When it comes to protecting the rights of racial and ethnic minorities, the Supreme Court has been the cause of huge social changes still felt today. To get a better understanding of their decisions and their significance the following is a brief history of some of the Supreme Court's rulings involving racial discrimination and what they mean to us today. 

Korematsu v. United States (1944)

   In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor and offical declarations of war between Japan and the United States, distrust of Japanese-American citizens reached an all time high. In February of 1942 president Roosevelt responded to these fears by issuing Executive Order 9066. This order called for the evacuation of all people of Japanese descent, deemed threats to national security, from the west coast. As a result over 100,000 people were forced from their homes and moved to guarded internment camps. One of the citizens who knowingly defied this order was Fred Korematsu, who after being arrested for this violation turned his case into a test of the order's legality. Korematsu' argument was that by denying Japanese-American citizens individual trials to assess their national loyalty the executive order was violating the Fifth Amendment (right to fair trial). The Supreme Court ultimately ruled 6 to 3 in the executive order's favor, upholding that the military authorities were justified in their targeting of Japanese ancestry as the security of the nation as a whole outweighed the individual's rights in a time of war.

Fred Korematsu

Impact: The concept of national security justifying unequal treatment based on race still influences practices today, such as the increased scrutiny that Middle Eastern American citizens face in the aftermath of the war on terror. As recently as February of this year justice Antonin Scalia was quoted as saying "the Supreme Court's Korematsu decision upholding the internment of Japanese Americans was wrong, but it could happen again in war time.", warning of the dangers of overzealous national defense.

Loving v. Virginia (1967)

   In 1924 Virginia passed "The Racial Integrity Act", making any marriage between white and "colored" people illegal. In 1958, Mildred Loving, an African-American and Native American woman, and Richard Loving, a White man, travelled to Washington D.C. to marry, thereby evading Virginia's marriage law. Only a year later, however, they were arrested for the violation and sentenced to a year in prison which could be delayed by 25 years if they moved out of Virginia. Five years later the couple started a series of appeals which eventually made it to the Supreme Court. The case argued that such a marriage restriction law was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (guarantees equal legal rights for racial minorities). In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court ruled that the denial of the right to marry was racist, overturning Virginia's law as well as the laws of 16 other states.

Mildred and Richard Loving

Impact: While in De jure terms interracial marriage is legal it still faces some De facto prejudice in American culture. For an example you only need to look at the negative reactions to a 2013 Cheerios' advertisement. While the advertisement, which portrays a multiracial family, received largely positive responses it also attracted such vitriolic commentary that the comment section had to be disabled. The social taboo of interracial marriage has lessened significantly since legalization, but that does not mean that it enjoys the full acceptance of normalacy yet.

Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (1968)

   While compared to the previous two cases mentioned Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. has less background context recorded, it is no less important of a ruling. In 1965 Joseph Jones tried to purchase a home in the Paddock Woods community in St. Louis, Missouri. When denied the chance to purchase by the Alfred H. Mayer Co., Jones brought them to court on the ground that their refusal was based on his race. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that such laws were in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, rendering such discriminatory sales practices unlawful.

Impact: While the statures set on property sales is important, one of the most important aspects of this ruling is the legal framework it set down for future cases. In their ruling the Court specifies that "determine what are the badges and incidents of slavery, and the authority to translate that determination into effective legislation." Essentially this means that Congress was affirmed to have the power to intercede not only in economic exchange at a state level, but on a private level as well. This regulatory ability proves a vital tool in continued efforts to protect minority opportunities.

Bibliography:
Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942; General Records of the Unites States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives. 

Weiss, Debra . "Scalia: Korematsu was wrong, but 'you are kidding yourself' if you think it won't happen again." ABA Journal. N.p., 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014

TOYOSABURO KOREMATSU v. UNITED STATES. Supreme Court. 18 Dec. 1944. Http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/392/409/case.html

JONES v. ALFRED H. MAYER CO. Supreme Court. 17 June 1968. Https://supreme.justia.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.

LOVING v. VIRGINIA. Supreme Court. 12 June 1967. Http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1

Images:
Korematsu: http://www.aaba-bay.com/news/korematsu-vs-u-s/
Loving: http://www.harpyness.com/2009/05/07/harpy-hall-of-fame-mildred-loving-1940-2008/

Economic Inequality

Economic Inequality

By Ana Brenescoto

In every one of the developed countries in the world life expectancy is five is five, ten or even fifteen years shorter for people living in the poorest areas compared to people living in the richest areas (Wilkinson, 1). Economic inequality affects everyone, it promotes strategies that are self interested, antisocial, stressful, likely to give rise to higher levels of violence, poorer community relations and worse health. More equal societies tend to be more affiliative, less violent, more inclusive and healthier (Wilkinson, 23). Social anxieties are provoked by economic inequality and create fear of inferiority and inadequacy in relation to others. When groups of people see themselves as subordinates in hierarchical societies loss of status and rejection is experienced. Feelings of shame and accepting one’s inferiority can reject or contest shame from others. many respond to shame and disrespect with anger and violence (Wilkinson, 97).

Researchers agree that wealth ownership in the United States is very unequal, and it has worsened in the last few decades. (Keister, 67). While the richest continue to become richer, the poor are going down on the descending line. For example, the wealth of the poorest 80% of households decreased by more than 2% between 1983 and 1989, and most of the accumulation of wealth happened in the top 20% (Keister, 69).

As inequality increases we move from strategies that favor cooperative forms of assistance to competitive dominance strategies that are based on power and aggression. As a whole, we become more dependant on self-serving competitive strategies and withdraw from social and community activities (Wilkinson, 200)

Works cited

Wilkinson, Richard. (2005). The Impact of Inequality. New York: The New Press.

Keister, L. A., & Moller, S. (2000). Wealth inequality in the United States.Annual Review of Sociology, 63-81.

Health and Disease

 

For years, people believed that the 20^th century would hold no importance for race and ethnicity in terms of characterization and economic classification. A reason for the inaccuracy of this belief is rooted in the fact that people simply feel connected to their ancestry and family history. Not only does it exist in today’s societal characterization, but it affects the way that different races react to and receive medical treatment.

Medical institutions have always paid close attention to characteristics such as age, gender, size, etc., to calculate treatment response among different people, while neglecting the importance of ethnic background. However, since the creation of the National Institutions of Health Revitalization act in 1993, Race and ethnicity have become heavily considered in doctor diagnosis and classifying people in respect to medical care. As a result, Medical findings support a noticeable connection between race and its role in disease risk, disease development, one’s response to specific treatment, and medical side effects. Being able to understand that race and ethnicity deserves a significant role in medical research also creates possibilities in figuring out global health behaviors and the worldwide variation in access to certain treatments (Race). Physicians are becoming more aware of the importance of race and ethnicity and stressing the importance of diversified procedures. Simply put, they must pay more attention to the patient they are treating!!

Although race is not a biological factor, people that characterize themselves as a given race often share biological attributes that are present due to shared ancestry. An example of this is that Black, African Americans statistically obtain sickle cell disease more than any other race. However, is sickle cell disease a matter of race or is it something that arises from geographic tendencies? Sickle cell disease, which in fact helps to resist malaria, seems most existent in black, African Americans which causes people to believe that it is an issue of race, when really it is an issue of malaria location (Race). 

 

This graph shows the statistics of race/ethnicity in terms of obtaining Alzheimer's disease once reaching 65 years of age. How is it so that for all three age groups, white people have the least chance of getting the disease than African Americans or Hispanics? This also begs the question of whether or not race/ethnicity holds any biological importance.

            Another key issue with health and disease in terms of race and ethnicity is the power of the physician. In a study conducted by the Disparities Solutions Center, a large sample size of physicians were shown a picture of a black male or a white male, both age 50, and both having just suffered from a heart attack. When asked to come up with a proper diagnosis for the man in the picture, results showed unintentional racism among the physicians’ diagnosis. Most physicians were more likely to treat the white patient with a life-saving, clot-removing medicine than the black patient. This unconscious bias shows how African Americans often are subject to unfair and inferior treatment to White patients. Even black physicians were more likely to give the life-saving medicine to the white patients. How crazy is that?!

Another factor to take into consideration when talking about medical care in terms of race and ethnicity is the cost that treatment entails. In the poorer parts of the world it is difficult to obtain proper treatment for certain diseases (Foerstel). For example, treatment for cancer in Africa is not as effective as it is in the United States, because of the lack of affluence and access to medical care. Although we would like to believe that racism does not exist in contemporary society in something as important as disease treatment, it quite possibly is a factor. Because race is not a biological characteristic, it is difficult to prove why some races react differently to treatment (Norris). However, until health care becomes completely personalized, race and ethnicity will continue to affect medical treatment decisions.

 

This diagram represents the heavily HIV+ areas of Africa with the deeper color red and the less HIV+ areas with a lighter shade. The medical funding in Africa is so low that HIV is spreading out of control. Because Africa is a relatively poor region of the world made up of mainly blacks, people may make the mistake of thinking blacks are born being susceptible to HIV, when really it is a matter of regional population (Foerstel).

Work Cited:

Foerstel, K. (2008, September 1). Crisis in Darfur. CQ Global Researcher, 2, 243-270

 Norris, Keith. "On Race and Medicine." The Scientist. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

"Race in Medical Care: Skin Color Matters with Patient Care." ABC News. ABC News Network, 21 July 2007. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.

Unequal Neighborhoods

Blog Post #1

Alisha Flaxman

            Race has always been a problem in our society, especially when it comes down to individual income, where you live, and whom you associate with. Segregation of neighborhoods isn’t primarily based on racial identities but could be based on what kind of income that family is making, what kind of neighborhood it is, etc. There are consequences that racial segregation of unequal neighborhoods has on families. Unequal neighborhoods are everywhere in the United States whether people like to believe it or not. In some way or another, there are certain segregations in each neighborhood that is not always present.

Unequal neighborhoods relate to our class by showing that people still have racial differences between them. We can see this by the movie we saw in class “The House We Live In” because they had racial differences and segregated neighborhoods. We can also see how racial segregation was back in the day and how Blacks and Hispanics were treated. Houses for African Americans were only allowed in the poorer parts of the city while new houses were made for White people. Meanwhile, the apartments that they did build for African Americans were not as good as the White neighborhood and sometimes were unfinished.

America has come a very long way from segregation of school and neighborhoods from African Americans and Caucasians. However, according to Urban Affairs Review Congress declared the “goal of a decent home and suitable living environment for every African American” (Osypuk, Galea, McArdle, 3). Even though this has not been put in effect recently because there are “racial-ethnic inequalities that affects access to opportunity neighborhoods” (Osypuk, Galea, McArdle, 6). I searched what a typical Caucasian American home looks like compared to an African American home in California and as we can see from the picture there are vast differences.  

Even if this is not true for most cases we can still see that in some instances, African American’s are still not seen as equal in some eyes. People can also see where African Americans live distributed in Chicago throughout the years and how segregated some areas are: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-politics-segregation-african-american-black-white-hispanic-latino-population-census-community/Content?oid=3221712. Even last year, it is seen that African Americans live in poverty stricken neighborhoods even if they are considered middle class from this chart.

               With African Americans living in higher poverty neighborhoods, it can also be seen that African American’s don’t exceed the same income as Caucasians do. I saw a recording of a talk by Tim Wise who came to Wheaton and he said that most people only get a call back from an interview if they are white or have white names. Most (black) people have to have more than eight years worth of experience to be considered at the same level of a Caucasian person. While African Americans cannot get jobs, they are forced to live somewhere that might not be the safest neighborhood because of their income. This can also be said about Hispanics because of the same reason; people don’t want to higher Hispanic people. Hispanics and African Americans are forced to live in poverty stricken areas or areas that are not safe based on their income. This also comes into play with unequal neighborhoods because if African Americans and Hispanics cannot get jobs, the better neighborhoods will be predominantly white.

 As we can see from the chart, African Americans and Hispanics make the lowest amount of income while Caucasian and Asian Americans make the most. Based on this, Asian Americans and Caucasians will be able to afford a house in a better neighborhood while African American and Hispanics will need to find a house that will better suit their economic standards.

            In 2011, Brown University found that “Black household incomes are below 60 percent of white incomes and Hispanic household incomes are less than 70 percent” (Logan, 1). While “Asians have higher average incomes than Whites and maintained advantage” (Logan, 1). Still, African Americans and Hispanics live in poorer neighborhoods than Caucasians because of their comparable incomes. In the mid and late 2000s Caucasian incomes averaged over $60,000, which was $25,000 more than blacks and $20,000 more than Hispanics. However, Logan finds that unequal neighborhoods is not so much income based as it is still due to residential segregation (as can be seen from his graphs on page 9,10,12). http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/uploads/documents/normal-docs/BrownhousingStudy.pdf

            Because families like Blacks and Hispanics have to live in sometimes poorer or poverty-stricken neighborhoods, their children have to go to schools that also could lessen their education. High school drop out rates from Black and Hispanics could be because of where their families live and what kind of neighborhoods they are. Back and Hispanic drop out rates are higher than Whites because the schools they go to possibly aren’t encouraging the children to be better and to know that they can succeed. We can see the achievement gap between Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites in different levels of achievement.

            Like we have seen in the book that we are reading, Academic Profiling, we can see the achievement gap very clearly. Hispanics and Blacks are usually placed in the lower levels of the schools’ programs. There is even racial discrimination between ethnicities, some saying that they want to ‘stay away’ from some people because of stereotypes. In chapter 5 of the book, the chapter is based on how others judge them because of how they look or the stereotypes that come with their ethnicities. Some parents even say to their children that they don’t want them hanging around with certain groups because of their stereotypes. They refer to certain ethnic groups with thoughts that they have grown up with so they discriminate on each other. Based on this reading, we can see that while not living with diversity, it can have a toll on how they perceive certain ethnic groups. Children need diversity in their life because they will grow up with a certain culture that doesn’t involve diversity.

In conclusion, unequal neighborhoods are based on racial segregation and sometimes based on the income of families. Unequal neighborhoods can involve achievement gaps between Hispanics and Blacks based on their minority status. Just like we have seen in Academic Profiling growing up in a neighborhood without diversity could effect how their children grow up and perceive people. Unequal neighborhoods are not in the best interest of anyone however; there still are unequal neighborhoods from racial segregation. Racial segregation is still present even from the long way that we have come from racial profiling and if we don’t try to solve the problem there will still be unequal neighborhoods and we will always have a line between different ethnicities.

Bibliography

Logan, R. (2011, July). Separate and Unequal: The Neighborhood Gap for Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in Metropolitan America. US 2010 discover America in a new century.

Osypuk, L., T., Galea, S., McArdle, N., Garcia, A., D. (2009, February 4). Quantifying Separate and Unequal: Racial-Ethnic Distributions of Neighborhood Poverty in Metropolitan America. Urban Affairs Review.

Pictures

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-politics-segregation-african-american-black-white-hispanic-latino-population-census-community/Content?oid=3221712

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/revisiting-the-moynihan-report/276936/

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-more-proof-that-banks-are-nicer-to-white-homeowners-2012-5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_inequality

School funding

Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, public education has been ruled as having to be “available to all on equal terms.”  However, today, about 40% of all Black and Hispanic students attend school where 90% of their classmates aren’t white. As for white students, on average they attend school where 77% of their classmates are also white. So although some don’t want to believe it, a lot of schools today are still pretty segregated.

A possible reason for this could be, as shown in a survey, that high minority schools (those where 90% or more of the students are nonwhite) spend on average $293 less on their students than all other schools. Also, schools across the country tend to spend $334 more on every white student while black students for the most part don’t get noticed. Therefore, high minority schools are the best place to turn to for them. However, one reason that minority schools spend less on their students is because the teachers there don’t get paid as much as those in mostly white schools. Of the 50 states, 24 of them have a significant decrease for how much they pay nonwhite schools as opposed to white schools. 13 of them have no significant spending change and only 12 actually have a significant increase for the nonwhite schools.

The government has tried to find ways to fix this with some hoping that their acts relating to education would help sustain a more equal balance.  One of the, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gives money directly to school districts includes financial requirements to prevents districts from using funds improperly.  One of these is that mostly white schools will provide services to students of other races before their funds are distributed. Presumably, this will help teacher in mostly white schools pay more attention to students of other resources and perhaps distribute their money more equally around them. It could also help students of other races feel more comfortable with these types of schools and create an environment where races can truly be equal.  If that’s the case, then although segregation seems to be far from showing any signs of dying down, maybe this will help to at least eliminate some of it gradually.

http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/UnequalEduation.pdf

The Ethnic Mascot

The Ethnic Mascot is a trend among Professional and collegiate sports teams. Teams such as the Cleveland Indians of the MLB, or the Washington Redskins, or the former mascot of the University of Illinois Chief Illniwek are all examples of how athletic organizations use the ethnic identity of different people to help portray a strong, empowering message for their school while belittling the identity of that ethnic group. For example the most recent case of this demeaning depiction of a group of people is the controversy over if the Washington Redskins should consider a name change. While acknowledging that their mascot has strong ethnic ties to the Native American group, the CEO Dan Snyder supports and defends the name even in the face of protest and other critics.  Does this team have any real connection to this name other than a long history of football games? When does the ethnic identity of the Native American group become more important than the image of a football team? Even with a endorsement from President Obama the team still has failed to change their name of has made any plans too.  “If I were the owner of the team and I knew that there was a name of my team — even if it had a storied history — that was offending a sizeable group of people, I’d think about changing it,” 

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/president-obama-says-id-think-about-changing-name-of-washington-redskins/2013/10/05/e170b914-2b70-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.

Residential Segregation

Residential segregation is defined by the existence of two or more groups residing in separate areas, like neighborhoods, in an “urban environment” (University of Chicago, The Dimensions of Residential Segregation). It began most dramatically following World War I when there was a tremendous demand for workers in the northern United States.  The mass influx of African American workers was not well received in the North and Jim Crow laws were having a widespread impact on the country, click here to learn more. Social policy was being influenced by the changes taking place.

The Federal Government implemented policies and measures to segregate housing for Caucasians from other races.  It began by supporting the use of restrictive covenants, to prohibit home ownership by anyone besides “the Caucasian race” (The Historical Roots of Housing Segregation).

By 1934, the government established the Federal Housing Administration with the intent to “address instability in the housing markets – and damage done by the Great Depression, by promoting buying and lending.” (AllGov, Department of Housing and Urban Development). There was a catch, however, as loans were granted to residents living in neighborhoods that were considered “safe investments” (Boston Fair Housing, FHA Mortgage Insurance Requirements Utilize Redlining). 

Banks went so far as to “redline” areas on a map to purposely exclude areas where African Americans lived. This was intended to ensure that locations with a high population of African Americans would be denied loans because it was seen as a tremendous risk to invest in non-white communities” (Civil Rights, The Historical Roots of Housing Segregation). Click here to see additional redlining maps.   

1939 Map of Los Angeles with Redlining 

Residential segregation still exists to this day, in some areas it exists as a continuation of practices that began decades ago resulting from ill-conceived social policies. Recently, the New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Evans Bank for purposely denying mortgages in African American communities on the east side of Buffalo. The bank solely publicized their services in newspapers that were not delivered to the east side resulting in 4 out of 1,114 applications from black people from 2009-2012.  (NBC, Bank Accused of 'Redlining' Black Neighborhoods in Buffalo). To learn more about the case, click here. 

Map created by the New York Attorney General outlining Evan Bank's redlining practice. 

In other places, people who share a race, religion, or ethnicity established their own communities because of the comfort they find in being with people who share a similar background. In this context, residential segregation may be seen in a positive light, a far cry from its original intent.