Blog #2 Karla Bermudez

When I first think of the word barrio, I vision a huge land in Mexico where farmers and their families live, every little contact with the big cities, no work, no school for the children, and not really helped by the government. The people there just do the things they need to do to live. When I read Redevelopment Policy in the Barrio it really gave me a sense what a barrio was here in the United States. From what I read, barrios are places where low-income people live, where there are very little jobs, and not a lot of things to do then to get in trouble. In this article, there wasn't very much of feelings involved, it was more from the political stand point. This actually helped me understand the barrios a little more, since I got to know the way the government dealt with the low-income community. During the time period, I believe the Chicano community was torn apart and were only seen as cases that need to be helped and guided. I do not understand how the government could make so many mistakes, as though the Chicano community were guinea pigs to all of their proposals and policies. None of those policies worked and they continued to try, to this day barrios are still fighting for a say. Elected officials did not want to listen to the people that lived in the barrios. They thought that they knew what was best and never once wanted to listen to the Chicano voice. It seemed as though the officials were not putting all their efforts to fix the barrios, it seemed as though they were just “half assing” everything. Officials did not seem to care if they really did the job right, they just wanted to make it seem like they were working hard to fix it. Officials would tear down houses and businesses to rebuild the community but never thought to worry about what the people living there would do after. They never gave them a place to stay when they would tear down homes. It is shocking that before I was born cities very close to my hometown were going through all this. My vision from a barrio was not that different from a barrio in the United States, both were cities where there were no jobs, little education, and when someone would try to help they did not want to hear the voices of the people living there. Do you think people wanted to move out of the barrios? Do you think that people that lived there thought they had no other chances anywhere else? Questions that these must make you think how everything felt back then. If you were a Chicano living in a barrio, do you think that you belonged there for a reason, that you were not worthy of anything better than a place where you had to live pay check to pay check or be jobless? 

This blog was published earlier in February, but I re-posted it because I wasn't  under my name

The Prison System

My group and I present the week we read about the prison system. We did activities like secret keeping and or our final activity we handed out little pieces of paper that had different crimes with different punishments. There was a set of people that did the same crime but according to the color of the card they got, they had to either sit down or do an exercise. We tried to focus on the fact that minorities races get published differently than the white race. In a situation, a white kid was able to leave juvy and go to school and have a job set up for him after he violated rules at the prison where they were evaluating him while a African American boy had to stay in juvy and work on a field. The white boy was in juvy for attempted murder and the African American boy was in juvy because of property theft. Situation like these make you wonder how many other people that have to stand in front of a judge or a jury get judged on by their color or race.

Are Prisons Obsolete?

By, Angela Y. Davis

 

            In this, article Angela Y. Davis is analyzing whether or not the prison system needs to be reformed or abolished. By reading through this article, I started to notice that most of the United States prisons are located in California, and created during an era which world economy was globalized in; many factories closedown, or moved out of the states especially in California. Many minorities that worked in these factories lost their jobs, housings, and incomes in general. Many of these workers were manual laborers with limited education. At the same time, informationalism that needed higher education was introduced to this devastated areas.

            One of the main reasons that I think prisons turned from institution to industry was the increasing amount of people who were looking to illegal activities to gain money and create their own ground-rules. In addition, many minorities like Black, Latino/a, and Chinese, from the fear of white communities, and comfort that they felt in their own communities started living in quarters that were left out of the main urban plans. As the article describes, many of these events happened around the 1970’s until now. By this time, the prisons shifted from being a place to go to and reflect on what criminals did wrong, to an industry that tries to accommodate more inmates’ per-square-feet rather than a system in search of ways to help correct a criminals path and to release them back to society. Everyone is entitled to fix his or her wrong doings by doing their fair share of time in prison and coming out as a new person.

            Most of the countries that have low rate of prisoners, like Saudi Arabia, Emirates, and most Muslim nations are due to the harsh criminal laws that the public is subjected to. For example in Saudi Arabia if someone steals something and are caught, the law would amputate part of the thief body, in public viewing, and some public exactions, so they have almost zero criminals in their country.

For the second part of this reading, my opinion is that the prison system was created to correct a criminals path. I believe that a prison is a place where one can learn to better shape their future by learning a trade and even to become literate. I do not agree that prison is the same as slavery, because the choice of food, interaction and work are limited. Slavery was something forced on an innocent individual, and it would be a disgrace to use the word slavery, to define a person who has either monetarily or physically hurt another person. A prisoner is not someone who has earned free-living expenses and shelter by committing a crime there for I do believe that they would need to pay back to the community who is spending their tax money on the correction and rehabilitation of these individuals. I believe in the programs set by authorize and human rights organization that help excavates to find jobs and to be reinstated into the community.         

1.      If a criminal victimized you or someone you knew, would you want them serving their time in prison where they would be subjected to change their behavior and learn a trade or would you rather have them not serve time in prison?

2.      Do you agree with the second article that a prisoner is the same as a slave?

                        

                           

                        

                           

pgs. 268-309

When you are driving through Los Angeles, it is pretty intense. Especially SOuth Central. It is an area with a lot of activity. Back then they used to have programs and organizations that helped the youths get out of crime. Throughout the years the government has reduced its fundings and now those organizations are almost nonexistent. It is really upsetting to me because like it says in the reading, they reduced their fundings to basically drive out the Latino community. It seems that way. Many at risk youth looked forward to being able to go to a place where they could focus and learn and serve as a positive distraction from the gang life outside of place. I found it very upsetting that any program that would seemingly help the Latino community was continuously shut down. The money that would have gone into those org. was used for unnecessary construction. 

     On another note, the description of the Rodney King riots was very interesting. it made a lot sense. The community could only take so much oppression. So when the jury found the three cops not guilty, it was the straw that broke the camels back. The media also played a huge role in that decision because they portrayed Rodney King as a very dangerous and lazy man, as well as a typical criminal. The jurors were white as well. He never had the chance of winning and that was another reason that fueled so much anger leading to the riots. It is really depressing as a Mexican, to see my community as well as other minorities, being oppressed and discriminated upon. This reading helped open my eyes and i found a way to connect the pieces. How did you guys interpret this reading and how do you feel about it?

Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration

The Hyper-Criminalization of Black and Latino Male

 Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration

            The article by Victor M. Rios touches on key aspects that label Black and Latino young males as “deviant”. The term “deviant” means dissimilar from traditional standard, moving sharply from a traditional, customary, generally accepted normal, or displaying such different behavior. The key terms in this article are showing how minorities are marked by words such as: criminalization, youth, Latinos, deviance, and penalty.

            Rios suggests that Black and Latino youth are branded with “hyper-criminalized” when they come across the juvenile justice system even though most of them have committed non-violent offenses. All of these start for these young men around the age of eight.  Moreover, Rios describes, “These scholars have argued that punishment not only affect the confined individual but rather expands itself to family members and the inmate’s community.”(Page 226) which means now everyone is being punished for things that they did not do or take part in directly. Nonetheless, article suggests that mass imprisonment combined with political and economic arrangements, and culture makes an overwhelming negative impact on this young population. This population is so venerable that even when they have not done anything wrong, they are  being labeled as “at-risk” children. It is similar to saying that if you do everything by the book, you are acceptable, but if somehow you find yourself in bad circumstances, you would be marked as juvenile offender and end up as a criminal. Under the same law, something that in white community would look as an unwise act of childhood is now an act of crime in Black or Latino community.

            The article suggests that “governance” or the lack of it is the reason that this population is suffering. Overwhelming lack of jobs, education, and not being able to provide economic and social security to this most needed portion of society is the leading cause of the problems. If a young man cannot find a job because of his ethnicity, color of skin, or lack of education, he is going to end up in criminal activities and try to express his anger on his peers or bystanders. Many of these kids are bulled by their peers, ended up defending themselves by committing an act of violence, which in the end sends them to juvenile court. Most of them are so poor they cannot afford to buy essential goods that they need for school, nutrition, and clothing. They do not steal because it is enjoyable and fun, they do it because no one is there to help them, and to give them some directions to how they can make some money. In the white communities, poor children can work in school cafeterias during school hours, or in Unified School Districts summer job programs. Nonetheless, these kinds of jobs need and require having a higher GPA than other applicants.

            This article ends by saying that “dangerous moments” is facing Black and Latino youth community, and the way to find a place for these poor youth, from the governing point of view is hyper-criminalization and mass incarceration.

            This is something that I do not want to participate in or see.    

 

Q1. As a Latino youth, did you feel you had equal opportunities in your life?

Q2. Did you have any struggles as a high school student due to your race/ethnicity?

Q3. Did you see this type of discrimination taking place towards your family or friends?

Welfare and Demoralization

This reading is discussing the impact of conservatism on the social class system. The time period begins in the 1980s and onward. One quote that stuck out to me was by Charles Murray. He said, "We tried to provide more for the poor and produced more poor instead. We tried to remove the barriers to escape from poverty, and inadvertently built a trap". Murray criticized liberal welfare programs and said they "demoralized"urban poor. Murray became the most influential commentator for poverty. He was influential during the LA riots in the early 1990s. He advocated for the diminishing of aid to inner-city communities.

In general, whites find it easy to blame those of lower social class. As in our class activity, people in the upper class often blame those on welfare, EBT, disability, and other government programs. Many upper class people do not think they deserve to live in the same areas as those on these programs. On the other hand, many people on these programs often feel so comfortable with their accommodations that they do not work harder to get out of government assistance. This causes tension between the two social groups.

Do these welfare programs demoralize the urban poor as Murray suggested? Demoralize is defined as to "Cause someone to lose confidence or hope". In a sense, those on the programs that do not strive to better themselves are in fact losing spirit and confidence. It can be embarrassing to those on the program, although there is nothing to be ashamed of. As long as the person tries each day to better their situation, they should feel no shame and should not feel like they are being demoralized.

-Danielle Shapiro

Chapter Four

The fight mentioned in the beginning of the text was very significant because the fight is what woke Beto up and prepared him for the real world. When he came to the realization that his opponent was going to keep hitting him in the boxing match whether he fought back or not reflects social construction in a few ways. Even if we sat here and did nothing about it, the social structure of schools will keep coming at us. We are all in a situation that cannot be ignored, just like being in a boxing match and not fighting back. Eventually somebody has to step forward and lay out the truth about what is going on. In the case against three San Fernando High School administrators being tried as guilty of harassment and violation of the first amendment, a crucial question was brought to attention: Do teachers have the right to speak on matters of public concern during their off hours? I agree that they do. If a teacher is at a coffee shop complaining about the drop out rates at SFHS, the principle and staff do not have the right to treat the teacher any differently than the others for expressing an opinion out side of the classroom. Qualified immunity was being used to protect the administrators and say that they were not aware of the harassment that had occurred. SFHS claims that Beto broke school policies, and constantly did things his way. They claimed the problem with him was that he was self righteous in his approach to teaching and that he felt entitled to break policy based on observations of others. The truth of the matter is, he was not just simply observing others. He was taking into consideration that SFHS is an extension and continuation of white domination and the fact that the existence of white domination depends on social mechanisms that mass produce failure and ignorance within communities of color. However, the principle of SFHS does not believe in rocking the boat or exposing students to information that can be too controversial for their own good. If this information is never exposed to students, this social construction will never change. The administration is just an ugly extension of history. Times have changed. Reprimanding a teacher for making facts public to students such as the high school drop out rate in comparison to the excessive military recruitment is not right. Students have the right to be exposed to facts and teachers should have the right to speak on matters of public concern.