113th US House of Representatives Breakdown

With mid-term elections looming in the next week I want to take a chance to look at the 113th House of Representatives of the United States of America. The 113th House convened for the first time on January, 3rd 2013 and will close on January 3rd 2015. Elections on November 4th will most likely change the shape of the congress. The House is comprised of 50 senators (2 from each state), they comprise the Senate, and 389 congressmen who complete Congress. These individuals check and balance the three powers as the legislative branch.

When elected, there was a national hype regarding a very diverse congress taking place of the 112th and I want to closely examine that. According to House Press Gallery whom released stats without much context, 81 members are women, 42 are African American, two are American Indian, 11 are Asian American and 35 are Hispanic. Those numbers mean that 68% or 300 members are not any of those minority groups or women.

The image below of the Northeast shows voting districts. The regions colored red indicate that that county is held by an African-American. As you can see in the bustling and very diverse north-east there is not much variation of individuals who hold congress.

A closer look at the metro areas of New York City (on the left) and Los Angeles (right) show that in the cities there tends to be representation by minorities. This can be attributed to the diverse racial make up of these cities. Red once again indicates African American, yellow indicates Hispanic American and purple indicates Asian American. The gray regions indicate an individual who does not identify as one of the aforementioned groups. Take a look at the interactive map here: http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/01/diversity-113th-congress-looks-pathetic-when-you-plot-it-map/4348/

Now, if we think about the breakdown of the US it is known that there is a large population of African-Americans in the Southeast. That is complemented with a large Hispanic population residing in the the southwest and Asian population living interspersed on the west coast. The map below contains a breakdown of the US corresponding to the 2010 census information. A dot indicates one individual and blue corresponds to white, green yields black, red yields Asian and orange indicates orange. 

Take a look at this interactive map here: http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html .

The US is a large and diverse country. With the right to vote comes the responsibility to push the country in a direction we want to. It is the writers opinion that congress can and should be more diverse as more diversity will yield more knowledge. Getting to hear from the perspectives of other races may help congress get their act together and perhaps garner a better approval rating from the American public!

Hiring Practices in the Tech Sector

              When considering hiring practices and the discriminatory acts that lead to inequality in the workplace, one might assume that there is at least a slight representation from different races to compose the different sectors of our workplace. However, when looking specifically at the technology sector in the United States, the statistics are somewhat daunting in terms of how it is composed. To look for specifically at individual companies we will take a look at two powerhouse companies that dominate the technological sphere in the United States. Both Google and Facebook are currently struggling to diversify their workforce, regardless of what their ads or news write ups may say.

              Google employs 46,170 employees worldwide, with only thirty percent of them being women. Then when looking specifically at the technical employees that Google employs, an astonishing seventeen percent are women. These numbers do not have very much meaning until we compare them to the entire workforce in the United States. A statistic that surprised me was that forty seven percent of the American work force is composed of females. With so much discrimination going on I figured that that number would have been slightly lower, but it seems we are closing the gap in terms of sexual equality in the workplace. When looking at race though the numbers are staggeringly different. Eighty percent of American employees are white, twelve percent are black, and only five percent are Asian. When looking at Google individually though we see that sixty one percent of its employees are white, about one third are Asian, three percent Hispanic, and only two percent are black. So as we can see, whites clearly dominate the sector as they do in the country as a whole, yet Hispanic and black Americans barely take up a slice of the pie at Google.

              Facebook is an interesting case because they have not release any of their data in terms of racial and gender makeup of its employees. From the public’s eye it seems as if they are trying to cover up the obvious fact that like Google, they are far from have racial equality in the workplace. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was quoted saying, “It’s really important to share [the diversity numbers] internally, and eventually externally.” The fact that she stresses that eventually they will release this data suggests that there is clear inequality in Facebook’s makeup. Sandberg later goes on to say how Facebook is looking for candidate with, “diverse backgrounds,” to take directing roles of the company. We do know that of the eight Facebook directors that are currently employed at the company, all eight of them are white, with only two of them being women. There is a clear problem with the equality at Facebook which partly may have to do with how youthful of a company it is. They have yet to go in and truly reconstruct the board that brought Facebook to the big stage. Granted there have been changes made, but nothing that can be seen as revolutionary.

              In the past weeks Microsoft’s CEO made a contradictory comment regarding women and raises. The comment Nadella made suggested that women should not be asking for raises, but rather if they are putting in quality work and have “good karma,” they will be compensated accordingly. This is a serious issue due to the large disparity in wages that men earn compared to women.  Even though the CEO publically apologized and went on to say that, “If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.” As heartfelt as this comment may be, the fact that the other way of thinking is still clearly prevalent in our society suggests that a larger change needs to be made in order to achieve workplace equality.

 

Video Can be Seen Here:

http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=f1d7577d-3b0f-45f2-b1ce-68728ef9245d&from=sharepermalink&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:

 

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/29/technology/google-white-males/index.html

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/google-releases-employee-data-illustrating-techs-diversity-challenge/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/05/22/facebook-rebuffs-plea-to-release-data-on-race-gender-of-employees/

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/09/technology/microsoft-ceo/index.html

 

 

 

 

             

Skin Color: Can Be The Difference Between a Routine Traffic Stop And a Traumatic Incident

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyCNDZJOGA

This video shows what seems to be a routine police stop. A woman driving without her seatbelt usually would get pulled over, maybe get a ticket, and be on her way. But in this video, things escalate quickly as they take interest in her male passenger, asking him for his information. As he reaches into his backpack to get his information, the police officer points a gun at him with his children sitting in the back seat. After handing over the information, the police want him to get out of the car; this is when a passenger in the back seat begins to film. They simply tell the officers there’s no reason for them to get out; that, as a passenger, he has never had to get out of the car on a traffic stop. Upon his refusal, the officers break the window,  tase the man, and drag him out of the car, with the children crying in the back seat.

Because of technology these incidences are being more frequently reported.  It makes you wonder how often these events occur and are not documented.  What appears to be a rise in misconduct may be the more-frequent reporting of incidents, because cell phones have cameras in them.  Now African Americans and other races that are most commonly abused by police may actually have a way to protect themselves, if lucky enough to be able to record the incident.

Not only were the police in this routine traffic stop excessive and threatening, but we see how “driving while black,” can make you a target for such abuse. As we discussed in class, the war on drugs has stereotyped minorities as drug users, gangsters, and lawbreakers. It’s dangerous enough being pulled over by someone with untreated racial bias; now this same person has been trained to assume the worst in African Americans.

The killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, and the publicized protest that followed, have created more division and fear on both ends. Police are becoming more militarized, defensive, and ready to use force.  At the same time African Americans, like the man in the video, are cautious and afraid of police doing harm to them just because they are black.

The man in this video, Jamal Jones, has clear-cut evidence of police abuse of power and is suing the Hammond Police Department.  The police claim they were justified because he refused to exit the vehicle and they feared he was reaching for a gun in the back seat. Upon investigation, of course, they discovered the man, as he claimed, did not have a gun.  The woman driving, Lisa Mahone, told police she was in a rush to get to the hospital and see her dying mother. When she attempted to move the car forward, the police placed a stop strip in front of her care so, if she attempted to move, her tires would be punctured.  Mahone tried to be cooperative, and was ready to get the ticket and be on her way.  But police smashed the window glass, shattering the glass over the children in the back seat.  It’s clear that this was a routine traffic stop taken to extremes unnecessarily by the police; the violence actions and rude language of the police are shocking in any case. If only this were an isolated incident; but it is not.   Incidents such as this are beginning to flood the media as this problem becomes more and more exposed; and the divide between police and minorities is widening.

The Persistence of Segregation in Schools

I grew up in New Hampshire and went to school in Vermont.  None of my high school’s eighty students were anything other than white.  We never really thought about it much, but when trying to figure out how to publicize our school, we realized that we couldn’t claim diversity.   Many schools all over the country are finding that even though segregation laws were lifted in 1969,  segregation is still prominent in schools.  In the U.S “white students account for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970” (Rich), so one would hope that all schools were 50/50.  However, “43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of blacks attending schools where fewer than 10 percent of their classmates are white, according to the report, released ... by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California,  Los Angeles” (Rich).

In 2002,  President George W. Bush signed into affect the No Child Left Behind Act.  The  act was meant to improve schools by holding teachers accountable for the improvement in students’ academics.  The way that a student’s improvement would be measured was by standardized tests.  The punishment for “if a school fails to demonstrate adequate yearly progress for 2 or more consecutive years” was that “it must offer students the option of transferring to another public school unless existing state law prohibits public school choice, with the student’s home district paying the cost of transporting students to the chosen school”  (Applequist).  With fear of losing students to other schools and being shut down, schools try to keep up their test scores by only accepting students they think will do well.  This “ could inadvertently increase segregation” as in most cases, these choices are based on stereotypes associated with a student’s race.

In a recent New York Times article, Democratic councilman Brad Lander was quoted as saying, “ We claim to be clear on the values of diversity for our kids and the necessity of not having a segregated system.  Unfortunately, the reality is we have a deeply segregated school system that doesn’t deliver the benefits of diversity to most public school kids” (Taylor).   It seems that even though segregation in schools was abolished, it’s still happening on a very large scale, being helped along my current legislation.  The No Child Left Behind Act was meant to help all children, regardless of background or skin colour, to reach their full potential.  Instead, it scared teachers so much that they stopped teaching to help the students learn, and instead taught for a test that couldn’t accurately measure someone’s potential.  This led to even more children getting left behind than before.  Segregation in schools won’t stop until funding is distributed to schools based on actual need, not test scores, and students are taught to fit their learning styles, not a test.  When that happens, no one will think about accepting someone to a school because their race or background supposedly dictates how well they will do: all students will simply be accepted because everyone has a right to a fair education that will cater to their needs. 

Applequist, Kimberly. "No Child Left Behind Act." Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Disabilities and Other Exceptional Individuals. Hoboken: Wiley, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 24 October 2014.

Rich, Motoko.  Segregation Prominent in Schools, Study Finds.  New York Times. September 19th, 2012.

Taylor, Katie.  New York City Council to Look at School Segregation.  New York Times. Oct. 21, 2014.

The Sociology Career Panel

The Sociology Career panel was made up of 4 former Wheaton students who had each majored in Sociology and had gone on to respectable careers. Each one took their turn explaining what they did after graduating from Wheaton and how they got the job they have.

The first speaker was Michelle Meiser. When she left Wheaton, she had no idea what she was going to do. She eventually got a tenant organization job in Boston. Later, she decided to interview for agencies, eventually landing a job at the Pine Street Inn for three years answering phones for holidays. She now directs a home ownership program, which includes opening up a houser consuming education center, helping black people find areas they could move to without worrying about prejudice, and helping with purchase of assets.

The next speaker was Jeff Burke, whose specialty is online marketing. He pursued journalism for a while, including working at a community newspaper company and working at Boston.com, but after finding out how time demanding it was, he refocused on marketing. He did some email marketing, and then one of his friends who worked at NPR recommended him for a job there. He ended up getting a project management role at NPR, where he works now, and considers it the best place he ever worked.

Next up was James Lloyd. After leaving Wheaton, he spent some time working at a residential treatment center. He then moved to Hawaii, hoping to join the peace corps. However, when that didn't work out for him, he moved back to Massachusetts and applied to Boston College hoping to open up more opportunities. He is now a social worker, working with human rights issues.

The last speaker of the night was Oneda Horne. After she left Wheaton, she did internships in Boston to pursue a legal path because going to law school required work experience. She soon started working at Bottom Line in Boston with low income students to help them get through college. After studying for both the GREs and LSATs, she decided that she was more passionate about serving low income youth than she was about being a lawyer. She now works as a college success initiative coordinator at Steps for Success.

Consequences of Wealth Inequality

By Ana Brenescoto

Data on wealth inequality has made the subject a very hot topic, since the media is full of stories covering the lives of the super-rich. For example: the hedge-fund managers who earned at least $240 million last year. The truth is that with time the rich keep getting richer, and this happens because the higher your income, the more your income will grow. The figures prove it: if we compare the income levels (adjusted for inflation) of American  households in 1979 to households in 2004 we will see that the lowest fifth’s income only grew by 2%, the second fifth by 11%, the middle fifth by 15%, the fourth fifth by 23% and the top fifth by 63%.

Inequality has reached record levels in many countries, and wealth more than income show this growing gap. In the year 2000, the top 1% of the world’s population accounted for 40% of the world's total net worth, while the bottom half owned only 1.1% of the globe’s wealth. This widening gap show the ways in which developed countries have found methods to develop, experiencing economic growth, while developing countries have been left behind.

Americans have accumulated much of the world’s wealth. The United States accounts for 4.7% of the total population, and have 32.6% of the wealth. The average american has a net worth of $144 000, while the average net worth of the world’s typical person is of under $2,200.

Now, an important question to ask ourselves is: what are the consequences of this level of inequality? And who does it affect? Well, it obviously affects the poor, and I will go into this point in a moment, but many academics also claim that economic inequality affect everyone. British epidemiologists Kate E. Pickett and Richard G. Wilkinson believe that more equal societies almost always do better. They claim that severe inequality undermines social bonds, dashes the health of millions, contributes to mental illness, it increases obesity and teenage pregnancy, it fosters crime and it lowers life expectancy. These ills don’t affect just the poor.

They affect everybody, but very predictably: the poor. The consequences in everyday lives for these millions of people range depending on location, level of democracy and general living standards. Almost half of the world’s population live on less than two dollars a day, and about 20% live on less than a dollar a day.

The poor often live in areas that have no sewage or clean water, making them more susceptible to illness and disease. They also lack in means to obtain access to health care. At the same time, they lack information on general health and safe sex practices; which results in this demographic being uninformed on measures they can take to avoid risks.

In many countries, many try to escape poverty by moving from rural to urban areas within their own countries as well as in foreign countries in the search for jobs, but in most places there aren't enough decent paying jobs. In addition, poor people tend to live in the margins of the cities in informal settlements, barely scraping by, and enjoying little or no social

protection. It is estimated that of the global workforce of a three billion people, 140 million are unemployed, and between a quarter and a third are underemployed.

In many countries that exhibit high levels of poverty, inadequate access to land is one of the major challenges. Most of the world’s poor own no land at all, or land that is not worth owning. This land is of poor farming quality and often subject to damage from storms and other natural disasters.

The organization therules.org have released a video that exemplifies un in a visually effective format the levels of inequality we experience today, and the the policies that support this system: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWSxzjyMNpU). Even then it is extremely difficult to make sense of these numbers in more than just numbers, because the grand majority of Wheaton students and friends and acquaintances of Wheaton students have never met a person who lives with less than $2 a day. So the question is: what do we do with all of this information? How can we use this information and make a change- even a small change?

Works cited:

Lowenstein, Roger. "The Inequality Conundrum." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 June 2007. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Porter, Eduardo. "Study Finds Wealth Inequality Is Widening Worldwide."The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Dec. 2006. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

"Global Wealth Inequality - What You Never Knew You Never Knew."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

"Themes." The Rules. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Hunter, Robert. Poverty. New York: Macmillan, 1904. The United Nations. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Porter, Eduardo. "Income Equality: A Search for Consequences." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.

Stand Your Ground Laws: A Policy of Fear (Post 2)

One of the most increasingly prevalent critiques of the Stand Your Ground law, and others like it, is that it is legislation rooted not so much in protection but in fear. That law states that one may act in lethal self defense when under the “presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm” (Justifiable Use of Force). However, the perception of this “reasonable fear” is subjective, and it is within this subjectivity that issues arise. These issues of the subjectivity of reasonable fear have arisen in particularly within cases of gender and race. On the matter of race, critics explain that within a system that “harbors subtle but undeniable biases toward certain demographics” (O'Mara), Stand Your Ground legislation exploits fears that are, at their core, morally unreasonable. Critics say that, because these laws are so rooted in fear more than the common good, people are more capable of justifying death and the defense of lethal action.

(source)

The case of Trayvon Martin stands as one example, but there are many more like it. Recently, 17 year old black teenager Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn at a gas station over a matter of loud music. Dunn described the “thug music” and teenage “gangsters” as “menacing.” When they refused to turn down their music, Dunn shot and killed Davis. According to Dunn, Davis raised a shotgun, but no witnesses claimed to see a weapon. Dunn then proceeded to fire more rounds into the retreating car (Wallis). 

                                 (source)                                                                        (source)

This sort of incident, as well as the Trayvon case, illustrate the subjectivity of fear. This sort of subjectivity can be exploited as a means of exhibiting individual racial biases through systematically biased processes. Dunn’s descriptions of “thugs,” “gangsters,” and “menacing” black teenagers lends a sense of racial bias. Unlike Zimmerman, Dunn was found guilty but the Stand Your Ground legislation provided him with a means to justify his actions and the potential means for others to do the same. 

A recent panel of experts spoke to the U.S. Civil Rights Commision claiming that Stand Your Ground statutes “benefit whites more than blacks, are unnecessary and cause minority men to live in fear” (Schneider). People are more able to justify racial violence as long as they can provide evidence of “reasonable” fear. In a system where disproportionate targeting and sentencing practices put disproportionate percentages of non-whites in prison (Quigley), it is not unjustified for minorities to assume this has become another case of institutional racism.

An ad campaign by Dream Defenders, an organization that works in the interest of black communities, has emphasized this growing emphasis of fear. Their campaign features an image of a black child in a bulletproof vest, displayed similarly to a clothing ad. When the number on the billboard is called, a message reads: “If you don’t want to live in a world where you have to send your child out in a bulletproof vest, get out and vote on November 4th.” 

(source)

This campaign encourages people to vote for in the next election for a candidate who would amend or repeal the Stand Your Ground Legislation (Gayomali). This ad echos political cartoons and sentiments created after the death of Trayvon. 

 

(source)

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In both cases, the concept of fear is central. Of course, like most case of institutionalized disparity, this was not necessarily the intent of the Stand Your Ground legislation. However, it has become a prevailing factor that leaves critics to question the role of fear in the creation of legislation.



Bibliography:

Schneider, Mike. "US commission hears experts on 'stand your ground.'" New Pittsburgh Courier. 19 October, 2014. http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/10/19/us-commission-hears-experts-on-stand-your-ground/

Wallis, Jim. "Stand Your Ground Has No Moral Ground." Huffington Post. 19 February, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/stand-your-ground-has-no_b_4815864.html

Gayomali, Chris. "This Ad Campaign is a brilliant, Sobering Critique of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" Laws." Fast Company. 21 October, 2014. http://www.fastcompany.com/3037400/this-ad-campaign-is-a-brilliant-sobering-critique-of-floridas-stand-your-ground-laws

Quigley, Bill."Fourteen Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System." Huffington Post. 25 May 2011. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/fourteen-examples-of-raci_b_658947.html

O'Mara, Mark. "Its not about 'stand our ground,' it's about race." CNN. 29 February, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/opinion/omara-stand-your-ground-and-race/

Justifiable Use of Force, §§ 776-2005-27-2014-195 (2005). Print.

HIV/AIDS Among Black and Hispanic Men

The AIDS epidemic in America is quickly becoming concentrated among black and Hispanic poor men who have sex with men. Despite the years of progress with preventing and treating HIV among the middle class, the number of new infections per year remains fixed at 50,000, and it is found more and more in these men that make up a very small percent of the population. 

In New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the city’s health department, 45% of new infections are found in black and Hispanic men, and nationally it is 25%. Additionally, when only men under 25 infected through gay sex are counted, nationally, 80% of them are black or Hispanic. Critics say that not much is being done to save and help this group, and nothing is being done with great urgency. Federal and state officials agreed, saying that it took years to shift prevention messages away from only men that frequent gay bars, many of whom are white and middle class, as well as heterosexual teens, who are already at a relatively low risk. These are the targets that were chosen 30 years ago for such messages, and the field needed to be broadened and updated. Part of the problem is that the funding for health agencies has been minimal, and there has not been much political pressure to concentrate on young gay blacks and Hispanics. 

Dr. Jonathan Mermin, the director of HIV prevention at the C.D.C. says that they are working on reaching those men, and his agency has created a Testing Makes Us Stronger campaign, which can be viewed using this link, http://hivtest.cdc.gov/stronger/, and has granted millions of dollars to local health departments and community groups for testing. Despite this, he was unable to name a city or state with a proven success in lowering the infection rates in young gay minority men. A part of this is that they need more resources in order to bring it to fruition. 

In addition, gay black youths are difficult to reach. Few of them have come out to their families, many live in areas where gays are stigmatized and cannot afford to move, and few attend schools that have gay pride clubs or gay guidance counselors or other such avenues for education on the subject. According to a big C.D.C.-led study, a male-male sex act is eight times more likely to end in an HIV infection for young black Americans as it is for their white peers. This appears to be true, despite the fact that black youths, on average, took fewer risks than white peers; they had fewer partners, engaged in fewer acts of sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and used condoms more frequently. 

There are, however, other risk factors that play a part. For example, lacking health insurance generally means that they will be less likely to have seen doctors on a regular basis, and more likely to have syphilis, which creates a path for HIV. Another crucial factor is that more of their partners are older black men, who are more likely to have untreated HIV than older white men. Among the poor, untreated or inadequately treated HIV is the norm, not the exception, according to Perry N. Halkitis, professor of psychology and public health at NYU. 

According to C.D.C., 79% of HIV-infected black men who have sex with men and 74% of Hispanic men who have sex with men, are not “virally suppressed,” which means they can transmit the infection, either because they are not yet on antiretroviral drugs or they are not taking them daily. Experts say missed doses allow the virus to rebound, sometimes in drug-resistant strands. In addition, about 20% of the 1.1 million people living with HIV in the U.S. are undiagnosed, which means they are also not accessing the necessary care and treatment to stay healthy. 

The scattered programs that offer housing, legal, medical help and other services are not enough to bring about the desired change in the rate of HIV infections, because the national response is hesitant. Not many black political or religious leaders regularly speak about this problem, with just a few exceptions, and although programs to help have been proposed and tested, few have been widely adopted.

Moving forward, finding the means to educate this group of men which is so highly affected, and providing resources and guidance for help, is absolutely necessary. The percentage of gay black and Hispanic men with HIV is disproportionately large in light of the percentage of the U.S. population that they make up. This needs to be addressed with more urgency and consistency, and the groups that are being targeted for prevention messages needs to be broadened, so that minorities get the same attention surrounding this issue that white men do.

Works Cited:

1. "HIV/AIDS Care Continuum." HIV/AIDS Care Continuum. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/care-continuum/>.

2. "HIV/AIDS Four Hour Update for the Healthcare Professional." AID/HIV 4 Hour Nursing Continuing Education Course Provided Free by CEUFast. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ceufast.com/course/aids-hiv-4hr/>.

3. "Latinos and HIV/AIDS." Kaiser Family Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://kff.org/hivaids/fact-sheet/latinos-and-hivaids/>.

4. Mcneil, Donald G. "Poor Black and Hispanic Men Are the Face of H.I.V." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/us/poor-black-and-hispanic-men-are-face-of-hiv.html?pagewanted=1>.

Ebola: Stiring up Racism

       As Ebola continues to make its way into everyday news and into the lives of many families, people continue to question how and if this disease will be treated. As the disease spreads to the United States and now throughout parts of Europe, the topic of racial profiling plays a significant role in people's belief towards the treatment of Ebola patients.

       Since Ebola is generally portrayed as originating from African, West African, or other countries that are made up of mostly blacks, colored patients in the United States often feel as though they are being blamed for taking the disease across borders, regardless of the fact that there is no link to race and the disease. As a result, the families of colored patients that have deceased from Ebola are beginning to accuse the American health care system of racism.
   
     A recent article in the New York Times tells the story about a Liberian man named Thomas Duncan and his outraged nephew, Josephus Weeks. A few weeks back, Duncan attained Ebola in Liberia, unbeknownst to him.

Thomas Duncan

 Weeks explained to the Times that Duncan made  a stop at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas with flu-like symptoms. He explained to the physicians that he was indeed on his way to the United States from Liberia. Duncan, however, did not have nearly enough money to pay for hospitalization, nor did he have any health insurance. Weeks explains the situation by stating, "...he was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released with some antibiotics and Tylenol" (Kozlowska). Experts say that if Duncan was turned away by the hospital for his race and lack of insurance, it was not inconsistent with the practices that they have seen by physicians in the past.  However, because of the disparities in treatment of black patients in the United States health care system, “there’s cause for suspicion that when a dreaded disease such as Ebola strikes and the visible face of the victims are black then the racial double standard instantly kicks in"(Kozlowska).

         Seeing as there exists a belief of disparity in treatment of colored patients in the United States health care system, many people have developed the suspicion that a large number of physicians practice racism. When asked about the treatment among Ebola patients throughout American hospitals, colored patients often report cases of racism where the white patients get preferential treatment and often take precedence over the colored patients in terms of care and attention.

 This illustration, by artist Andre Carilho, expresses the extent to which some people, such as Weeks, view the American health care system in their treatment of black patients. The picture depicts rows of hospital beds that hold all black patients except for one, who is white. The only patient that is receiving attention is white, while all of the black patients lay unattended to and uninterested by the media.

     Weeks continues to make his arguments about the racism among the physicians in Dallas by asking the question of how it is possible that all white patients are receiving proper care, while his uncle, a colored patient, received medicine 8 full days after visiting the hospital. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a world renowned physician, responds to Mr. Weeks' claims by stating that he completely understands how he feels. Many people, when losing a loved one, look for answers and search to obtain them with misguided views as a result of dealing with the pain. Although Weeks would fail to believe this to be true, Fauci believes that the initial misdiagnosis was not a result of racism, but rather merely a mistake, and that once the proper diagnosis was made, Duncan received excellent care (Wright).



I strongly recommend that you view the Video It very interesting to see how passionate people are becoming about the topic of race and mistreatment of patients. Later on in the article, author Robin Wright records the reaction of this mishap by Duncan's girlfriend, Louise. She stated that she was praying to God to at least give Duncan a chance by providing the care that American folks are receiving. What is interesting is that she complains about two white missionaries who were affected in Africa and that once they got back to the United States, they immediately received proper care. After reading these articles and watching the videos it is difficult to see how a misdiagnosis of a colored male from Liberia does not constitute any possibility of racism.

      Something that struck my attention was that Dr. Fauci stated the Dallas hospital which Duncan visited has a history of dealing with multicultural patients. Obviously, this case is held in higher regard than most because it deals with such a recent, nationally-feared disease like Ebola (Wright). This situation reminds me of several Supreme Court practices that we read about in the New Jim Crow. The Supreme court made it so that in order to prove racism in the police force, one had to have concrete evidence. However, it is essentially impossible to prove someones morals, especially when they are denying accusations. Based off this idea, it is possible that racism does indeed exist in the health care system in which it is incredibly difficult to prove based on someones 'honor'. Just a thought!

 So I wonder: Is this the case of a simple misunderstanding or is there a much deeper, more racism-based explanation?








Work Cited:

Kozlowska, Hanna. "Has Ebola Exposed a Strain of Racism?" New York Times, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.


Wright, Robin. "The Implicit Racism in Ebola Tragedy." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.