Institutional Racism and the Laquan McDonald incident

Ever since the events in Ferguson, MO, police have been under scrutiny over their clearly statistical discrimination approach.  Groups such as the Black Lives Matter movement have been leading the charge to bring awareness to the institutional racism i modern society today.  Even though there has been some progress on this front, the problem of police having statistical discrimination in police forces still exists.  The most recent affair happened in Chicago, where a police officer shot Laquan McDonald 16 times.  On November 24th, a video of the incident emerged showing that while McDonald was armed with a knife, he walking at an angle away from the uniformed police officers and many would not consider him a threat.  In an article published by the NY Times Monica Davey wrote, "It showed Mr. McDonald seeming to try to jog or walk past officers, then veering at an angle away from them before being shot, again and again, even as he lay on the pavement."  If McDonald was 'veering' away from the cops, then why would they consider him a threat?  Of the course the answer is, institutional racism.

This type of incident is exactly what Charles Mills was talking about when he wrote, The Racial Contract.  His whole argument is based on the fact that modern society is built upon white people and doesn't take people of other races and backgrounds into account, and this leads to the institutional racism we have today.  Wells would argue that the police officers in this instance are not racist its just that the training they received had institutional racism and had them act the way cops do in these situations.  Institutional racism is the problem and it needs to be addressed.  

Movements for Equality

http://blog.becauseiamagirl.ca/

The above posted link leads to a website called Because I Am A Girl.  This website has several different facets.  It tries to provide equality for women of all races and ethnicities.  It is primarily focused on young girls, starting them early on knowing that they are equal in society.  I found this website interesting because there are blogs done by young girls telling their own stories.  It's interesting to see such young girls being taught about equality and equal rights for women.  It is an interesting theory to start teaching them so young, and using this website to change the next generation as early as possible.
This website made me think of the reading and discussion that we had on Okin and her beliefs on justice and inequality.  I wondered what she would think of a website and movement such as Because I Am A Girl.  I don't believe that she would think it was as efficient as the movement thinks it is.  She believes that inequality rests in the family, therefore, little movements such as these are just putting a Band-Aid on the bigger issue at hand.  She believes that government and family are essential and need to be combined in order for equality to become real.  She thinks that movements such as these and laws set by government create a false equality because the roots still lie in family.  How effective do you think websites such as this are in the movement for equality?  What do you think Okin would think about the effectiveness of these movements?

Racial Issues on College Campuses

http://time.com/4112169/college-university-protests-school-racist-privilege/

The article above includes a video that highlights segments from the many protests, rallies, and marches that have broken out across America in regard to racial issues. The outbreaks have primarily been students expressing their frustration with their colleges or universities ignoring incidents of racism and abuse of privilege on their campuses. The students in each event have asked that their campuses recognize and acknowledge the discrimination that is happening and they have all stated different demands they want their campuses to follow. In the demands listed by students, some have asked that their president of their school resign. Both the University of Missouri president and the dean of students at Claremont McKenna have since resigned after their students demanded them to.

This video and small article made me think about the discussion we had in class about "Black lives matter" and the Charles Mills article, both of which address the issue of racism in America. In our class discussion we talked about what "Black lives matter" means to all of us. Although it was not considered a protest, rally, or march, each student had the ability to express how they felt about the issues they see in America and on our Dickinson campus. In Mills article he explains his belief that the past perception of white supremacy in politics has lead to the issues of racism today. Mills used examples such the segregation of white and black citizens in America and African American colonialism to exemplify how he thinks these situations have lead to racial tension. By having such events in the past, Mills believes that the governments in charge of allowing this were the ones responsible for leaving room for racial issues. Mills having the opinion that issues of race are because of our past history, do you think he would have any hope for our future of eliminating racial issues?

Two mothers are often better than one

http://tinyurl.com/zgw6tck

As the chart and the link posted above show that as the number of single mothers in the United States has soared and the cost of living has increased, more and more single mothers have embraced the house sharing arrangement. According to this article, the house sharing arrangement not only eases the living burden of single mothers but also help them to feel less lonely. When this arrangements works, it can benefit the children as much as the mothers. Having another adults in the home is very helpful to the kids since a second adult can balance out the first one, for example, their weaknesses and bad moods. Moreover, research shows that moving in and out of too frequently can be harmful to children since it is necessary to offer children a sense of security and let them know that there is a “family” that they are able to count on.

This article reminds me of what we read from Okin’s Justice, Gender, and The Family. The Author Okin argues that any just society must start with the family — and can only happen when the family is just. Currently, the unequal sharing between the sexes of family responsibilities is one of the unjust issue that needs to be solved. “The standard of living of divorced women and the children who lived with them plummets after divorce, whereas the economic situation of divorced men tend to be better than when they were married,” (Okin, 4). Clearly, as I mentioned previously, the house sharing arrangement becomes popular since it made two singles mothers share the burden together. Moreover, as Okin argues that: “we are not born as isolated, equal individuals in our society, but into family situation: some in the social middle, some poor and homeless, and some supper affluent, some to a single or soon-to-be-separated parent, some to parents whose marriage is fraught with conflict, some to parents who will stay together in love and happiness,” (Okin,16) Clearly, families which parents are of the same gender is different from the others. Currently about 120,000 women across the United States are registered to share housing. Since families are almost all still thoroughly gender structured institutions and have vast influence on the moral development of children, do you agree or disagree that the gender structure of this new type of family can be regarded as equal? Will a new and special family like this influences the moral development of children? 

Racism and actions of the countries youth

We have seen protests on college campuses all over the country from large universities to our very own Dickinson College. Even though the tactics of students across the country have been different they all have similar goals in mind. All of the protest have called for acknowledgement of discrimination in the country, presence of racial tensions, the experiences of racism that African American students have endured in colleges. The youth of America have been increasingly many different issues such as protesting s police brutality, harassment against minorities, and the expanding and inclusion of marginalized groups in academic areas. This article then states that the youth of the country feel alienated by mainstream political parties and traditional institutions. This article feels that with a large amount of youth protesting on college campuses it can then translate into institutional reform.

This article made me think about the Charles Mills article that examines racism in the country. Mills believes that it is the history of white supremacy in politics in every political system that has created racism in todays world. The history of political policies and actions by governments such as colonialism of African Americans and segregation between whites and black citizens in our very own country has created the racial tensions that a prevalent in today's society. Since Mills believes that racism in America is because of the governments past policies, would he think that protests from the youth of America on college campuses have the ability to change the institutionalized racism that is the prevalent in todays society?

http://fortune.com/2015/12/03/student-protests-racism-america/

Sanders and Marxism

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/14-things-bernie-sanders-has-said-about-socialism-120265

In the link above, a brief history is given of 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders' statements on his form of democratic socialism. Some critiques have made connections to Sanders having classical communist views, as described in our discussion of Karl Marx.

Sanders has stated in the past that he believes government should be accountable for the following: health care, free college education, and wealth equality. I believe that Sanders shares a great deal of ideas with Marx and I think the two would agree certain property destroys equality in the vast majority of instances. After reading the above Bernie Sanders quotes, what do you think? Are there significant similarities between Sanders and Marx? or do they follow different ideologies?

Are Modernization and Westernization the same thing

http://tinyurl.com/p5udz9lb

The link posted above argues that if we want to have a better understanding of the acts of violence like 9/11 and the unrest among Muslim populations, we need to focus more on the historical developments rather than those Orientalist caricatures. Orientalist connects Muslims and irrational violence.  Orientalist is not simply an attempt to study and understand Islam or the Orient, rather, it is a way of narrating the West’s sense of itself. According to this article, colonialism was not only the imposition of authoritarian racial rule, but also a state of mind. European colonialism provides the appropriate background to understand the chaos in the Muslim societies. Currently, there are mainly two influences of colonialism. One is the Western governors imposing their rules on the natives, another is the westerners making those native rulers believe that ultimately modernization and westernization are the same thing. Since the Iranian revolution, Muslim societies around the world have been involved in the conflict between the native leaders who believe that they can replicate the success of the West and those groups who reject the view that the West knows best. There is a struggle against a world that colonialism made, that is pivotal to analyzing the turmoil. What do you think of the colonialism? Do you think the modernization and westernization are the same thing for colonized people?  What do you think of those violent actions?

This article reminds me of what we read from The Wretched of The Earth. The author Fanon argues that: “Colonialism is worse than a lack of governance, it is humiliating, it is to be unseen and unheard”. Moreover, those violence acts of the natives reminds me of what Fanon argues that, “at the level of individuals, violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair in action,” (Fanon, 94). Even though Fanon advocated violence against the settlers as the way for colonized people to regain their sense of self-respect, such violence would not be automatically justifiable today. It is unrealistic to encourage those terrorist attacks since they are not innocent. According to Fanon: “violence can be effective” and “violence is needed to match violence”. Therefore, violent struggle is a necessary agent for colonized peoples to gain independence.Thus, we should only encourage the colonized to use violence to reject the dehumanizing domination of Western culture.