Freed Slaves vs. Freed Criminals

Due to my interest in wanting to figure out the life after being incarcerated, this statement by Michelle Alexander stood out to me. In Chapter 4 of The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander states, "Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person living 'free' in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow" (141). In this quote Michelle Alexander's compares a freed criminal to a freed slave. I agree with Alexander about a criminal freed from prison has more rights than freed slave. Many people believe that Alexander has no right to make the comparison between the two. I believe Alexander was pretty accurate in comparing the freed slave and the freed prisoner. Also, I would consider Alexander's statement to be very controversial because freed individuals has less of a chance in getting a job that  pays well enough to live a comfortable life. In relation to a freed slave, they are looked down upon, treated unfairly, and do not have equal opportunity. Many people would argue the point that a freed slave is nothing like a freed criminal. A criminal once had rights and made bad choices, which results in punishment. If that means losing rights, then so be it. A freed slave never had an opportunity to have a level playing field, in terms of rights. Therefore, a freed salve can't possibly be compared to a freed criminal. In my opinion both freed slaves and criminals are looked down upon by society and are limited automatically on what they can do. This was for sure one of the most interesting parts in the chapter.

We Need to Know Our Rights!!!

We as people need to become more knowledgeable of the governments control of the American public. In the book The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander talks about how police works around one of the rules the founding fathers set out. The 4 Amendment is right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person's or thing to be seized. The Fourth Amendment gives a person the ability to avoid police searches. The text states, "Courts and scholars agree that the Fourth Amendment governs all searchers and seizures by the police and that the amendment was adopted in response to the English practice of conducting arbitrary searches under general warrants to uncover seditious libels."   Later the Supreme Court had began to unravel the protection for Americans. In the early 1980s a series of Fourth Amendment rights have been broken. The police had found a new tactic to use undermined the Fourth Amendment. In which the police goes by as long as the person gives consent, the police officer can stop, interrogate, and search a person for any reason or no reason at all. Police use the same tactic today to target African American men especially on the War on Drugs. Its hard as black man walking the streets of Philly. When a cop car drives around you the only thing you want to do is get out of dodge. As for me when I see law enforcement I try to avoid walking on the same street as them because it seems like they always want to target us. There have been a few times I heard of my friends being pinned down to a police car for no reason. My friend submitted there rights to the police officer when they didn't even know they have the right to tell law enforcement no they can't search them. Once they gave the officers consent it was too late. I believe that African Americans especially in the poor neighborhoods should be educated on the rights that they obtain.

White Supremacy

In Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow she talks about the War on drugs. In June 1971, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies, and pushed through measures such as mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants.

Many people believe that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) was injecting crack into the ghettos across the nation. In response to the public outcry about people theories the CIA conducted an internal investigation of its role in Central America related to the drug trade.  The CIA claimed that they were not involved with the inner-city crack cocaine trade. The CIA later negated charges that CIA officials knew that their Nicaraguan allies were dealing drugs. But, the report said that the CIA, in a number of cases, didn't bother to look into allegations about narcotics there Nicaraguan allies were dealing. I believe that this is pretty interesting that the CIA had no clue that there ally was trafficking drugs in America. By far the US government is one of the most strongest and intelligent civilization. So, I don’t settle for CIA not knowing anything about the Nicaraguans trafficking drugs throughout America without them noticing. Even though the government might not have been as technology savvy as it is today doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a great technology back then.

Many other people consider that the War on Drugs was another strategy of white supremacy. There have been many other strategies used to hurt the African American community. Such as the epidemic of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. African Americans  were heavenly depicted as a people who mainly carried the HIV/AIDS  virus. But back to the War on Drugs many anti- white supremacist believe that this is a strategy used to annihilate the race African Americans.

Below is a link about the Drug dealer known as the real "Rick Ross":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-kLt9l2cQg

Discrimination At It's Finest!

In the book White Like Me, the author Tim Wise brings up the topic of discrimination during hurricane Katrina in 2009. On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest and destructive tropical storms that ever hit America. Facts have shown that hurricane Katrina was recorded to be sixth strongest hurricane to ever hit the Atlantic coast. There were about 1,833 people who died in the hurricane and floods. Many residents of New Orleans were unable to evacuate the city before the hurricane. During hurricane Katrina there were many people stranded on rooftops throughout the city and living for days in the Astrodome. The living conditions were terrible for the people stranded in New Orleans.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans poor blacks and other minorities were hit the most because they did not own cars or have any type of money to leave the city.  Also many people did not know how severe Hurricane Katrina was going to hit the city, so people decided to stay and most of them lost their lives.  People were looting from stores and the media had a field day in replaying the same exact footage of African Americans looting a store from different angles just to show the rest of the country that black people are nothing, but violent savages. In the text Wise states, "They also showed us endless footage of looters, though it was often the same footage or six incidents shown from different angles, giving the impression to a public already inclined to think the worst of lower-income black folks that theft was more common than it really was. (218)" Blacks were then targeted by being called sub-human scum, vermin, slime, and referred to as animals.

The African Americans in New Orleans were disproportionately poor. It is the result of centuries of concerted decision-making by political actors at the local, state, and national levels, which leads all the way back to the days of slavery and continuing up to our current political moment. Classism played certain role in during the hurricane. All of the impoverished areas of the city were flooded and destroyed.  The wealthiest districts weren't even flooded as bad or flooded at all. I believe if elite whites would have lived in those areas deemed as impoverished in New Orleans the government would have fixed the levees and protected them in any disaster.  But because it was poor minorities living in this particular space they just didn't care. I strongly believe that it wasn't any accident that certain neighborhoods in New Orleans suffered the most damaged from the flooding.

The Welfare Talk...

What is welfare you might ask? 

Welfare is the provision of well being and social support for all citizens. Also, it could be known as governmental aid. Usually with welfare it helps people in many diverse situations. For instance, welfare helps with people financial assistance in small amounts. Welfare also aids citizens with food stamps based on their family size and the household’s income. Welfare also provides child care for individuals who meet the financial requirements. Welfare only provides child care only for individuals who need to work, but can't afford daycare. 

Now since we have the bases that welfare covers let's get down to the main focus of this discussion. Many people associate the topic of welfare with African American people mainly. In the text White Like Me Tim Wise states, "And when one speaks of welfare in this country, whether or not one wishes to acknowledge it, one is almost always speaking of black people, not because black people are the only folks receiving state aid (indeed more white receive benefits from the myriad social programs than do blacks), but because that is the image we have been encouraged to have when we hear the term. (90)” This is the image that has been implemented into the minds of many Americans I believe. Even at one point in my life I thought the same exact way that black people were the main people using welfare. According to statistics, whites form the largest racial group on welfare. 

White Privilege?

In Tim Wise book White Like Me he talks about the topic of white privilege. I know in class we touched upon the topic of white privilege sometime ago in previous classes. The question proposed in class was what is white privilege? Many people ask this question. So, I'm going to explain what white privilege is. White privilege is a special advantage or benefit that a white person possesses. This term shows the obvious and less unspoken advantages that white people may not recognize. I would like to say that not all white people are racist, but all white people have white privilege.

         

 It is very important for people to define white privilege. Many people other than white deny the existence of the term white privilege. I believe the concept of denial is bias or prejudice itself, which makes it a form of racialism. Many people of color believe that white people enjoy there white privilege. Some white people believe that they don't have white privilege and it doesn't exist. In the book Wise talks about how he recognized his white privilege at a early age. In first grade he noticed that he possessed white privilege. Wise stated, "In very real sense, white racial privilege had empowered me to stand up for myself and for social justice more broadly." By Wise noticing his privilege as a kid, does this make you question do white people notice there privilege at a young age? If so, do they tend to ignore there knowledge of it?

What exactly is post racialism?

What exactly is post racialism?  
         

In chapter 6 of the Philosophical introduction of Race by Paul Taylor, he talks about the topic of post racialism. Post racialism a term used to describe a society in which discussions around race and racism have been deemed no longer relevant to current social dynamics. This especially came into effect after the election of Barack Obama as the United States of America president. The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States brought questions about race in America to the forefront of political and social discourse in novel ways.

Since, Barack Obama has taken the presidency in 2008; he has been used as a figure head for the movement of post-racialism. Many people argue that racism is over because we have an African American as president in fact those people are wrong. Many Americans rejects the overt practices of racial discrimination and hierarchy that have marked the nation’s history. Post-racialism also picks on minorities who have been subjected to such discrimination to themselves. In which they become race-neutral and start to refrain from appealing to the history of racism. Instead Barack Obama took it upon himself and commented on the killing of Trayvon Martin, Many of the president Obama critics believe that he had known right in talking about the tragedy of Trayvon Martin. President Obama was reported saying “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Many people targeted president Obama for invoking race, with some people stating that the presidents comment was disgraceful. My essential questions are there such thing as post-racialism? Why do a lot Americans believe that we've moved on passed the racism era? 

Double Consciousness

In chapter 4 Taylor talks about  the idea of double consciousness. At first it was pretty hard for me to rap my head around what he was talking about at first. Until he used the example of how W.E.B Du Bois framed double consciousness. Double consciousness is displaying a kind of double personality or internal duality.  In Du Bois's  classic The Souls of Black Folk shows a great depiction of double consciousness. Not until I came to the realization of double consciousness I've never noticed how it effected me. As a black man living in America I tend to take on a "white" vernacular in certain environments. Especially on a predominately white campus such as Ursinus. Coming into the school I was looking for a change of scenery since I was in a predominately black schools all my life. Both of the culture aspect was extremely different. Since I've been here I would say my freshmen year I would of tried to see if i can fit myself into white society so that I can be accept by the community. Until one day when it clicked in my head and I asked myself why do I need to try to fit in with a group of people who just don't like people like me. So now I'm not letting the standards of white society dictate how I present myself. Due to being an American citizen  I'm still participating in the idea of double consciousness because in order for me to become successful I must show that I'm just as good as my white peers.

The US Racial Terrain

In chapter 3.3 Taylor expands onto the topic of the US racial terrain in modern day. Taylor talks about how non-whites are more likely  to be unemployed, commit or become victims of a crime, receive substandard medical care, and to live in inadequate housing. Also, he talks about the so-called achievement gap, rates of incarceration and the infant mortality rate. I feel as though these things are no coincidence that American society operates like this. I don't think its a coincidence that every race that's not of the European descent is struggling in the areas that Taylor presented in this section of the chapter.  Later, Taylor talks about how the US population still looks to be divided into races. I agree, with Taylor on this point because majority of this country is still segregated. There are still certain parts in the south which minorities in particular blacks aren't allowed to travel.

History of Race

Last week in class we've had a interesting discussion on RACE. We touched upon many bases such as colorblindness, social aspects of whites when they are alone together, and the separation of hierarchies. Someone stated that we shouldn't turn this class into a history class. But I certainty disagree with that because if you want to discuss race we must look at history. We must find where the word originates from. For instance a place of origin, time period, and who it applies towards.

Race

On Tuesday  we discussed the term race.We were still in the process of defining what racism and racist mean. We also discussed people first hand experiences with racism. I believe we should start from the beginning with researching the term racism and figure out where the term originated from. I believe we must start from the beginning to figure out how we can change the future.

My essential question: What is racism, racist, and race?