Monday, March 29, 2010
Economics
Choose a current story related to African American Studies and economics from the list of online sources in the handout and on the introduction page. Try to choose a news outlet that you don’t read regularly so that you can use this assignment to become more familiar with it. To find a relevant story, you should scan the headlines on the home page of whatever magazines or journals you may choose, but also be prepared to do a search of recent published stories. The names of the specific fields may be too broad as search terms; depending on the numbers of links that come up in your initial search, you will have to refine those terms by focusing on a specific issue, for example, if your broad topic is African American Studies and economics, you may want to try searching for such specific issues as redlining, foreclosure, working poor, affordable housing, child care, health insurance, hunger, job training, earned income tax credit, living wage, family medical leave, minimum wage, or black underclass.
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Identifying: In your wiki post, clearly identify the title of the story, the author of the story, and the date the story was published. Briefly explain why you chose the story, what you found interesting about the story, and summarize the main point of the story. As you examine the details of the story, you should select three ideas or pieces of information presented in the news story that surprised you, upset you, confused you or made you think differently about the issue, and explain why you responded the way that you did. Finally, state why you think your classmates will find the story useful, and attach a link to the story.
ReplyDeleteAnalyzing: Use all of these questions to develop and organize your analysis:
ReplyDeleteHow does this story frame public discussion of an issue (by repeating various story elements, using common metaphors, quoting similar people, etc.)?
Who are the main spokespeople on this particular topic, and how are they being quoted? Are they mainly advocates, policymakers, academic experts, etc.?
How often are these various spokespeople quoted and in what context?
What topics are being covered, and what topics are being ignored?
Is this story not covering or ignoring an issue or organization that they should be covering?
Is there a time of year when this issue (or organization) is more likely to be covered than others?
Is this topic or organization a front-page story, and if not, where in the magazine or webpage is that topic or organization covered?
Title: Recession Impacts Black Joblessness Most
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Fredrick Cosby
Story Found at: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/17219
I chose this story because it suprised me that African Americans account for 11.5 % of the job recession. I wonder how the fact that African Ameicans are more impacted, influeneces our job selecting decisions?. Related to class we might find this useful because we can understand more of an impact of how we may be struggling to understand where we fit economically.
I cut-and-pasted Kristen's original post from the wiki.
For those needing to analyze Kristin's story, I can't explain why the corrected link does not work. But if you go to blackamericaweb.com and copy the title of the story above into the search box, it will bring up the correct story.
Talia Hubbard-Williams
ReplyDeleteAuthorities in southern New Jersey arrested a 16-year-old boy for activating a public-address system at a local Wal-Mart store. If convicted, he could face up tp a year in juvenile. He was accompanied by a friend and the friends mother. The statement that he made was “All black people, leave the store now.” Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, has a history of discrimination and labor complaints involving minorities and women, though in recent years it has redoubled its efforts to promote diversity at its stores. Last year, the company agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of discriminating against blacks applying for jobs.
I chose this story because it shows that no matter what time era we are in some people still think the same way about African Americans as they did in the 1960’s. I found it interesting because this could have been a prank or the mother of the boy’s friend could have put him up to doing this because she grew up in a home that was taught to not like African Americans. Some of the things that surprised me were that they didn’t release his race. In my opinion, if the situation was turned around then the boy’s name and race would have been released. Also students were bragging about what happened on facebook, myspace, and you tube. This isn’t the most extreme story about racism but it just goes to show how people still think in a mean-spirited way in this day and age.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/nyregion/21walmart.html?scp=4&sq=african%20american%20history%20happening%20now&st=cse
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/new-jim-crow-war-on-drugs
ReplyDeleteThe story I chose was “The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Under caste” by Michelle Alexander. This story was found on the website Motherjones.com under Politics plus Current Affairs. This is more of an alertness news article which was formerly presented on Crime and Justice, Race and Ethnicity website Tom Dispatch. The reason why I chose this story is because many people believe given that we have a black president, race and equality for people of color in American society isn’t a concern anymore. Racial caste is no longer a problem and there is no racial separation within American society due to Obama. Which is false, Obama is used as camouflage to disguise what is really going on in people of color social and economic condition. There are nevertheless many Jim Crow tendencies especially in criminal Justice System than before. What I found interesting was how she defined the new Jim Crow system founded in criminal Justice system. For instance, majority of African Americans “are saddled with criminal records and are legally denied the very right that their parents and grandparents fought for.” I think that my classmates will find this story useful because it’s a recent story published that explains African American persistence battle for equality after having a black president.
Jeanell, this is a great choice! Who would like to analyze this story this week? The evidence that is presented here showing that institutional racism still exists is pretty convincing, and certainly a startling reminder of the serious social issues that remain to be solved in this country.
ReplyDeleteTalia's and Kristen's stories also are available for someone's analysis assignment...
ReplyDeletePhillip Blood
ReplyDeleteAnalysis of - "Report: Recession Impacts Black Joblessness Most"
By Frederick Cosby, Friday March 19, 2010.
This article frames the issue by quoting representatives of different chairs. The two main spokesmen for the article are Representative Carolyn Maloney and Representative Barbara Lee. Maloney is a chair to joint committee, and Barbara is the chair woman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Both of them are able to influence decisions on policy. Both of the Representatives are quoted about two times, each having their own perspective as to what the reports details mean.
The topics being covered in the article include details on the unemployment report, the impact of the recession on Blacks since 2007, and the policy's put into or underway from President Barrack Obama. They did not cover any information that would make for a comparison for unemployment. Such as a different cultural aspect, or a regional aspect towards unemployment. I think topics like this will always appear when the economy is weak, and as the economy rises, these types of stories will vanish.
This story was not, from what I could find, a front page story. It was located at Blackamericaweb.com under Home, then under news, then under moving America. The reporter was Frederick Cosby. Cosby's message to the reader seems to be, policy changes involving upwards of 60 billion dollars have not improved the unemployment in African Americans, as they have doubled their unemployment percent since 2007. Cosby's audience is those African Americans experiencing difficulties in this recession, as well as some private owned business owners. This is because Obama's policy are geared towards businesses saving money by employing those in need. As well as shelling money out to fund government funded projects.
I am having problems posting my comments to Talia's story.So I am going to post my comments to this page.
ReplyDeleteArrest in Racial Case at N.J. Wal-Mart response:
Wal-Mart is important to our national economy and culture but this company have always dealt with current and past illegal acts. Years ago employees had major legal law suits against Wal-Mart corporations because of gender discrimination and inequality of employer’s wages and benefits. This incident isn’t a shocker to me at all because Wal-Mart history of immoral acts. The Wal-Mart manager at this store was quoted in this article and as well as the police officer assigned to this case. The main spokes people in this article are the policymakers and customers that witness this incident in Wal-Mart. Police officer’s perspective was about the investigation because of other past related incidents at the same Wal-Mart. the police officers wanted to keep the suspect race anonymous in this article.
The topic that is being covered describe how racial inequity and discrimination still exist in American society. I feel that because we do have a black president then people may believe that racial discrimination and prejudice don’t exist anymore. This article is ignoring the identity of the suspect race and describing in details the other related incidences at the store. If this article did reveal the suspect race to the public then this article would have exposed more other issues than the incident at hand.
The publisher could have talked more about the suspect bragging about the incident on face book and twitter. Also they could have covered the issue of how the social websites have evolved over time and help solve criminal cases. This story wasn’t published on the front page of the New York Times. This article is published on the New York Times located in the N.Y./Region.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDana Walker
ReplyDeleteIDENTIFYING: "Black Harvard Collared: Henry Louis Gates & the dysfunctional relationship between law enforcement and Black America"
By Damon W. Root (July 23. 2009)
I choose this story because it talks about an issue that is constantly talked about in Black culture, which is racial profiling. Racial profiling is usually what people say when they are arrested or pulled over by the cops. i can remember being in high school and hearing people claim " Man, I got that ticked because Im black" and etc. I find it interesting because I remember hearing about this particular story from my aunt, but never knowing what really happened.
The article asks the question "Should African Americans trust the police?" The story involves Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard's famous African American professor. He was arrested outside of his home because the police officer, Sgt. James Crowley thought 2 men were breaking into his home. In reality, Gates and his driver were trying to dislodge a jammed door. In the officer's defense, he states that Gates exhibited "loud and tumultuous behavior" (Root 2009) in a public place, resulting in disorderly conduct. The charges were eventually dropped, which does not help the notion that "because he was black he got arrested". A key quote in the article is "the relationship between black men and police forces is, in fact, the main thing keeping America from becoming 'post racial' in any sense" (Root 2009). The story then goes on to talk about why police officers act so violently now a days, which is due to the numerous amounts of drug arrests that have been the leading cause of the arrests of black men. This drug war has affected the criminal justice system and caused blacks to be the victims of vicious behavior from police. Gates is now trying to find a way to stop this in whatever way that he can so that others dont become victims of profiling.
This story has three things that popped out to me. The three things are the numerous quotes. One quote says "hip hop holds blacks back". I do not feel this is true at all because hip hop can be empowering, it just depends on the message of the song. You have to look at positive influences like Jay Z and Diddy who have come from ghettoes and now are some of the most powerful and influential figures in society today. Also, the quote on black and the police.. I feel that this is true because if people constantly try and fight the police, their will never be any harmony in society. But this also serves towards police, if they continue racially profiling they will always bump heads with blacks. Lastly, when Sgt. Crowley dropped the charges that made me think that he knew he was wrong and guilty. I feel this article will give people a better understanding of what how racial profiling affects the community.
http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/23/black-harvard-prof-collared-by
Dana Walker
ReplyDeleteAnalysis of “The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Under caste” by Michelle Alexander
The story talks about the racial caste system in in the United States. She uses things like "era of colorblindness" because people still want to deny that it does indeed exist. She also compares slavery to the amount of Black men in jail, showing a correlation that these blacks will always be classified as felons, thus making them forever 2nd class citizens. The author makes use of alot of comparisons like the number of white youths drug dealing is higher than blacks. This info is overshadowed and America doesnt want to believe in this. Its the same w/ Obama becoming president. Because he became president, people feel we have come a long way and forget about all the other relevant issues. The main spokesperson is the author herself. She gives a lot of statistics. I didnt really see any other quotes, but that is probably because people dont agree with this issue. The topics being covered are drug use, black imprisonment, racial prejudice, and slavery. This story may be covered more when there is a higher rate of African Americans commiting vicious crimes and appearing on the news. Or if someone is charged for something that they didnt do. Some messages shown in the story are that prejudice still exist and that blacks are still treated as second rate citizens. I feel this issue did a good job of getting its point across but she should have used some more outside sources (like quotes) to make it even stronger when it comes to credibility because now it sounds like a half fact/half opinion piece.