Author: Steven Zaslowsky

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.

The main takeaway I got from reading Chapter 7 of the CQ Reader was the fact that, not only are gangs still prevalent, but they are becoming more of a problem; and that they are spreading with regard to what they do. Usually a gang is thought of in the most simplest of terms and in the way they have been portrayed in movies and the like for years: a group of guys who hang out together and fight ‘turf wars’  with other gangs. However, that is far from what gangs are or have become. This chapter informs you that there are now many woman who not only join gangs, but are leaders of gangs, and that what gangs do with their time has changed drastically as well. While another label people might have been used to associating with gangs was the fact that they weren’t the brightest, gangs today are stepping up their game; they are hacking, scamming banks, running well organized prostitution rings, etc.

The fact that the advancement of technology has been something gangs have used to become more spread out and effective is the least bit surprising at all. The internet has become a place where, anybody who wants to spread a certain ideal, recruit people to their ’cause’, or incite/rile up people, can accomplish their task extremely easily by using Facebook or Youtube or any other platform. Gangs aren’t the only groups to realize how the internet can help them and utilize it; terrorist groups around the world have taken to the worldwide web to do recruiting and incite attacks also. That is something that, in my opinion, can’t be so hard to track. Meaning, with all the intelligence and technology this country has, we should be able to find the posts or accounts of gangs/ gang members and just stop them from posting. It’s something that should be done with terrorists groups as well but hasn’t and the same thing applies to gangs.

With regard to the injunctions, it’s hard to believe that is the best way experts have come up with on how to stop gangs. This country is, as Judge Cohen said a couple weeks ago, a place that believes in and prides itself on second chances. So if someone was in a gang and decided that it was wrong and that they wanted to turn their life around for the better, why would we ever put obstacles in his or her path and keep that person on a list that associates them with gangs? While the idea behind these injunctions might be correct and might actually work, the implementation and way it’s carried out has to be changed.

Racial profiling is an extremely complex and broad issue. Although this reader does a good job giving you two sides of the argument, a mere 20 pages is not enough information to have read to accurately come to a conclusion on whether there is truly a racial profiling issue in this country. I have heard both sides, besides for what is presented in this chapter, and I can’t definitevly say whether there is a hundred percent a real issue within out police departments, country-wide, with racial profiling.

However, I think that regardless of whether there actually is this phenomenon of racial profiling, there are problems that exist within this country and it’s police officers. The fact that there are (as of 2015) 73% of Blacks in this country that think they are treated less fairly is unacceptable. Whether it is justified or not, or true or not, it’s a problem. You can not have a significant part of your population feeling like they are treated differently than everyone else. That’s what this country has been fighting against for decades. In addition to that, the level of distrust in our police officers has risen to a level that is also way too high. The people that are supposed to be the ones you call at a time of need, when you are looking for help, should not be people that an entire population of people have no trust in and think that calling for their help will end up harming them even more. Again, it makes no difference whether there is racial profiling taking place or not. In order to get to this point, where a big chunk of the American population fear the police instead of look up to the police, then something went wrong, whatever that might be.

It’s easy to look at the amount of killings that has taken place recently and just throw your arms in the air and yell that it’s due solely to racial profiling. I think that is a terrible way to go about it. First off, like i said above, there is a lot of information and statistics behind this, that you can’t take a few samples and decide that that is the general rule. Every time a human beings life is taken, there is, usually, a lot more to the story of how that tragedy happened than what we know. Despite what people might want to claim, most officers are not just thirsting to kill people, and specifically black people. Killing someone is not something most people ever want to do in their life. So before pinning someone as a racist who just wants to kill black people, or any other claim along those lines, stop and think for a second if you really think that’s true.

Given that, there are some disturbing killings that have taken place. Even if you claim that some of these were warranted, which not all were, the way they are handled is terrible. For a 17 year old kid, or anyone for that matter, to be shot 16 times by the police after being called for breaking into cars is absolutely absurd. There is zero excuse for that and things like that just feed the fire of distrust and hate brewing amongst the american public.

So, like i said, I don’t have enough information and haven’t done enough research to know whether this issue is a real issue or not. But that doesn’t take away from all the other issues that stem from this and that relate to this. There are many, they are all serious and they must all be dealt with.