Voting and Institutional Discrimination

          Because the midterm elections are today, it’s only fitting to explain why voting is a vehicle for institutional discrimination. Like the War on Drugs, Voter ID laws disproportionately affect minorities and today, 30 states require a certain type of identification to vote (2014 Voter ID Laws, Long Distance Voter). Unfortunately, these laws are not the only practice silencing minority voters, but wait times to vote, too, have been altered based on race. In the 2012 election, African Americans waited 23 minutes and Hispanic’s waited 19 minutes while White’s waited only 12 minutes to vote. (Even Without Voter ID Laws, Minority Voters Face More Hurdles to Casting Ballots, Mencimer).  A study done by the Brennan Center for Justice showed that, when it came to Election Day, a high percentage of minority communities had fewer voting booths and poll workers thus leading to long lines.  The graph below shows average wait times based on race (Even Without Voter ID Laws, Minority Voters Face More Hurdles to Casting Ballots, Mencimer).

          Republicans have driven the demand for Voter ID laws based on the premise of preventing voter impersonation (Is It Voter Fraud or Voter Suppression in 2014, Flanagin). A study to discover the amount of voter fraud from 2002-2007 done by the Bush Administration, “turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections” (In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud, Lipton). The Bush concerns proved baseless, but did nothing to deter the recent passage of legislation that is unnecessary because there is, “virtually no evidence…to skew federal elections” (In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud, Lipton). Absentee ballots are the conduits of voter fraud and most current Voter ID laws have no ability prevent fraudulent absentee votes. 

          The real reason for these laws is a Republican intention to thwart the number of minority and low-income voters because of their historical Democratic Party support. Texas has arguably the most severe voter ID law in the country.  In order to vote, it mandates the presence of a valid government-issued photo ID. (How is Texas voter ID affecting poor, minorities? Center tracks impact).  Because it costs money to obtain a proper ID, it is thus targeted at low income individuals, the highest percentage being minorities.  

Source: Coalition of Human Needs

       In the United States, 21 million people do not have a government issued ID-- 25% of them are African-Americans compared to only 8% of Whites (Voting Rights, ACLU). These laws promote the notion that one person’s vote is worth more than another’s and because they mostly affect African Americans, they further contribute to the racial gap, despite the Voting Rights Act which protects the rights of minorities to vote and eliminated various voting barriers. Once again, we have obstacles which will reduce minority voting numbers. Put simply, if you are able to afford a government issued ID, you can vote.  If you can’t afford one, you can’t vote. Economic status should never be a criterion for one’s right to cast a ballot.

Source: DNC

     These tactics are eerily familiar to ones used in the Reconstructionist era. While the 14^th amendment was adopted in 1868 giving African American men citizenship and protection under the law, Jim Crows laws sprung up to obstruct freedom for Blacks (What is Poll Tax, Stephenson). Attorney General Eric Holder was quick to equate voter ID laws to a poll tax, “We call those poll taxes.” In 1890, 147,000 Black people were eligible to voter in the Mississippi election but because voting cost money, only 9,000 were registered to vote. (Eric Holder calls voter ID a modern poll tax at NAACP convention, AP).  In Texas, 500,000 people cannot vote because of the law (500,000 People Didn’t Have ID to Vote, Ramsey). It is truly disgusting to see these parallels between the late 1800’s and today. We want to believe we have come so far in achieving racial equality, but these laws are a reminder how much work we have yet to do. 

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!

Police Practices

Enforcers of law. Protectors of the city. Figures of justice. Who do these phrases describe? Do these pictures of friendly looking police jog up your memories? 

Are these the type of police your parents told you about as children; are they the ones who protect your neighborhood, the “good guys (or gals)” who fight the "bad guys (or gals)," and the ones who respond to 9-1-1 when trouble eschews? If so, that's great! If not, well, that's not so great. Then are you more familiar with these images? 

When people think police, they tend seem them as symbols of justice and power. Yet with recent events such as with the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the raising issue of police brutality is sweeping through the nation. There is increasing tension between the police and public as many feel that this brutality, this injustice needs to be stopped and controlled. This is an ongoing conversation about police overstepping their boundaries and using their power over citizens. 

Over the years there have been multiple police practices in question such as:

·   Arrest and ticket quotas 

·   Racial profiling 
             (ex. Stop-and-Frisk policy)

·  Lack of community interaction and understanding

·  Excessive use of force

Why is this happening? Is it a fundamentally racial issue or is it a departmental issue with training and job expectations? Arrest and ticket quotas are essentially the minimal expected number of arrests and tickets an officer has to make within a period of time. When several NYPD officers spoke out about this practice, it sparked a fury  in the already controversial Stop-and-Frisk policy. The policy was getting noticeably biased towards the large number black and hispanic citizens being stopped compared to their fellow white citizens. Why is that? What makes a police more likely to stop a black or hispanic off the streets than a white? The most common reason is: he/she looked suspicious. Given that most people would probably feel uncomfortable having anyone (let alone an officer) stare at you, this argument holds up poorly. Such reasonings also weaken the tie between community and police force because discrimination and stereotypes leads to mistrust. Police should have a reasonable idea the amount of force needed to handle a situation. This also includes the militarization of some police departments. While some reason they are to control riots, at the end of the day the only thing left in place is the continuing fear and confirmation bias of police excess force. 

How does this relates to our SOC 230 class: Race is still a big issue today! A survey conducted in August 2014 by the Pew Research Center and USA TODAY found that most Americans gave "low marks to police departments for holding officers accountable for misconduct, using the appropriate amount of force, and treating racial and ethnic groups equally" (Pew Research Center). While there is a mixture of reasons why the police received meager scores, having staggering differences in racial disparities in the makeup of the force can lead to a lack of community communication. There is much prejudice and discrimination between the police and public at times because everyone is wary of each other whether or not they admit it. Community relations between the local police and public is important because trust is necessary to protect a safe environment. If everyone is judging each other's potential violence by their skin color or clothing then this idea of "race" will continue to be ingrained into our minds.ere is much prejudice and discrimination between the police and public at times because everyone is wary of each other whether or not they admit it. 

References:

Lippmann, Rachel. "Fuel In The Ferguson Fire: Racial Makeup Of Police Force Makes A Difference." St. Louis Public Radio. N.p., 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. <http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/fuel-ferguson-fire-racial-makeup-police-force-makes-difference>.
"Police Practices." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. <https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/police-practices>.
Stark Racial Divisions in Reactions to Ferguson Police Shooting." Pew Research Center for the People and the Press RSS. N.p., 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.people-press.org/2014/08/18/stark-racial-divisions-in-reactions-to-ferguson-police-shooting/>.

Immigration policy

As one of the immigration countries, American population involves various races and ethnicities. The originals of the United States citizens come from different continents around the world. They have different skin colors, speak different languages, and own different cultures, but they came to the US to build the unique American culture through different historical period. Nowadays, still a big amount of people from other countries wants to come to American for various reasons, such as avoiding the political conflict, getting better living condition or searching economical opportunities. Since there were too many people flow to the United States, the congress began to enact policy to restrict the immigration. However, the limiting of immigration caused the inequality among races in the past, and now the immigration policy is still crucial part to the government. 

The early generation of immigrants in the colonial period was Europeans who came to the New World for searching religious freedom. Through 1776 to 1880, American was welcomed to immigrants, but after 1880 the government begin to enact the restrictions to control immigrants. During the Revolutionary War, more people from west Europe moved to the United States, and later these Europeans were considered as predominate populations of America. The first immigration law was set in 1790, and it is about a standard two year residency for naturalization and later in 1795 the congress change the requirement into five years. The first wave of immigration is from 1830 to 1860, and the majority population is catholic Irish, since Ireland was under the pressure of the increasing of the population. After the discovery gold in California, more Asians came to the country to search for the fortune. However, these Chinese immigrants were treated as non-American, because the appearance and cultures were different from the European's. These people received poor welfare in the society, and the congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which restricted Chinese came to the United States, and it was rescinded in 1943. The great wave and the new immigration period is around 1880 to 1914, because of the War American government wanted more people to help the country, so the immigration population was increased. In addition, the boom of economy required more labors, and then many unskilled people from South Europe, Slavs and Turks came to the country as new immigrants. Also, during that period Jews were under the insecurity conditions, so they immigrated to America for protection. From 1914 to 1965, it is the exclusion period, by the influence of the great depression and the World War I, the population of new immigration decreased and the government highly restricted the immigrants. The most immigrants like Mexicans, their living condition was harsh, and the treatment to different races are various. After 1965, more immigrants came to the United States. Some of them came to the country were highly educated to help the government build programs that can conquer the Cold War. People from latin American immigrated to the US to avoid the conflicts and economics depression in their home countries, like Vietnamese or Cuban  Also many other immigrants moved to the American for the complicated political reasons. Many people among them are undocumented and do not have the legal identity.

Since the expanded of population and the mixing of the races, there were many problems emerged in the United State’s society. The immigration policy tried to control the population and the background of people came to America, but in reality it did not always work well. The number of illegal immigrants is still large, and some of them bring hidden danger to the society.  Many of the illegal immigrants were not well educated and unskilled, so they may indirectly cause the increasing of crime rates. Also, their living conditions can hardly be guaranteed. For instance, the illegal immigrants who worked in New York Chinatown lived in terrible circumstances; they were bullied by their bosses, received the income that lower than the minimum wages, and faced the sexual harassment. These people will not choose to call the police, since their identities are illegal in the country.

 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration-and-emigration/index.html?8qa&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A13%22%7D

Even though the United State is reopened to immigrants, the social statuses of different races are still different. Government agencies are trying to balance the proportions of races, but the majority workers and decision makers are still the whites. Many of the immigrants are more willingly to keep silence on the political issues that are not directly affect their lives. Also, the unequal distribution of resources will cause the conflict among races. Like we read from the academic profiling, most Asian students are in the IB program, and they have better test scores as well as privilege in schools. Therefore, more Asian students that Latino students can get into better college, so they can have better opportunities in their future career. Thus, the equality among races will be enlarged, and if the government cannot fix the problem, the conflict will be more intensive.

Resource:
Credo
New York Times