I would like to ask is, is this his place? I personally don’t think it is, you know, we already discussed that his unit is wildly misrepresentative of the population that he works in. It is far too white. It does not have enough people of color. It’s just not diverse enough for the proper demographic of his County. So is this his place? He’s not part of the demographic that’s being abused historically by the police. He is the abuser. I’m not saying he’s done anything wrong in his career. I don’t know his history. I’m sure that he is a fine police officer. However, it’s not his topic. I think to be an authority on, there’s a fine line as an ally that people walk between speaking up for the community that they’re an ally for. And then speaking up in support. And I think that this is one of those situations where he is speaking up instead of them.
And he is misrepresenting what might be best. And he is claiming his own opinion as the ultimate authority. And I don’t think that it’s right. I do not think it’s his place. Although there are endless questions that could be addressed on this topic. I’d like to present just one more. And that’s what we about have time for. And this final question is the overarching question of, is this racist now in a way I think that this is, I think that this is a good example of systemic racism. This is a white man police officers speaking up for the community that his demographic has historically oppressed for the entirety of this nation. Since the beginning, the police force has been abusing mistreating and biased against black people and people of color in this country. I do think that him speaking up as an authority on this topic is a very good example of what’s been happening forever.
I think that this is a trend that needs to stop. I think that people like him need to understand that this is not his topic tend to be an authority on because he’s not, he’s never had to deal with it in the personal way that black Americans and people of color have had to. He never will. You know? So overall the answer to the questions in my opinion that we have asked today is this right? No, is this biased? Yes. Is it his place? No. And isn’t racist. Yes. I think this is a good example of systemic racism. I would love to hear other people’s opinions, feel free to share them if you’d like, but thank you for listening and have a good day.
Over the past few weeks voters all across the nation and the state of Ohio have begun the voting process for the 2020 presidential election. However, in Ohio especially there appears to be an issue of voter suppression. Frank LaRose, the official in charge of elections in Ohio, purposefully made it so there would only be one early voting location per county. While this may not seem like an issue on the surface, it carries with it problematic historical ties. The issue with delegating voting locations based on counties is that the access to voting is being determined by land and not by the number of people in an area. This is historically a mechanism used to garner more votes or more access to voting for conservative leaning voters. People with further right leaning political views tend to settle in the more rural parts of the country. Meanwhile, cities and areas with denser populations tend to lean more left. By not providing more voting locations for more densely populated areas, Frank Larose is creating longer lines in these more democratic parts of the state. This is in turn making it more difficult for left leaning voters to get their ballots in. This is an example of systemic injustice because it is utilizing strategies that have been exercised for centuries. Since the conception of this country there has been arguments over whether land or people matter more in states rights and influence. This can be seen in the constitution and in compromises made following its inception. The long history of this trend is strong evidence that it is systemic and not simply an isolated event. Additionally, there is no denying that race plays a big part in this issue. The number of people of color living in the more densely populated areas tends to be much higher than that of the more rural towns. It is undeniable that by forcing the people of these cities to wait in significantly longer lines disadvantages people of color. This is effectively attempting to silence their vote. This is a reflection of a long standing tragic history in this nation, dating all the way back to the 1800’s when Jim Crow laws and poll taxes blatantly discriminate against black americans.
Smith, Terrance. “Timeline: Voter Suppression in the US from the Civil War to Today.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 2020, abcnews.go.com/Politics/timeline-voter-suppression-us-civil-war-today/story?id=72248473
Hi everyone my name is Lauren (she, her, hers), and I’ll be providing some context on this week’s topic, systemic injustice, through the lens of the Prison and Justice systems.
The systematic oppression of minorities in America by Police, in the prison systems, and the criminal justice system as a whole is a long standing issue. Infact, according to historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad, America’s first from of organized policing was “slave patrols” in the pre-Civil War south. After emancipation, these organizations still continued police activities that were unique to the recently freed black community, effectively criminalizing the black American. Over time, this evolved into the organized police that we see today, and many of these racist undertones have been perpetuated and spread throughout the entire criminal justice process. According to The Sentencing Project: black citizens are four times as likely to be arrested than white citizens, and it doesn’t stop there. After arrest, they are also more likely to be convicted and more likely to be served a harsher sentence. Conversely, white men are consistently given lesser charges and treated with less aggression than their minority peers. This can be seen in many high profile cases, like that of Brock Turner a white, male student athlete who in 2016 was found guilty of three counts of felony sexual assault. He only served three months in jail before being released. His experience with the American justice system can very easily be attributed to the combination of his race, social status, and socioeconomic status. Those who do not share these attributes with him seldom see such mercy in court. This perpetuation of damaging, unfair treatment of black people and other minorities is a stark example of systemic injustice. These people’s freedoms and rights are being threatened without even the slightest semblance of just cause. Through the lens of the concept of self versus other, it would be clear that in this country, historically, the white man has been the self, and has viewed people of color as their inferior other. This has resulted in many long standing forms of systemic injustice
Sources:
Nellis, Ashley, and Henderson Hill. “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons.” The Sentencing Project, 10 Jan. 2019, www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/.
Initiative, Prison Policy. “Visualizing the Racial Disparities in Mass Incarceration.” Prison Policy Initiative, www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/07/27/disparities/.
“American Police.” NPR, NPR, 4 June 2020, www.npr.org/2020/06/03/869046127/american-police.
