Freedom Dreams

Target has just agreed to pay a 3.7 million dollar settlement after being sued for its discriminatory background checks. Apparently, when reviewing job applications, if the applicant was African American or Latino a more in depth background check would be conducted and if the applicant was found to have any criminal history, even if it was years in the past and irrelevant to the position (ex disturbing the peace), they would be denied while caucasians were not.

To make up for this, Target is planning to prioritize hiring Black and Latinos and raise the minimum wage at Target to 12 dollars an hour. While this settlement will increase the number of minorities working at target and their wage, it does little to prevent discrimination and provide more opportunities to American minorities. Therefore, it is not enough. Target should at the very minimum follow in Starbucks steps and educate their employees and managers on racial bias.

Recently, Starbucks has come under a lot of heat due to an incident that happened in one of their Philadelphia coffee shops. During the incident, two black men were arrested after asking to use the restroom. This incident prompted national outrage, and even a hashtag #BoycottStarbucks to arise.

As a result of the outrage, Starbucks plans to close all of their stores nationwide on May 29 in order for their employees to undergo racial bias training. While this is a step in the right direction for Starbucks, i do not think it solves the entire issue. Racial bias is not just a Starbucks issue, it is a nationwide issue. How might we as a nation become better educated on racial biases that occur in front of us everyday?

I have been a fan of the NFL for a long time and follow it year-round. It amazes me that Colin Kaepernick, who was cut from his former team, the San Francisco 49ers in 2016, still has yet to be signed by another team. Kaepernick created a lot of controversy when he began to kneel during the national anthem in 2016. It is because of this that many believe he still is unsigned. It was reported a couple weeks ago that Kaepernick was contacted by the Seattle Seahawks for a workout but, after Kaepernick refused to promise him that he would stop kneeling for the national anthem, the Seahawks canceled the workout. I find this crazy because there have been many players in the NFL this past year who kneeled during the anthem throughout the season, however, none of those players are out of a job for it.

There has been a lot of controversy in the NFL about the players kneeling and standing up for what they believe in. Many people in and around the NFL claim that professional athletes should not use their platform to talk about their political views or to protest. They claim that if the athletes do this it will hurt the NFL’s ratings.  I find this hard to believe for a couple of reasons. First, the NFL has been struggling with declining ratings for some time now. It has been an issue before players began to kneel. Secondly, according to Darren Rovell who is an ESPN reporter, the NBA’s ratings for the first playoff games this past weekend were up 17% and were the highest in five years. This NBA stat is important because the NBA has become known for allowing their players to stand up and speak for what they believe in. Considering this, it is hard to believe that players who kneel are really affecting the NFL’s ratings.

It will be interesting to see if Kaepernick, who is more than talented enough to be on an NFL roster will find a team this offseason. I hope the owners in the NFL will realize that players kneeling are not whats hurting their ratings and give Kaepernick a chance.

 

Since attending Kathleen Cleaver’s talk a couple of weeks ago, one point she made has stuck with me: the adoption of Black Power across the world. She mentioned, multiple times, that she would run into people in other countries wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the Black Power fist and captioned in their own language. In India, the lower castes picked up the tenets of the Black Panther Party for their own fight for liberation. Cleaver seemed to love that the idea of Black Power empowered oppressed people all over the world. Black Power didn’t call for radical changes completely unique to African Americans. It presented a solution to end inequality for anyone who was oppressed.

I think the dissemination of an ideology like this is powerful. People can find a common cause with each other, no matter how many miles or oceans separate them. And I believe that it’s this kind of cause–fighting for equality and justice–that makes the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements stand so strongly in history. They will always be relevant because they fought for something that all societies have experienced and will continue to experience, unfortunately, for many years to come.

After finishing Remaking Black Power and in my own research for the final paper, I have seen other examples of ideologies spreading across borders. From feminism to socialism, ideologies that present a solution to suffering will find support all around the globe, regardless if they were initially created to rally a specific group of people.

Near the end of her talk, someone asked Cleaver what it takes to be a Panther. She said, “You need arms, legs, a brain, and a heart full of anger and hope.” This paired nicely with her discussion on Black Power’s global impact. As long as one is able and ready to change the world, everyone is welcome in the fight for equality and freedom.

Over the past year, I have encountered many different instances of racism, especially in the realm of social media. Social media makes it easier to spread the word, whether that be for good or for bad. However, the instances I have seen have been vulgar and inappropriate.

One example is a student from my hometown near Baltimore, MD. The student, who is now in college, dressed up as Freddie Gray,  who was an unarmed Baltimore man who was slain by policemen. The student was dressed in an orange inmate suit with the name Freddie Gray written on the back. The action drew much backlash on social media, and it helped display the distance and insensitivity that white people experience when confronting these issues.

So, how must we bridge this gap in insensitivity in order to fully understand the injustices that occur on a daily basis? How must we educate youth so that a disgusting act such as the one I mentioned above does not happen again?

Last weekend I was at a tournament near Toledo Ohio. While I was there I played against 4 teams, including Miami University. The Miami I saw on the field was respectable and diverse team that worked together, treated everybody with respect, and displayed a high level of cooperation that allowed them  to take first place after going undefeated in the tournament. However, within a day of returning to Wooster, I saw an article about Miami University that shocked me. Apparently the team I witnessed on the field was not an accurate representation of Miami University.

Apparently, racism is quite common at Miami and has finally aggravated enough people cause protests and a response for the President of the college. Tragically, events like the ones I will discuss are everyday problems for the black students of Miami. Two events that occurred JUST within the last week are listed below.

1: In a group chat, a white student calls black students the n-word. On Tinder, that same white student bragged about what he wrote.

2: On Snapchat, while black students are protesting racism on campus, a student posted a video that says, “who let the zoo out??” followed by monkey emojis.

One student (Miranda Woods) stated “The student culture here is extremely racist,” and “As a black student here, I’m uncomfortable on campus 24-7. I feel out of place.”

This relates to our class as we have seen the damage that this kind of discrimination can cause. Currently in America, the only way to get a job that pays well enough to support yourself and a family is to get a college education. This makes discrimination in education even more terrible because by making these students unwelcome and scared, it makes it even harder for them to get the education they need to thrive.  While the discrimination these students face isn’t as terrible as the types of discrimination we have learned in class, that does not make it acceptable in the slightest. I hope that Miami University takes action and makes an example of these students so I can go back to thinking of them as the diverse, friendly, and cooperative team I saw on the field.

Source: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/04/04/racist-acts-miami-university-fuel-new-black-student-movement/481651002/

The Issue that I have found happened close to use in a General Motors plant in Toledo Ohio. The issue that I have found is about discrimination inside the work place between black and white employees. 5 black employs have come forward saying that they have been racial discriminated in there workplace. There are three documented reports that were filled. The first was that nooses were found hanging in the plant. The second was that there have been many Nazi symbols have been drawn in the restrooms. The last instance was that the phrase “whites only” on the bathroom. All three of these instances are clear cases that there has been racial discrimination happening here in this plant.

While these are very clear signs that racial laws have been broken here the officials from the plant have said that they have done nothing wrong. Here is a statement from the officials. “While the incidents are unacceptable, we took prompt action to investigate and address the issues that occurred at the Toledo Transmission facility. We are reviewing our next steps and maintain we have not violated any laws,” Now they other side feels that there has been laws broken here. “Hopefully their lawyers will go back and say, ‘we need to put policies in place, we need to not fluff it, we need to address it, and we need to not try to sweep it under the rug,’” The courts have said that there is not enough evidence here to make a case against this. Many people hope though that they will look further into this issue.

This pertains to our class because we have learned a lot about the different racial discrimination that have happened to blacks over the years. We have seen it in there ability to gain housing where the good houses would be given to whites rather to the blacks. We have also seen discrimination through the way that white would treat and talk to blacks. They would segregated bathrooms like we see some employees tried to do in the case mentions above and they would verbal abuse them all the time. Overall this is a really plain case that discrimination has happened here and I hope that the courts relook at the evidence and make the correct ruling.

 

www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2018/04/05/Commission-Discrimination-likely-occurred-at-Toledo-Transmission-plant.html

 

I also went to the screening of Little White Lie, the documentary about Lacey Schwartz who was raised in a Jewish family and was convinced she was white up until her later high school years. Lacey’s mother convinced her of this in order to hide an affair she had had. Lacey eventually found out that she was black and that her mother had had an affair with a black man. After the documentary Schwartz actually held a Q and A session with students.

A small part of the documentary talked about how Schwartz used to press her hair in order to fit in with her majority white classmates. At first, I didn’t give much thought to it and figured she just wanted to fit in. During the Q and A, a student asked Schwartz about her hair and how now she almost always wears her natural hair. Schwartz replied to the student and talked about how much power she felt when she finally decided to just wear her natural hair. I thought this was interesting because I had never really thought about something as simple as hair being able to empower someone and make them feel so much stronger.

After the documentary and when I began reading Ashley Farmer’s book, with the idea fresh in my mind I came across the section in which Farmer is describing an article Judy Hart wrote in which she called for black women to reject white cultural standards by simply not pressing their hair anymore. After reading this I realized just how important hair can be and thought it was interesting that just simply wearing your natural hair could mean so much.

Before watching the documentary and reading Farmer’s book, this was something I had not thought much about but now it is clear that the way you wear your hair can have a powerful meaning. For Schwartz, it was her way of saying she accepted who she really was and is proud to be herself. For black women, during the civil rights movement, it was a way for them to stand up against white standards and gave them the power to be themselves.

I went to the documentary screening of Little White Lie. This documentary is about a girl that grew up within a household believing she was a Jewish White girl living in a White community of Woodstock, New York, but ends up finding out she is black. The girl’s name is Lacey Schwartz a Georgetown graduate admitted to the University due to seeing a picture and admitting her to the university as a black student. Eventually she goes through her Freshmen year at Georgetown and realizes through therapy sessions that she needs to confront her mother about why she looks the way she does with lighter skin, and curly black hair. Reluctantly, her mother admits that she had an affair on her “father” with a man named Rodney. This affair was kept secret from Lacey and her “father” until her parents’ marriage started to decline which her mother hinted to her “father” that Lacey may not be his which led to a divorce. Lacey then struggled throughout her life with dealing with her new found black identity and her past white identity. Although she understood who her father was, she never felt a sense of closeness with her real dad like she did with her “dad” that raised her.

After the documentary Lacey Schwartz did a Q and A and I was interested in her responses to the questions presented to her. A student asked her when she finally realized she was a” black woman did she experience any difference of being treated compared to how she was as a white woman?”.  Lacey Schwartz instantly replied “no”.  I was actually shocked to hear that, but Lacey went on to acknowledge her beliefs on race fluidity, and her experience with privilege. I believe the student was looking for her to reinforce their thoughts on white privilege, but gave them a different way of looking at it. It is essential at looking at different sources and letting them guide your opinion without just looking at one to continuously reinforcing your own thoughts. I believe this documentary represented a different side of a discussion on race and its physical  boundaries.

“Red-State Teachers Unrest Just Keeps Spreading” by Ed Kilgore

“Eight Kentucky school districts — including those in Louisville and Lexington — are closed today as teachers stay home to protest the GOP legislature’s destructive “reforms” of their pension system. Oklahoma teachers are planning to strike on Monday despite winning a $6,100 pay raise. And Arizona teachers rallied at the state capital on Wednesday and are threatening to strike if their demands for major pay raises and restoration of education funding cuts are not met.

As this wave of unrest among teachers spreads nationally, it’s clear it has been inspired by the nine-day strike that won West Virginia teachers (and other state employees) a pay raise earlier this month. But there’s something more fundamental going on than copycat protests. We’re seeing a teacher-led backlash against years, and even decades, of Republican efforts at the state level to cut taxes and starve public investments. This is very clear in Oklahoma, where a quick pay raise the legislature passed this week is deemed by teachers to have missed the larger point:

“While this is major progress, this investment alone will not undo a decade of neglect. There is still work to do to get this legislature to invest more in our classrooms. And that work will continue Monday, when educators descend on the capitol,” Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, said in a Facebook video Wednesday.”