Author: ksawh

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.

As I began reading this chapter on fighting gangs in Urban Issues, the first thing that came to mind was that I take a lot for granted. I have lived in a decently safe neighborhood in Queens from the time I moved to New York and I also attended schools and now college in relatively safe neighborhoods as well. Hence, it never really occurred to me how big of a problem gangs really are in the United States. According to Urban Issues, gangs have posed a serious threat in the United States especially as the number of gang related crimes are on the rise. This is particularly due to social media which makes it much easier for gang leaders to recruit new members. It was quite surprising to me how there is an increase in the number of women and girls who are involved in gangs since police are least likely to suspect women as criminals. It was even more surprising to me that some of them actually take up leadership roles in gangs. It was also surprising to me that military bases also have gang related activity especially dealing with prostitution. In addition, one thing I found interesting was that prison gangs tend to operate street affiliated gangs from inside their institutions. This is supporting evidence that there needs to be even stricter security in prison facilities to prevent gang related operations. However, there will always be limitations in how much guards can see and scrutinize.

One major systematic flaw I noticed from reading this chapter was the fact that sometimes crimes are reported as “gang-related” even when they aren’t since states receive extra funding to fight gang crime through state and federal programs. This seemed corrupt to me but at the same time maybe the funding that states receive in the first place to deal with their current gang situation isn’t merely enough and so they find the need to “trick” the system. However, when they do “trick” the system, it’s unclear whether or not a gang problem actually does exist or they’re just doing it to get additional resources, as Urban Issues states. To fix this discrepancy, I think the federal government should come up with a more defined provision of gang related activity that is applicable to all states and the state government should come up with its own.

Another issue I found quite interesting was the use of injunctions to stop gangs. According to Urban Issues, injunctions restore neighborhoods by clearing out gangs that intimidate residents. However, I think injunctions don’t exactly fix the problem. This is due to the fact that affiliates in gangs can easily move elsewhere and start up their gang there and at which point gang activity would have been displaced and not stopped as was intended. The solution therefore to stop gangs in communities, is to provide more resources and greater job opportunities so that people wouldn’t have a reason to turn to gangs in the first place. The main cause of gangs in neighborhoods is poverty and to combat this issue, there should be more programs that stress the importance of education and facilities that offer vocational training.

Racial profiling is an issue that unfortunately continues to be prevalent in today’s society. According to Chapter 6 of CQ Researcher, racial profiling has existed since the Jim Crow era. During this period of time, African Americans were faced with abusive treatment and unjust proceedings in court by police officers. Also, Mexican – Americans in Texas and the Southwest were subjected to residential and education segregation just as African Americans. In addition, in the 1930s the U.S. forced two million people of Mexican descent to leave and there was also the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act. There is no doubt that the root of racial profiling lies in the discriminatory polices against minority groups throughout U.S. history. However, what’s even more mind boggling, is that racial profiling is ongoing in the present day. Based on a study presented in the CQ Researcher, 72 percent of those stopped in Maryland were African Americans with a vast majority of motorists stopped, also being African Americans. Currently, we see how Muslims are being treated and discriminated against with the immigration policies in place, we see how young, innocent African – American men are being treated harshly upon arrest even for minor felonies. Because of such unfair practices, we’ve witnessed the immense levels of civil unrest in states where racial profiling has become an immense problem.

Given the moral and social effects racial profiling has on minority groups, how exactly do we go about managing it or having our law enforcement held accountable for their actions? The first obvious answer to this question would be our courts. According to CQ Researcher, the courts have the obligation and the moral and legal duty to respond to concerns that the community has with racial profiling. However Jim Bueerman, Police Foundation President, states that “You don’t easily change a police department culture with a judicial ruling.” This is indeed true because despite the fact that police officers have been tried time and time again with racial profiling, there has still been a growing number of cases where law enforcement has been linked to discriminatory practices. In addition, the legal process is often so lengthy as Judge Cohen discussed in his last presentation, that it would just delay the punishment officers would have to face and so many unheard cases of racial profiling could be going on in the process. So if the courts are unable to fix the problem entirely, it then comes down to the structure of law enforcement. According to CQ researcher, “The officers should not be faulted, because their actions reflected the training they received.”  Hence, the problem lies within the system itself  as CQ researcher suggests and therefore to avoid going to the courts every time a case involves racial profiling, mayors, city governments and state legislatures should be more involved in implementing processes that would prevent racial profiling to begin with. Moreover, racism is an issue that will exist regardless but it’s up to us to become more open minded as a society, more accepting and not take anything at face value. This is easier said than done especially since it’s a social factor but it’s not impossible. Civil rights leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., all fought during the 1960s against issues like these and they actually got somewhere. We live in a much easier time yes but it is also very possible that we have become so complacent when it comes to certain issues that we have taken a lot for granted. Hence, if we want to avoid a segregated America again, we need to start opening our eyes as to what’s really occurring around us.