Shaping the Future of NYC

Macaulay Honors College Seminar 4 | Professor Robin Rogers

Author: Natalynn Nunez

Chapter 6 Response

March 12, 2017 / / 0 Comments

The issue of racial profiling has been a deeply debated issue for many years, and its prevalence in American society has only grown stronger. Although there are instances where the use of force by law enforcement is warranted, that power can be and is misused, which can lead to very dangerous and fatal circumstances. There have been too many cases of police brutality against minorities, particularly black Americans, in the past few years for this issue to be overlooked and for the perpetrators of this racial profiling to be let off the hook.

Furthermore, there is a pressing situation of ethnic profiling at hand with the introduction of Trump’s travel ban. The mass rejection of Muslim people by the United States is entirely based on their religion and countries of origin, which is about as specific as a case of ethnic profiling can get. The fact that Trump was able to put his law into action in the first place is a mystery to me, considering that Korematsu v. United States established the principle that “race-based restrictions in the law are ‘immediately suspect’. ” One would think the government learned its lesson after the unjust internment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but that is clearly not the case, as Muslim Americans are being blamed for the actions of ISIS.

I have a family member who is a cop in New York City, so I have heard arguments pertaining to racial profiling and stop-and-frisk at family gatherings. He feels that all cops are being blamed for doing their job simply because some cops are going about their job the wrong way, and he has experienced a lot of animosity between law enforcement and everyday people due to these “bad cops”. However, he does feel that if a person has committed a crime or is fighting back against the officer, some force is warranted or the situation will escalate even more. I don’t agree with his stance on some of the cases mentioned in the CQ reader, but in general, I understand his concern about the damaged relationship between cops and the people they serve.

Abstract Concepts and “The Gays”

March 7, 2017 / / 0 Comments

 

“I like collecting buttons. I have a jean jacket and it’s filled with a bunch of different buttons. I decided to buy this one because a lot of people think that same-sex marriage is the end of what ‘the gays’ want. That’s it. The fight’s over. But that’s complete bullsh*t because there are plenty of other aspects that get brushed to the side. There shouldn’t be a stigma about not being heterosexual. I shouldn’t have to be wary when meeting people for the first time and try and censor the way I act or who I am just because it’s not spoken about or addressed in public. Everything we perceive about sex is a social construct, and that’s where all the problems stem from. If labels weren’t created by society, society wouldn’t feel the need to make certain ones taboo. It’s all just a way to fit people into boxes because we, as humans, just don’t like the idea of things being abstract. Even with the idea of abstract art, what’s the first thing they ask you when you look at it? ‘What do you see in this? What does it mean to you?’ Well, why does it have to look like anything? Why can’t I just say it’s beautiful? I don’t have to be, like, ‘Well, there’s a giraffe, and if you look over here, there’s a dolphin.’ No. It’s a piece of art that someone put their time, effort, and creativity into, and I should be able to accept it without having to put it in a box so that it makes more sense to me.”

CQ Reader – Chapter 4 Response

February 26, 2017 / / 1 Comment

It’s terrible and disheartening that money takes precedence over even one of the most pressing issues of our time—climate change. The main takeaway that I got from this chapter on air pollution and climate change was that energy businesses are more concerned with maintaining their wealth than making the planet more livable and saving lives. Perhaps the most nonsensical argument I read in this entire chapter was the following: “Market forces, not the government, do the best job of picking winners and losers in the energy sector.” The audacity of the opponents of the Clean Power Plan to choose capitalism over the fact that pollution is deadly and must be regulated is unbelievable.

In addition, although lawmakers from states whose economies depend on coal mining and other forms of non renewable energy argue that making the switch to renewable energy would create unemployment and higher energy bills for the public, they fail to realize that there are ways to remedy these problems—however, there is no way to remedy the damage that is being done to our ozone layer, and much more harm can come to us from that than from unemployment or higher bills.

The fact that we are experiencing 60-degree weather in New York in February is not a blessing. It is a sign that there is something seriously wrong with the planet. Yet, Trump and his administration are trying to maintain that climate change doesn’t exist, despite the innumerable amount of scientific evidence that proves that it does. It is perfectly normal and acceptable for people to have opinions, but the issue of climate change is not a matter of opinion. It is even worse that the people who are promoting these fallacies are the ones with the power to disregard policies that benefit the planet. In the short time that Trump has been president, he has appointed a nonbeliever of climate change to the head of the EPA, signed off on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, and pledged to get rid of the Clean Power Plan. We are receding into dangerous territory and putting all of our lives in danger for the power of the almighty dollar.

Video Response – Natalynn Nuñez

February 15, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Brandon Stanton is confident in his ability to get strangers to open up to him when interviewing them for Humans of New York. He obviously has gained a great deal of experience throughout the course of HONY, along with a lot more recognition. I found it interesting that he now has trouble getting people to be as free and nonchalant with their responses just because they know who he is, where their story will end up, and the widespread audience that will read it. The fact that he is still able to solicit genuine responses from these people is a testament to his skill as an interviewer. However, I would like to get some insight on how he managed to get the interviewees to trust him with their stories when he first started out. Did he appeal to their egos by telling them why he was compelled to document their existence? Did he catch their attention by thoroughly explaining his purpose? Or were people willing to share the details of their life with this stranger just out of pure curiosity?

The other video, “Getting People to Talk: An Ethnography & Interviewing Primer,” was very informative to someone like me who is a novice at interviewing people. I appreciated the parts of the video where the experts told stories and showed examples of what not to do when interviewing a subject. I also found the choice of the word “sing,” which was used to describe the way a subject may talk when they feel that they can be open with the interviewer, to be interesting. This description made sense to me, because now I think of interviewing as the interviewer listening to a cacophony of uninteresting noise, straining to hear a glimpse of a tonal melody. This image fits with the readings from Telling True Stories and Stanton’s HONY, since everyone seems to be trying to find a needle in a haystack–the perfect story in a long stream of words.

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