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Blog Assignment 2/25/21

Week 7: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Chapter 5, The New Jim Crow (Alexander, 2014)

Brief Summary:

The public discourse regarding “missing black fathers” is silent from all media platforms, and when it is included, it is often missing the mark. People often blame lack of commitment, sexuality, interracial relationships, laziness, and immaturity, for the reason Black men leave their families. Even President Obama during his speech at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago failed to include that the majority of young black men in many large urban areas are currently in prison. There is hardly any mention of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs as being the reason why Black men are “missing”. The truth is our criminal justice system is structured to lock people of color into a subordinate position. Black men are just as likely to experience discrimination in employment, housing, and public services as Black men in the Jim Crow era. Most Americans choose to avoid informing themselves about the injustices in our criminal system because it is simply easier that way. The War on Drugs chose violence and inequality rather than providing community investment, quality education, and job training.

Key terms:

Structural racism: Racial group inequality has stemmed from unfair public policies, institutional practices, and lack of cultural representation. Black men are not only trapped and completely disadvantaged, they are also competing on an unequal playing field and face additional challenges after leaving prison.

War on Drugs: Led by the federal government to reduce illegal drug trade in the U.S. Unfortunately, the War on Drugs enabled mass incarceration of people of color.

Critical analysis & use of course material:

Critical race theory reminds us that our laws are inherently racists and the U.S is particularly good at unfair punishment. This week’s themes, criminal justice and policing, have shown that there is a call for restorative justice. Restorative justice holds everyone accountable for their crimes, equally. Restorative justice is rehabilitation that meets the needs of those who are hurt.

Week 8: Black Teacher: White School, p. 400-408, (Milner, 2020)

Brief Summary:

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of discourse surrounding the experiences of Black women teachers. Their struggles often go unnoticed. They are often forced to experience unfair, unrealistic, and controlling expectations in order to achieve their white colleagues’ agendas. Black women teachers often are placed in positions that reflect negative stereotypes. According to Milner, there are 3 expectations which can also be viewed as patterns, that black women teachers are expected to do or know.

Expectation 1: “Be the expert on all things Black”

Whenever there are multicultural issues, they are expected to know how to handle them.

Expectations 2: “Do invisible work without recognition or compensation”

This expectation is an addition to the first one, being the go-to person to help negotiate issues often goes unnoticed and unpaid.

Expectation 3: “Agree with the White majority and be a team player”

Not being able to negotiate their needs may often lead Black women teachers to leave their teaching roles altogether.

Key Terms:

White teaching spaces: Spaces where White individuals are overrepresented. By giving language to the experiences of Black women teachers, he attempts to disrupt this Whiteness.

Theory of disruptive movement: Places inequality at its core to collectively change existing practices like the ones in our school systems.

Critical analysis & use of course material:

Critical race theory contains an activist dimension which means we must not only understand our social situation but also work to change it. The theory of disruptive movement calls for more than simply exposing unfair practices, it also calls advancing through organization. People must organize themselves around an idea to help bring change.

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Blog Assignment 2/11/21

The Hollow and the Ghetto: Space, Race, and the Politics of Poverty (White, 2007)

Brief Summary:

Julie Anne White advocates for an intersectional analysis to help alleviate the way white Appalachian inhabitants experience poverty. In the case of Appalachian, whiteness, rurality, and class shapes the experience of poverty. Appalachian poverty is invisible in the media because the visible face of poverty has come to be people of color. In Appalachian, however, white privilege maintained the invisibility of white poverty. Without making the connection between race and class, we can't make sense of what white inhabitants in Appalachian are experiencing. An intersectional analysis would properly assess the experiences of poor people’s struggles, allow for coalition building, and for collective strategies of resistance.

Key Terms:

Intersectionality: Coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, this term in the most simplistic form means someone can be oppressed because of their race, class, gender, and so on. It takes into account people’s overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face. In the case of white people in Appalachian, they were oppressed for being poor, and ironically their white privilege maintained the dis-privileging of white rural poor people.

Internal colony: White people in Appalachian have been experiencing the uneven effects of economic development on a regional basis. Additionally, they were subjected to processes of political and social colonization.

Critical analysis & use of course material:

This week's themes housing, segregation, and spatial justice were particularly interesting because from, “The Hollow and the Ghetto: Space, Race, and the Politics of Poverty” we learn it doesn’t just affect people of color. It really shows how broken systems in America really are. This week has taught me that the space of the colonized is not an undifferentiated space but rather a space of intersections.

The Black Ghetto as Colony, in The Political Economy of the Black Ghetto (Tabb, 1970)

Brief Summary:

Detroit has been losing residents since the 1970s and 80s, and between 2000-2012 they lost 25 percent of their residents. This was due to a number of factors but between 2005-2014 more than one-third of Detroit’s homes were either tax foreclosed or mortgaged. Detroit can also be viewed as an internal colony, local businesses are owned by white non-residents, low per-capita income, high birth rate, and a weak middle class. Author Jessi Quizar compares Detroit's economic relations to those between third-world nations and advanced countries. Detroit's struggles are not seen in the media, instead, it is framed as making a comeback because white people are moving in trying to save it. Gentrification and settler colonialism exclude Black Detriotiers from being included in the discourse surrounding their home.

Key Terms:

Gentrification: Gentrification doesn’t just mean the improvement of a neighborhood, this improvement has consequences specifically where this change stems from. Higher status people moving into Detroit, capitalize on low property values, cause inflation, displace locals, and alter the character and culture of the neighborhoods.

Settler Colonialism: This is a brutal form of colonialism that seeks to completely replace and assert sovereignty over the original population. The way Detroit's situation is framed in the media, makes it seem like they need saving. African Americans have become the face of poverty and white Americans are willing to support those they view as deserving, unlike the White poor Appalachian inhabitants.

Critical analysis & use of course material:

This week’s themes of housing, segregation, and spatial justice show how we as a nation are conditioned to blindly accept the ongoing narratives of settler colonialism. As a nation, we need to reflect on the legacy of racial injustice.

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Blog Assignment #2: 1/28/21

Brief Summary: Week 3 - America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies (Benshoff & Griffin, 2004)

American film has had a particular way of representing race, class, gender, and sexuality since the early 20th century. Knowing the basic ideas about film form helps explore the way specific groups of people have been represented within American cinema. There are 5 main aspects to film form: literary design, visual design, cinematography, editing, and sound design. Using film form, American cinema has presented dominant ideologies specifically white patriarchal capitalism. This is crucial to unpack because it affects the way most Americans think about themselves and the world they live in. Benshoff and Griffin use the film The Lion King to show how America is fixated on patriarchal privilege. For instance, Mufasa's son is supposed to inherit the right to rule the entire land. While most people think Lions dominate over other animals, and to some extent they do, we know parasites are truly the top predators. Unfortunately, white patriarchal capitalism is a highly functioning ideology in America, most people are incapable of recognizing these ideas are socially constructed opinions.

Key terms: White patriarchal capitalism: The United States was founded and still adheres to white patriarchal capitalism. This dominant ideology always seems to involve financial success and as a result, is the most dominant measure of happiness. White patriarchal capitalism ignores specific groups, it is robust to them. Cultural studies: to study and theorize concepts and issues surrounding culture and ideology. In lecture we learned that this black cultural studies course will address black urban well-being in future weeks. Addressing black urban wellbeing is important because most policies and regulations are very doom and gloom. We must find other ways to give language to how we feel.

Critical analysis & use of course material: Hair braids are one indication Blackness is fetishized in American society and culture. In the Don’t cash crop my cornrows video, we learn that braids are a way to reaffirm black identity. Using critical analysis we know that while blackness was glamorized in the music industry, black people were still enduring police brutality. White patriarchal capitalism enabled cultural appropriation. Brief Summary: Week 4 - How Racism Invented Race in America (Coates, 2014) In How Racism Invented Race in America (Coates, 2014), we learn that the United States can not claim to be “racially diverse” if racism is still prevalent. Coates informs us that the assumption that race is constant is one way of understanding the case for reparations because racism has been studied to be a product of the slave trade. For instance, Coates argues that what is considered “black” in the United States is not “black” in Brazil. I can personally agree with this. My dad’s family is Dominican and here in America most people just think they are African American, and doing so proves their notions of race are the product of racism. These notions of race are products that can be traced back to policies like Jim Crow, black codes, redlining, and mass incarcerations. Coates wanted to emphasize that understanding the history of racism inevitably leads you towards reparations. Key Terms: Racial diversity: Coates informs that understanding that American racism was created and not innate, ultimately excludes us from being considered a space of racial diversity. Reparations: Racism is corrupt at the root and understanding the history helps make more informed decisions regarding reparations for black people in urban America. Critical analysis & use of course material: Understanding the history and legacy of racism in the United States is relevant to critical analysis of urban space and issues in the United States because we learn they were constructed and were not due to personal shortcomings. From this week’s themes: history, oppression, and resistance- we learned that racial inequity was formed hundreds of years ago and de

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Blog Assignment 1/14/21

Brief summary: In Chapter 1 of Race, Culture, and the City: A Pedagogy for Black Urban Struggle, the author uses an intersectional approach to think about how geography influences the making of history. This approach is used as a vehicle for bringing discourse around the formation of culture and consciousness in the black community. For instance, for a long time now urban mythology has identified blacks as “disorderly.” Identifying black communities as a danger to society has produced high levels of residential segregation. The author informs us that it is not only social terms that have been the cause of the emergence of the urban underclass. There is evidence that in the 1950s, FHA and VA mortgages went to white middle-class suburbs while very few were awarded to black neighborhoods. Ultimately these structural inequalities have correlated to low educational achievement in black communities. This interdisciplinary approach allows the readers to become aware of all the hidden dimensions of black urban struggle.

In Settler Colonialism as Structure: A Framework for Comparative Studies of U.S. Race and Gender Formation (Nakano-Glenn, 2015), we learn that settler colonialism is one of the reasons black urban struggle rose and continues to persist. The ultimate scope of this article is to examine all the ways settler colonialism has shaped race and gender formation for whites and people of color. In doing so the author gives language to the commonalities among people of color as well as their connections and differences among each other.

Key terms reflection: Spatial metaphors: How locations are constructed socially. For instance, the politics of a place can help us understand the linkage between pedagogy and the production of urban meaning. The author wants the reader to know that everyone takes up culture differently in public spaces and historical images have an influence on the spatial form of cities. As a result, cities are built by differing voices and living spaces. This ties into the course because it seems like we can not surpass the socially constructed and accepted spatial metaphors we have today. These spatial metaphors are one of the causes of black urban poverty. Heterotopias: elaborated by Michel Foucault to describe spaces that are different than utopias. They are important because they help us understand why some spaces are considered normal and others are not. Urbanism is incredibly racialized and black communities are seen as heterotopias. Heterotopias encourage residential segregation and that continues the black urban struggle. This was the first time I had learned about this term in regard to race, the first time I learned about this term it was describing a brothel. Settler Colonialism: This is a brutal form of colonialism that seeks to completely replace and assert sovereignty over the original population. The author wants the reader to view settler colonialism as ongoing rather than a past event. In connection with this class, I firmly believe settler colonialism is going to remain a persistent term because it is really encompassing. While I had learned about the term prior to this course, I had never viewed it as a way to build coalitions between minorities. Decolonization: The term people of color was meant to help lessen the burden of colonization. It was meant to promote organizing to fight racism and help decolonize. The author wants minorities to find comfort in their commonalities in the experiences of exploitation and exclusion. This article really helped me think about my history in a different way.

Critical analysis: The cracker crusaders that stormed the capital prove the critical race theory, that law is in fact inherently racists. Trump supporter, Jake Angeli, was provided with organic food while we continue to serve pork to Muslims in jail. Here we see “racism is ordinary” at play. It is hard to address racism because it is not acknowledged. This is also racial realism, racism that has persisted because of the way society has allocated privilege and status. This is what Tupac