Monday, March 29, 2010
Politics
Choose a current story related to African American Studies and politics 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. Politics issues include gerrymandering, desegregation, criminal justice system, restrictive covenants, white flight, reparations, employment, racial profiling, busing, voting rights, gentrification, and prison industrial complex.
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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?
Which reporters are writing on this issue/organization?
What messages are being used?
Pipkin, Robert Murray said:
ReplyDeleteTitle: “ ‘Negro’ Designation Stays on Census Form”
Author: Jeff Zeleny, NY Times
Published January 25, 2010
Retrieved from http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/negro-designation-stays-on-census-form/
I chose this story because of its timeliness in discussing the social aspect of language people use to identify themselves and others and the current census. The thing I found most interesting is that the term “Negro” will stay on the current census form as a self identification option in the “African American, Black, Negro” listing because so many people self identified the term on the 2000 census by writing it in on a line that asked them how they wished to be identified.
This article is written in the context of Senator Harry Reids remarks about President Barrack Obama having a “Negro dialect” if he wanted to. I find it interesting that this article illustrates an odd correlation between the controversy from these remarks, President Obama’s subsequent public defense of Sen. Reid, and the fact that attitudes toward the word “Negro” on the census were not generation or age based: of those who wrote in a preference for the word, the age gap of 45 or younger was about 50/50.
I think classmates will find this story useful because it illustrates a link between socially acceptable language and political perspectives. It kind of begs the question, if “Negro” is listed with “African American, and Black” on the census, why is there a difference in how we use it referentially as a society?
Rehwaldt, Alixandra Lyn said:
ReplyDeleteI think that by having the term “Negro” on the census was the governments why of trying to satisfy everyone. That’s why it has the options of being Black, Afro-American, Negro ext. You don’t have to choose that preference for yourself, you can choose one of the other options. I read in another article that the reason why it’s in there is because in the 2000 census many people wrote it in as there selected choice of terminology. I see why the term can be offensive to some people, but what about the people that prefer it. If it is not in there then it might offend people as well. So either way the go the government goes they are going to be looked at as being offensive or not all inclusive. I personally don’t see what difference it makes as to how many options there are on the census as long as every one’s choice is on there. As I read the comments posted on the site it seems to me that a lot of people are not offended by the term and think that there are other parts of the census that needs to be discussed rather than the issue of preference. I think that some people just need to realize that we live in a country with a wide variety of people and that not everyone wants to be placed in the same categories with everyone else that has the same skin color.
Wilson, Krystal V said:
ReplyDeleteThe term negro has and most likely will always be a topic of discussion, going back into decades and as we see today will continue to be a worldwide issue. Policymakers must feel positive in their decision to make such a call upon placing the word negro on the upcoming census (now current 2010). As the article read many individuals accept the preference, whereas others feel the term a to be offense and degrading...thats life and the world we live in today, citizens of all races will never be satisified with the present because their either stuck on the past or trying to prepare for the future!
Quite honestly I see know reason for the question to be included on the census at all, what different does it make what race someone is anyhow? I don't know maybe its just me but I'm so burned out on the issue, I mean it is not like the areas that need (i guess callin' it repairing and etc) assistance doesn't receive the proper attention nor resources. To me the government does the complete opposite when it comes to the true purpose of the census.
Race Analysis Cites Disparity In Sentencing For Narcotics
ReplyDeleteBy STEVEN A. HOLMES
Brittany Young
African American Studies
Article Analysis
Race Analysis Cites Disparity in Sentencing For Narcotics
This article provides a perfect representation of the racism that is still going on. I was aware that it was still a problem but I guess I never really understood to what extent. The article states that the majority of drug users are in fact white and not black. It gives statistics percentage wise of the people that are in prison for committing drug offenses. The number of white users is significantly higher than that of the African American race.
The article also tells us that sentencing is an issue as well. It is harder for an African American to hire a lawyer to reduce the charges or sentence so they end up serving a longer time. They give a good example of why there is such a big misunderstanding as well. It is very easy to catch a black man in a poor neighborhood selling drugs than it is a white man who is hidden behind closed doors. So it seems that the African Americans are being targeted as easy to catch.
This is in fact unlawfully fair. If everyone is committing the crime why target someone as being easier? While the Human Rights Watch underlined the racial disparities in the criminal justice system, other experts in the field said the cause was more complicated than racism. If it’s not racism and its more complicated than that then what is it because I seem to be lost on that statement? It was stated that there are five times more white users than black users, but the only real difference is the African Americans are tending to be more chronic and using harder drugs. But it is only equally fair to treat both or all races at that matter the same.
''Regardless of how severe you wish to be on punishing them you simply have to give them a drug-free prison environment,'' Mr. McCaffrey said. ''And there has to be a follow-on component. That, I would allege is the largest issue.'' This is a rather large statement to be made but I think it holds a lot of truth and a possible solution to the problem at hand. Whatever the case may be, this is all way out of line in my eyes. The number of African Americans going to prison is completely different from the proportion of blacks and whites shown in studies to be using and selling drugs.
''I think racial disparities in the criminal justice system is like the elephant in the room that no one is talking about,'' said Jamie Fellner, associate counsel of Human Rights Watch and the report's author. ''I find it incomprehensible that neither of the presidential candidates is talking about this. There still is a timidity to say anything that would lend them being accused of being soft on crime. Nobody is willing to say enough is enough.'' This issue needs to be prioritized as a bigger issue than it has been. In order for something to become of it someone is going to have to do some research and look a little deeper into the situation, rather than just passing it off and basically stating that the blacks are the ones buying and selling drugs.
If you look at are standards, we clearly are not following them to the best of our ability. This needs to go national and be addressed by politicians and other elected officials to get the situation under control. ''These racial disparities are a national scandal,'' Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch said. ''Black and white drug offenders get radically different treatment in the American justice system. This is not only profoundly unfair to blacks, it also corrodes the American ideal of equal justice for all.'' It shouldn’t matter who is doing it, where it is being done at, what obstacles you have to jump to get there, everything should be handled in the same fair and equal manner.
Brittany, your analysis is very thorough and thoughful; you clearly recognize the complexity of the situation of racial inequities in sentencing and treatment for drug-related offenses. But I wonder: what would fair and equal treatment look like?
ReplyDeleteKrystal, those are some interesting and useful observations you make. Clearly, the census serves various political purposes, but it is understandable that we as citizens might feel a bit burned by all the hype, as you've stated. I find it baffling though, that there are black people who still think of themselves as "Negro". The use of the term is grounded in a history where at one time, it was a more modern and less offensive term, but that was quite some time ago! I am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that any self-respecting black person (even older people) would actually describe themselves that way.
ReplyDeleteAnthony Covarrubias
ReplyDeleteIdentify
State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) is an article that was published in The New York Times by an unknown author. The article, deals with the expansion (S-CHIP), and some concern about its expansion.
S-CHIP is a program that was created in 1997. Its purpose was to provide health insurance to children of poor working families. For instance, in 1997 23 percent of “children from families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level were without insurance” (State, p5). As of 2005 the 23 percent dropped to 15 percent. On January 2009, Congress passed a law that expended the S-CHIP. This law allowed more funding to go into the program, which allowed more children of poor working families receiving health care.
Some states have already started funding money to allow for expansion of the program to begin. For instance on July of 2009 thirteen states funded enough money to allow 250,000 more children to be covered under the chip law. However not every state is as successful. California for example is currently in a financial crisis as a result nearly 350,000 children are on the waiting list to receive health insurance (State).
What interest me the most about the article were the three concerns discussed in the article. One concern that was shown in the article was the amount of children who have yet to have health insurance. For instance, despite the efforts of government and private foundations an estimate of 8.2million children still remain without health insurance. Another concern was the one bought by Senator John McCain. He claimed that an extending the S-CHIP may lead to a government run health care system (State, p7). Now if such system does happen it will lead to government being more in debt. The final concern was that some felt by expending S-CHIP may lead to covering children that are in a high income family(State, p7), which will be going against the purpose of the S-CHIP program.
As once can the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) is an article dealing with both the expansion and concerns of the S-CHIP program
Work Cited
“State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP).” New York Times 21 July 2009:
Times Topic Print.
Phillip Blood
ReplyDeleteIdentify:
Lexington
"Sex and the Single Black Woman"
8 April 2010
This is a feature story about the politics put in place to decrease female marriage rates based on male incarceration. This story sounded kind of like a conspiracy theory to me, as the facts match up with the theory, the theory itself seems kinda shaky. I chose this story to see what other views might be brought out through an analytical view of the story. Perhaps a different approach or a revised theory.
The main point of the story is that, due to the fact that 1 in 9 Black males is in jail, that leaves more woman than men. When the women outnumber the men, they have to increase their "game" in order to catch a man for marriage. This leads to the men relaxing more, and the women working harder. The effect of this had a couple different views. The first being jails being the main problem, because they systematically divided America up by incarcerating Black males with the intent that there would be fewer marriages. The other view was leaning on the economics and how hard it was for a female to gain a males attention.
http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15867956