Day: March 26, 2017

It is unacceptable that in today’s America we have black households making on average 13 times less than white households, African Americans dying a full 3 years earlier than whites, significantly fewer African Americans having earned college degrees, all while having a higher chance of going to jail or dying by homicide in comparison to whites. It’s been eight years since we elected Barack Obama to be our president, but the battle for racial equality is still far from over.

The Black Lives Matter movement, which was sparked by the unjust treatment of African-Americans by the police force, has taken the spotlight in this battle for racial equality, and while I do agree that this is a major issue, there are other problems to take care of, namely the lack of access to a high-quality education and the barriers that hinder economic mobility for many African American individuals. In America, the idea is that if you work hard enough, you will be able to prosper in life, but what people are seeing is that those who are on the lower end of the economic ladder are not showing that significant growth after many years of work, while those on the upper end do. If you add these economic problems to the already existing social and political issues plaguing African Americans, you have a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps one of the major issues to focus on as one step in solving these problems is a lack of diversity in our nation’s schools. Our public schools are outstandingly divided by race – according to the Civil Rights Project, a white student’s class of 30 had “22 whites, two blacks, and four Latinos, while the class of a typical black or Latino student had at least 20 blacks or Latinos and eight whites.” These Black and Latino children are often part of schools that do not receive the same level of funding and resources that are found in schools that have mostly White children. While a simple answer to the problem would be “just move to a better location and send your child to a better school,” the reality is that most Black and Latino families do not have the resources to do so. Therefore, it should be in our best interest that we take on many of these smaller issues in our communities as a way of addressing the larger issue of racial conflict and inequality.

Throughout American history, we’ve seen how the foundation of the United States is based on the issue of racism. The U.S. has always been represented as the land of opportunity, attracting people from all walks of life. In the process of doing so however, there has been a clear distinction between those who are privileged and those who aren’t, giving rise to a very prominent issue in today’s society which is that of racial inequality. One would expect from the 1960s, the era of civil rights to now, continuous progress would be made in trying to remedy this issue. But in reality, the gap between the majority and minority racial groups, is consistently growing. According to Urban Issues, the mean net worth of white households in 2013 was more than 10 times that of Hispanics and nearly 13 times that of blacks. In addition, Urban Issues also states that African American males account for only 6% of the U.S. population but represent 40% of the 90 unarmed men shot to death by police. Also, young white and black men use marijuana at the same rate but yet young black men are jailed at 9 times the rate of whites. Even though, African Americans have been granted equality by law, they still face many discriminatory practices in the present day.

Firstly, a surprising issue in this chapter of Urban Issues was how controversial the “Black Lives Matter” movement has been from the time it began. Many argue that the name of the movement itself signals racial bias towards African Americans, something that this particular racial group is fighting against whites. However, as we’ve seen time and time again, people in today’s society never seem to take social issues seriously unless it has a direct impact on them or drastic moves are made to bring attention to those issues. As Urban Issues states everyone knows the issue of racism exists in America but it is something that is sensitive to an extent where it is rarely ever talked about because people just don’t see a solution to it. Thus, even though the movement “Black Lives Matter” might be an extreme measure in some regard, at least it is getting people outside of that racial group to fully understand and realize the issues at large that have been affecting African Americans.

Secondly, one aspect that was interesting in this chapter of Urban Issues, was the government’s role in helping to integrate American society. It is stated that Clinton’s proposal for integration was to implement measures that would fight poverty and reduce income inequality which would then reduce disparities in the criminal justice system. However, when this happens and people have an opportunity to move away from the “ghetto”, the neighborhood just becomes even more impoverished because those with well paying professions are no longer there to serve as role models for those living in that area and the situation goes back to being as it was initially. With that, Urban Issues states that President Nixon viewed that while legal segregation is totally wrong, forced integration of housing or education is just as wrong. Hence, this gives rise to the question as to how big of a role can government play in integration without affecting the rights of Americans themselves in terms of their personal choices.

If the government can only do so much in helping to foster integration, it is merely up to the individuals to become more socially aware and to create a cultural shift. This chapter sheds light on many public and private universities that advocate civil rights and fight against racial discrimination whenever there are racial issues present at their campuses. Activism on a school level is just as important as any other activist group. If anything, it might be the most important given that there is a huge gap in academic performance on standardized test results as stated in Urban Issues. It is stated that 7 % of black 12^th graders were proficient in Math as opposed to 29^% white students and 16% of black students were proficient in Reading as opposed to 47% white students. On a CUNY level, there might be some level of activism but not as strong as the case on other campuses. There might not be major racial issues that are present at CUNY campuses but there is still major social and racial division present. Hence, this should be reason enough for students to get up and use their voices to end that because at the end of the day college is suppose to be an equalizer. Moreover, by doing so students would help to prevent those said divisions from becoming a much bigger problem in the future.

The debate over the linking, both intentional and not, of criminality and race is pressing in this chapter of the CQ Reader.  The embodiment, in my mind, of racial tension in the United States today is the state of policing and race. A whole section of this chapter is devoted to exploring the answer to the hypothetical question ,”Would improving police interactions with African Americans significantly advance race relations in America.” If I were to critique this as a research question for our class, I would certainly be wary. After all, what is a “significant advance”? With such a subjective, heated issue, I was not surprised the amount of dissent documented amongst scholars, activists, and professionals within the section.

The larger cultural discussion about race in America has been kicked off, in many ways, by new technological abilities to broadcast the inferior treatment of African Americans by police and otherwise. Police video has become what one Professor dubbed the, “C-span” of the streets; however, though the videos have begun to verify the claims of inequality that have rung hollow for centuries, they are not always the most reliable source, nor do they tell totally the plight of minorities in this country. The merits of police video– now done through popular “bodycams”– can be debated ad infinitum, but the real question to ask, the question that should be asked, is whether the treatment of African Americans by police is the problem, or if it is simply symptomatic of a larger issue within the American social framework. Movement affiliates with Black Lives Matter seem to fall in the latter camp, arguing that “discriminatory law enforcement” is not the worst problem to be faced by African Americans today. I agree with this synthesis. It is hard to say that policing is the only problem when disparity and inequality seeps into nearly every other area of Black life in this country. Schools are lacking, economic opportunity is too. Racism is a being not limited to handcuffs and prison cells.

The characterization of police videos as the “C-span of the streets” is more accurate when refined to include most other aspects of African American existence in the United States. Like the channel itself, which has a limited viewership only of those who are most devoted and who stand to be impacted most by changes in the status-quo, the circulation of information regarding race in the United States stands to be digested by those who already understand the situation, as it is their day-to-day reality. Perhaps if Black life was televised more like the “FoxNews of the streets” something productive to “significantly advance” race relations could be done.

The complexity of the issues discussed in this week’s reading, Chapter Eight of the CQ reader, likely cause it to be one of the most important issues spoken about in the CQ, as its affects result in many of the other issues spoken of in other chapters.  It is fascinating, however, to consider that our country has gone through at least two periods in which the issues being discussed were specifically targeted, and we still have managed to fail to solve them to any acceptable extent, those periods being the reconstruction era of the 1860’s-1870’s, and the Great Society of President Johnson and onwards.

In considering why we as a country have failed to adequately address these issues, I found it fascinating that a lack of consensus is able to be reached amongst any community, be in the Black versus White community, or even amongst the Black community themselves.  To this end, it is quite possible our lack of movement in any direction towards affecting positive change is a direct result of political ideology and affiliation, as seen through the ideas of the leadership of the National Leadership Network of Black Conservatives, who espouse Conservative ideology while parting with solutions often proposed to alleviate the symptoms of poverty, such as a higher minimum wage or increased funding for the impoverished. As these issues, such as the wealth gap and the poverty level, are intimately related to our countries problem with race relations, the fact of our inability to work together across party lines in regards to other topics, such as taxation and the minimum wage, does not bode well in my mind for progress in regards to race relations.

While education is oftentimes thrown around as the solution to the interactions between the police and minority communities, I am of the belief that this will have little effect at all on these interactions.   Obviously, for one reason or another, the police are not comfortable enforcing the laws within certain neighborhoods. Furthermore, the I doubt the average police officer is leaving his house in the morning with the intention of murdering an unarmed African American boy.  As such, while there is certainly merit to the idea of increasing education, as this is always a valuable commodity, efforts must be made to ensure that the police grow more comfortable policing within the neighborhoods that they evidently are not currently comfortable doing so.  And the most logical way to do this, in my mind, is to alleviate the necessities, if currently in place, for minority communities to partake within suspicious behavior that has caused the police to grow uncomfortable around them.

As for an increase in education specifically, there is no question that an effort must be made to reduce the gap between funding provided for whites and minority groups.  This is not to say sacrificing the education of white children for that of minority children, but rather a reform in the educational and budgetary system, so that all children are provided for.  And frankly, with the amount of money being thrown around, some true effort must be made, or this money is simply being wasted.

So to conclude my thoughts on the issue of race relations within our illustrious nation, it too plays back into larger issues which we, as a nation, have seemingly been unable to address in the past.  This inability is not necessarily for lack of desire, although that may well be a portion of the problem, but also a seeming inability to reach a consensus of agreement that does not necessitate a complete reversal of policy after a maximum eight years of a Presidency.

From school, I had always learned that poorer neighborhoods, higher crime, and lower college attendance for the black population  was the result of something called institutionalized racism, where limited resources and access to quality education and jobs, and the funding for these, begot those results, even if they were legally allowed to be successful, rich, and get a quality education. From my mother at home, however, she would tell me that they just had “different values.” She would say, and the CQ researcher echoed, that their family structure is weaker, and it’s not like something was stopping them from attaining the same stuff we had–it was that they didn’t work for it. I found myself disagreeing with her, but somewhat with my eyes closed–in my high school, a highly diverse place with a very large minority presence, few minority students were in my honors classes. It wasn’t proportional at all, even if we’d all had the same introductory classes the first year. When I was in the same classes as them, they didn’t seem to care. Maybe they didn’t.

I find it interesting how some conservatives blame welfare for single mothers for the falling apart of the family unit. I would like to question how Walter E. Williams, the economy professor on page 178, knows that the family unit a generation out of slavery had a family unit of more integrity, and what other factors may have been playing into those disparities between those then and the ones now.

While I do believe that unequal access to resources like funding and education are part of the problem, I’m not willing to believe that there isn’t a “moral” issue as well underlying these problems.

To think that at this stage of American history racial conflict remains an issue, as this article by Peter Katel indicates, is very disturbing. Our society should have learned from the mistakes of racial discrimination of the past. I was very troubled when I read about the racial inequalities that continue to exist in the United States today because I expect better from our country and its people. As a college student in a diverse, multicultural institution, I am not witness to racial discrimination of the kind that Katel’s article discusses.

I believe that I have been less exposed than others to racial conflict because I am situated in an academic environment that does not tolerate racial discrimination. The key to eliminating racial discrimination is, I believe, education. Liberation from racism requires education. This education must be aimed in two directions: one, towards the prejudiced person who is not treating other people properly because of their race, and another, toward the victims of prejudice.  When both sides are educated, racial conflict can be minimized. In response to Katel’s article, I think such education should be given to our police forces, who tend to generalize by race and disproportionately stop- and –frisk black people and also disproportionally use violence when apprehending them. These police practices have unfortunately led to the deaths of many innocent black people. Education must play a crucial role in teaching uneducated people about not treating people differently because of their race.

Education should also be directed at the victims of prejudice who are often black citizens.  Currently, the socio-economic level of many black people is one of poverty, of low levels of education; these factors are often associated with a broken family life. Yet, there are many black people who have succeeded in life, even reaching the highest political position in our country, the presidency of the United States. What most of these success stories have in common is a good education that seems to bring about a reduction in racial conflict. A strong, comprehensive education is optimal to motivate many black people, who may have a sense of failure or doom about developing or being appreciated, to move forward from victim to citizen with full and respected rights. The article indicates that black youth of today have much lower math and reading scores than white youth of equivalent ages. Education is a tool that should be provided to everyone. It is an important tool through which people can learn to help themselves. As a result of slavery there may be a form of learned helplessness and defeatism among black people, but through education in an integrated educational environment, blacks can extract themselves from their difficult situations to full socio-economic freedom. Despite the many laws of civil liberty that have been instituted in our recent history, racial conflict persists. However, I submit that without being given the true key to freedom, a good education equivalent for all, freedom and equal opportunity remain no more than a dream. Equal education for all, will make that dream become reality and help eradicate racial conflict.

The issue of race relations in this country is a very complicated issue, obviously. Similar to what I said in the response paper for a couple chapters ago, whether or not you believe that there is actually institutional racism present and in effect in America or not, at the end of the day, doesn’t make such a big difference. The fact is that there is a significant portion of the population that feels like they are being marginalized and treated unfairly. That, i feel like, can be fixed and/or dealt with.

I do, however, believe that many issues regarding this topic can, and are, blown out of proportion and not handled, or processed, in the correct way. Whenever you focus intensely on any one thing, you can find many many things that are broken in it; and especially when you are emotionally invested in it. That happens quite often in a lot of issues, and in this one as well because of how serious it becomes when there are people dying at such a rate that took place.

An offshoot of what I just wrote can be the downplay of other major issues as well. When one, very specific, issue becomes the focus, to a point where it seems to be the only issue, that is a problem. The tension between white officers and black citizens in this country is obviously a problem; but it is very likely not the problem. It becomes easy to not pay attention to other factors, and facts in general. Things like 93 percent of black homicide victims being killed by other black people and only 7 percent and 16 percent of black students performing at or above proficient levels in math and reading, respectively.

There are many other problems that have to be addressed. Given that, somehow, the relations between police and African Americans was patched up, there would still exist all the other issues that were discussed in this chapter. However, if you target some of the other issues then that could very likely play a role in fixing the relationship and problems that come along with the police.